A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 4: Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog
Post from the Riding with the Mouse Net-log by animator Terrell Little.

My first job at Disney was as an inbetweener on The Fox and the Hound. Like a lot of the new employees, I hated the movie, but not for the same reasons. Most of the Rat’s Nest hated it for being a rehash of the same tired old Disney formula and playing it too safe with the animation. Brad Bird had gotten fired for making his negative opinions of it known[1].

I hated it because it was segregationist garbage[2] and a painful reminder of my past.

I couldn’t believe anyone wanted to tell such an awful, outdated story. How could Woolie not see the terrible lesson we were telling? Stay with your own. Don’t mix with other races. It will all end in tragedy. I expressed my concerns to Ron Clements, who was taking lead on the story, but he had a different take. “It’s about prejudice and how it separates us[3],” he said. “It’s a tragedy, not a positive example.”

Easy for him to say. He didn’t grow up black in Alabama!

Still, though, I took his view to heart. I’d do my best to focus on it as a tragedy of prejudice and ignore what I feared could be construed as Jim Crow propaganda. It’s not like Disney has the best record there, as my family loved to remind me when I took this job.

Oh well. Paycheck’s a paycheck. And the gig came with a few perks. I got to meet the stars who voiced the characters. Cory Feldman before he got famous. Mikey Rooney, who regaled us all with Old Hollywood stories. Pearl Bailey, who buried Steve Hulett’s face in her cleavage to everyone’s amusement. Oh, and former child star Kurt Russell, just before his big break out in Escape from New York. He still sported his GI Blues Elvis hair, since he was filming the TV Elvis Biopic at the time. Ironically, another reminder of life in the old south. It would win him an Emmy. Here, he was voicing the adult Copper, the eponymous Hound[4].
I had “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog” stuck in my head for a week.

But The Fox and the Hound was overall a good learning experience and, in hindsight, quite an honor to be a part of. I got to share in that strange passing-of-the-torch moment where the Old Men like Woolie and Art Stevens were working with the soon-to-be big names like Lassiter and Clements. It was also a passing-of-the-torch moment for the actors, the old stars (Rooney and Bailey) passing the torch to the new one (Feldman) and an actor who spanned both eras (Russell).

It was also the first project that Jim Henson was associated with, though most of the film was already in the can by the time he joined. In fact, Jim’s only contributions were two recommendations, both ignored by Art and Woolie.

First, he wanted to add a scene at the end where two of Tod and Copper’s children meet and form a friendship. Ron Clements rejected the idea as an attempt to force in a “happy ending”, fearing it would undermine the power of the bittersweet finale.

But I got it. It wasn’t “happy” Jim was going for, it was “hopeful”. The promise of the next generation overcoming the mistakes of the prior ones. Time moving forward, not backwards. Given my thoughts on the film, I fully supported the add, but who the hell was I?

The second recommendation Jim had was one close to Rod’s heart: he too wanted Chief to die.

Rod was pressing hard for Chief to die, as we all were on the creative side. It made no sense for Copper to go on a vengeance quest against his old friend if Chief only breaks his leg. There were no stakes. There was no motivation. We all knew it, but Art Stevens and the rest of the producers and directors weren’t going to have it. Disney would not kill off a central character. It wasn’t the Disney way.

Sure, if you don’t count Bambi’s mom.

Jim agreed wholeheartedly. He pleaded with Woolie, Art and Ron Miller. His pleas, like Ron Clements’, were rejected. Chief would live, and the story would suffer for it. We were all just cryin’ hound dogs to them.

Jim’s opinion (and ours) was validated when the film premiered. The film received mixed reviews. Many critics specifically called out Chief’s survival as a narrative weak point. The film made a decent profit, but it was a box office disappointment compared to Ron’s expectations. To this day, it’s few people’s favorite Disney cartoon.

But Jim accomplished one thing: by fighting for us, he earned our eternal gratitude. Of all the execs, Jim stood with us.



[1] I know there was a lot of hope that this would be butterflied, but as best as I can tell Bird was fired prior to 1980, seeing as how he was an animator for Animalympics, which aired in February of 1980. Besides, even Henson would have a hard time saving him when he was pretty openly insubordinate to upper management.

[2] Some have made this accusation.

[3] This, I believe, is the lesson Disney was trying to impart.

[4] All of this is recounted by Steve Hulett in Mouse in Transition.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 9: Bernie Brillstein, Producer!
Excerpt from Where Did I Go Right? (or: You’re No One in Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead), by Bernie Brillstein (with Cheryl Henson)

Some people like to talk about the art of the deal[1], but in reality, that’s all horseshit. A good agent, manager, producer, or creative artist works from their instincts. They take calculated risks. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. You accept the wins with the losses and move forward. Jim did this without thinking about it. He knew and he trusted his instincts.

Take Time Bandits. Terry Gilliam, one of Jim’s Monty Python friends[2], brought the film to Disney in 1981 looking for an American distributor. We screened it at the big theater off Dopey Drive and the animators loved it[3]. Jim loved it[4]. Most of the Disney management, however, did not. They rejected the idea outright even after the employees literally petitioned to pick it up.

Jim believed in it, and I believed in Jim, so we pressed hard on it. We cited the petition. But the board wouldn’t budge. “It’s not in keeping with the Disney brand,” Card said with all the authority and finality of the Burning Bush. Jim was ready to storm out, but I grabbed his arm.

“You’re right,” I said, ignoring Jim’s glare. “So, you’ll make a new brand!”

The board erupted with cross-talk. Card got them to quiet down and we all started to speak in our turn, for or against. Ron Miller confessed he’d been considering just such an idea, a label for films that didn’t fit the Disney mold.

“It won’t work,” insisted Card. “Everyone will know Disney is behind it.”

“Did you know that Mel Brooks produced The Elephant Man?[5]” I said. The silence made it obvious that no, they didn’t.

After a closely contested vote, the film was accepted for distribution. Jim smiled to me. We had our film. Card said “Fine, you can have your confusing foreign film, and you can also accept the blame when it flops.”

Ron and Jim and I ultimately created the Fantasia Films label specifically as a place to distribute and showcase outside talent like Time Bandits that was just beyond the Disney image. Ron would go on to create Hyperion Pictures a couple of years afterwards, intended for original content that was more adult-oriented[6]. It was the start of a new expansion by the Disney company outside of its family friendly core, Time Bandits the first of many non-Disney-branded productions and distributions. We were starting to move forward.

Oh, and that “confusing foreign film” Time Bandits? We released it that November. It was a smash success that went on to gross over $42 million. We turned a hefty profit on a negligible investment.

It certainly did better than Condorman[7].

Jim’s level of respect went up at Disney, as did mine.

​

[1] This is not a political reference, I swear. Brillstein expressed similar sentiments towards the “art of the deal” concept more than once in his autobiography.

[2] While living in London during The Muppet Show Jim established friendships with all of the Pythons, whose bizarre, surreal comedy was clearly an influence on him. He later worked with Terry Jones on Labyrinth.

[3] True! According to former animator Steve Hulett in Mouse in Transition, “When an independent film called Time Bandits was screened in the big studio theater because its Brit producers were looking for a distributor, a bunch of us campaigned for the studio to pick it up. The movie was not only zesty, original, and funny, but had Sean Connery and half the Monty Python comedy troupe in it. Sadly, the studio passed on the project, and Avco Embassy Pictures snatched the film up, making a sizable fortune. (A $42 million gross against a $5 million budget, amazing for the early-’80s.)”

[4] He totally would. Fantasy, Pythonesque comedy, bizarre characters, stunning sets, time travel…all pure Jim.

[5] True! Comedy legend Mel Brooks was the silent force behind production of the dark, cerebral drama The Elephant Man, directed by surrealist producer/director David Lynch. Brooks deliberately kept his name off so as not to make people think that it was a comedy.

[6] In our timeline this idea became Touchstone Pictures. Miller originally wanted to call the new adult-oriented studio Hyperion after the street address of the original Disney Studios location. Tom Wilhite, who was fired from Disney after the Eisner/Wells takeover, would take the name for his own studio.

[7] A bomb in our timeline and this one alike. I actually saw this turd in the theaters, but only because they made it a double-feature with a re-release of Robin Hood, if I remember correctly, which was my favorite Disney cartoon at the time. I recall Condorman being really boring and a serious anticlimax after RH. In hindsight it was totally out of touch with contemporary audiences, even by Disney’s at-the-time standards. It was something more befitting of the Silver Age superheroes of the 1960s; real Adam West type stuff, only without the campy charm. Like Danger: Diabolik (1968), but worse. Today it’s remembered as a disaster and should best be used as snark bait for sarcastic robots.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 11: The “Idiot Nephew” (Cont’d)
Excerpt from The King is Dead: The Walt Disney Company After Walt Disney, an Unauthorized History by Sue Donym and Arman N. Said

It started with an innocent lunch. Roy asked Jim, and only Jim, to join him at the Brown Derby. Gottesman and Brillstein warned Jim to stay on guard (both expected an ambush, with Gold waiting to make a move). But, true to his word and perhaps to his nature, Roy was alone.

The two reportedly spoke for over two hours, and not about anything work related. They had met each other before, briefly, at puppeteer Edgar Bergen’s funeral[1], and Roy complimented Jim on the lovely eulogy he’d given. Roy surprised himself when he did a majority of the talking, with Henson honestly interested in hearing all about Roy’s childhood with Walt and about his work making some of the nature documentaries that Jim loved. Jim was delighted to learn that Roy was childhood friends with Nancy Sinatra and Candice Bergen, both also friends of Jim’s. Jim and the Muppets had collaborated with Sinatra many times, including on a groundbreaking Las Vegas show. Candice and her father Edgar both had been Muppet Show guests and Edgar (and his most famous puppet Charlie McCarthy) had cameoed on The Muppet Movie, the famous puppeteer’s last performance before his death.

Henson recorded the simple phrase “Had lunch with Roy E. Disney. Nice conversation. Childhood friends with Nancy S. and Candice B.” in his Red Book. Roy later described a similar nice, friendly chat, swearing to all who asked that “no business” was discussed.

It was the first of many such quiet, friendly lunches. Henson even arranged what he jokingly called a “double date” with Nancy Sinatra and Candice Bergen, the four sharing drinks and stories of their overlapping pasts. Jim and Jane would host Roy and his wife Patty for dinner, and vice versa. Soon Patty and Jane began to meet for coffee or drinks on occasion as well.

Ron Miller, however, was growing increasingly suspicious of these meetings. What was Roy planning? Was this some long game by Roy to take over the company? Henson swore to him that the lunches and dinners were friendly and not about business. Furthermore, Miller had a hard time believing that Henson was lying to him or was too naïve to know if he was being manipulated. Still, a seed of doubt was planted.

Miller had always maintained a good relationship with Henson. He and Dianne would also meet for dinners with Jim and Jane, and Jane and Dianne in particular were becoming fast friends[2]. Henson and Miller bonded over fast cars, cocktails, and stories about Walt and Hollywood’s past. Miller had been impressed by Henson’s boundless creative energy, enthusiasm, and the way the creative employees flocked to him and soaked up that enthusiasm. Creative productivity was up thanks to Henson. The Muppet Show was bringing in much needed liquidity[3]. Stocks were up. And Henson and his compatriot Gottesman were two more potential allies in Miller’s quest for creative expansion at Disney.

Yet Henson and Roy clearly had a lot in common in terms of temperament. Both were sweet and quiet. It would be easy to imagine Henson as a dumb hayseed under other circumstances. And whenever Miller casually insulted Roy, Henson grew visibly upset and quietly asked Miller not to talk like that. Roy was, Henson expressed, a kind person who deserved better than schoolyard bullying. Henson revealed to Miller the sheer love for Walt Disney and his legacy that Roy had shared with him, a love that Miller, who considered Walt a true father, shared. Henson found it disheartening that the two sides of the Disney family, who all clearly wanted the same end goal, could remain so bitterly at odds.

For the first time in years Miller began to think about things from Roy’s point of view, if only in small ways and at small moments. Miller was himself all too familiar with being the butt of cruel jokes and dismissive assumptions at Disney. He’d fought for years to overcome the belief among the various Disney crew that he was a dumb jock who only got to where he had in the company by marrying the founder’s daughter. Like Roy, he was assumed by many to be dumb and naïve.

Should he give Roy another chance? Or was he just being manipulated?

Miller approached Card Walker with this conundrum. Walker, in turn, blamed Roy’s manager Stanley Gold for manipulating both of them in some New Hollywood scheme to take over the company. Miller asked if he had any proof. Walker said no, and that it remained a suspicion.

They, like Roy before them, would have to wait and see.

​

[1] I don’t know for sure if Roy was in attendance at Bergen’s funeral, but it seems likely given his childhood friendship to Candice, and Edgar’s friendship with Walt.

[2] I can’t say for certain, and I have no idea if any of them met in real life, but my gut feeling based on accounts I’ve read about them all is that Jane and Dianne would get along the best, possibly become good friends, though I think that Jane would have gotten along with Patty as well, though maybe not become close friends.

[3] How? Find out soon!

 

[Geekhis Khan]

The Last of the Nine Old Men
Disney Magazine, June 14th, 1981

It is the end of an era. Today Disney Living Legend Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman retired after nearly 50 years with the company. Beginning back in the halcyon days of 1933, Woolie was the talent behind some of Disney Animation’s most memorable scenes, from the epic clash of the dinosaurs in Fantasia to the exciting action sequences of The Rescuers. Woolie is also credited with keeping the animation department going following the unfortunate passing of Walt in 1966. Woolie’s retirement marks the departure of the last of Walt’s “Nine Old Men”, the name given to the nine animators hired by Walt who were the core of the company’s animation department. We all wish Woolie a happy and well-earned retirement! But thankfully he’s not completely leaving Team Disney. Woolie still lives near Disney and will remain available for consultation as needed.

-----
Bonus Post! Main post tomorrow!

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 12: Bold New Directions
Excerpt from Jim Henson: Storyteller, an authorized biography by Jay O’Brian.

1981 was a busy year for Jim. The Muppet Show was in its fifth season, still filming at Elstree Studios. Sesame Street was still in production in New York City and many of its staff were simultaneously working with Kermit Love on The Great Space Coaster, which Jim had tried unsuccessfully to get Disney to produce[1]. Production of The Dark Crystal had begun at Disney Studios in California. And in between all of this, Jim was advising Disney President Ron Miller and serving on the Disney board of directors (with Bernie Brillstein serving as his proxy on occasion).

Flying constantly between London, New York, and Los Angeles was starting to wear on even the energetic Jim. There simply wasn’t enough time for it all. But Ron Miller had a plan.

Lord Lew Grade, head of ACC and Jim’s long-time business partner and advocate, was in dire financial straits following the costly back-to-back box office disasters of Can’t Stop the Music and Raise the Titanic![2] the year before. The former film, a Village People musical, suffered from the anti-disco backlash of the time while the latter, a mega-budget effects feature (“It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic!” Grade said of its skyrocketing costs), just plain failed.

Lord Grade with Fozzie and Frank Oz (Image source “jimhenson-themuppetmaster.tumblr.com/”)

Desperate for money, Grade agreed to sell ITV’s rights to production, distribution, syndication, and licensing for the Muppets to Disney that spring. The final episodes of season 5 of the Muppet Show would be filmed at Disney, as would its 6th and 7th seasons[3]. Furthermore, a second Muppet movie would be produced and released by Disney in 1982.

The Muppet Moving, as it came to be called by the HA crew, was intense, with entire sets having to be dismantled, transported to the far side of the world, and painstakingly reassembled at Disney’s Stage 2. Leaving London and Elstree after so many years was bittersweet for Jim and the Muppet cast and crew, who were were divided on this move since many had settled in to a life in England. David Lazer in particular had built a comfortable life in London, even picking up a tinge of the Posh London accent. Of the crew, Frank Oz was the happiest with the move. Despite being arguably the best puppeteer in the world at the time, Oz wanted more in life than being the guy with a pig on his arm, and Hollywood was the right place to break out.

His desire to branch out was well-known by Jim and the crew, and they’d worked hard to support him. Jim chose him to co-direct The Dark Crystal. Furthermore, he’d recommended Oz to George Lucas to play the enigmatic Yoda in the Star Wars sequel. Bernie Brillstein had even gotten Oz a cameo on The Blues Brothers the year before. But Hollywood, and Disney, would open up even more opportunities for him.

