Once upon a time, to get into Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, you had to be working for Henson or an invited guest. It was a pretty exclusive place, leaving most to only imagine what it was like there. But now, the company has thrown open the doors for tours at their New York location, letting fans take a look at all the work that goes into creating and performing the memorable characters we’ve come to love. Not long ago, we got an invitation of our own to tour the workshop, and of course we took them up on the offer. How often do you get up close with Junior Gorg without being a Fraggle? Or Dan Garza?
Our tour – and yours if you sign up for the tour yourself – began outside the workshop proper, in a reception room chock full of props, costumes, and photo opportunities.
It helps to keep an eye out for some special props hung up high, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shell, a collection of hubcaps (with one partially eaten), and a mobile of rubber chickens.
Taking a picture with Junior is awesome, but what makes this even more special is that this is the original Junior Gorg! From 1983! That Gorg is older than Cinnamon Toast Crunch!
If you look closely enough at his eyes, you can see the holes where the cameras went so that the performers inside the puppet could get a “Gorg’s eye” view of the set.
Just to the left of Junior were the Fraggles, as they appear on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.
Remember Julie’s Greenroom? The whole gang’s here, along with some of their sculpted heads to show the process from sketch to puppet.
Any of these fabrics look familiar to you?
The Creature Shop is where the puppets for Sesame Street are built and maintained, so naturally Oscar the Grouch rolled out the (un)welcome mat. At least I hope that’s a mat.
The gang from Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is also here. These puppets come from the stage adaptation of the special, along with costumes for Mayor Harrison Fox and his wife, Gretchen.
Gretchen’s dress looks immaculate! Ma didn’t leave any scorch marks or anything!
One of the coolest parts of the room was an original Skeksis throne from The Dark Crystal. Originally, the seat had a large hole to accommodate the puppeteer, but after filming wrapped, a full seat was added for photo ops, just like the ones you can take on the tour!
There were also puppets from Heather Henson’s stage production of Panther & Crane.
Another neat thing for diehards were all the storage cases used for staging. Some of them still have the old Henson Associates stickers!
This is also the room where guests also see a demonstration of monitor-based puppetry from a professional puppeteer, but since this was a press tour, we were given a truncated version without the demo. But that did come with one advantage: while guests on normal tours aren’t allowed to take pictures inside the workshop, we were given permission to do so, so we did so… a lot.
At the risk of spoiling some of the magic for future tour attendees, we won’t be covering everything we saw. But some of this stuff is just too good to keep to ourselves.
For hardcore Muppet fans, the entrance foyer is positively a goldmine of historic items. (After our tour, both Joe and I agreed the coolest things we saw were both in this room.)
As soon as you walk in on the left, you’ll see Beak and Yay-Nay. Don’t remember them? There’s a reason for that. They were created for the Muppetmobile, a project developed in the 1980s that never made it into production. Their only on-screen appearance was in the 2009 movie Old Dogs. Still, for an abandoned project, it’s nice to see that they’re getting love and attention rather than being resigned to the scrap pile. (This was Joe’s pick for the coolest thing.)
Another highlight was a collection of international Sesame Street characters, including Zeliboba from Russia, Tina from Japan, Xiao Mei Zi from China, and Tiffy and Feli Filu from Germany.
This sculpture with movable eyes was crafted by John Henson, and is a large-scale replica of a piece his father made when he was younger.
Turning to the right side of the foyer, there’s a bunch of items that once called the famed Henson Townhouse home. Past a large table is the “Muppety Marquetry Desk,” the reception desk at the townhouse that was designed by Warren Hansen and built by Frank Pollaro with additional sculpture art by Michael Frith. Currently, the desk houses puppets from Jim Henson’s Inspired Silliness, a show performed on select Princess Cruises.
Behind that is a large image taken behind the scenes of Sesame Street. As we were told, it was on display in the townhouse until it was replaced by the far more iconic piece of all the Muppets and Creature Shop characters in the Muppet Theatre.
Over by the windows were prop numbers from a Sesame Street Live show.
Hanging to the right of that was my pick for the coolest thing I saw: the Ernie and Bert (and Jim and Frank Oz) stained glass window that once hung in Jim Henson’s office. It’s incredibly eye-catching in person. The image on the monitor is flipped, like it was on set so that they could see what it would look like on television.
Even on a tour like this, there’s always time for Hoobs.
A lot of the work in the workshop was maintenance on the puppets and costumes for Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Live, which is heading back out on tour this fall.
Over by one corner, Marjory the Trash Heap (as she appears in the stage show) was hanging around. (Sadly, we couldn’t get her to dispense any of her trademark wisdom.)
Prepare yourselves: the following group of pictures depicts naked, dismembered Fraggles. It may sound disturbing, but for the staff, it makes them easier to work on.
Boober’s head was positioned to make him look like a stately bust. And frankly, he does look rather distinguished.
We then got a close-up look at Mokey’s hand and Boober’s body. It’s a good thing they can keep track of these, lest we get some kind of horrifying Frankenfraggle.
And over here, Fraggle dry cleaning! But seriously, it’s really cool to see how much detail they put into the costumes. With the way they design them, they can easily attach the rest of the body so that performers aren’t wearing more than they need to and avoid compounding the heat from the stage lights. I guess it’s true, even for Fraggles: underneath their clothes, they’re completely naked.
Early models of Marjory and one of the Doozers were on display. Elsewhere, we got to see a mock-up of a baby Doozer made by Tim Miller in the early ‘80s.
To wrap up the Fraggle Rock part, we got a demonstration of how Gobo’s mouth is operated during the show.
Meanwhile, Mokey just waits patiently for her limbs to be reattached.
Of course, being where Sesame Street characters are built, there were surprise characters around every corner, and some even bigger stuff packed away in well-labeled boxes. Around here, it pays to look up every so often.
They still have the blue head of Big Bird from Follow that Bird. I can’t believe that somehow got even more depressing!
Next, it was on to the Anything Muppet station! Here, there were drawers full of eyes, noses, and other accessories.
We also got to see some costumes made for live-hand puppets, with an extra hole for the additional performer to be the left hand.
We also got to check out some of the props they’ve made over the years, including a giant skillet and pancake. (This was particularly torturous to those of us on the tour that hadn’t eaten yet.)
Before we departed, Henson had one last treat for us, but before we got to it, we waited in line as we passed the sculpting, gluing, and dyeing rooms.
It wouldn’t be a puppet workshop without lots and lots of fabrics!
Another cool part for the hardcore nerds was seeing the shelves with dyeing guides for characters from projects past, like Muppets Tonight, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and Bear in the Big Blue House.
We also got to see some nods from the days when Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy called the workshop home.
In keeping with tradition of the Creature Shop’s namesake, there were a lot of funny little signs around the workshop.
Finally, we reached the grand finale: a photoshoot with Red Fraggle! We were completely starstruck, but she was very gracious. (She also helped me work on my rock hockey skills, which was helpful.)
All in all, for hardcore Muppet and Henson fans, the tour is an amazing time. You may hear a lot about puppetry that you already know, but seeing the place where it all comes together is still a sight to behold.
Tickets for tours of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop cost $150 plus taxes and fees, and are currently available for Saturdays and Sundays through September. You can find out more at this link.
Click here to bring me the head of Gobo Fraggle on the ToughPigs Discord!
by Matthew Soberman and Joe Hennes
