No one has to pull any strings to get them talking.
To hear legendary Muppeteers Frank Oz and David Goelz tell it, filming the opening credit sequence of the 1981 flick The Great Muppet Caper felt like something out of a James Bond movie — complete with a hot air balloon and two helicopters.
Director Jim Henson dreamed up a sequence in which his Kermit, Oz’s Fozzie Bear and Goelz’s Gonzo would be bantering aboard that balloon. But to get that idea from the script to the screen, Oz and Goelz found themselves in a helicopter near Albuquerque, New Mexico, dubbing dialogue as they manipulated their characters in the balloon via a radio-controlled contraption. “It was 1,000 feet off the ground,” explained Oz.
A second helicopter, with a cameraman suspended in a sling, followed to get the footage.
Not too close, mind you, or the prop-wash from the rotors would blow the balloon and the Muppet passengers away.
“We were up there shooting for five days and in the end we could use hardly any of the footage,” Goelz, 71, recalled to RealClearLife “Imagine five days and we’re getting two minutes.
“And that was Jim. But at the end of the days, we developed the film and found out we could not really use most of the footage. Because when that helicopter would change the angle, it would send vibrations down the cable and shake the camera (and ruin the shot).”
Not exactly a cheap laugh.
Oz will be the first to admit his newest film is a little more minimalist.
But that doesn’t make Muppet Guys Talking any less hysterical.
From left to right, front to back: Fran Brill, Dave Goelz, Bill Barratta and Frank Oz speak to RealClearLife from the RCL headquarters in New York about “Muppet Guys Talking,” the group’s new documentary, out March 16, 2018. (Diana Crandall/RealClearLife)The documentary, directed by Oz, 73, and produced by his wife, Victoria Labalme, who came up with the idea, gives a peak behind the curtain at the wizards behind the the pop culture phenomenons of The Muppets and Sesame Street. (It’s available on MuppetGuysTalking.com from March 16.)
But don’t expect dancing chickens or exploding fish. The title of Muppet Guys Talking speaks volumes: It’s five of the iconic puppeteers that get swept up in Henson’s orbit — Oz (Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Grover and Yoda), Goelz (Dr. Honeydew Bunson, Gonzo), Jerry Nelson (Count von Count, Mr. Johnson, Harry Monster), Fran Brill (Prairie Dawn, Zoe) and Bill Barretta (Johnny Famia, Bobo the Bear) — swapping memories and barbs. And proving they can be as funny without their arms in a felt monster.
“I shot the movie in such a way that mirrored the spirit of the Muppets,” explained Oz, “Which is rambunctious, because that’s us, we’re not beautifully lit. If we had done a company movie, we would not be rambunctious anymore.”
A scene from MUPPET GUYS TALKING – from leftEven more rambunctious in how they’re distributing their movie. After a successful debut at the 2017 SXSW Festival, Oz and LaBalme turned offers from studios and streaming sites to distribute it on themselves on their own website. “If there was a company between us and the fans, it sounds corporate,” says Oz.
“I had been fortunate enough to be around Frank and all of these performers,” said Labalme. “And the way they interacted and spoke and joked and collaborated and worked in a spirit of camaraderie was something I never experienced before in any family or any team. Or any company.
“I said this should be documented for artists, for entrepreneurs, for leaders.”
There’s nothing ordinary about this company, as is evident when four of the five reunited for a recent interview at the RealClearLife offices. (Nelson died in 2012, a few months after Muppet Guys Talking was filmed.)
For starters they may have the world’s most fun job, but it sure isn’t an easy one.
“It can be excruciatingly uncomfortable, but as Jim said, if it was easy everybody would do it,” said Brill of the puppeteering process.
“So, you just sort of suck it up, but we worked a lot of ‘Sesame Street’ under tables and the whole objective is to keep your head out of the shot so your arm is high as possible,” added the 45-year veteran of the troupe, stretching her arm to illustrate. “But to do that you had to sometimes twist your body around to look at a monitor behind you. So it was uncomfortable.
