The Beakers/Beatles Parody Artwork by Zack Morrissette @Zacksploitation
Builder Ed Christie
Edward Gustav “Ed” Christie (b. May 20, 1956) is a puppet designer and builder who has worked with Sesame Street and Henson Associates since an internship with Henson in 1978. Christie graduated from UMass/Amherst with a BFA/Education in 1979.
The first Muppet Christie created was Butch, originally designed as a sabertooth tiger used in the “Toothbrush” skit of the Caveman Days series on Sesame Street.
After years of learning Muppet design techniques, and building many of the classic Muppet characters, he was promoted to Muppet Supervisor in charge of Sesame Street (1991-1996). He was later promoted to Vice President/NY Muppet Workshop Supervisor (1997-2004) as well as Art Director for Henson on Sesame Street. He also contributed his skills to Henson Licensing and Publishing.
In 2004, Christie left Henson and was contracted by Sesame Workshop where he is currently designing characters for the domestic version of Sesame Street and Sesame Street International. He has designed the Muppet characters for Sesame in the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Russia, Israel, South Africa, Egypt, China, Poland, France, Mexico, Canada, Japan and others. Christie is featured in the 2006 documentary The World According to Sesame Street.
He has won eight Emmy Awards for his work on Sesame Street and many nominations for other Henson productions. Christie’s work was also seen in the Broadway productions of Doonesbury, Peter Pan, Sugar Babies and Encores! Carnival. He also designed, built and performed in the 2007 production of Carnival! at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. From December 5 to January 25, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum displayed the exhibit Rods and Monsters: the Puppets of Ed Christie.
Christie lives on Cape Cod and is an artist represented by the Alden Gallery in Provincetown, MA
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation interviewed Christie in 2004 for the Archive of American Television. The hour and a half interview was posted on YouTube in 2009. MUPPET CREDITSDesigner
For Jim Henson Productions
The Muppet Show: Muppet Designer, built Mr. Dawson, Caterpillar, others
The Muppet Movie: Muppet Designer/Film Crew - built Camilla the Chicken
The Great Muppet Caper: Muppet Builder/Designer
Fraggle Rock: Designer/Builder/Film Crew
The Muppets Take Manhattan: Muppet Constructor/Designer, built Baby Piggy and others
Little Muppet Monsters: Project Supervisor, built Tug Monster
The Tale of the Bunny Picnic: Designer/builder/Film Crew - built the Dragonbunny, Great-great-great-great Grandmother Bunny, Snort
A Muppet Family Christmas: builder of The Snowman
The Christmas Toy: Muppet Design Group supervisor - built Belmont, Jack-in-the-Box
The Jim Henson Hour: Muppet Designer (Jojo & others), builder for Beard
Dog City: built Bugsy Them, Mad Dog & Eddie the dalmatian puppy
Muppet Meeting Films - built various characters
The Muppet Christmas Carol: Designer/Builder - built Ghost of Christmas Present head
Muppet Treasure Island: NY Workshop Manager
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: built original The Cat in the Hat for pilot
Bear in the Big Blue House - built Luna
Muppets from Space: Workshop Manager
It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie: Muppet Workshop - NY Manager
Carnival: NY City Center Encores: designed Carrot Top, Horrible Henry, Renaldo, and Marguerite
For Sesame Workshop/International
Sesame Street (1978-2004) Designer/Supervisor/Art Director; designed Abby Cadabby, Curly Bear, Rosita, Zoe, The Elephant, Lulu, built Aristotle
Big Bird in China: Designer/Builder
Follow That Bird - designed the Board of Birds, built Daddy Dodo’s head
Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration: Workshop Manager
Elmo Saves Christmas: Muppet Workshop supervisor, designed Lightning the reindeer
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland: Character Design Supervisor - designed Bug, Pesties, Grizzy
Alam Simsim (Egypt): designed Nimnim, Filfil, and Khokha
Sesamstrasse (Germany): designed Feli Felu, Pferd, Wolle
Sesamstraat (Holland): designed Purk
Zhima Jie (China): designed Hu Hu Zhu, Xiao Mei Zi
Galli Galli Sim Sim (India): designed Boombah, Chamki, Aanchoo, & Googly
Sisimpur (Bangladesh): designed Ikri Mikri, Halum the tiger, Tuktuki and Shiku the jackal
Sesame Tree (Northern Ireland): designed Potto, The Weatherberries, Hilda and Archie
Jalan Sesama (Indonesia): designed Tantan the orangutan, Momon, Putri, and Jabrik the rhino
Sesame Street (Japan): designed Mojabo, Teena, and Pierre (frog)
Ulitsa Sezam (Russia): designed Kubik , Zeliboba, and Businka
Sesame Park (Canada): designed Chaos the cat
Rechov Sumsum — Shara'a Simsim (Israel/Palestine): designed Dafi, Haneen & Kareem the rooster
Takalani Sesame (South Africa): designed Moshe, Zuzu, Kami, & Zikwe
Sesame English (EFL): designed Tingo
The Furchester Hotel (UK): designed Funella Furchester, Furgus Fuzz, Phoebe Furchester-Fuzz, Isabel the Bell
Iftah Ya Simsim (United Arab Emirates): redesigned No'man and Shams
Cleaner, Healthier, Happier campaign: designed Raya
Performer
The Muppet Show: Additional Muppet Performer
Sesame Street: Fred the Wonder Horse in “I’m Proud to Be a Cow”, Uncle Ned, Baby Hungry
Big Bird in China: Puppeteer
Don’t Eat the Pictures: Puppeteer and wrangler
The Muppets Take Manhattan: Additional Muppet Performer
The Jim Henson Hour: Himself (Secrets of the Muppets)
The World According to Sesame Street: Himself - Featured as Muppet Character Designer
NON-MUPPET CREDITS
Carnival!: 2007 Kennedy Centre production of the Broadway musical
“Big City Park” BBC - designed Rauiri, Dara The Fox, & Billy Badger
Alden Gallery - www.aldengallery.com
Builder Tim Clarke, The Dark Crystal Tim Clarke is a puppet builder who worked for The Jim Henson Company during the 1980s. He was credited for creature design and fabrication supervision for The Mystics on The Dark Crystal and he built Uncle Traveling Matt for Fraggle Rock from Michael K. Frith’s designs.
