Inspiration - Part 12

Behind-the-Scenes footage can be quite fascinating, it seems to me that awesome-puppetry is a big, well kept secret. As well it should be, there's not as many shows & movies using puppetry anymore as there were 20 years ago, but watching these old clips offer glimpses of what goes on to make these amazing skits. It can be incredibly inspiring to witness some of the work that goes into making these. Here's a bunch of Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Sesame Street, Muppet Show and a bit of Avenue Q clips and interviews with cast and crews.

Inspiration - Part 11

Inspiration - Part 10

Inspiration- Part 9

It's no surprise that Jim Henson's The Muppet Show is probably the number one source of inspiration for all of us here at The Wippets. Below is the rare unaired pilot episode of the original Muppet Show. The characters and style of the show changed very little compared to the actual first episode and series that eventually premiered, this is a great example of a variety show's test pilot made during its last stages of development. It feels even more like a Monty Python style puppet show than ever, pure genius!

Muppet Show Original - PART 1
Muppet Show Original - PART 2
Muppet Show Original - PART 3

See also the clips below,
The Jim Henson Hour Original Pitch Tapes:

Inspiration - Part 8

Inspiration - Part 7

Avenue Q is an award-winning musical conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics, and directed by Jason Moore. The book is by Jeff Whitty. The show was produced by and opened at the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre in March 2003. The production transferred to Broadway in July 2003 and won several Tony Awards, including the award for Best Musical. It is still running on Broadway and holds the position of 27th longest running musical in Broadway history. The show has spawned a 2005 Las Vegas production, a 2006 West End production and various international productions. A U.S. national tour began in July 2007.

The show is largely inspired by (and is in the style of) Sesame Street: Most of the characters in the show are puppets (operated by actors onstage), the set depicts several tenements on a rundown street in an "outer borough" of New York City, both the live characters and puppet characters sing, and short animated video clips are played as part of the story. Also, several characters are recognizably parodies of classic Sesame Street characters: for example, the roommates Rod and Nicky are versions of Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie, and Trekkie Monster is based on Cookie Monster. However, the characters are in their twenties and thirties and face adult problems instead of those faced by pre-schoolers. The characters use profanity, and the songs concern adult themes. A recurring theme is the central character's search for a "purpose." Since the musical soundtrack for it was released, the song "The Internet is For Porn" has become particularly popular on YouTube and can be downloaded for free from the official website.

It may not be appropriate for young children because AVENUE Q addresses issues like sex, drinking, and surfing the web for porn. It's hard to say what exact age is right to see AVENUE Q. Teenagers would definately love it, I find the writing and acting inspiring and highly entertaining.

Go here to see lots more clips.

Inspiration - Part 6

Puppet Heap -
A puppet design, fabrication, and full production studio. Their artists make incredible sets, amazing puppet builds, with very unique and creative visual styles. They are a New Jersey company offering their services in all things puppet craftsmanship related.

Here's the YouTube Channel with their puppet films.

Some incredible mixtures of video compositing & visual effects with large, complex puppets, paper-cut-out-CGI and digital animation are all used to create some nice films with great character designs, compositions, backgrounds and inspiring performances.

Visit their homepage here.

Inspiration - Part 5

YouTube has made all kinds of rare footage readily available to anyone, here's just one of many I find highly motivational.

Inspiration - Part 4

The Mr. Wooka Puppet Show is one of the funniest gang of puppets you'll ever meet! The characters and voices are spectacular, the sets are simple but very effective, and you can't help but marvel at how well the puppeteers handle these guys and instill so much life into them.


This puppet show is part of the children's television series Nanalan'. It is one of the Mr. Wooka puppet shows by the Grog company that make Mr. Meaty. Nanalan's crazy characters and stories are just absurdly hilarious in every way.

Inspiration - Part 3

My first and most consistent source of inspiration has always been the charm, humor and chemistry between Frank Oz and Jim Henson character performances.

Kermit with Cookie Monster,
Grover with Guy Smilee,
Bert with Ernie, and
Grover with Kermit
You can't help but smile when seeing any of these puppet characters performing together, usually at odds with each other, or singing a song, playing a game, or demonstrating something for educational purposes.

These character combinations were priceless, their personalities would always clash and you could notice the improvisations between Frank and Jim and the obviously strong connection they had with each other, always able to adapt and play off each other. After countless years working together, Frank and Jim had an in depth understanding of the characters and each other. As a result, the puppets acted so naturally under their control that they had life in them displayed in ways rarely seen since.

To me that is the key to it all. Instilling life into puppets like few others could were one of their many talents. For instance, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones breathed life into the Looney Tunes characters in such a convincing way that people are still trying to duplicate that amazing effect decades later. Jim and Frank have the same thing going, the stars aligned and the perfect circumstances occurred for Frank and Jim to meet and eventually collaborate and create fantastically entertaining characters for Sesame Street and many other television and film projects. Not to mention the killer combos of Kermit/Fozzie and Kermit/Miss Piggy for the Muppet show, along with many other immensely talented artists, writers, designers, technicians and craftsmen that all helped in the process.

See two rare clips of Jim working with puppet workshop students in France in 1987 here and here.

Frank & Jim will always be my primary inspiration. For me, nothing else comes close to their genius for storytelling and character acting.

Inspiration - Part 2

The Polyphonic Spree - "Hold Me Now"
This is an amazing puppet music video, probably one of the best!
Starring characters from Mario and Fafa's
Glove & Boots online puppet series.

Unfortunately they haven't done any new skits or videos in recent years, but their characters and scripts are the best things ever. There's 5 other short videos on their site. But it would seem this particular music video was their last epic endeavor. Seriously.... it's great! How did they bring a piano in the forest? I don't know. The lip sync, funny acting and editing is what I'm aspiring to achieve.

Inspiration - Part 1

I just came across this Transylvania Teleivision pilot episode,
and I was blown away. The style is exactly the type of show I'd love to produce with the Wippets someday. Great characters, funny skits, nice pacing, a bit of animation, awesome puppet personalities, simple but very effective set designs, and a major motivation for me. It's a situational comedy about dysfunctional misfit monsters trying to run a TV station. Fantastic craftsmen and puppeteers at work here, you can tell they had a lot of fun with the characters and dialogue, the part with Captain Kirk is particularly ingenious.