What materialize when you get the generator of The Hitchhiker ’s Guide to the Galaxy and the creator of the Muppets in the same way ? In the 1980s , Jim Henson meet author Douglas Adams and together they tried todevelop a television special starring the Muppetsabout the wonders of computers .
Henson and Adams met almost 29 year ago this week and shared a love for computers and the advances they offered in entertainment . President Adams reportedly consult on a Labyrinth video game , and he and Henson planned to make their own television special :
Adams had been working with the Henson team that twelvemonth on the Muppet Institute of Technology project . Collaborating with Digital Productions ( the computer vivification the great unwashed ) , Chris Cerf , Jon Stone , Joe Bailey , Mark Salzman and Douglas Adams , Jim ’s goal was to raise awareness about the potential for personal computer use and scatter fear about their complexness . In a one - hr television special , the familiar Muppets would ( accord to the pitch material ) , “ trigger the populace ’s interest in computing , ” in an entertaining mode , highlighting all sorts of hardware and software package being used in particular effects , digital animation , and robotics . looker would get a duty tour of the fictional institute – a series of computer - generate rooms rig by the doyen , Dr. Bunsen Honeydew , and stumble on various fibre take advantage of calculator ’ capability . Fozzie , for example , would be heavy at workplace in the “ Department of Artificial Stupidity , ” proving that computers are only as funny as the bear that program them . Hinting at what would come in The Jim Henson Hour , viewers , “ … might even see Jim Henson himself using an input gimmick call a ‘ Waldo ’ to manipulate a digitally - controlled puppet . ”
While Waldo certainly came to fruition , and Henson would learn children about the wonders of particular effects and calculator animation on The Jim Henson Hour , the Muppet Institute of Technology sits in the vault of brilliant ideas that simply never came to fruition . Jim Henson ’s Red Book , the site that uncovers the detail of Henson ’s everyday biography , has a few conception artistic creation piece from the show , as well as more item on Henson ’s relationship with Adams .
2025-01-25 – ‘ Dinner with Douglas Adams – 1st met . ’[Jim Henson ’s Red Book viamental_floss ]
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