PLUME: It was a mutual agreement for the show to end when it did, right?
NELSON: Well no, it wasn’t. What happened was that the show was a co-production between CBC and HBO. HBO, at that time, felt that they were over-extended an needed to cut back, and Fraggle Rock was one of the places where they did that. CBC would have been perfectly happy keeping it, and, in fact, they tried to find some other way to carry on with it. Another season would have been ideal.
PLUME: It had the performances and momentum to carry on…
NELSON: It certainly did. With The Muppet Show, I believe the writers felt that they had covered it all. That they had done it all, and were moving into the territory where Sesame is now, where they just plug characters into sketches… “Oh, we haven’t done this with Ernie yet. We haven’t done this with Tell yet.”
PLUME: Plug and play…
NELSON: Yeah.
PLUME: So after Fraggle Rock came the segue into the Jim Henson Hour…
NELSON: Yeah. That was the next big project. I’m not sure why that project didn’t work. I thought it was a good show. It may have been that it was too much to see something like The Storyteller, and then the Muppets. The other shows that we did within that framework, like Dog City, were wonderful. The atmosphere in that show was fantastic. So were the others, like Cloud Forest.
PLUME: I do want to ask you, before we wrap up, how you would describe your relationship with Richard.
NELSON: Richard came into the company when he was pretty young, and I kind-of took Richard under my wing, when he first came in, since Frank and Jim were sort-of a team and I was like a straight man or foil that worked off their characters. So when Richard came in, we got to the point where we would work really well together. When one of us would start to go somewhere, the other would know what was happening. We played well together. Like with the Two-Headed Monster. We were just goofing around on the set one day, without a puppet even, and one of the writers was there and said, “What’s that you’re doing?” And we said, “One monster with two heads!” And they decided to do that. We had a lot of characters that worked together, like Floyd and Janice. We were good friends. When we had someplace to go, we would travel together. He was always so late that it used to drive me crazy. Eventually I’d say, “If you’re there, I’ll see you at the plane. If you’re not, I’ll see you where we’re going.” Richard and I were like what Steve and Dave are now. You find somebody you work well with, and have that rapport with. I knew all of Richard’s family – his sisters and brother – and we’d spend time together.
PLUME: When did Richard find out he was ill?
NELSON: I’m not sure exactly when. Once I got married, we didn’t hang out as much, and he did other shows, like Faffner Hall, so he was away in England. When he told me about it was about two years before he died.
PLUME: So it was after Jim passed away…
NELSON: Yeah.
PLUME: And he had a “Going Away Party” for himself, right?
NELSON: That was held downstairs in a meeting hall at St. John the Divine. It was a big crowd. Everyone from the company, all of his friends…
PLUME: How festive was it?
NELSON: It was pretty festive. By that time, the effects of AIDS were really zapping his energy, but he gave a show, essentially, with his brother and sisters. His family used to do that as kids. Richard was always the director and told them what to do, and they did it. “Here girls, you’re going to sing a song. Now sing it.” I did something with a puppet, but I can’t even remember which puppet or what I did. I guess I’ve blocked it out…
PLUME: Was it similar to what you did at Jim’s funeral?
NELSON: This was a thing with Richard and the puppet, but I can’t really remember what it was we said or did. The company had a whole separate memorial. There was another memorial held after he passed away, which was also held at St. John the Divine, but in the Chapel. The company had a going away party, but by that time, Richard was in a wheelchair. The company put together a Richard Hunt puppet montage of bits that Richard had done. They showed that, and everyone hugged him and kissed him and told them they loved him.
PLUME: It’s ironic that, after Richard’s passing, you took up the character of Statler again. The only character I can see not returning is Scooter…
NELSON: Yeah, that was very much Richard. When Richard joined, he was such a bouncy little puppy. We had to squelch him all the time. He was totally just exuberance gone mad. Just bouncing all over the place. It would be nice to see Janice too, and I’m sure someone will eventually pick it up. It’s a lovely character. He made her such a gal.
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