Google celebrates Jim Henson 75th birthday anniversary featuring a doodle with 5 Muppets.
The logo is HTML5-powered and it is interactive, clicking on the circle below each character, it follows the cursor with its eyes, and double-clicking on one, it opens its mouth. One of them throw its glasses, and other eats its neighbor.
Brian Henson, Jim Henson‘s son, is now chairman of the Jim Henson Company.
“He loved gadgets and technology. Following his lead, The Jim Henson Company continues to develop cutting-edge technology for animatronics and digital animation, like this cool Google doodle celebrating Jim’s 75th birthday. But I think even he would have found it hilarious the way today some people feel that when they’ve got their smartphone, they no longer need their brain.” Brian wrote in Google’s blog.
“He loved dogs, particularly goofy ones. And he lived for those moments when everyone laughed so hard they couldn’t talk,” Brian Henson said. He recalled his father’s passion for games, being allowed to stay up late to watch his father’s appearance on TV, and his father’s feeling that “the Muppets were a family.”
This is the second time when Google pays tribute to Jim Henson on its homepage. Google replaced its logo with a rotating cast of Sesame Street characters honoring the 40th anniversary of the television show Sesame Street, two years ago. Jim Henson was asked to help with this show in 1969.
“Born in Greenville, Miss., in 1936, Henson created his fuzzy, goggle-eyed puppets in the ‘50s, and they soon began appearing on local television while he attended the University of Maryland (where he met his future wife and the show’s co-producer, Jane Nebel).
In 1969, Kermit the Frog, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and the rest of the lovable furry troupe began to appear on PBS’s new ”Sesame Street.” By the ‘70s, the Muppets gained a hit prime-time show (and Miss Piggy) and, soon, hit the big screen. (Their newest feature film is November’s ”The Muppets,” starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams.)” The Washington Post about Jim Henson.
Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936 and died on May 16, 1990. The Public Broadcasting Service, which hosted Sesame Street, said he was ”the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service.”(New York Times)
Jim Henson was “our era’s Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, W. C. Fields and Marx Brothers,” said the chairman and chief executive of the company that produced Sesame Street. (New York Times)
Jim Henson Google doodle inspired people to create interesting animation, the Muppets singing Rolling in the Deep (Adele), Boom Boom Pow (the Black Eyed Peas), or Earth Angel (The Penguins), or Chop Suey! (System of a Down).
Jim Henson died of septic shock caused by lungs abscesses (Streptococcus pyogenes). On May 21, a public memorial service was held in New York City at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and . another one was held on July 2 at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London.
No one wore black (it was Jim Henson wish). Dixieland jazz band sang When The Saints Go Marching In, Harry Belafonte sang Turn the World Around (the song he had debuted on The Muppet Show), Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) sang Kermit the Frog’s signature song, Bein’ Green. Six of the core Muppet performers sang Jim Henson’s favorite songs, then Just One Person began with Richard Hunt singing alone, as Scooter.
“As each verse progressed, each Muppeteer joined in with their own Muppets until the stage was filled with all the Muppet performers and their beloved characters,” Chris Barry recalled.
This image was recreated for the 1990 television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson and inspired Richard Curtis to write the growing-orchestra wedding scene of his 2003 film Love Actually.
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Jim Henson Google Doodle: Muppets sing Boom Boom Pow (video)
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