Clarke’s first work with Henson was the fabrication of No'man and Melsoon for Iftah Ya Simsim at Kermit Love’s studio in 1977. He also sculpted designs for Dark Crystal action figures for Hasbro. A prototype for the Garthim figure is on display as part of Jim Henson’s office at the Center for Puppetry Arts “Worlds of Puppetry” exhibit. His other work in toy design includes the Sectaurs and Boglins toy lines.
The Dark Crystal’s Gary Kurtz Directing child actor Grant Olding, who played Jen in all the wideshots that required running, etc. In the book “ The Dark Crystal The Ultimate Experience” it mentions that this is Kiran Shah, but according to Olding, he remembers this scene being one of his.
Sherry Amott Creative Supervisor on The Dark Crystal.
Sherry Amott lent her theater design and production expertise to the Henson Company throughout the 70s and 80s. She was among the many Muppet designers for The Muppet Show and The Muppet Movie, and worked at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop on various characters for The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Dreamchild. She was Head of Fabrication of Audrey II for the Frank Oz film Little Shop of Horrors.
Amott worked on Sesame Street as well, creating Linda’s pet dog Barkley and designing the outfits for the cover of the famous Sesame Street Fever LP, among other feats.
After “Little Shop of Horrors” Amott married British filmmaker, director and editor John Tippey. Their son Jake was born in London in 1986. Post-Henson she worked briefly as a children’s and young adult librarian before moving to Cincinnati to work for Horizon Productions as a producer, and later, Creative Director. Her freelance work included character and costume design and fabrication for theatre, video and interactive projects. She co-produced and designed an interactive CD-ROM and website for artist January Marx Knoop. In 2007 Sherry Amott Tippey became Creative Director at Curtis, Incorporated, a Visual Communications firm in Cincinnati where she enjoys writing, producing, project management, multimedia production and web design.
Sherry sings with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra Chorale, BACHorale, October Festival Choir, and Voices of Freedom.
Jake is lead guitar, singer and songwriter for The Frankl Project. Recent photos of The Frankl Project opening Riotfest at the House of Blues in Chicago are posted here.
CREDITS
Designer
The Muppet Show: The Germ, others
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas
The Muppet Movie
Sesame Street: Barkley
Sesame Street Fever: Muppet disco attire
The Dark Crystal: Creative supervisor; Creature design and fabrication (Mystics, Pod People, and Slaves)
Dreamchild: Mechanical design assistant designer
Labyrinth: Senior animatronic designer; Creature workshop teams: The Chilly Downs, Junk Lady, The Wiseman
Performer
Labyrinth: Firey 3 (assistant)
Builder/Puppeteer Cheryl Blaylock with Mona Monster on Sesame Street.
Cheryl Blaylock won a 1981 Emmy Award for her puppet and costume design on Sesame Street. She also performed on Sesame Street and other Henson productions.
MUPPET CREDITS
Sesame Street - Mona Monster, Forgetful Jones’ cousin, Forgetful Jones’ Mom, Sky Blue Honker (in “The Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree”), Princess Katie, various AMs
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) (uncredited) …. Additional Muppet Performer
Big Bird in China
Little Muppet Monsters - Rat, cow, and alien
Muppet Classic Theater
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DESIGNER/BUILDER
Sesame Street - built Ingrid, Othmar the Grouch including his helmet
The Muppet Show - built Betsy Bird (with Caroly Wilcox)
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NON MUPPET PRODUCTIONS
Eureeka’s Castle (1989) as Eureeka
The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth (1995) as Bubbles
Between the Lions (2002), Additional Puppeteer
Oobi (2003), Additional Puppeteer
Blue’s Room (2004) as Frederica
The Reunion (2004) as Loretta
Mike Edmonds as Aughra in Wideshots, The Dark Crystal.
Mike Edmonds is a 4'4’’ actor who served as an additional performer on The Dark Crystal, playing Aughra as a full-bodied character for certain scenes. He later appeared uncredited in The StoryTeller episode “Sapsorrow,” as a tailor.
Like other British dwarf actors, Edmonds has been a staple of sci-fi and fantasy film projects, including roles in two Star Wars movies, playing an Ugnaught in The Empire Strikes Back and Ewok medicine man Logray in Return of the Jedi. On the latter, he also puppeteered Jabba the Hutt’s tail. Other film credits include Flash Gordon, Time Bandits (a leading role as Og, alongside Jack Purvis, Malcolm Dixon, and Kenny Baker), Salome’s Last Dance (with Glenda Jackson, as a rabbi), the Cannon film version of Snow White (with Diana Rigg), and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (as bar patron Stretch). In television, he played Little Ron on the British children’s comedy Maid Marian and Her Merry Men from 1989 until 1994, and appeared as a dwarf librarian in the miniseries The 10th Kingdom.
Sesame Street Behind the Scenes
Kevin Clash and Eric Jacobson Performing on Sesame Street.
Joey Mazzarino and David Rudman with the Two Headed Monster on Sesame Street.