For Jim, of course, all of this took a backseat to The Dark Crystal, which remained his passion project. The Disney deal had seemed to be the perfect way to get the picture produced on his own terms. However, the reality was proving more frustrating. The conservative producers at Disney Studios at the time did not understand the project. They wanted something more traditionally child friendly and less overtly nightmarish. Jim countered that children not only wanted to be scared, but needed to be for their proper development. He cited the nightmare-inducing psychedelic dream sequences from Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo as precedent. They were not swayed.

Jim’s workaholic nature was also coming into conflict with the Disney workforce. He came into the office before even notorious early bird Card Walker. By 1 PM, most of the Disney crew was ready to go relax in the sun or have a few beers. This flummoxed Jim. By 5 PM, Jim and the Muppets crew were just getting started. He’d faced the strict union rules of England where the lights went out at 8 PM no matter what, but this was ridiculous, and wholly self-inflicted. The Disney folks, in turn, wondered why the Muppets crew didn’t revolt given the long hours, but the truth was they were, despite the demands of the job, having fun. Jim’s enthusiasm was contagious. He was having the time of his life! Who’d possibly want to play baseball when you could help bring an entire new world to life?

All through the spring and summer of 1981, conflict between Jim and Disney abounded, made even worse as The Dark Crystal’s costs skyrocketed thanks to Jim’s perfectionist tendencies. Production was dragging. The film premier slid from summer to Christmas. Jim, and Disney, were losing their patience.

“It was one of the extremely few times Jim ever raised his voice,” Bernie Brillstein remembered. “Well, raised by Jim standards anyway. He was irate. ‘This was supposed to give me more creative freedom, not less!’ He was considering selling his Disney stock and buying back the rights out of pocket. I tried to mollify him. ‘Remember,’ I told him, ‘it’s a long game.’”

One of the biggest points of contention between Jim and Disney was The Dark Crystal’s script. In addition to concerns about the dark tone, Disney producers disliked the main character Jen, who they felt was too flat and boring[4]. Jim had hoped to use visual storytelling to portray Jen’s personality rather than express it in text, but Disney disagreed. They sent him Rod Clements as a script-doctor. Clements, however, strategically reinterpreted his orders from Disney and agreed to cooperate with Jim in secret and help bring Jim’s darker vision to life. This was, in part, done by Clements as thanks to Jim for supporting his ultimately futile effort to have the character of Chief die in The Fox and the Hound.
The secret partnership worked. Clements was handed a copy of Jane Roberts' "Seth Material" as inspiration and worked closely with principal writer and Muppets veteran David Odell to finalize the script. Jen was given a proper character arc, going from a naïve, reckless, and sheltered dreamer to a brave, modest, and self-sacrificing hero. His relationship with Kira got fleshed out, as did the Gelfling race’s history and place in the universe. The film’s themes of time and duality were made more explicit.

Another issue between Disney and Jim was the portrayals of the mystical urRu and villainous Skeksis. As originally planned, Jim wanted them to speak in alien languages with no subtitles, expecting visual storytelling techniques to convey the story. The studio rejected it. “No kid is going to get it,” they told Jim. Jim refused to listen. Finally, hoping to break the impasse, Frank Oz suggested that they film a test sequence and try it out on a test audience. Jim reluctantly agreed.

Alas, the test sequence proved a disaster[5]. The audience was universally confused, with no idea what was going on. Jim reluctantly abandoned the plan and all the urRu and Skeksis scenes would be shot in English.
Production went on at Stage 3 through the summer. Animator Tim Burton was even loaned out to do some puppetry work on some of the Skeksis scenes, mostly because he wouldn’t shut up about it to his supervisors. While there, Burton did some side work on set design, adding a touch of the gothic, German Expressionist inspired designs that would ultimately become his signature style to the Skeksis sets. Principal photography ended in July of 1981 and initial editing was completed by September.

The rough cut was screened at the Disney Main Theater that September. The creative types mostly loved the film. The producers and executives were mixed. Many feared that it was too dark, too weird, and too occult. The terrifying scenes where the crystal was used by the evil Skeksis to steal the life essence from unwilling characters were particularly troubling for some. They pushed for cuts and edits. Henson flat out refused.

The impasse was eventually broken when it was agreed to distribute it under the new Fantasia Films label and thereby distance it from the Disney brand.

To add to the troubles, Disney, citing a Walt-era policy, neglected to put much effort into promoting the film, figuring word of mouth would be sufficient. Jim and Bernie ended up running promotional efforts themselves, at personal cost.

The film was ultimately released on December 9th, 1981, opening at #1 at the box office with a first weekend gross of $6.2 million. It would go on to make $58.3 million domestically against a $25 million budget; a good profit, but less than was hoped. Critical and audience reactions were mixed, with many confused by the dark, surreal, decidedly-not-the-Muppets tone.

“I took my kids to see Kermit and instead we got giant crab monsters and vulture-men,” said one man-on-the-street in an interview. “My daughter had nightmares.”

International audiences, however, were far more receptive, with over $25 million in international box office sales[6], critical and audience acclaim, and numerous international award nominations, even winning the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film. It would be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects alongside fellow Disney collaborative project Dragonslayer, but both would lose out to Raiders of the Lost Ark[7].

The film would eventually be embraced as a classic and way ahead of its time, ultimately spawning a cult following, a sequel in the late 1980s, and a prequel series afterwards. It also led to the popular Disney Dark Water Ride “Curse of the Dark Crystal,” which reimagines the events of the film with audio-animatronic figures. But for the moment, the criticism and mixed reactions remained a source of disappointment and pain for Jim.

If there was a bright side to the whole thing for him, though, it was financial. His share of the profits, plus dividends from the rising Disney stocks, did go a reasonable way towards paying down the loan he’d used to purchase the Disney stock. This placed him and Henson Associates into a more financially stable situation going forward into 1982.




[1] Jim doesn’t have the influence at this point to overcome the Disney inertia when it comes to opposing TV animation, nor does the weird, psychedelic nature of Coaster jive with what the WWWD crowd see as the Disney Brand. I know many of you hoped to see something change here, but alas not to be.

[2] In our timeline, this led to Grade selling the studio to Robert Holmes à Court, which caused difficulty for Jim Henson and The Dark Crystal.

[3] As part of the deal, Jim agreed to two more seasons instead of ending after 5, like he did in our timeline. Jim Henson still owns the Muppets IP here.

[4] Honestly, they’re right.

[5] In our timeline, this critical creative error went unnoticed until the first test screenings of the final film, requiring expensive and awkward re-dubs. Executive Meddling isn’t always a bad thing.

[6] This is notably better than in our timeline ($41.4M domestic, $62 total against a $25M budget), where it faced the double box office juggernauts of Tootsie and E.T. Here, a year earlier, it faced, well, not very much during the 1981 Christmas season. Still, audience expectations can challenge even the best films.

[7] In our timeline it won the Saturn but received no Oscan nominations. Here Disney lobbying pays off.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 9; A Suit Once More (Cont’d)
Excerpt from Renegade Suit, the autobiography of David Lazer (with Jay O’Brian).

There’s a reason why Suits love golf, and it’s not just the inherent pretension that goes with wasting hundreds of acres of prime real estate on a game that only a few people get to play. It’s strategic: a chance to be competitive with a potential business partner without being overtly, confrontationally competitive. Sure, hypothetically you’re only playing against yourself, but everyone knows the score. Everyone knows if you’re having a good day or a bad day. They can see the wicked slices and the great lays. Everyone gets to measure and compare the length of their putts, you might say.

But it’s also a way to size up a potential business partner’s character. How will he react when he misses the short putt? How long and obnoxiously will he celebrate when he makes the tough eagle? Will he lose his temper when he hooks it into the water? Will he angrily take swing after futile swing trying to get a ball out of the sand trap rather than just take the drop or Mulligan? You can learn a lot about a man and his likely business approach by watching him on the course.

So, knowing all of this, when Ron Miller asked Jim and I to play a round of golf with him I knew it was more than just a friendly game, and I warned Jim to take it seriously, maybe to get in a few practice swings at the driving range beforehand. Jim, to the best of my knowledge, had never played golf beyond a few trips with his kids to the putt-putt. He was more familiar with navigating a miniature windmill than a left dogleg on a par 4.

Needless to say, things did not go that way. Needless to say, I didn’t really expect them to.

Jim caused heads to turn right from the start. Rather than wear a practical crew-cut shirt and pants, he showed up in full traditional Scottish golf regalia: knickerbocker pants with knee socks, an argyle sweater so loud you could hear it on Mars, and a matching floppy tam o’shanter with a puffball the size of a baseball.

Ron had brought with him Stan Kinsey, an up-and-comer from out of Finance, as his double. Stan was a real sharp cookie with a real creative streak to boot. He and I got along almost immediately. He was Going Places. His golf game was spot on.

Jim’s game…not so much. On his very first swing at the very first hole, he sliced the ball so badly that it flew right through the limbs of the trees to our right. Jim didn’t betray a moment of anger or disappointment.

“I guess I got a ‘birdie’ on that one!” he said with a smile and all the gentle confidence of a man who couldn’t care less about the outcome.

It was downhill from there game-wise. He inevitably grabbed the wrong iron for the job (or wood when he needed an iron). Where Ron, Stan, and I were getting birdies and eagles, Jim was getting double- or triple-bogies. He’d miss the same short putt three times in a row before sinking it. He hit just about every sand trap and water hazard on the course. The foursome behind us was getting visibly impatient. But Jim never lost his relaxed smile and his friendly banter, clearly not caring less what the outcome of the game was, but just enjoying his time on the course[1].

The jokes and bad puns didn’t stop either, alas. After a drive failed to pass the ladies’ tee, he quipped about not looking very good in a dress. When a hole featured a serious water hazard between the fairway and the green he joked, “perhaps I should just throw the ball right in the water and cut out the middle-man.” After digging up a spectacularly bad divot he quipped, “that reminds me: I need to re-sod the front yard.” After nearly falling on his butt following an awkward swing, he joked that he was auditioning for the part of Goofy.

(Image source “Disneyclips.com”)

And it worked. The simple, sincere lack of pretention, the unshakable joy, and the willingness to be the butt of his own bad jokes endeared him to Ron and Stan. There was no competitive edge here. Jim couldn’t care less if he came in last and, by extension, Ron couldn’t care less who came in first!

By the 13th hole, Stan, who at that point was so far under par that the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion, even started trying to match Jim’s bad shots on a lark! Jim shanks one into the rough? How close can Stan get his ball to Jim’s? Water hazard hit? Can Stan hit in the same spot before the rings of the ripples dissipate?

By the 16th hole everyone was laughing. By the 19th hole[2], with the drinks flowing, we were all escorted to the private room just we would not disturb the other guests with our hyena-like fits.

Then, with a lull in the laughter, Ron got down to business, as I knew he ultimately would. Disney’s Wonderful World TV show was struggling and NBC was threatening to pull the plug. Jim had supplied the show with a couple Muppet sketches and a promotional scene from The Dark Crystal the year before, but Ron wanted us to completely update and revamp it. We could do it.

He wanted another Muppet Movie. Jim agreed.

Furthermore, he confided in us, Card Walker was expected to step down as CEO in the coming year, probably after EPCOT launched, and Ron expected to take over. Ron wanted to hire Jim and me full time. He offered Jim the position of Chief Creative Officer (CCO) and a spot on the Executive Committee. He offered me a Producer slot. Jim countered that he wanted me as his Executive Vice. I was floored.

Jim wouldn’t commit until he ran it by Bernie Brillstein, who was still Jim’s Manager, but he promised to give it some earnest thought. Bernie ultimately negotiated Jim a sweetheart deal: $300,000 a year plus a $100,000 signing bonus, yearly bonuses of 0.5% of all profits over $50 million[3], and stock options of up to 150,000 shares[4], which was more than four times the stock that Ron himself was getting!

Plus, Jim would retain full control of HA as a separate entity, be free to pursue his other creative endeavors, like Sesame Street, and, to top it all off, he gained even more creative control over Disney projects, with Ron agreeing on principle to back Jim on his creative decisions going forward.

Ultimately, Jim and I took the positions. We even got Bernie a Producer’s billet. Jim, Bernie, and I were full-fledged members of the Walt Disney team.

* * *​

The Board of Directors for the Walt Disney Productions Company, 1982:
E. Cardon “Card” Walker, Chairman & CEO
Donn Tatum, Chairman Emeritus
Ronald “Ron” Miller, President and COO
James M. “Jim” Henson, CCO & Creative Director (founder and head of Henson Associates)
Richard “Dick” Nunis (head of Disney’s Outdoor Entertainment division)
Roy E. Disney (head of Shamrock Holdings)
Al Gottesman (Henson Associates)
Philip Hawley (Carter Hawley Hale)
Samuel Williamson (senior partner, Hufstedler, Miller, Carson, & Beardsley)
Ray Watson (former head of the Irvine Company)
Caroline Ahmanson (head and founder of Caroline Leonetti Ltd.; Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)


The Disney Executive Committee:
E. Cardon Walker, Chairman & CEO
Donn Tatum, Chairman Emeritus
Ronald Miller, President and COO
James M. “Jim” Henson, CCO
Richard “Dick” Nunis

​

[1] Brian Jay Jones gives several accounts of Jim approaching a new attempted skill with this same general attitude: go at it without hesitation, fail frequently and spectacularly, and enjoy the ride without frustration or any expectations of success. I assume he’d approach golf in the same way.

[2] The bar at the clubhouse, for those who don’t know the golf in-joke.

[3] Most of which he’d put towards the loan used to buy the Disney stock (still plenty of Muppet money coming in).

[4] Compare this to the deal Michael Eisner got in ’84 as Chairman/CEO: $750,000 a year plus a $750,000 signing bonus, bonuses of 2% of all profits over $100 million, and astronomical stock options of up to 510,000 shares! Ron’s salary as CEO was $350,000 per year at first.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 12: Bold New Directions (Cont’d)
Excerpt from Jim Henson: Storyteller, an authorized biography by Jay O’Brian.

One of the more interesting jobs awaiting Jim Henson as Disney’s newest executive was also one of the company’s most famous, if least glamorous ones: performing for a day as a Disney walkaround character at one of the parks. As was recently leaked in the press[1], it has been a longstanding, but secret tradition (and exercise in humility) for all new Disney managers and executives to work for a day as a walkaround performer, and new CCO Jim Henson was no exception. Naturally, he would perform Kermit.

(Image source “muppet.fandom.com”)

“It was a lot of work,” Jim remembered years later, once the secret was out and he could talk about it, “But [it was] also a lot of fun. We’d always interacted with the [walkaround performers] when [the family] visited the parks, and I always knew that someone was inside of them, but until you’ve donned the suit yourself, you have no real appreciation for how much work that job really is. I’m just glad I got to do it in Disneyland. I can’t imagine doing that in Disney World [in hot, humid Florida] in July.”

Before donning the costume, Jim had to go through an accelerated “boot camp” of sorts. One couldn’t just put on a walkaround character and, well, walk around, after all! With an attention to detail that impressed Jim, each walkaround had a set of characteristics, behaviors, gestures, and postures that had to be performed as you made the rounds. Goofy didn’t walk like Mickey. Daisy didn’t react like Minnie. None of them talked: only the in-human performers like Cinderella got to do that. Normally, each character came with a long sheet of notes, behaviors, and personality traits. But for the new Muppet-based walkaround characters, all of this needed to be invented.

A year and a half earlier Jim Henson, just after signing the deal with Disney, had done just that, recruiting Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, and his wife Jane[2]. Oz, who inevitably developed long, detailed backstories for his Muppet characters, would lead the background development effort. Hunt, a veteran walkaround Muppet performer perhaps best known for performing the bashful monster Sweetums, would help develop the gestures, mannerisms, and distinct walks. Jane made sure that it all stayed true to the characters. “It was a real challenge,” remembered Jim. “[Disney’s] standards were as anal retentive as mine, but it was a whole new skill set. As a Muppet you emote with your fingers. As a walkaround [character] you emote with your shoulders, hips, and arms. Thank god Richard was there.”

