at the university, but down the hill at WRC studios. Jim already had a full-time job lined up at WRC working in the studio’s scenic art department, designing and building sets. Through this job and his nightly work on
Sam and Friends
, Jim was determined to learn all he could about what went on both in front of and behind the camera. He would become a student of television.
That didn’t make his schedule less hectic—in many ways, it was even crazier. There was his full-time job in WRC’s art department, but even on the days he wasn’t working, Jim was taking his
Sam and Friends
routines more seriously now, spending the mornings sorting through and listening to records, hoping for the spark of an idea for a Muppet performance—it was his intention, he said, not to repeat a song for at least two months. Once inspired, he would write brief routines, sometimes scratching them out like cartoons on a yellow pad, though Jim would often write on any piece of paper he could find. Meanwhile, Jane would rise early to attend morning classes at Catholic University, then make the six-mile drive to Jim’s family home in University Park. Over a late lunch, the two of them would review Jim’s routines, select the music, discuss any sets that might need to be built, and toss around other ideas. Then it was time to head into the District to WRC studios to rehearse the
Sam and Friends
segment for the evening newscast, which would be performed live at 6:50.
After the early evening performance, Jane would return to her place in Northeast Washington to do homework, while Jim went back to University Park to have dinner, build and paint sets, or touch up and repair any Muppets showing signs of wear. At 10:30, he and Jane would meet back at WRC for an hour of rehearsal before going live at 11:25 with the five-minute installment of
Sam and Friends
. Even after they’d finished filming for the evening, Jim would sometimesstay for hours afterward, talking with cameramen and technicians. “In his spare time he’d be in the control room, trying to understand what was going on,” Jane recalled. “And the technicians loved teaching him because he really learned his lessons well. He couldn’t wait to try out the things he was learning on
Sam and Friends
.”
Early on, Jim learned simple camera tricks that could enhance their performance. “At that time, all those television cameras were equipped with turrets [of lenses] and we would ask for the widest angle lens and experiment with moving in and out of the camera,” said Jim. “You could do really interesting things in terms of depth.” He discovered, for instance, that by holding the character back only a few feet, then moving forward, a wide-angle lens made the Muppet appear to rush the camera, covering a seemingly huge distance in a flash. It was unsophisticated but effective, and Jim encouraged the floor crew to freely offer suggestions on other technical tricks that might punch up their performance. “The atmosphere in the studio was very relaxed because in the beginning, we were lip-synching to records,” said Jane. “There was no live sound … so there was no need to be completely quiet. We could talk as we worked, and if something went especially well, the crew would applaud. If something went wrong, we’d laugh anyway!”
The majority of their performances still involved lip-synching and pantomiming to novelty records—which, fortunately, Stan Freberg and others were continuing to produce regularly. “We’d use a lot of records,” Jane remarked later. “If it didn’t go well, we wouldn’t use it again, but if it did go well, we’d save it and use it again.” In the free-for-all atmosphere of early television, there was never any thought given to clearing the records for usage, which likely would have involved paying royalties. “I think we were working with something that was setting a precedent,” Jane offered later, coyly suggesting that their use of the
Sam and Friends
, Jim was determined to learn all he could about what went on both in front of and behind the camera. He would become a student of television.
That didn’t make his schedule less hectic—in many ways, it was even crazier. There was his full-time job in WRC’s art department, but even on the days he wasn’t working, Jim was taking his
Sam and Friends
routines more seriously now, spending the mornings sorting through and listening to records, hoping for the spark of an idea for a Muppet performance—it was his intention, he said, not to repeat a song for at least two months. Once inspired, he would write brief routines, sometimes scratching them out like cartoons on a yellow pad, though Jim would often write on any piece of paper he could find. Meanwhile, Jane would rise early to attend morning classes at Catholic University, then make the six-mile drive to Jim’s family home in University Park. Over a late lunch, the two of them would review Jim’s routines, select the music, discuss any sets that might need to be built, and toss around other ideas. Then it was time to head into the District to WRC studios to rehearse the
Sam and Friends
segment for the evening newscast, which would be performed live at 6:50.
After the early evening performance, Jane would return to her place in Northeast Washington to do homework, while Jim went back to University Park to have dinner, build and paint sets, or touch up and repair any Muppets showing signs of wear. At 10:30, he and Jane would meet back at WRC for an hour of rehearsal before going live at 11:25 with the five-minute installment of
Sam and Friends
. Even after they’d finished filming for the evening, Jim would sometimesstay for hours afterward, talking with cameramen and technicians. “In his spare time he’d be in the control room, trying to understand what was going on,” Jane recalled. “And the technicians loved teaching him because he really learned his lessons well. He couldn’t wait to try out the things he was learning on
Sam and Friends
.”
Early on, Jim learned simple camera tricks that could enhance their performance. “At that time, all those television cameras were equipped with turrets [of lenses] and we would ask for the widest angle lens and experiment with moving in and out of the camera,” said Jim. “You could do really interesting things in terms of depth.” He discovered, for instance, that by holding the character back only a few feet, then moving forward, a wide-angle lens made the Muppet appear to rush the camera, covering a seemingly huge distance in a flash. It was unsophisticated but effective, and Jim encouraged the floor crew to freely offer suggestions on other technical tricks that might punch up their performance. “The atmosphere in the studio was very relaxed because in the beginning, we were lip-synching to records,” said Jane. “There was no live sound … so there was no need to be completely quiet. We could talk as we worked, and if something went especially well, the crew would applaud. If something went wrong, we’d laugh anyway!”
The majority of their performances still involved lip-synching and pantomiming to novelty records—which, fortunately, Stan Freberg and others were continuing to produce regularly. “We’d use a lot of records,” Jane remarked later. “If it didn’t go well, we wouldn’t use it again, but if it did go well, we’d save it and use it again.” In the free-for-all atmosphere of early television, there was never any thought given to clearing the records for usage, which likely would have involved paying royalties. “I think we were working with something that was setting a precedent,” Jane offered later, coyly suggesting that their use of the
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