Zoe, Fran Brill at a public appearance for SESAME STREET Day Commemorates Show”s 40th Anniversary, Dante Park at 64th Street in Manhattan, New York, NY November 9, 2009. Photo By: Rob Kim/Everett CollectionSecondly, this isn’t child’s play.
“We have no interest in appealing to kids whatsoever,” said Oz. “We are not kid performers. We do our thing. We have never performed for kids — ever.”
“All we do is amuse ourselves.”
“The scripts were really terrific,” added Brill, 71. “If the kids didn’t get everything, that was okay because they get enough.”
Ever since Henson trotted out his first batch of felt friends in 1955 for a children’s show called Sam and Friends, the combination of marionettes and puppets have amused generations of kids of all ages. Back then, Kermit was more alien than frog. Once Henson’s Sesame Street debuted in 1969, every kid knew exactly what he was: their friend. (Older kids and their parents got their own show with The Muppet Show in 1976).
“I remember thinking this was going to be a crazy 13-week job,” marveled Brill, who joined Sesame Street in its second season. “Who knew this would be a juggernaut going on 50 years?”
The Muppeteers themselves seem to have little perspective just how much their handprints have been left on pop culture over several generations.
“The scale of it is abstract,” said Goelz. “The rooms that we work in have no windows — usually it’s just a box. We go in the box, play for 12 hours and then go have dinner together.”
Well, Barretta got it. At 53, he’s the junior member of the motley crew, having stumbled into the Muppets orbit by chance. He had aspired to be an actor when he got drafted to wear an 80-pound rubber suit for the Henson/Disney comedy series, Dinosaurs. His career plans evolved from homo sapien to megalosaurus to Penaeus monodon.(He does work Pepe the King Prawn.)
“Coming in later than these guys and watching Sesame Street, I certainly am aware of the enormity of the Muppets,” he said. “But when I started doing them with them, I was just enjoying with the idea that I just get to play and create characters and be silly and have fun.”
“You touched on something very important,” interjected Goelz.
“You mean the rest of it was just so so?,” answered Baretta, having learned enough from his veteran colleagues to not walk away from a straight line.
They also truly love their characters. After all, parts of their own personalities and neuroses go into each one.
“I relate most to a combination of Grover and Fonzie Bear,” answered Oz when asked which Muppets are closest to him. ” There are parts of me in both.”
“They’re the only parts of you that you can stand,” retorted Goelz.
“See, that to other people would sound vicious,” answered Oz. ” But to me… it’s vicious.”
They are always on. When Barretta tried to tell a story about the time he had to film a bit as a pig on an actual stunt plane, fighting off nausea for a singing number, he mentions that it’s a anecdote that made it onto “Muppet Guys Talking.”
That turns out to be an unintentional setup.
“That’s that documentary we made isn’t it?,” deadpanned Oz.
“Yes, it is,” added Brill.
“And you can only get it at www.muppetguystalking.com,” said Goelz.
“Yeah, I think www.muppetguystalking.com is the only place you can get it, you can’t get it on DVD or on streaming,” explained Oz.
“But what is www.muppetguystalking.com,” asked a straight-faced Barretta.
“It’s the only site where you can get the documentary, Muppet Guys Talking. You can’t get it on DVD.”
“Well, when is that coming out?,” asked Barretta.
“On March 16,” said Goelz.
“What? I can’t wait,” exclaimed Barretta.
“Okay, we’re done,” quipped Oz.
Barretta finally gets to tell his story: About filming a bit where he had to manipulate a pig Muppet and sing aboard a stunt plane that was being put through some stomach-churning maneuvers.
“It took me a long time (to get it) because I kept getting nauseous and trying to keep my arm up and not vomit at the same time,” said Barretta.
“Well, Jim did it with Ralph and John Denver in a biplane,” interjected Oz.
“Yeah, no nausea. He was fine,” added Goelz.
“Did he sing?,” asked Barretta.
“He did the same thing and John Denver was flying and Jim was behind Rowlf, and he was at the bottom,” said Oz. “But he was not a sissy.”
“Jim was a man,” added Goelz.
“Well, that’s better than my story,” sighed Barretta.
Where’s the drum-bashing Animal with a rimshot when you need him?
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