And Richard didn’t disappoint. “Frank’s characters were easy for him,” Jim recalled. Characters like Fozzie and Piggy already possessed grand, memorable physicality that was relatively easy for Hunt and the Disney crew to translate. “Kermit was a challenge.” As the inveterate straight man, much of Kermit’s performance relied on reacting with subtle grace and annoyance to the crazy antics of the others. Jim could express rather complicated emotions by how he curled his fingers, but with their fixed expressions, the walkaround versions would lack that ability. Eventually, using a combination of sharp shoulder turns and retreats, sinking shoulder drops that sunk the actor into the suit, and “floppy spaghetti arms”, they were able to express the subtleties of “Kermit” through the fixed-face suit.

Over a few days Jim, an experienced performer, but only occasionally a fill-in walkaround character performer[3], mastered the Walkaround Kermit. He also learned how to navigate the park with the help of his handlers despite the poor vision and learned the basics of how the customers would react, what they would want in terms of pictures and signatures (learning to sign a picture through big Kermit hands was a challenge), and also the unexpected hazards of the job (“you’ll get groped at some point”). Finally, Jim was ready to be Kermit again, but in a whole new way. His teachers were impressed with how quickly he picked it all up, but they shouldn’t have been. He’d been performing with kids and crowds for decades.

For Jim, three things struck him about the walkaround costumes: the weight and heat of the suit, the limited visibility it offered (Goofy was notoriously hard to see out of), and the amount of assistance one needed from the handlers just to not trip over things…or over children. And yet, compared to squeezing his tall body into small, cramped spaces for a Muppet performance, it was relatively easy. “At least I got to stand up straight,” he recalled, while also admitting that the walkarounds didn’t have the benefit of “takes” to allow a quick breather between performances. The experience led him to task Faz Fazakas and Brian with developing new ways to keep the performers more comfortable, ultimately resulting in a series of measures to improve the costumes. These included the “Mickey vision[4]” miniature cameras and viewscreens to improve visibility, and ways to dissipate heat starting with hidden vents and then to small, hidden fans to, ultimately, the NASCAR-grade cooling vests the performers use today[5].

Jim also found that he absolutely loved interacting with the guests, particularly with the children. “Unlike a lot of [my fellow Disney executives] I was used to [working with] kids. The hardest part for me was simply staying silent and not answering the kids’ questions in Kermit’s voice and [thereby] giving away the secret!” he laughed.

Like all his fellow executives, Jim Henson played a walkaround character for a day, but unlike most of the others he would go back to do it again, several times, over the years. He even recruited some of his fellow Muppet performers to take a turn or two. Richard Hunt even regularly played the part of Sweetums, in some of the original costumes. He reportedly shared Jim’s observation that “staying quiet was the hardest part”. Most of the Muppet performers agreed to the request, with Frank Oz being the notable exception. “Having my arm in a pig is more than enough, Jim,” he reportedly said.

​

[1] In our timeline it was only in the 2000s that this tradition got leaked. Many execs have reportedly said that the experience was a meaningful one that gave them both a sense of what their employees experience and also a sense of the “magic” of the Disney experience for the guests when they witness the innocent joy of a child upon meeting them, and thus “become” the character for that moment.

[2] Jane consulted on the Muppets Walkaround show in 1989.

[3] For example, in the opening of The Muppet Show he plays the "Mutation" walkaround on screen left.

[4] They used a similar arrangement for the Gorgs on Fraggle Rock called “Gorg-vision”.

[5] To the best of my knowledge this never happened in our timeline where Disney found it cheaper and easier to just hire additional underpaid local students to work in shifts than to engineer more wearer-friendly suits.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Thanks again to all who participated in the Muppet Guests event! Here is the result. Some of these folks may look familiar...

---------------

Muppet Magic Message Board
Topic: Muppet Show Seasons 6 & 7; Best Guest Stars?

Kermitfan143: So, yea, I know Seasons 6 & 7 (1981-83) aren’t everyone’s favs and the only reason Jim agreed to them was because of the Disney deal, but of them, who were your favorite Special Guest Stars?

The End: Mr. T. Definitely! “I ain’t got time for no jibber-jabber, Kermit!” [6 likes]

Grahamberly: Miles Davis. Jam session with Zoot, anyone? [3 likes]

BirdLives: Spot on, man!

Grahamberly: Also, Robin Williams. I still laugh at him as Mork on Pigs in Space. [7 likes]

Fort Knox: Yes!! Seconded! I don’t know which was funnier, Statler and Waldorf heckling him, or him joining them to heckle Fozzie!

Tim Servo: Thirded. Pure insanity!

N*B*C: Um, Williams was way too much for me. Overkill in my opinion. Even Gonzo couldn’t keep up! How much coke was he on? No, give me Lucille Ball & Jerry Lewis. That’s manageable insanity! [3 likes]

Hello Dali: You want insanity? Salvador Dali[1]!! I still have a poster of him with Gonzo, with Gonzo sporting the iconic mustache! [π likes]

Tim Servo: The Dali one was just weird and nonsensical.

Hello Dali: No, it was a masterpiece of surrealism! A paranoiac-critical exploration of the human subconscious with a side of a bumblebee buzzing around the dreaming mind of a young maiden. [√(-1) likes]

Prairie Dawn: Are you on drugs? [2 likes]

Hello Dali: I am drugs. [∫(-∞)^∞(e^(-iπx) dx) likes]

N*B*C: Andy Kaufman. That one was weird in a good way. He pulled an Anything Muppet off of a Muppeteer’s hand only for the un-handed Muppet to keep talking to him. He screamed and dropped it. Vintage Kaufman meta-humor. [4 likes]

Head_ina_Jar: Lucile Ball was great, as was John Ritter, who convinced her to do it.

HailtotheKing: Seriously, no one’s said Arnold Schwarzenegger?! Him as Conan battling Sweetums. [5 likes]

Iggy: Or Hulk Hogan, brother! Him wrestling The Masked Weirdo (Gonzo). Pure entertainment. [3 likes]

Head_ina_Jar: Don’t forget Harrison Ford! OMG Indiana Frog. [7 likes]

Tornahdo: And Carrie Fisher, just to round out the Star Wars cast! [3 likes]

Fort Knox: Ackroyd and Belushi. Speaking of cocaine and Carrie Fisher, I guess? Anyway, the Blues Brothers/Electric Mayhem sketch. Brilliant! They lost Jim Belushi not long after that[2]. ☹ [6 likes]

Kermitfan143: The hand of Bernie Brillstein at play. I think that he had to blackmail both of them given how much they hated the Gortch skits on SNL. Belushi called them “the Mucking Fuppets” you know.

Fort Knox: I don’t care how Bernie did it, I’m just glad that he did. Also: Michael Cane. [2 likes]

Iggy: Mathew Corbett and Sooty. [3 likes]

FAS: Seconded. And Gerry Anderson’s marionettes. Jim Henson always had love for his fellow puppeteers, whatever the form.

Master_of_Muppets: Yea, they both showed up on World of Magic too for one of the Puppetry Around the World sequences.

Prarie Dawn: No one’s said Fred Rogers? For shame! [3 likes]

Naresse: Seriously. Also, all the nerds on these boards and no one mentioned Tom Baker? Dr. Who meets Pigs in Space[3]. Classic. [4 likes]

Caliban: Larry Hagman. Seriously, the whole “Who Whatevered JR” (pied, shocked, exploded) running gag. [9 likes]

Enfuego: Yes! Seconded!

Khanette: I loved Piggy dressing up as Jeanie and winking JR back into Major Nelson. [4 likes]

Ryddle O’Sphynx: John Candy, of course. [3 likes]

Caliban: Kim Catrall. [3 likes]

Prevert: More like Kim Cat Call! ROWL!

Postvert: She looked pretty good back then!

Prevert: She looks pretty good now.

PrarieDawn: You two are incorrigible.

Prevert: Thank you!

Modinator: Enough natter. Stay on topic, folks.

InTheNavy: Mel Blanc. Larry Bird. Bill Cosby was a famous one. A little awkward now. Don’t let him make you a drink, Piggy! [3 likes]

Caliban: I loved the musical acts. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The B-52’s. Oingo Boingo. Olivia Newton John. [7 likes]

Head_ina_Jar: Second on Olivia. “Let’s Get Physical” duet with Piggy. ‘80s squared. [2 likes]

Thesaurus_Rex: David Bowie and KISS! [3 likes]

Khanette: Cher was a lot of fun. Part of her big comeback tour. [1 like]

Fort Knox: Tony Bennet, Stan Freiberg, Dolly Parton, and Lionel Richie. Jim also wanted ABBA, but missed signing them. [7 likes]

Kermitfan143: Michael Jackson was a big one. Also a little awkward now. [8 likes]

Naresse: Seriously, people, Queen. Freddy Mercury vs. Miss Piggy singing duel. Bowie was great too. I just wish…no, I’m not going there. [5 likes]

Tim Servo: Totally seconding Oingo Boingo! You just know Tim Burton put them all up to it. Also, Weird Al Yankovic!

Grahamberly: Agreed on Weird Al. One of my all-time favorite ‘80s moments. [4 likes]

FAS: Um, @ Servo & Graham, that was World of Magic. Weird Al was just breaking out when TMS went off the air. [2 likes]

Tom Servo: Bugger. Still a great moment, though.

N*B*C: No one mentioned Betty White yet? Her and Animal singing a duet. Full stop. [6 likes]

Khanette: Everyone loves Betty White.

Pool_of_the_Dead [Banned]: Lord knows I do!

Modinator: Another account?!? How many times do I have to keep banning you, Pool?

Pool_of_the_Dead [Banned]: You know you love me, Modinator!

Bleach: For me, it was all about the Grand Finale host: Jim Henson Himself! [42 likes]



[1] Apparently, someone in the Muppet crew wanted Dali to guest star in our Timeline!

[2] As much as I’d love to butterfly Jim’s death, he was fully committed to his hard-partying ways.

[3]

😊

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Disney’s World of Magic (1982-1990)
Episode 44 of the Tales of Television Past Direct View Net Channel.

Title Sequence
An image of an old television gets turned on by a hand and, after warming up, distorted retro 1980s theme music plays and the screen[1] displays the title card “Tales of Television Past” on the screen, then: “Episode 44: Disney’s World of Magic (1982-1990)”. It then transitions to the original opening theme and intro for “Disney’s World of Magic.” We zoom in on the screen until it is the full display we see, nested and blocked to fit our screen. It starts showing a montage of historical clips, mostly from Disney TV past.

Host
The year was 1981. Walt Disney’s Wonderful World had been on the air in one form or another since 1954. But after all those decades, the public had largely tired of a show that hadn’t really changed since 1975. It relied heavily on re-runs, classic Disney shorts, and a few live performances, most of which was far out of touch with the popular culture of the time. NBC, who hosted the show on Sunday nights, was threatening cancellation.
​

Montage
Images from the TV Show, the Shorts on it, and still images pertinent to the discussion points go by on the screen as the Host discusses them. Public Domain music, with snippets of copywritten music interspersed, play.

Host
Enter Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets. In late 1980 he joined the Disney team, first as a consultant and then later as Chief Creative Officer, or CCO. As one of Henson’s first jobs as CCO, Disney President Ron Miller tasked him with revamping the flagging show. Henson had a lot to do. Reinvigorating a failing old show would require not just new material, but an exciting new look. After several long creative meetings, it was decided to keep the classic structure of having a host introducing the various Shorts. However, the set would get a modern update with new, contemporary theme music and sets and, most importantly, new and boundary-pushing Shorts. The thought was that the show could be used as an experimental test bed for new ideas, a virtual mass test screening, as it were.​

Montage
Images continue, now shifting towards the newer, post-Henson images from the new show.

Host
The host would speak from a modern new office set backed by a large picture window, from which exotic, magical, and otherworldly images would be first back-projected, and then later chromakey inserted, suggesting that the office was located on some strange new world or setting. Special visual effects “magic” would be used during the live action hosting segments and other live performances in order to play up the mystical power of television as a medium, and, indeed, demonstrate the “Magic of Disney”. The show would then progress through the week’s Shorts, with stylish animated or puppet sequences, abstract images, or other transitional sequences separating them. The Shorts would primarily be new sequences, short animations, Muppet sequences, musical videos or performances, short documentaries (often about Disney rides and attractions, puppetry, animation, behind-the-scenes, nature, or environmental issues), or excerpts from upcoming movies, though an occasional classic Short would be used as filler or if deemed appropriate to that week’s themes.​

Montage
Images shift to footage of the various guest stars.

Host
In addition to the Shorts, the show would take a cue from variety shows (including the Muppet Show) and feature live guest stars. At first, these guest stars were recruited mostly from Bernie Brillstein’s agency or from existing Disney contracts, though in time more guest starts would seek out opportunities on the show, particularly once it was realized that appearing on the show could gain one an audience with Disney producers and directors, and thereby a chance to set up future gigs. The guests would perform and interact with Muppets, animated characters, walkaround characters, or even with the host. Musical and dance performances from these stars would add a hip, pop culture vibe that, along with for-the-time cutting edge computer animated transitions and segues, would help give the show the new, hip modern vibe that Henson and Miller were looking for.​

Montage
Images transition into shots of various producers, directors, and artists on the set and at work.

Host
Henson assigned the job of Production to Muppet Show veteran David Lazer, Disney Creative VP Tom Wilhite, and Jim’s agent-turned-manager-turned-producer Bernie Brillstein. Individual guest writers and guest Directors would be given the opportunity to do a week’s episode, thereby having the show serve as a training ground for new talent. Henson and the team filmed an internal pilot hosted by Jim Henson, with the idea being that President and later CEO Ron Miller would take over hosting for the actual show. To Henson’s surprise, Miller asked if Jim could host[2]! Already a household name following the fame of the Muppets, Jim Henson’s easy-going nature and friendly smile would provide exactly the kind, family friendly presence that Disney wanted for the show. Though Henson’s stiff and stilted early appearances betrayed his hesitance to put his own face on camera[3], over time he relaxed into the role, becoming a calming, pleasant, reassuring presence for audiences.​

Montage
Images transition from Production stills and on-the-set shots interspersed into stills from other TV shows and clips, and then into Disney Channel shows.

Host​

Production began in January of 1982. By this point NBC had dropped the show and CBS had picked it up. It would run on Saturday nights from 8-9 PM Eastern & Mountain time before being moved to Tuesdays to avoid competition with the wildly popular Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons. Ratings improved notably compared to the previous several years of the show, though it would never reach the heights of The Muppet Show, whose viewership it had largely hoped to capture once the latter went off the air in 1983. After the creation of the Disney Channel in 1983, the Disney management briefly considered moving the show there[4], but on the advice of Brillstein and Lazer they kept the show on network television, where it would effectively serve as a profit-generating advertisement for Disney movies, attractions, and the new shows on the Disney Channel. For example, when a Short featuring the Waggle Rock characters was aired on World of Magic, it generated a notable spike in subscriptions and viewership for the show on the Disney Channel.

Montage
Images transition into Production stills and on-the-set shots interspersed with the Shorts

Host
The show also offered Disney a chance to expand its boundaries with audiences. Disney animators and writers, in particular the young and the unorthodox, would get opportunities to create fare that was outside the normal Disney aesthetic…within reason, of course. This would allow for a variety of different styles, moods, pallets, mediums (including computer animation), and story structures to be explored, particularly when special edition shows like holiday episodes were run. Future big names in animation, such as John Lassiter, Ron Clements, Joe Ranft, and Tim Burton, would get their first big break on this show. In particular, audiences remembered Burton’s first contribution, the stop-motion short Vincent, which aired during the 1982 Halloween special. With its bleak, German Expressionist inspired imagery, it would stick in the audience’s memories, whether they wanted it to or not. Vincent would receive critical acclaim and would even win a Prime Time Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, one of many the series would win during its run. The series itself would take home an Emmy in 1985 for Outstanding Variety Sketch Show.​

Montage
Images transition into more clips from Disney’s World of Magic.

Host
Disney’s World of Magic would air weekly from the spring of 1982 to the fall of 1986, when its high costs would drive a transition into a periodic special format rather than a weekly series. It would see slight tweaks in format over the years, with chromakey technology and computer graphics backgrounds moving in during the mid to late 1980s. In 1990 it would change its name back to the Wonderful World of Disney. This later, updated format would continue to air periodic specials up to the present day.​

Montage
Images flip through more clips from Disney’s World of Magic before finally ending on a concluding screen.

