Interview with Joseph Bailey
Conducted by Ryan Dosier
BAILEY: Thanks, Ryan.
RYAN: I’m sure you discuss this in the book, but could you give us a brief synopsis of how you first got involved with Jim Henson and the Muppets?
BAILEY: Well, that is in the book. I started my writing career as an advertising copywriter. I was actually a Mad Man in the 1960s with a closet full of continental suits and an office on Madison Avenue. Some time around 1970, the agency I was working for went out of business. We found that out one Monday morning when the staff showed up for work and the door was locked. Since advertising was in a slump, I made ends meet by tending bar and working on commercial film sets--a lot of my friends were in film and theatre.
One day I got a call from a woman in that crowd. She had gotten a job in Boston producing a children's show called, Jabberwocky and she needed writers. I wrote some audition material and they assigned me a script. Over the next couple of years I wrote about 50 scripts for Jabberwocky. But then the show ran its course and went out of production. (In the name of disclosure, I should tell you I eventually married that woman and she still thinks I’m a pretty good writer.)
Not knowing what else to do, I called Sesame Street, talked my way past the switchboard and got an interview with Bob Cunniff, who was then the show's producer. I wrote some audition material for Bob and was hired by Jon Stone, then Sesame Street’s Executive Producer.

BAILEY: I was signed first to a four script contract. So, I would have to say my first project was Sesame Street Show Number 571. Later, I was signed to a season contract.
RYAN: Who were some of the other writers that you enjoyed working with?
BAILEY: Well, Jon Stone was also the Head Writer when I joined Sesame Street and he also directed most of it. