At first, Sesame Street was to feature only people in the street scenes – the Muppets were only to appear in between the street scenes, in their own special “people-free” segments. The show’s creators didn’t plan on having humans interacting with Muppets because they thought it might confuse the children, but then decided to try it out. Big Bird and Oscar were the first two Sesame Street Muppets, but they looked quite a bit different than the Big Bird and Oscar than most of us came to know and love: Oscar was bright orange instead of his familiar dingy green, and Bird’s head was much smaller – nothing but a couple of feathers above his eyes. Their looks evolved as new Muppets came to the show: Ernie, Bert, and Cookie Monster, to name a few.
How to Make a Muppet
Jim Henson both created these lovable characters and came up with their unique name – Muppet – a combination of “marionette” and “puppet.” Muppet builders are designers who have experience in sewing, sculpting, and pattern-making. Each Muppet is made of the same materials, in any combination: foam rubber, adhesives, and fur fabrics, some with a few extra embellishments. So how are these fabulous creatures created?
Someone comes up with an idea for a new Muppet and presents it to the Muppet art director, Ed Christie.
Christie draws sketches of the character based on the concepts he’s given, and then gets feedback on the designs from the writers, directors, and Muppeteers. The selections are narrowed down to one design, which Christie then turns into a finished drawing.
Once the drawing has been approved, the Muppet builders sculpt the raw materials into a working puppet. The puppet, at this point just a raw foam character, is then decorated with faux furs, fabrics, eyes, noses, and any other features – horns, antennae, etc.
Engineers add any needed mechanisms, such as moving eyebrows or remote-controlled motorized eyes.
The talented hand of a Muppeteer is added, and voilá! The Muppet comes to life.