Host
Disney’s World of Magic represented an interesting blend of the new and the traditional, giving it a unique place within the history of Disney television. While the show’s obvious and outdated special effects and graphics betray its age and its era, the show remains a favorite in syndication and direct viewing and is considered by fans to be one of the best eras of the “Wonderful World” Disney anthology series. Thus, Disney’s World of Magic remains a memorable Tale of Television Past. Tune in next week when I talk about Great Television Disasters, including My Mother the Car, Spy-Yai-Yai[5], and the epically disastrous Heil Honey, I’m Home! If you’d like to see more videos please “like”, Subscribe, and hit the “Tracker” button for more…​

[click “Return” button]

[1] My apologies to Defunct TV for ripping off their schtick. Consider this a tip of the hat for all the great research I’ve gained from the Defunctland channels.

[2] Ron Miller was famously shy and nervous in front of a group and would be very reticent about hosting a TV show

[3] As seen in his stiff hosting of The Jim Henson Hour in the late ‘80s; there he never got the chance to settle in to the role, as it didn’t last a season.

[4] This happened in our timeline where the show largely got absorbed into shows like Disney Studio Showcase and Mousterpiece Theater.

[5] Fictional, thank the Maker. Unfortunately, the other two examples actually existed.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Interlude: A Small Strike After All
Excerpt from The King is Dead: The Walt Disney Company After Walt Disney, an Unauthorized History by Sue Donym and Arman N. Said

Unions remained a controversial topic at Walt Disney Productions well into the 1980s. Angry memories of the contentious 1941 animator’s strike remained seared into the minds of union and management alike, even four decades later. Disney’s animators largely remained a part of the Union of Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Local 839 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. In 1979 they’d won layoff protections from management following a brief strike. And in 1982, the specter of a strike reared its head again as the animation studios of America grappled with the issue of “runaway production”, or studios sending animation work overseas to cut costs and avoid unions.

This had never been an issue at Disney. Keeping jobs in America had been as much a patriotic duty as it had been a quality control measure. But with the release of The Fox and the Hound, the conclusion of feature animation projects being a traditional time of layoffs in animation, there was a desire by many in Disney management to scrap the ’79 contract. Anti-union sentiment was strong on the board and some saw the burgeoning strike as an opportunity to break the union.

Board member and Chief Creative Officer Jim Henson and his associate, board member Al Gottesman, were notable exceptions. “First off, we don’t send work overseas and I see no reason to start now,” said Henson. “We have the best animators in the world and we’re paying them either way. Secondly, I need these guys right now.” Henson was taking the animation department full speed ahead with The Black Cauldron in active production, Basil of Baker Street in side production, and a dozen little Shorts under development for the new World of Magic TV series. He argued that a few weeks of work stoppage would cause “irreparable harm” to his ability to keep these productions going, in particular the new TV series, which was at a critical stage in its early run and attempting to build a steady audience. He pointed to the full offices and desks in the Animation Building. “These guys are good workers,” he said. “I have no desire to start laying them off or sending the work to Taiwan. The quality will suffer and so will the Disney name.”

Gottesman listed the legal and financial risks associated with a long strike, and did a presentation on the financial burden and short-term losses the company would have to absorb for every week of the strike. “I hardly see the point in taking on the loss and disruption over something that’s not even an issue for our studio.” He advocated maintaining the status quo.

Card Walker was not swayed. He described the union members as dangerous. He talked at length about the Strike of ’41, citing the anger, insults, threats, arrests, and even assaults. Former Disney animator and union leader Art Babbit could certainly have shared similar tales of “gangster like” actions against the union members coming from the management.

Henson asked Walker and the board why they would want to go through that all over again when they didn’t have to.

“You know,” said Henson, “I dealt with unions in England while making The Muppet Show. When they said ‘lights out at 8’ they meant that. When 8 PM arrived, and they would literally shut off the lights on you, even if you were mid-scene. In France [striking unions] shut down entire cities. If all that [the Disney animators] want is what we’re already giving them right now, then frankly we have it easy.”

After a contentious and divided board meeting, Gottesman convinced the board to allow the management to preemptively meet with the union representatives. Walker, Miller, Henson, Gottesman, and the Disney legal team met with Union President Mo Gollub and his team. The meeting was contentious, and Gottesman had to physically grab Henson to keep him from leaving the room at one point. But ultimately an agreement in principle was made: if the studio maintained the clauses of the ’79 contract, then the union would support no more than a short, limited “Solidarity Strike” to show support for the strikers in the other studios, but they would not interfere with production at Disney or publicly badmouth the studio.

At the union meeting that evening, the assembled members discussed the agreement. In a narrow vote, the union members decided to support a short, limited Solidarity Strike, but no more. For a week starting on July 31st, 1982, a handful of union members took turns walking a short picket line holding signs that voiced support for their striking brothers and sisters in the competing studios, and then returned to work.

Steve Hulett and Vance Gerry Strike; from Steve Hulett’s blog, link in the footnote

The larger strike beyond Disney lasted 10 weeks. It broke the back of the union at several studios and led to major gaps in their schedules. Saturday Morning in early 1983 would be filled with reruns for everyone but Disney, costing the TV networks and the studios revenue, but dramatically increasing Disney’s Nielsen share. Union membership plunged in every studio outside of Disney with nearly-bankrupt striking employees tossing out their union cards, desperate for any money that they could make. Some of the Disney executives lamented the “missed opportunity” to break the back of the union while the union members and leadership realized that they’d dodged a bullet.

In the end, however, the Studio had the last laugh. With the union fatally weakened at every other studio in LA, the union’s bargaining position at Disney became significantly weaker. The union and management alike knew exactly how long your average union member was able to last before they broke. Negotiations became more one sided. Should any major strike happen, Disney would have a well of “scabs” from other studios eager for the better pay and prestige that came with working at Disney.

Even so, the fact that the Disney union still had the ability to collectively bargain with any sort of leverage put them a league ahead of the other animation studios[1].

​

[1] In our timeline the management circled the wagons and the union went on full strike. After several weeks, the Disney union began to break as well. Read Steve Hulett’s account of it here: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/untold-...ves-and-studio-strikes-chapter-11-103143.html

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 5: A New World of Magic
Post from the Riding with the Mouse Net-log by animator Terrell Little.

Jim Henson changed everything. His energy was ripping through the Animation department, as much a blur as he was himself. Jim was magnetic…that’s the only way that I can describe it. He was taking the time to look at everyone’s contribution with a smile or at least a friendly shrug. We all found ourselves desperate for even that tiny bit of connection to him[1]. The Imagineers, performers, and live action folks would tell me similar stories as he rushed through their sections. A sort of rivalry and jealousy had always existed to some degree between the four groups, but now it flared, leading to ever-increasing games of one-upmanship as we all competed for daddy’s attention and affection[2]. Plus, we all three had to compete with the Muppets in addition to each other.

And Jim seemed to be everywhere at once. While working on his new Muppets movie (eventually called A Muppet Mystery!) on Stage 2, he was simultaneously helping those of us in Animation set The Black Cauldron in motion and work on the Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore Short[3] to play before The Sword in the Stone re-release. He was also supporting work on Tron in the writer’s room and computer lab, and even overseeing and selecting the dozens of little projects that would show up on the TV series, now called Disney’s World of Magic. And to him it was all magic, from the groundbreaking computer effects behind Tron to the little grey Claymation short Tim Burton was doing[4] for World of Magic. He didn’t make any one project seem greater or more important than another.

He upended entrenched management and ways of doing business, including the traditional “write as you go” approach that Disney Animation had used since the time of Walt. He favored instead an approach where the production team began by establishing a basic film structure and treatment, if not full-on screenplay, before painting the first cell[5]. The storyboards now had a larger framework to build upon, rather than simply storyboarding individual “scenes” and “gags” and then having us Inbetweeners try and fill in the gaps with as little awkwardness as possible. Henson walked the line between giving in to opposition to these new methods from middle managers and imposing his will, instead subtly gaining consensus for his ideas through a “can we try it?” here and a “but what if we…” there. Little by little, the process for animation was streamlined and wasted cels were minimized or avoided.

And I have no idea how he found the time for it all.

He also brought laughter, I mean, full-body, shaking fits of laughter, everywhere he went. He laughed loudly and easily. He encouraged laughter and the little jokes and friendly pranks we played on each other, or even him. If it took an extra 15 minutes to finish the storyboard meeting because of the laughs, so be it. Many of the middle management were afraid that he was hurting production, but surprisingly the number of cels being produced per day actually started to increase!

It all started to slowly rub off on us. Soon something amazing started to happen in the animation building: people started working after lunch. Little by little, the ball fields and bars became progressively emptier and the desks progressively fuller. The hours flew by because suddenly we felt like we were a part of something magical, not just drones at the draft tables patiently waiting for our number to be called to sketch a mushroom. World of Magic was a big part of this. Demand for animation was increasing with each new Short and us bored inbetweeners and ink-and-paint crew patiently awaiting our turns to fill in gaps between scenes or color cels on Cauldron now got the chance to do real animation work. And best yet, some of this work was of our own creation.

World of Magic was magical to all of us young employees, because it meant that we all got a chance to pitch our own ideas, and Jim would happily take suggestions from literally anyone, even the cleaning ladies[6]. I even pitched Jim a couple. The first was a generic short with a singing flamingo, which earned me what we were all coming to refer to as the “Grunt of Doom” or G.O.D. The G.O.D. meant that he wasn’t impressed, but didn’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you so. The acronym, of course, led to inevitable expressions like “the wrath of G.O.D.” or “smitten by G.O.D.”.

My second suggestion fared much better: Boudreaux’s Kitchen, an animated Short where a Cajun alligator named Boudreaux ran a small café with his wife & partner ‘Laina, a Creole-of-color spoonbill. To do the writing I enlisted Steve Hulett, since he’d written for Ken Anderson a few years earlier on the Catfish Bend project, and so hypothetically he knew something about the Deep South. I based it all on my aunt and uncle. As a kid, I’d always found the way they playfully bantered back and forth at each other in their kitchen down in Mobile endlessly amusing (I like to tell people I’m from L.A.: Lower Alabama). Jim liked the story and the test sequence and he loved the Deep South setting (he’d grown up in Mississippi!) and we soon got the green light!

It was the proudest day of my life at the time.

I’d hardly see Jim after that. Occasionally, Steve and I would get a brief, few minutes to catch Jim up on our progress, and receive the blessing of his nods or the curse of G.O.D., and then we’d retreat to make changes. Eventually we screened the rough cut for him. He nodded, smiled, and said, “I like it,” and we were on. Just like that. Boudreaux’s Kitchen aired on World of Magic in late 1982. We got some good reviews and even a few fan letters. I’d hoped to expand it into a series, but it never made it past that one glorious Short.

Of course, putting together that Short on top of working hard on Cauldron meant that Steve and I were working long, exhausting hours. Save for marching a couple of hours a day during a brief 3-or-4-day solidarity strike in August to support our brothers and sisters in other studios, we were in the studio practically 7 days a week. We worked for so long, in fact, that we got in trouble with the Union for putting in free, unauthorized overtime!

We also got in trouble with management for bypassing the chain of command and going straight to Jim. Plenty of other Animators were facing the same heat. Many of the middle generation of animators between the Old Men and the Rat’s Nest felt like we were all cheating. They’d spent years patiently awaiting their chance, and here we were, jumping in front. It was like the lines for the rides at Disneyland where they’d waited their fair turn, and we were cutting. I received a few sharp looks and grumbles from the senior animators after that and soon a new policy came down reinforcing the mandate that new ideas would be shopped through the proper channels. I’d spend months to years repairing the damage of my brief unintentional insubordination.

And yet if given a second chance I would do it all over again[7].

​

[1] I’ve read or heard countless accounts from former Henson employees who say pretty much the same thing.

[2] A similar thing happened within Henson’s company between the New York (Muppets) workshop and the London (“Creature”) workshop.

[3] In this timeline Henson fought to keep this Short in-house rather than subcontract to Rick Reinert Productions, as happened in our timeline.

[4] Vincent (1982). Greenlit in this timeline as well as our own.

[5] Bluth used a similar method to control costs in his animation and Katzenberg implemented something similar at Disney in the late 1980s.

[6] In Muppet Guys Talking they describe Jim’s openness to new ideas from all, and how this created a real sense of teamwork and collaboration.

[7] Again, all based on actual accounts I hear from the people who worked for him. He apparently really was that magnetic to his employees. The down side of this was jealousy and hurt feelings as they all competed for his increasingly limited time and attention.


Note: Edited for ambiguous grammar.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 10; Of Mice and Muppets
Excerpt from Renegade Suit, the autobiography of David Lazer (with Jay O’Brian).

The culture of Disney in 1981 was a far cry from the culture of Henson Associates, and yet also a far cry from IBM in the ‘60s and ‘70s. At once it was both as crazy and chaotic as HA and as corporate as IBM, and yet it lacked the freedom of the first and the professionality of the latter. Afternoons off were the norm. A quick peek through the books showed a crushing overhead. Profit margins were marginal. The studios were as inefficient as they were uncreative. Animation was a hotbed of Machiavellian intrigue and tribalism. Imagineering, though extremely creative and hardworking, was inevitably badly over budget and was in Card’s crosshairs for cuts following Epcot’s opening. Outdoor Rec head Richard “Dick” Nunis was openly angling to absorb Imagineering into his group, and Card was starting to listen.

Jim got caught in the middle of all of this. Card and the rest of the conservatives balked at his “hippie” reputation and his nonchalant (they’d say “unprofessional”) attitude, which they mistook for a lack of motivation or caring (which anyone who knows Jim knows is so off the mark as to be slanderous). They also feared his motivations and feared what Jim would do with Walt’s sacred vision as they understood it. Jim got along great with the creative types. The Animators, Performers, Crew, and Imagineers loved him and recognized him as one of their own. However, the management types – Suits like me, yet not like me – saw him as a threat to entrenched interests and personal advancement.

Richard “Dick” Nunis, President of Disney Outdoor Recreation (image source “progresscityusa.com”)

Take Dick Nunis, who at first saw Jim as a threat. Dick was openly ambitious and was angling for an executive position. They’d recently elevated him to the board and to the Executive Committee in recognition of his growing influence and bald ambition. Jim, an outsider, had jumped above him and he was not pleased. Though one of Ron Miller’s old football pals, unlike the gentle and modest Ron, Dick was one of those guys from the Robert Ringer school of Winning Through Intimidation. While most of the guys on the construction site at Epcot had their first names on their construction helmets, Dick had “SOB1” on his[1]. He tried to intimidate Jim right from the start. It worked to a point. Certainly, Jim wasn’t holding his piercing gaze and turned and walked away when voices got raised. However, if Dick had hoped it would browbeat Jim into submission or undermine his influence with the Disney team, it failed. Jim simply refused to engage and refused to be rattled. He had things to do and no time for dick-measuring contests, no pun intended. In the end Dick just looked like a guy abusing a puppy, a bully rather than a leader. He ended up weakening his own hand.
The braver workers and managers at the time came to Jim’s defense. The HA team came to Jim's defense. In particular, Frank Oz came to Jim’s defense. Don’t let the High School English Teacher look fool you: Frank can be intense and even intimidating himself. He has the most rock-solid self-confidence of anyone I know, built upon the full self-awareness of his own faults and limitations and thus can’t be insulted or belittled. Jim’s kids were a little bit scared of him growing up[2]. Frank can just smile, arms crossed, and look at you, unblinking. This was as much the case back in '81 as it is now. When Dick hit him with a barrage of disparaging comments, Frank just kept on smiling, interrupting him with the occasional snide quip or sarcastic observation. It was like watching a mighty hurricane battering against a solid rock already worn smooth through years of such assaults. It would take far longer than the course of the storm to alter that stone. Ultimately, Dick’s resolve just wore out.
Dick and Jim ultimately became friends. It’s hard for anyone to hold a grudge against Jim, and holding grudges is not in Jim’s nature at all. Still, though, those early conflicts complicated Jim’s working relationships as he fought to overcome the inertia of ingrained thinking.

Rarely, if ever, did the conflict manifest directly. Instead, it took the form of a series of small battles, usually over the most mundane and asinine of things. For example, one of the first issues between Jim and Disney was with regards to Sesame Place, a theme park near Philadelphia based upon Sesame Street. It had just opened in 1980 after breaking ground the year before. It was done in partnership with Busch Gardens, the Sesame Street Muppets ironically being sponsored by a beer company. Sesame Place was no competition for Disney. It was a tiny, four-ride thing back then (if you consider a jungle gym a ride). It was a thousand miles from Disney World and two-and-a-half thousand from Disneyland. I doubt if it ever took any business from nearby Hershey Park! Still, its very existence offended many at Disney and on the board in principle, with rumors persisting that Roy Disney’s business partner Stanley Gold was outraged at its very existence. Perhaps they were afraid that Busch Gardens Tampa Bay would open up a Sesame Place, who knows?

The majesty of early ‘80s Sesame Place (Image source “www.henson.com/jimsredbook”)

It amused me endlessly that the owners of the grandest and most popular parks in the world, with millions of visitors every year, would be jealous of a 3-acre park outside of Philly that supported a PBS show for toddlers. It spoke of hubris, entitlement, and, yes, fear and weakness. Like the old saw about the giant elephant being afraid of a mouse, though that’s probably not the best simile for this situation.

Sesame Place wasn’t bringing in a fortune, and most of what it did earn was going to the Children’s Television Workshop to support Sesame Street, which, even with government and corporate support, was always living on margins. Ultimately, the solution was just for Disney to buy up the partnership from Busch entirely. Since the tiny new park wasn’t yet generating much revenue and since the threat of costly lawsuits loomed both ways given Kermit’s ambiguous status within both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, the negotiations were fairly quick and simple. It was easier and cheaper for all sides just to make the deal. Sesame Place ended up being duplicated as an ancillary part of the Muppet Land attraction in Walt Disney World that went up in the mid ‘80s, around the same time the small Musicians of Bremen push-button audio-animatronic went in [3]. The Philly site, of course, became the seeds of something new.

It still amazes me to this day that the Disney management could focus on piddling details and ignore bigger systemic issues. Corporate myopia at its finest. Here Epcot and Tokyo Disneyland were badly over budget and rushing to meet their arbitrary opening schedules and the Disney stock price was low enough that a small fry like Jim could take a bite out of the Disney whale, and yet they were focused on the perceived slight of a tiny park in Philly.

Stan Kinsey and I had many a lunch discussion about this. He had big plans for reducing all of the Disney overhead and streamlining management, but he needed backup. He even had some creative ideas involving emerging technologies. I promised him that if anyone could find order in chaos it was Jim Henson, who managed performers the way Charlie Parker[4] played sax. The good news was that the core of the company was good. Walt’s sense of customer service and attention to detail were alive and well and imagination remained a common feature among the rank and file. The biggest obstacles to change were entrenched middle managers and a hyper-conservative, risk-adverse leadership. These could be overcome, but it would take time.

The parks were pretty solid (full credit to Dick), if not making the returns that they could. The hotels were always packed, but we needed more of them. Disneyland and Disney World’s Magic Kingdom were seeing millions of visitors every year. But Stan wanted to increase ticket prices and parking fees, build more hotels, and cut costs in general. He was working on a plan to do so. I got him and Al Gottesman in the same room and we all three talked. Stan later brought some likeminded Disney managers that he knew into our working group/conspiracy. A phased plan for increasing profitability was developed, and the obstacles to that plan were identified.

We the old HA alumni and partners, meanwhile, organized ourselves. In addition to Al and Frank, I got Bernie Brillstein involved. Officially, Bernie Brillstein was a Producer. He took over my duties as Show Runner for The Muppet Show as I transitioned to leadership. However, he also started working with Stan and I to straighten out the studios. He was bringing in new talent or motivating old talent indirectly through the work of his daughter Leigh, who’d taken over management of The Brillstein Company, which managed or represented some of America’s biggest stars. It was the type of borderline conflict of interest that only Hollywood, Wall Street, and Washington DC seem to get away with, but it worked for us. Through Bernie, we soon had a grassroots bottom-up strategy to complement Stan and my middle-out strategy and Al Gottesman’s top-down strategy.

Though Jim didn’t know it, he had friends in high, medium, and low places.





[1] Marty Sklar describes Nunis in this manner in Dream It! Do It! Admittedly he may be biased as Dick was out for his job. As a general disclaimer, I’m making educated guesses on who Jim would get along with, and who he wouldn’t here, based upon their personalities as I’ve seen them in footage or as I’ve seen them described.

[2] Recounted in Jim Henson: The Biography.

[3] Immediate hat-tip to Cataquack Warrior.

[4] It’s my opinion that Charlie Parker and the other Be-Bop stars of the ‘50s and ‘60s beat Mandelbrot to the punch on Chaos Theory by over a decade.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Meta Commentary: Setting the Stage 2: The Eye of the Tiger

1982. Two years into the ‘80s. The decade is starting to “feel” like the ‘80s and the last vestiges of the 1970s are fading away. The Eye of the Tiger will be the last disco-inspired song to be deemed unironically “cool” for a generation thanks to its appearance in Rocky III, a movie that introduces the world to a man in a mohawk and gold chains known simply as Mr. T.

The gender-bending Tootsie is the breakout comedy of the year and An Officer and a Gentleman the breakout drama, but one movie so utterly dominates the box office, crushing all who oppose its rule, that numerous groundbreaking films like Blade Runner are “lost” beneath its massive feet, only to be discovered later on video and cable. That movie is Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extraterrestrial.

I have become Death, Destroyer of Worlds…

Knight Rider staring David Hasselhoff debuts on TV as does the William Shatner cop drama T.J. Hooker. Prime time soaps like Dallas and Knot’s Landing remain popular. CHiPs and Diff'rent Strokes are still going strong. Fat Albert and The Jeffersons are also popular. All four are bringing non-white perspectives to television. Happy Days is still limping along, five seasons after literally Jumping the Shark.

In addition to Eye of the Tiger, which blares regularly from the speakers at your local roller-skating rink, the radios play Stevie Wonder, in particular his duet with Paul McCartney Ebony and Ivory. Culture Club featuring Boy George makes its big appearance. And, that December, Michael Jackson will release the album Thriller. In January of 1983, during a live TV performance of Billy Jean, among other innovative choreography he will seem to magically glide backwards and change pop music forever.

MTV debuts to low expectations, but soon captures the hearts and minds of the youth of America and the world with its innovative and diverse schedule of music videos, more music videos, and, on occasion, even more music videos. Except for Sundays, when it plays music videos. Between videos are hip, modern animated effects and an occasional short dialog from, or interviews with, a “VJ” host. Over the years their animation and design will be increasingly influenced by the work of a small Italian interior design firm founded in 1981 that calls itself the Memphis Group. Their style will become the unofficial “look of the ‘80s”:

Memphis Design, The Look of the ‘80s (image source “spacestor.com”)

Fashions include baggy shirts with big belts over spandex and leg warmers for women, Member’s Only windbreaker jackets or vests without shirts and head bands for men. All the better to hold back or complement that increasingly feathered hair. Colors are getting brighter with the “span” running from pastel to neon. “Stone washed” and “acid washed” jeans and other pre-worn fashions make their debuts, and before long people will be paying high prices for jeans that are “professionally” shredded.

The amazing 8-bit ColecoVision home console will go up against the venerable Atari Video Computer System (not yet called the 2600) for the home videogame market. The Commodore 64 home PC is beginning its slow but unstoppable domination of the growing home computer market. Unlimited growth without end seems certain for them all. Home video rental stores are popping up in strip malls across America with an ever-growing VHS section and an ever-shrinking Betamax section. A 15-year-old programmer named Rich Skrenta releases the Elk Cloner, the first “wild” computer virus, upon the world. It infects the Apple II computers via infected 5 ¼ inch floppy disks.

On the subject of viruses, outbreaks of rare forms of opportunistic pneumonia infections and sarcomas are growing in frequency among small patient clusters, primarily among homosexual men. It becomes colloquially known as the “gay cancer”. Few pay it much attention. It isn’t their problem. It soon will be.

Great Britain and Argentina go to war over the Falkland Islands. Spain, emerging as a constitutional monarchy following decades under Franco, joins NATO. War begins in Lebanon and will last nearly a decade. Some say it never really ends. Anti-nuclear protests gain momentum in the west.

The US Space Shuttle Columbia has begun its orbital flights.

China’s population crosses the 1 billion mark.

(Image source: “Ripleys.com”)

And most monumental of all, “Lawnchair Larry” attaches a bunch of weather balloons to a lawn chair and flies 16,000 feet (4,900 m) above Long Beach, California.

The ‘80s will only get weirder.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 12: Bold New Directions (Cont’d)
Excerpt from Jim Henson: Storyteller, an authorized biography by Jay O’Brian.

1982 brought new challenges and exciting opportunities for Jim Henson, but it also brought setbacks. While the critical and audience ambivalence towards The Dark Crystal had proven to be a sore spot, he was determined to keep going forward and not waste time on moping or complaining.

Disney’s World of Magic offered an interesting distraction. The multi-Short format allowed time for him and the other creative artists to experiment with new techniques, new visions, and new subjects. And while it took several episodes before Jim felt comfortable in front of the camera, he soon learned to appreciate the role of host, settling into a calm, fatherly presentation that he based on how he spoke to his own children when they were younger: relaxed, attentive, and respectful without baby talk or the usual subtle condescension that most adults inadvertently give to kids.

Soon, World of Magic was a minor hit. While it never reached the heights of The Muppet Show at its peak or even Wonderful World in the 1960s, it quickly found a diverse and appreciative audience that kept the Nielsen ratings respectable, though rarely spectacular. The show ultimately received numerous awards, including Emmys, and made Jim Henson’s face as famous in America as it had been in England in the late ‘70s. Soon, somewhat to Card Walker’s and Ron Miller’s dismay, Jim Henson was now the “face of Disney” in many people’s mind, with some incorrectly assuming that Henson was the President and CEO!

Similarly, Epcot was set to open that fall, and while most of the major design work had already been completed by that point, Jim, along with his son Brian and lead engineer Faz Fazakas, helped steer the design of the upcoming Imagination Pavilion and its “Journey into the Imagination” ride.

But for Jim, the next big thing on the plate was the Muppets sequel. He wanted Frank Oz to direct and he wanted it to be big: big musical numbers, grandiose effects, more of those “how did they do that?” moments of incredible puppetry. If Kermit riding a bicycle had amazed audiences in The Muppet Movie, then what would they think of several Muppets on bicycles, all riding down the sidewalk at Venice Beach? What about a Miss Piggy water ballet scene in the Busby Berkley vein? What if everyone ends the movie parachuting to the ground?

Jim made some quick sketches while on a flight back to New York and took them to the Muppet workshop. There, Muppet designers Kermit Love[1] and Caroly Wilcox took the designs and started researching options. Of all the sequences, Wilcox told Jim, Piggy’s water ballet would be the most challenging. Traditional materials would soak up the water and expand, so she needed to find waterproof fabrics that still looked right and yet were still flexible enough to perform without tearing. Jim expressed his certainty that they’d find something.

Henson was pleased with their initial ideas and proposed flying the team out to LA to work directly with the “LA shop”, but was surprised to receive some mild resistance. Shockingly for Jim, the two workshops had developed an increasing rivalry with one another that went back to the early days of The Muppet Show. Back then, Henson Associates had been divided between the original New York shop, which mostly served Sesame Street, and the London shop that managed The Muppet Show, then still filming at Elstree. The London shop, known also as the Henson Organization (HO[2]), had moved with The Muppet Show to Los Angeles, where they filmed the final seasons. HO had performed most of the work on The Dark Crystal and had, as a result, received the majority of Jim’s attention over the last couple of years. The New York shop and its performers and designers were feeling left out and increasingly forgotten while the LA shop was feeling increasingly glib and superior, increasingly telling everyone that they built “Creatures”, not simply “Muppets.”

In a move to increase unity, Jim and David Lazer devised a rebranding scheme whereby the New York offices would become Henson Associates, East (HAE) and the LA offices Henson Associates, West (HAW). This did little to smooth ruffled feathers, though it did lead to an amusing and mostly friendly “pronunciation war”. While all could agree that the LA side was pronounced like “haw”, there was a disagreement on how to pronounce HAE. “Hey” was the favorite of many, including Jim, while others preferred “hee”, making the two groups together “hee-haw”. This latter option was championed in particular by Bernie Brillstein, who’d created the country-themed Laugh-In clone Hee-Haw, but it was also increasingly favored by HAE staff since it made clear which side came first.

Yet, rivalries aside, the two aspects of HA came together for what had become known as A Muppet Mystery! The movie, a salute to (and friendly skewering of) all of the old Hollywood tropes, was ironically set mostly in San Francisco, as Jim felt they’d already “done LA” in the last movie. Written by Jerry Juhl and Directed by Frank Oz, the movie began with the impressive multiple-bike ride down Venice Beach, which required an impressive overhead crane rig designed by Brian Henson[3]. This song-and-set piece lead straight into the plot: the Muppets, now living a successful life in Hollywood following the events of the last movie, are desperate to keep up with the increasing demands of stardom—and the increasing demands from their new Studio Head for bigger spectacles. Like with the last movie, this was a case of the art imitating the lives of the HA team themselves.

To meet the demands of their greedy and obnoxious Australian studio head Bobby Caracas (Jonathan Pryce), who had replaced Lew Lord (Raymond Burr) from the previous movie after a corporate buyout (an obvious reference to Lew Grade’s ouster by corporate raider Robert Holmes à Court earlier that year) the Muppets host a huge gala publicity event where Piggy performs her spectacular water number. This in turn sets up the “mystery” where Fozzie gets falsely accused stealing the glorious “baseball diamond”. Following the clues left by the real thief to San Francisco, the Muppet team is pulled into a French style farce, full of old Hollywood sight gags and clichés, all sardonically pointed out to the audience by an increasingly exasperated Kermit, as they finally catch the real crook (it was Caracas all along!) and escape with the diamond and proof of Caracas’s guilt…by parachuting out of Caracas’s ludicrously huge private jet in a final spectacular scene[4].

A Muppet Mystery! was originally intended for an early June release date, but Chairman Card Walker, hoping to directly compete with (and take revenge against) Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH, released it on July 9th, 1982. The timing was catastrophic. This move had the unfortunate result of placing the movie in direct competition with two major releases, Star Trek II and, more disastrously, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg’s mega-blockbuster, released only two days later[5]. A Muppet Mystery! premiered in second place after Star Trek, only slightly edging out Poltergeist and Rocky III, both of which were already weeks into their run at that point, and then quickly dropped to a distant third when E.T. came out, creating lines that stretched around the block [6].

A Muppet Mystery! would receive mostly positive reviews, with critics and audiences delighting in the catchy songs and dazzling effects, but ambivalent about the “derivative” and “uninspired” plot. Many felt it lacked the charm of the original movie. It would go on to gross $28 million on a $14 million budget[7], far less than the blockbuster success Henson and Disney had hoped for. Some blamed the script for the disappointment and others blamed it on an audience growing somewhat blasé about the Muppets after 6 seasons, a four-year-old movie, and countless TV specials.

Frank Oz was typically blunt about the cause of the underperformance as he saw it: “The fucking alien ate us alive.”

Oz and many on the HA team further blamed the disappointment directly on Card Walker’s decision to delay the movie’s release, which was done out of spite against Don Bluth rather than based on any sound marketing logic. There was no competing against E.T., particularly in the family market. E.T. was one of those Star Wars level blockbuster instant classics. Oz felt that A Muppet Mystery! could have broken $50 million easy had they released it earlier that summer, perhaps if they’d gone up against Poltergeist, which had a completely different target audience.

Thankfully for Oz, though, he escaped the blame that might otherwise had come to a novice director at the helm of an underperforming movie in a hit franchise. Most in the industry recognized that while the script was less than inspired and the release timing disastrous, the direction and visuals were widely agreed to be quite amazing for a first-time director. He’d get the chance to direct again.

Almost like a consolation prize, the movie got several awards nominations, including Oscar nominations for Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects, though it lost out to "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman on the former and to E.T. on the latter[8]. Furthermore, the awards ceremony was a bittersweet time marred by the recent death of Jerry Nelson’s daughter Christine at 22 from complications associated with cystic fibrosis[9]. The film, however, would immortalize her in the “Look, dad, a bear!” “No, Christine, that’s a frog. Bears wear hats,” scene. A Muppet Mystery! would go on to become a cult classic and see a new life in TV and video release, ultimately being vindicated. For the moment, however, its underperformance was a bitter pill for both Disney and the Henson team to swallow.
The film also had a dangerous unintended consequence: among the people who saw the film was Robert Holmes à Court, the obvious inspiration for the sleazy, villainous Bobby Caracas. Holmes à Court was not amused. Already annoyed that ACC had lost the profitable Muppets to Disney before he could acquire the company[10], he now had his attention drawn to the struggling studio.

For Jim Henson, though, there was a new passion project to keep his attention and let the disappointment slide off his back: an innovative new Disney effects film called Tron.



[1] His actual name! Scary-appropriate, yes?

[2] Jim Henson’s love for bad puns extended to his company acronyms. In this case think “ho-ho-ho!”, not…street slang. The trend continues today with Henson International Television (HIT).

[3] As he did for the similar scene in The Great Muppet Caper.

[4] This follows many of the story beats and set pieces from The Great Muppet Caper, but makes it a true sequel rather than an unrelated follow-up. Sorry, Cataquack Warrior! At least it remains a self-aware spoof of Hollywood.

[5] In our timeline this happened with Tron, originally planned for a December release, which was rushed through post-production as a result.

[6] My family and I were some of those folks standing in that line. To this day I don’t know why we went to see E.T. on opening night, as we weren’t that family. I guess it shows just how strangely magnetic the movie was at the time.

[7] Performs worse than The Great Muppet Caper ($33 million gross) for all of the reasons stated above.

[8] Our timeline’s winners as well.

[9] As sadly happened in our timeline.

[10] In this timeline Grade selling the Muppet rights to Disney brought ACC’s weak position to Holmes à Court’s eyes sooner, and he acquired the company and betrayed and ousted Grade months sooner than in our timeline.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 22: City of Tomorrow Today: Bringing Epcot to life! (Cont’d)
Excerpt from: From a Figment to a Reality: The Imagineering Method! by Marty Sklar

In 1980 Jim Henson joined the Disney team, at first as a consultant and then later as CCO in 1982. This brought some interesting changes to the parks in general and to Imagineering specifically. Jim and the Imagineers were a great fit right from the start. Jim absolutely loved visiting the Glendale shops and offices starting with that first visit. He and his son Brian were enthralled with every contraption, design, and plan that we had. Like kids in a candy store! And the Imagineers immediately loved Jim as well. He was displaying all of the childlike enthusiasm and boundless, unrestrained vision that I used to see in Walt. The Imagineers and I saw a kindred spirit, the type of man who sees a blank sheet of paper as the greatest of gifts, as it represents endless possibilities! He and I quickly became good friends and compatriots.

Marty Sklar (R) with designer and fellow Disney Legend John Hench c. 1982 (Image source “cladglobal.com”)

Back then we were still known as Walt Disney, Inc., or WDI, and Epcot was the big deal at the time. What Walt had always envisioned as a fully functioning City of the Future had been drastically tampered down into what was essentially a permanent World’s Fair. We had a section of sponsored pavilions to showcase things like science, energy, communications, and industry, all crowned by the geodesic sphere of Spaceship Earth, and a section of “national pavilions” hosted by various nations to promote tourism and investment. Some in WDI quietly feared that the whole thing would be a spectacular bomb. Every historical World’s Fair had ultimately lost money, including Knoxville’s World’s Fair just the year before, and the whole idea seemed, ironically, old fashioned. Furthermore, the marshy, unstable soils of central Florida had proven challenging to build upon and we’d vastly outspent our budget, topping $800 million at least, possibly passing a billion[1]. So alas we’d yet to build many of the central rides and attractions we’d originally envisioned when it opened as planned on October 1st, 1982, as Card had insisted.

This meant that sustaining visitors after the initial interest died down came down to our first truly unique attraction, the Imagination Pavilion and the ride therein, to bring in guests. Jack Lindquist had some ideas involving multi-day passes to encourage guests there for the Magic Kingdom to stay an extra day or two for Epcot, but still, everything was riding on the Imagination Pavilion to make Epcot viable once the initial thrill wore off. The ride itself followed the concept of a “Journey into the Imagination”, led by a friendly Victorian-looking gentleman ultimately named “Professor Dreamfinder[2]” and his dragon sidekick “Figment”, a literal figment of his imagination whom he brought to life.

Our Timeline’s Dreamfinder and Figment (image source “D23.com”)

Thankfully, Jim Henson was very interested in Epcot[3], particularly the Imagination Pavilion concept. He spent hours touring the WDI facilities and chatting excitedly with the Imagineers, and looking through the drawings. You could tell he was living a dream, and it brought a lot of us back to those exciting days when we first joined the team, before it became a job. And Jim had several ideas for us. Some of these ideas we had to delay due to cost, like his chorus line of audio-animatronic Figments, but others stayed and amazed the guests, like a cleverly-timed series of TV monitors, each playing loops of animated Figment footage, making it appear that Figment was jumping from screen to screen.

But one of his ultimately most helpful contributions, beyond the creative input and simply advocating for us at funding meetings, was sending us a couple of new team members.

The first was a man named Franz “Faz” Fazakas, a goateed middle-aged man who was one of the major designers at Henson’s “Creature Shop”. Faz was already known to most of us since he’d helped design the audio-animatronics for the Muppet Show Live! attractions. His animatronics creations, including a remote controlled “waldo” system that let a puppeteer directly control animatronic Muppets with his fingers, like he would with a real Muppet, were beyond cutting edge and derived from NASA technology. He’d eventually win an Oscar for his creations. Needless to say, everyone was happy to have Faz on the team.

The second new team member was initially far less welcome. Jim’s oldest son, Brian Henson, 16 or 17 at the time, was sent to us with the idea that we could use him as a summer intern and show him the ropes. Needless to say, the younger Imagineers, many of whom had worked hard for years to get a coveted slot at WDI, were put out by what they saw as a flagrant case of nepotism. Brian received a lot of degrading “gofer” jobs at first, and faced plenty of resentment, both overt and subtle. Attitudes quickly softened for all but a handful of stubborn holdouts, however, as it was quickly discovered that Brian was friendly, hard-working, and had an almost instinctual understanding of mechanics and electronics[4]. Even so, it took direct intervention by Faz to get Brian a real job.

Brian Henson (center, back) in 1985 (image source “muppet.fandom.com”)

The very first job we assigned to him was to design the Figment the Dragon puppet that the Professor Dreamfinder actor could carry around. We figured that, as the son of the Muppets guy, it was an area he could manage. Brian was given a set of drawings by ‎Tony Baxter and Steve Kirk and some basic instructions: flexible vinyl external housing, what kinds of expressions we wanted, etc. We didn’t really expect much more than a simple rubber hand puppet[5]. What we received amazed us all.

I assembled some of the senior WDI managers, artists, and engineers for his demonstration. We were surprised and dismayed when a pair of employees carried in a big box and started setting up some electronic controls at a table. Finally, after all was set up, in walks Brian with Figment on his shoulder.

I don’t mean he had a Figment puppet—he had Figment. The Dragon. Alive and real.

Figment sat on Brian’s shoulder with his long tail wrapped around Brian’s waist. Figment’s scales stood out and caught the light beautifully. His stubby wings flapped. His forelegs moved and grasped and pointed, His neck turned. His eyes moved and blinked. He smiled and he frowned. He laughed. He spoke, a voice coming directly out of his mouth.

It was, of course, all remote controlled. At the table in the back, Figment’s controller, veteran Muppet performer David Goelz of Gonzo fame, controlled it all. He spoke and listened through a headset. His right hand controlled the head, neck, and mouth movements with a waldo rig. His left hand controlled a series of levers and buttons for initiating the other movements. Goelz’s hands and arms moved like a concert pianist making it all flow together. It was so fluid and naturalistic that we were stunned.

Brian and Figment/Goelz had a conversation, bantering back and forth. It was the typical pun-filled, Vaudeville-inspired Muppet stuff, Brian as straight man. But even when the jokes fell flat the performance was spellbinding.

They topped it all off when Figment shot a puff of purple “smoke”, actually a harmless aerosol, from his nostrils! “Mind if I smoke?” Figment asked.

After the show, Brian and Goelz demonstrated the engineering of the system. They pulled back Brian’s specially-tailored jacket to show the underlying harness that held up Figment, they peeled back Figment’s rubber skin to show the electromechanical linkages, the aerosol generators for the smoke puffs, the mike and speaker assembly that allowed Goelz to speak through the puppet, and the remote control system that animated it all[6].

When some of the engineers expressed concerns that the puppet was intended to be carried through the park, and that the waldo rig was impractical for such a thing, Brian promised he’d get back to us on that. Sure enough, a few days later he walks in once again with Figment on his shoulder and once again with Goelz standing behind him. This time Goelz was dressed as a wizard with a long, star-spangled robe, head covered by a huge hood that concealed the audio headset. His hands were clasped in front of him, buried underneath huge, sagging, billowing Fu Manchu sleeves. Once again, Figment and Brian had their conversation. Once again, they showed us the magic: this time the robe. The “sleeves” were false, simply a wire-supported façade to conceal the harness he wore under the robe, which of course supported the waldo rig and secondary controls where he could work them with his hands.

It was perfect. Professor Dreamfinder could now walk around Epcot, Figment on his shoulder, and both could talk with the guests. They would be escorted, of course, by the “Great Wizard Gellzz” in his oversized robe, who stood silently behind the Professor. If you saw the wizard’s lips moving, it was simply because he was “meditating”. Eventually, a “Wizard’s Apprentice” would be assigned to Gellzz, a park employee there to remind the guests to please not disturb the wizard during his meditations.

Many at the time assumed that Brian had some or even a lot of help. They were partly right: Faz, Goelz, and some of the Muppet team helped with the execution. But the vast majority of the principle design and engineering, Faz assured me, was all Brian.

None of my Imagineers could have done that at the time[7]. Not because they lacked the skill or the imagination, but because they all “knew” that you “couldn’t” create something that complex in a wearable form. But no one ever explained to Brian that you “couldn’t” do that, so he just did it. Just as no one ever explain to his father that you couldn’t make puppets move fluidly and realistically, I guess.

Ultimately, Professor Dreamfinder would be played by actor Chuck McCann in the TV segments and by Disney Parks veteran Ron Schneider at Epcot. Figment, via the Wizard Gellzz, would be played by Dave Goelz in the TV spots and by a talented young U. of South Florida grad named Jason Chao at Epcot. When Schneider retired in 2007 Chao would take over for him as Professor Dreamfinder and one of Chao’s veteran “Apprentices”, Elena Gonzales, would take over as the “Wizard Gellzeya”[8].

In the end, the ride and characters would go on to be the most popular at Epcot, and some of the most popular in all of Disney history. As the animatronic technology improved over the years, so did Figment, each iteration that much more fluid and realistic than the last, and each new control rig that much smaller and lighter. Figment would quickly become a guest favorite, and the official mascot of both Epcot and Imagineering.

Not bad for a teenage intern who was only there because his dad was on the board.

There’s a valuable lesson there: check your expectations, because they may, in fact, be your limitations.

​

[1] Some figures say as high as $1.2 billion!

[2] Just “The Dreamfinder” in our timeline. The character and Figment evolved from an earlier “Professor Marvel” and his dragon concept. The dragon was originally green, but reportedly pavilion sponsor Kodak didn’t want the character to be the color of rival Fuji Film, so he became purple to compliment Kodak yellow.

[3] Henson loved Epcot the most of all the Disney theme parks.

[4] True. He showed a great aptitude for technology as a child. He studied physics and astronomy at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, as a teen. In our timeline, still a teen, he designed an impressive suspension rig for controlling multiple bicycling Muppets for The Great Muppet Caper and was instrumental alongside Faz Fazakas in designing the Oscar winning animatronics for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)

[5] Which is what they got in our timeline. Admittedly, it was a very good simple hand puppet, but not capable of much more than turning his head a bit and opening and closing his mouth and eyes. I’ve been unable to discover the control mechanisms (no pictures that I can find), but it appears from the outside to have been a classic central rod puppet like Charlie McCarthy.

[6] All of the capabilities and features used here in Figment would have been possible using technology the Henson Associates company had developed by this time. This technology saw use in Emmit Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, The Muppet Movie, and big time in The Dark Crystal.

[7] Are Faz & Brian’s animatronics really that good? Could Disney really not have done that? I’ll explain in a new Meta-Commentary, coming soon!

[8] Chuck McCann and Ron Schneider played “The Dreamfinder” in our timeline as well and actor Billy Barty originally voiced Figment. In this timeline Disney briefly considered using a celebrity voice actor for Figment, but ultimately couldn’t get Goelz’s voice out of their heads. Coincidentally, in our timeline Golez would eventually take over from Barty as the voice in 2002’s revamp of the ride. Jason Chao and Elena Gonzales, are fictional.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Meta-Commentary: The Animatronics Revolution of the 1980s

Early in the 1980s, two companies are at the forefront of developing the art of animatronics: Walt Disney Productions and Henson Associates. Who will be the one to lead the revolution? One has billions of dollars in resources and has been the undisputed industry leader in the field for over 20 years. The other is a small studio of less than 100 employees that primarily makes puppets.

You might as well ask who was going to lead the home computer revolution of the 1970s: IBM, the industry leader for over 20 years with billions of dollars in resources, or a pair of hippies named “Steve” working out of a garage.

And yet by 1990, tiny Henson Associates would win an academy award for their groundbreaking animatronic effects work. Disney would get nominated for one with 1986’s Return to Oz…using Henson Creature Shop effects. So why wasn’t Disney, with their decades-long head start, the one to revolutionize the animatronics industry using the new tools available? Because, just as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were able to see the potential of microprocessor technology in a way that IBM couldn’t, sometimes “genius”, to quote Louis Tucker, “is a perception of the obvious which nobody else sees.”

Perception can change everything, and sometimes simply seeing the technology through a new set of eyes can make all the difference. In Jim Henson and Faz Fazakas’s case, it was the lens of puppetry that allowed them to make the leap.

Were Henson Animatronics Really All That?

Looking at the 1989 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie effects today, it’s pretty easy to dismiss them when placed alongside Iron Man or Groot, or even the nightmarish Michael Bay versions of the TMNT. And yet for the time they were astounding. Just as Mickey Mouse audibly whistling while he steered a boat in Steamboat Willie astounded audiences in 1928, so did the naturalistic fluidity of the motions of the eyes and mouths of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello astound audiences in 1989. The effects won Fazakas and Brian Henson an Oscar for a reason.

Now take a look at Disney audio-animatronics from the same year, say 1989’s The Great Movie Ride. You can find some vintage footage on the web. The audio-animatronics are certainly very good, but they’re also pretty stiff, and dare I say robotic? The mouths move in a stilted, unnatural manner. Their faces barely flex. Their heads stay nearly stone-still without the subtle tilts, turns, and nods that a living human will instinctively do. They are, honestly, not that far removed from their audio-animatronic ancestors in 1964’s Carousel of Progress[1].

Most Jim Henson animatronics from the era, on the other hand, will move in these small, fluid ways, giving them a naturalistic feel. It’s pretty easy to forget that Hoggle from Labyrinth is Shari Weiser wearing an animatronic mask remotely controlled by Brian Henson. The animatronics from The Storyteller were often just as amazing, and done on a smaller budget. Even back in the early 1980s you had the difference between the fluidity and realism of The Dark Crystal (1982) and the Gorgs of Fraggle Rock (1983), compared to the borderline creepiness of Welcome to Pooh Corner (1983-85), all of which mixed live action puppetry with remote animatronics. The Henson animatronics in general are more likely to escape the uncanny valley than the contemporary Disney ones (your mileage clearly may vary, of course). And these aren’t just my opinions, they were the opinions of the effects-experts at the time.

So, why? Why did this little “puppet workshop” change the game?

