Documentary film Jim Henson: Idea Man shows new side of visionary puppeteer

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

Anyone who doesn’t know the name “Jim Henson” should go sit in a corner and think about their life choices. The legendary creator of the Muppets revolutionized American puppetry and has shaped countless minds for more than 50 years, yet most don’t know the full breadth of his vision.

Enter Jim Henson: Idea Man, a documentary directed by none other than critically acclaimed filmmaker Ron Howard, of Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind. You know right from the start it’s going to be a tear-jerker — and the in-depth exploration of Henson’s life and career doesn’t disappoint.

Jim Henson with his creations. Courtesy photo

As it always seems to be with people who change history, Henson never intended to enter the field that made him famous. Though the art of puppetry has been alive and well around the world since ancient Egypt, before Henson, it couldn’t find a footing in the U.S. Henson had never even seen a puppet show until he created one.

Born in 1936, Henson was fascinated by TV because of its exponential growth in popularity and the potential innovations that came with it. He viewed TV as a means of shaping the world; and, when a local station put out an ad for a puppeteer, Henson grabbed his craft supplies and applied.

He and Muppet co-inventor Jane Nebel — a fellow artist, visionary and puppeteer — then set out to change the world with only a vague sense of direction and a dream.

Henson’s true genius was his determination to expose people to different ways of thinking, whether that meant building puppets from scratch, creating absurdist short films or designing a series of artistic nightclubs in geodesic domes, where different movies would be projected onto each facet of the wall at the same time. Every decision was designed to pave the way for the next innovation.

After toiling over bit parts and advertisements, writer and producer Joan Ganz and psychologist  Lloyd Morrisett asked Henson and other innovators to create a children’s TV show that would both entertain and educate. Sesame Street debuted in 1969, and while it was a drastic change from Henson’s nightclub ideas, it presented another opportunity for him to mold minds through his artistry.

Sesame Street’s massive success gave Henson a great deal of creative freedom but also hampered some of his aspirations, as the world now viewed Muppets as children’s characters.

Henson set out to break those bonds by pitching The Muppet Show to just about every U.S. network — selling it as an adult variety show and creating two unsuccessful pilots including The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.

It took an eccentric British aristocrat — the Right Honorable Lord Lew Grade, Baron of Elstree — to finally see the potential. He was familiar with puppetry from Gerry Anderson’s older marionette shows and saw Henson’s true potential. Backed by Grade’s branch of ATV Network, The Muppet Show became a smash hit, with Hollywood’s biggest stars vying for guest appearances.

Henson worked himself to the bone convincing the world that puppetry had artistic merit through works like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth — which only became cult classics after his death — and pushing the boundaries of modern media through his combination of absurdism, slapstick, burlesque, parody and social critique. In the end, his dedication killed him. Henson refused to take time off work to see a doctor and died from organ failure due to streptococcal toxic shock syndrome.

For every goal he reached, Henson simply made another, defining childhoods and changing worldviews along the way. No matter when or how he passed, he would have left hundreds of visions unrealized. What Idea Man highlights most — and what makes it so heartbreaking — is the sheer amount of joy Henson created during his 53 years, and how much his death robbed the world of what could have been.

Watch Jim Henson: Idea Man on Disney Plus.