Again, perception is key here. Like all master puppet performers, Jim and Brian Henson were very experienced in adding naturalistic motion to the creations. The slight turn of a head, the turn of a lip, or the narrowing or widening of the eyes can carry an enormous depth of emotion, thought, and intent. And as a puppet performer, Henson needed to make these subtle motions many times, dynamically, in direct response to outside events. He had to emote realistically with his wrist and fingers. And when his ever-expanding artistic vision demanded actions in his Muppets that no human with a puppet could realistically perform, like rowing a boat or riding a bike, ever more complicated remote means had to be invented to make the shot work.

The ultimate revolution came with a single tool: the “waldo”. It’s the tool only a soft-headed puppet performer could have thought of. The Henson waldo is a soft, mitt-like “mouth” connected to a series of electromechanical transducers. As the performer moves the “mouth” of the waldo with their hand – or tilts it, or pulls it back or pushes it forwards – the transducers convert the subtle hand and wrist motions into electrical signals that are transmitted, usually wirelessly, to corresponding servomotors inside the remote animatronics. Other motions, like eye blinks, eye turns, or eyebrow raises, can be controlled through simple joysticks.

Richard Hunt using a simple waldo on Fraggle Rock (image source “www.henson.com/jimsredbook”)

Advanced waldo in action to animate “Waldo C. Graphic”, the first all-digital puppet

From there, it’s all a matter of time and training, allowing the performer to master the subtle motions to give the naturalistic performance, either by him/herself or in conjunction with an actor wearing the animatronic prosthetic. It’s literal “remote puppetry” using technology originally developed by the nuclear industry and NASA.

In addition to The Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock, TMNT, and Labyrinth, Henson animatronics would go on to appear in TV (Dinosaurs, Bear in the Big House, Farscape, and many more) and movies (The Witches, 101 Dalmatians live action, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone, and many more). They still show up today, even with cheap, hyper-realistic computer effects dominating the effects industry.

What Happened with Walt Disney Imagineering?

So, if Henson was developing such fluid, naturalistic animatronics in the 1980s, then why wasn’t Disney, who had a 20-year head start? Again, perception. It’s often easy for the Big Name in the Business to get complacent and stop truly innovating. They get trapped in a cycle of groupthink and limited points of view. They start to ignore the wild, innovative ideas and go with the familiar, “safe” options. They make small, evolutionary changes, the next obvious step in what they did before, rather than pursue the riskier outside-the-box revolutionary ideas that can change everything.

It happened with IBM. It happened with Apple. It happened with Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nokia, Motorola, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes, Atari, Nintendo, McDonalds, Burger King, GE, Paramount, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, Time, Life, Blockbuster, and so many more. Some say it’s happening with Disney and Lucasfilm today. It happened with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Card Walker, and Michael Eisner. At some point, had he lived longer, it may well have happened to Jim Henson.

It most certainly happened with Disney, arguably more than once, and, as this timeline should have made abundantly clear by now, not just with their animatronics.

And then there’s what I like to call the “engineer’s mindset”. Full disclosure, I am an engineer by trade, so I resemble these remarks. Engineers and technicians are often very process-driven people. You get a set of requirements and a budget and you design to it. In the case of Disney audio-animatronics, you have a simple cyclical pattern to design to. Your key challenge is timing. You have to have the audio-animatronic figure sit idle until the next carriage of visitors pulls up, and then go through a rote set of audio-synchronized motions on cue, and then go idle until the next carriage appears. It’s easy to approach this set of requirements with the same sense of emotionless systems engineering process one would give to designing the aileron controls for an airplane wing.

Furthermore, with limited budgets and short development timelines, combined with the natural engineer’s drive towards “efficiency”, there’s an inclination towards the “least necessary design”. Why have the figure’s face move in five dimensions when he really just needs to open and close its mouth time to the recorded dialog? Requirements met. Why “over-engineer” a solution? More moving parts equals more build time, more cost, more maintenance, and more things that can break.

Honestly, take away all of my hindsight and drop me in an Imagineer’s billet in 1982, and I would have probably done the same things they did. The environment you’re in matters. Had Fazakas gone to work for Disney in the ‘70s rather than Henson, he would never have developed the animatronic waldo. Instead, he likely would have designed things pretty much the same as the other Disney Imagineers of the day were designing. Had Jim Henson left the world of puppetry in the ‘60s to pursue directing, as he nearly did, Brian Henson likely would never have developed more naturalistic animatronics. Only a puppet studio could have come up with such an idea as the waldo for animatronics, and only someone with a performer’s mindset could have foreseen the need for such fluid, naturalistic performances in their animatronics.

And let’s be clear, I’m in no way suggesting that Fazakas and Brian Henson were “smarter”, “better”, or “cleverer” than the Disney Imagineers. Disney’s Imagineers were (and are) some of the best in the business, not just in terms of engineering, but in terms of design. There’s a reason why they were leading the pack for decades and why they’re arguably leading the pack today.

And Disney certainly learned over the decades. The new audio-animatronics today for, say, Davy Jones are breathtaking. The competition from Henson and, later, Universal Studios has been a healthy stimulus for them.

Breathtaking!

Apples and Oranges?

Oh, and one big caveat: designing audio-animatronics for a theme park ride is a different job than designing animatronics for a movie or TV show. Sure, on the surface they’re pretty similar: you put a realistic skin over a robot and make it perform a part.

But the devil is in the details: the audio-animatronic theme park figure doesn’t need the same level of dynamic motion as the movie animatronic. It has no need to dynamically respond to its environment. Take away the surroundings and the audio-animatronic will act in the same way every time. A small, fixed set of servomotors running to a fixed set of preprogrammed commands is typically enough. The movie animatronic, on the other hand, needs to “react”, often in very different ways, to what the other actors and characters do and to what events are happening on screen. They will need dozens of little servomotors for the myriad of different facial expressions, eye motions, and body motions to portray the different reactions.

Furthermore, the audio-animatronic figure has to last. When Frank Oz performed the Miss Piggy water ballet in The Great Muppet Caper, they had to use special waterproof fabric that lacked the flexibility of foam, and thus ripped easily. So, they built over 30 “Piggy heads” for the scene. They had the time between takes to swap them out. Any movie animatronic will have the same factors: if it breaks, you can replace or repair between scenes. Obviously, you can’t replace the audio-animatronic figure’s head every time the ride runs. You’d need to stop the ride, which is not acceptable.

And the audio-animatronic character will need to perform again and again and again, hour after hour, day after day, year after year. This means bigger, hardier motors and linkages. It means more durable materials that won’t tear or rip. Remember the Hoggle animatronic? Look up the state of the prop today. It has not held up through the years, though it was also not being maintained in any way, but left sitting on a shelf in a suitcase lost by the airline.

These mitigating factors may severely limit what can be done with an audio-animatronic figure, particularly in the 1980s when many of today’s advanced materials and software capabilities were not yet developed. It’s possible that what you see in 1989’s The Great Movie Ride is as naturalistic as could be done at the time, but I’m not certain either way.

So, What Does the Creature Shop Bring to Disney in 1981, or Vice Versa?

So, if it’s a different set of design criteria, does the Henson team really change anything?

Yes. They still bring a new perspective.

Even with all of the above limitations I mentioned, there are small things that can have a big payoff. The slightest tilt or nod of a head can make a huge difference. In our timeline, Disney’s Imagineers gave Dreamfinder a simple rubber hand puppet for Figment. The Journey into the Imagination ride featured rather simple audio-animatronics of the little dragon: one waving here, another doing an endless pirouette there. Nothing that really captures the, erm, imagination there in my opinion.

What the Henson team could bring to Disney animatronics is the same thing at which they excelled at the time. If anyone could have developed an advanced, interactive Figment in 1981/2 it was the Henson group, particularly Brian and Faz. Same for the audio-animatronics in general. A few subtle little turns or nods can add just that small little bit of natural motion to further humanize the figures. Disney has done exactly this in more recent years (e.g. Davy Jones).

There’s also certain to be a synergistic effect. The Disney Imagineers will bring to the Henson team new advances in computer synchronicity, advanced sound and projection technology, and rugged designs that can hold up over time. It was like with computers in the 1980s: IBM had the big, clunky things that none-the-less had the brute strength to do the processing you needed to run company spreadsheets and databases at work, while Apple had the small, sleek, romantic home systems that anyone could use and which opened up all new avenues for home computing.

Eventually, the two competing computer companies learned from one another, improving the quality and versatility of both. Likewise, Disney eventually learned from the competition brought by the Henson Creature Shop, ILM, and Universal Studios. I foresee the exact same thing happening with Disney and Henson in this timeline, but at a more cooperative rather than competitive level.

​

[1] Not to bash any of these rides, mind you. The audio-animatronics are great for their time, just, by comparison to what the Creature Shop was doing at the time, they’re somewhat stiff and limited.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

EPCOT Opens at Walt Disney World
Article from the Orlando Sentinel

October 1st, 1982 – AP News: Walt Disney World marks a new era today with the opening of the Epcot theme park. Originally envisioned by Walt Disney as a futuristic utopian city (the name comes from “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow”), the realized EPCOT Center is instead a “never-ending World’s Fair” reminiscent of the 1964 World’s Fair, complete with sponsored technology pavilions and nationally-sponsored world showcases. In addition to providing guests with thrills and entertainment, Disney hopes EPCOT will provide educational value and promote technological advancement, international peace, and intercultural understanding.

Opening Ceremonies, Oct. 1st, 1982 (image source “D23.com”)

Joined by new Disney CCO Jim Henson and by members of the Walt Disney family, Disney CEO E. Cardon Walker gave the opening dedication. “It is a great thrill, really a wonderful thrill,” said Walker. “Joining us around this magnificent fountain are representatives of nations from around the world. They have brought with them waters from the great oceans, the seas, the rivers, and the lakes on our planet, Spaceship Earth. These waters will flow together as a symbol of the oneness of humankind and the hope for peace among nations, making this truly a fountain of world friendship.”

Crowned by the impressive silver sphere of Spaceship Earth, EPCOT Center features such science- and engineering-based attractions as CommuniCore, The Land, Universe of Energy, and World of Motion. Currently, the United States, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, China, and Japan have set up showcases and it is hoped that dozens of more nations will sign on in future years. Disney plans to continue expanding Epcot over the coming years, with new rides, updated pavilions, and new nationally-sponsored showcase pavilions.

“We hope to see Epcot grow and evolve over time, as indeed all of us do,” said CCO Jim Henson. “All science, art, and understanding begins with imagination. And as we imagine new worlds and new ideas, we hope that EPCOT can grow to reflect that.”

* * *​

Disney Stocks Briefly Break $100 following EPCOT Opening
Wall Street Journal, October 7th, 1982

Walt Disney Productions’ stock price (DIS) jumped another 4.6% this month, briefly breaking the $100 a share benchmark for the first time in over a decade before settling back at $97 by the closing bell[1]. Excitement over the opening of the new EPCOT theme park is largely credited for the surge, which helped restore stock prices after their summer drop following the disappointing showing of A Muppet Mystery, which lost out to the blockbuster E.T. Investors are confident that excitement over the new park will lead to increased revenue streams in the coming quarter.





[1] Reached $86/share at this point in our timeline.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

The Home Computing Revolution!
From Disney’s World of Magic, S1, E12

[Return from commercial]

Theme plays and Title Card displays for Disney’s World of Magic. Transition to:

Interior – Computer – Circuit Card
A chromakey-inserted background of a computer animated circuit card surface leading off to infinity, sparks moving quickly along the gold traces in an endless loop. Two stick-Muppets shaped like Integrated Circuits walk insect-like on screen using their leads as legs, a small one (BIT) and a large one (BYTE). Electronic music plays softly in the background.

Byte (Jerry Nelson)
Oh, hi there, Bit!

Bit (Louise Gold)
Hey, Byte! What brings you to the CPU today?

Byte
Just visiting my Motherboard!​

Both laugh.

Bit
I’m sure she’s glad to see you. I’m here to catch the bus!
​

Both laugh.

Byte
And where are you going on that bus?

Bit
(looks at camera) Why to see Kermit the Frog, live at CommuniCore, where we’ll learn about the exciting world of computers! Are you game, Byte?

Byte
You know what they say, “when in ROM!”​

Both laugh.

Bit
Alright, Serial Ports and Circuit Cards, let’s welcome Kermit the Frog!

Bit & Byte Together
Yaaaaayyyyy!​

Pixelated Wipe to…

Interior – CommuniCore – “Adventures in Computing” Exhibit
Kermit the Frog, wearing his press hat and trench coat and holding a mike, is in front of a display of Commodore 64 computers. Attendants in matching collared shirts and khaki pants show the computers to visiting guests. With him is Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel[1].

Kermit
Hi-ho and welcome again to CommuniCore at fabulous EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World, Florida. I’m Kermit the Frog of Disney News, and today we’re at the all-new Adventures in Computing exhibit, sponsored by Commodore Computers. And with me today is Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel.

Kermit the Frog, Roving Reporter (image source “muppet.fandom.com”)

Jack
It’s great to be here, Kermit, thank you for having me.​

Jack Tramiel in the 1980s (image source “twotailedtiger.com”)​

Kermit
So Jack…may I call you Jack?

Jack
Sure thing, Kermit. Just don’t call me Mr. T.

Kermit
Um, yea, I already interviewed him. So, what does it take to make a computer run?

Jack
Well, ultimately it runs on “bits” and “bytes”.​

Muppets Bit and Byte pop up behind them as their “name” is called.

Bit and Byte Together
You called?

Jack
(laughing, obviously just a little irritated with this all) Yes, a “bit” is a single binary digit, a 1 or a 0. A Byte is eight bits, representing a value between 0 and 255.

Byte
Eight bits? That’s a whole dollar!

Jack
You see, the computer uses these bits and bytes as it’s special language. This “machine language” is then translated through an assembly language into a user software language like BASIC that humans can use to tell a computer what to do.

Bit
Sounds a “bit” complicated!

Jack
It’s actually very simple. Anyone, even a child, can learn how to code in BASIC. And a computer such as our new Commodore 64, as you can see behind us, is a good way to learn BASIC and computer programming, which is the future of communications!

Kermit
And what makes for a good computer?

Jack
Well, having lots of RAM is important.

Ram Muppet
(pops up from behind a computer) You Ra-a-a-a-a-ang?

(Image source “muppet.fandom.com”)
​

A surprised Jack Tramiel laughs, slightly embarrassed at it all.

Kermit
(flustered) Not that kind of Ram! Go away!!​

Ram Muppet leaves.

Jack
In this case RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and it’s important for computers to run quickly and smoothly. The Commodore 64 comes standard with an impressive 64 kilobytes of RAM.

Byte
Ahhhh!! (starts shaking)

Bit
You stay away from him!

Kermit
(flustered) He said “kilobytes”, that’s 1000 bytes! No one is going to hurt you!

Bit
A thousand Bytes? I have trouble dealing with even one of him!

Kermit
Um, sorry about that. So, what else does a computer need?

Jack
It needs a good central processor chip, like our MOS 6510, and it needs a place to store data, which is a fancy way of saying all of the 1’s and 0’s that make up a program like a game or a spreadsheet. The Commodore 64 can use a ROM cartridge like on your home video game system, a cassette tape, or even this (grabs a black square), a floppy disk. This unassuming little five-and-a-quarter inch floppy disk can store an amazing 170 kilobytes of data. More than most programs even need!

Bit & Byte Together
170 thousand bytes!

Byte
That’s 1.36 million bits!

Bit
That’s 680 thousand quarters!

Byte
Sounds like a great day at the arcade!!​

Both laugh. Jack seems annoyed.

Kermit
So, what can our guests at CommuniCore expect from the new Commodore Adventures in Computing exhibit?

Jack
Um, well, um, they can expect a full immersive experience with a state-of-the-art microcomputer. Our Commodore Ambassadors are here, ready to show your guests all of the exciting things that a computer can do, even one that’s small enough and inexpensive enough to have in your home!

Kermit
And what does a computer let you do, other than, erm, playing videogames. (looks worried)

Bit
Are you OK, Kermit?

Kermit
Let’s just say that the last videogame I saw was “Frogger”. (swallows nervously)

Jack
Yes, Kermit, you can play videogames on your Commodore 64, some really excellent 8-bit graphics ones like The Dark Crystal, in fact. But you can also create a budget and expenditure spreadsheet for your home finances. You can type up your homework and print it out on a home dot matrix printer. You can draw a simple plan for your home extension. It’s a very versatile machine!

Ram Muppet
(reappearing) With lots of Ra-a-a-a-a-am!

Kermit
Would you go away!!​

Ram Muppet vanishes.

Kermit (cont’d)
Um, you were saying, Jack?

Jack
Yes, thank you. Computers are, in my mind, the future not only for work and communications, but for any number of conceivable creative or recreational tasks. And it is my goal, and Commodore’s goal, to see that every man, woman, and child gets the opportunity to have a versatile home computer. A computer for the masses, not the classes!

Kermit
So, there you have it, folks, the magic of computers! Coming soon to your very own home! So, until that time comes, come on down to Walt Disney World and CommuniCore at EPCOT Center to see Commodore’s Adventures In Computing! Thank you for your time, Mr. Tramiel! Jack!

Jack
And thank you, Kermit, and thanks to the whole Disney team for the opportunity to show your guests how computers can positively change their lives.

Kermit
You heard it here first, everyone, on Disney News! Back to you, Jim!

Mickey Mouse (Muppet)
(appearing) Mr. Jack! Mr. Jack! Can I audition for the role of a Computer Mouse?​

Jack Laughs nervously at this. Music plays. Pixilated wipe back to:

Interior – Disney’s World of Magic “Office” Set
Jim Henson stands by and interacts with an exotic animatronic bird that moves on its own and tweets. The window behind him shows the animated “Computer world” from before, as if the office has transported inside a computer.

Jim
Thank you, Kermit and thanks to our special guest, Mr. Jack Tramiel of Commodore. Computers are indeed transforming the world every day and will continue to transform it in exciting new ways. As computers get faster and smaller, they may be able to automate tasks in ways we can’t yet imagine. Perhaps they will allow us to communicate in new ways and across untold distances. Perhaps they will let us connect in ways we’ve never imagined or allow for photo-realistic animation. Perhaps they’ll take us all to space. Perhaps one day every person can be a movie producer! We can only guess. But one thing seems certain: The Computer Revolution that’s playing out right now will change the world in ways that no one can fully predict. When we return, we’ll be taking a trip further into the future, in a world where aliens and humans interact for the very first time in a sequence created by animators John Lassiter and Joe Ranft. I’ll see you when we return.​

Theme plays and Title Card displays for Disney’s World of Magic.

Cut to commercial.

​

[1] Consider this a teaser for exciting new technology butterflies provided by our own Kalvan! @Kalvan this one’s for you!

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Talking Tron Ten Years Later
An Interview with Tron Creators Steven Lisberger and Donald Kushner (excerpt)

Byte Magazine, December 1992 edition

Byte: So, then you went to Disney?

SL: Yes, in 1980. We’d met with Tom Wilhite, Disney's VP for creative development at the time, and he was enthusiastic, so he brought us to Ron Miller, who was still President at the time.

DK: Tom seemed very enthusiastic. He and Miller were trying to branch out and expand Disney’s brand at the time, so they were amenable to the idea of a movie based on computer generated graphics at a time when everyone else saw it as something frivolous: too artsy for anything meaningful and too technical for anything artistic.

SL: It’s the same logic that got [Tron] snubbed for a Best [Visual] Effects [Academy Award] nomination. They saw it as “cheating[1].”

Byte: Which, of course, seems ridiculous in hindsight with CG graphics right now on the cusp of revolutionizing visual effects.

SL: Naturally.

Byte: You went into production in 1981. By that time Jim Henson was involved as Chief Creative Officer and starting to shake things up.

DK: Yes, though he wasn’t yet CCO at that point, just a “Creative Consultant”, which drove Tom [Wilhite] nuts!

SL: (laughs) Yea, Tom was really feeling threatened by Jim at that point. He was sure Jim was angling for his job. When Jim got CCO over him he was furious, but quickly buried his resentment and went to work, however grudgingly, for Jim.

Byte: And how did Jim react?

SL: He honestly didn’t seem to notice. He was too excited about Tron!

DK: Honestly, he was almost as bad as we were [about being enthusiastic for the movie]!

SL: David Lazer noticed. I think Lazer ran a lot of interference for Jim behind the scenes.

Byte: So, other than enthusiasm, what did Henson provide to Tron?

DK: The biggest thing [he provided to the movie] was [suggesting] the themes. We honestly hadn’t really thought too much about themes and symbolism at the time. We just wanted to make a cool effects movie!

SL: I think we had considered the whole virtual-real dichotomy at some visceral level at that point, but Jim really brought it out into the open. Pretty soon, Flynn goes from a simple everyman observer/protagonist into a man in the midst of an existential crisis once he gets sucked into the computer.

DK: Yea, prior to that point we’d had Tron himself as the real hero who saves the day and Flynn had this sort of Jimmy Olsen thing going. Jim suggested that we make Flynn the real hero-protagonist who saves the day rather than rely on Tron. It added a sort of “believe in yourself” lesson. Of course, then there was the whole existentialist angle: was Flynn still alive? Was he dead? Was he now a program himself, and by extension were programs living beings? Did it matter? It gave the audience a chance to consider the philosophical implications of life and [of] the real versus the virtual. I hear Foucault or Derrida or one of those big-brain French guys even noted the film in a book at some point, though (laughs) not with much real respect. [Editor’s Note: it was postmodern philosopher Jean Baudrillard, who mentioned the film as an example of “popular postmodernism” in a 1984 speech to the Académie Française, one of several examples in the speech of how Walt Disney unwittingly straddled the Modern and the Postmodern]

Byte: But it still managed to catch his eye. It certainly caught the attention of some film critics at the time, both positive and negative. Siskel and Ebert lauded the deep philosophical and existential underpinnings, but Variety called it “pseudo-intellectual drivel”.

SL: (cringes) That one still hurts!

DK: It hurt Jim even worse! Still, though, I think we were all proud of what came out [in the movie]. I still find the scene where Flynn somehow gets it in his head that he has Pac Man-like “multiple lives” in the computer world, and is therefore invincible, truly hilarious! Jeff [Bridges] really nailed the whole “oh shit” look when he finally realized [after several near-delete experiences] that it wasn’t true.

DK: I agree. Plus, it made the later scene where he steps up, despite his new-found fears, to be the one to defeat the MCP, that much more meaningful.

Byte: The staff here has always liked the twist that the whole “days long” adventure in the computer world took less than 10 seconds in ours. But, moving on, Tron debuted on December 17th, 1982, opening at number three behind a resurgent E.T. and Tootsie.

SL: Yes, and we ultimately pulled in about $75 million, which was pretty darn good for 1982. I think Ron [Miller] was disappointed, since he was hoping for E.T.-level returns. [Editor’s Note: the total gross for Tron, domestic and overseas, was $73.2 million, plus a stunning $82.4 million in merchandise including video game sales ($50 million from the legendary arcade console alone) and $120 million in home video sales; by comparison, E.T. earned a truly staggering $619 million (not counting merchandise) during its first theatrical run]

DK: Yea, Ron really wanted his own Star Wars! (laughs) And thank God E.T. was months old at that point! [E.T.] still cost us lots of money, because even then it was still putting lots of butts in seats, but you can ask Jim what it was like to go head to head with that juggernaut at its peak![2]

Byte: Now, of course, Tron is seen as a modern classic. A sequel, Tron: Return to the Network, appeared for Christmas of 1984. A computer-animated TV series recently debuted [in 1991] and is getting great ratings. John Lassiter cites Tron as direct inspiration for his entry into the field of computer animation.

SL: Yes, which was always ironic to me given how, back when we were making it, the Disney Animation department refused to work with us!

Byte: You were “competition,” I assume?

SL: Yes. Even back then computer graphics were seen as a threat to traditional animation. Given what’s been happening recently with all of Lassiter and Ranft’s Shorts, not to mention their upcoming feature-length digital animation, I can’t blame [the animators] in hindsight.

DK: And honestly, every Disney animated film since Tron has featured some level of digital animation, starting with The Black Cauldron just a couple of years afterwards! The “3D” division was in part born from Tron!

Byte: Industry experts today largely recognize Tron as ahead of its time. Our own Editor in Chief called it “the father of all computer effects movies.” You won a Special Achievement Oscar in Groundbreaking Special Effects this year. Does it make you kind of proud in the end?

SL: Honestly…yes, yes it does (laughs).

DK: It’s good to get recognized, even if only belatedly.





[1] This happened in our timeline as well. Also like in our timeline, Tron here was nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Sound, but won neither.

[2] In our timeline it was Tron, not A Muppet Mystery!, that Walker ran up against The Secret of NIHM, and therefore inadvertently against E.T. This, in addition to a rushed post-production (necessary in order to meet the July deadline) and a rather uninspired story (driving mediocre reviews), resulted in Tron earning only $50 million gross and being largely considered a disappointment. Disney reportedly wrote off some of its $17 million budget.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Chapter 13: The Old Lion (Cont’d)
Excerpt from The King is Dead: The Walt Disney Company After Walt Disney, an Unauthorized History by Sue Donym and Arman N. Said

In 1982 Card Walker, Chairman and CEO of Walt Disney Productions, was a man living in fear of the changing world around him. He’d given the better part of his life to the company, and to seeing his mentor Walt Disney’s grand vision enacted. This he had promised to Walt almost twenty years earlier, and he was damned if he wasn’t a man of his word.

Card Walker in the 1980s (image source “disney.fandom.com”)

He’d worked hard to protect Walt’s utopian vision and old American values in this cynical, changing world that seemed less grounded in reality every day. Sex and violence played on the big screen and small alike. Authority, faith, traditions, and institutions were now, according to the studios that produced this schlock, to be feared and distrusted. Music seemed to get louder and more sophomoric every year. Meanwhile, the same Japanese companies whose products had rained death down upon him and his shipmates in the Pacific were now flooding the American market with cheap, tiny cars and electronics, which were, in turn, causing American factories to shutter their doors.

And, despite his and others’ efforts to hold back the tide, this strange new world continued to creep into Disney through the seams. The new animators from out of Cal Arts were…strange, even weird. Some of the things they wanted: horror movie stuff, sentient appliances, rotting skeletons, dead dogs…what would Walt think? Even the ideas dim, reliable old Ron Miller was coming up with were pushing Walt’s company farther into this awful new reality, with PG cartoons and movies with sex and even nudity under consideration!

“I’m feeling more every day like the old lion beset by younger rivals,” he confided in Donn Tatum. And just as the new usurper will kill the cubs of the vanquished lion, so did Walker fear that some New Hollywood phony corporate type was going to come in and kill everything that Walt had set in place, and that he and Tatum had helped to preserve[1].

And nothing seemed to drive home the surrealism of the situation more than the arrival of Jim Henson and the Muppets crew. The Muppets themselves were anarchic, violent, and insane. The Muppet crew seemed little better. He’d heard rumors of raucous parties at the Henson company[2], which couldn’t help but remind him of the infamous “Walt’s Field Day” party of ’38[3] and how that party had upended Disney company culture.

And Walker truly had no idea what to think of the tall, thin man at their center whose hair would get him banned from working at Disneyland. On one hand, Henson had the same infectious energy and bold sense of vision that Walt had always radiated. On the other hand, the two were so different: Walt, the clean-cut utopian who endeavored to never be seen drinking or smoking in public, and Jim, the hippie who seemed to glow with the unbridled rebellious energy that had shattered the previous decades.

Since coming to Disney, Henson seemed like the pied piper, leading all of the animators, Imagineers, and artists down new and unorthodox creative pathways. On the surface he seemed so sweet, so innocent…and yet there was that impish energy that seemed to have seduced even Miller. Henson never sat up straight. He rarely maintained eye contact in a dispute. He never fought back in an argument, but ran away from conflict. He let the others do the arguing for him. Was it cowardice, or disrespect?

And the others he brought with him could be just as frustratingly inscrutable. Lazer he could deal with: an old IBM man who had a proper handshake. Gottesman likewise. Others, however, were the source of unending stress, like the irascible Bernie Brillstein, another one of those Hollywood phonies. Brillstein and Walker would constantly yell at each other over some disagreement he’d had with Henson’s vision, trading ever-harder verbal blows like pugilists. Even more frustrating for Walker was Frank Oz, the tall, thin, balding man with the pimp mustache and the thick glasses. If Brillstein was a pugilist, then Oz was a fencer, standing still, unblinking, a wry smirk on his face throughout the worst of Walker’s verbal barrages, only to riposte with a quiet, snide, generally profane quip that went straight to the proverbial heart every time. In a strange way Walker respected and even liked the little bastard.

But for all of his hippie dreamer qualities, Henson seemed to genuinely love Walt Disney. He spoke at length to Walker during their more amicable moments about how much Disney’s art had meant to him while growing up. He spoke about how magical Disneyland and Disney World had been for him and his children, children that, Card had to admit, were delightfully intelligent, well spoken, and polite, despite their long hair and permissive new age upbringing. Henson clearly seemed to want to keep raising the Disney banner high, even if the wind blew in a different direction.

Henson at least wasn’t a New Hollywood shlock peddler or a corporate raider. Though his bizarre “Crystal” movie was dark and nightmarish, and possibly promoted witchcraft, it wasn’t profane or cynical. Like Walt, Henson was an idealist. Like Walt, Henson wanted to explore new mediums in new, risky, and exciting ways. Like Walt, Henson had incredible attention to detail and would accept nothing less than perfection. Like Walt, Henson put artistic vision ahead of short-term profits. Like Walt, Henson wanted to make the world a better place, even if that future vision differed greatly from Walt’s in certain respects. Jim Henson even grew up in rural Mississippi, not far either geographically or culturally from the small Missouri town where Walt grew up.

In short, Walker came to accept, Henson wanted to make magic, not money. That he wanted the “Dream”, not the “Scheme”, as “Idiot Nephew” Roy E. Disney liked to say.

In late 1982 Card Walker gave the dedication at the opening of EPCOT, Jim Henson at his side. Though a far cry from the functioning City of Tomorrow that Walt had envisioned, this EPCOT was still, Walker felt, in keeping with the spirit of the world Walt always intended. EPCOT was the completion of Walt’s Last Dream and thus a fitting place for Walker to step aside and hand off the reigns.

He’d worked hard to keep the Disney dream alive and to be the torch bearer of Walt’s vision. But it was time, however much the idea pained and frightened him, for a new generation to take up the mantle.

E. Cardon Walker retired as CEO of Walt Disney Studios in February of 1983[4]. He remained on as Chairman until May of that year, determined to see Tokyo Disneyland opened. He would retain a position on the Board of Directors, a Chairman Emeritus alongside his old friend and rival Donn Tatum, two of the last of the Old Generation of Disney Men.

Ron Miller would take over as CEO while retaining the offices of President and COO while Disney board member Raymond “Ray” Watson, former President of the Irvine Company, would later take over as interim Chairman[5].

With Miller now at the helm, Walt Disney Productions would enter into a new and turbulent era.

* * *​

Stocks at a Glance: Walt Disney Productions (DIS)
January 1st, 1983
Stock price: $112.70
Major Shareholders: Henson family (9.2%), Roy E. Disney (3%), Disney-Miller family (11%)
Outstanding shares: 34.3 million

(Image source “Disney.fandom.com”)





[1] I am, of course, speculating here. Accounts I hear or I read about Card Walker describe him either as “tough but fair” or an arrogant jerk and bully. He certainly comes across rather like the latter in Storming the Magic Kingdom and Disney War. In my experience, arrogance and bullying almost inevitably conceal fear and/or a sense of inadequacy. Given his conservative sociopolitical beliefs and his experiences in the Pacific Theater in WWII, I speculated that he, like many of his generation, was having a hard time dealing with the monumental changes of the 1960s and 1970s. But I reiterate that I do not know for certain and can only guess. Consider everything here “unreliable narration” from a sensationalist tell-all text. The “lion” quote is my own invention.

[2] Henson Associates was famous for their wild parties, one of which reportedly featured the “Nookie Monster”.

[3] Google it. Wild stuff!

[4] As he did in our timeline.

[5] As in our timeline, Miller takes over as President and CEO while Watson, a real estate development mogul, takes the reigns as Chairman. This choice reflects concerns on the board with Miller’s inexperience and also seems to reflect the ingrained fixation with the theme parks at the expense of the studios that marked Disney management at the time.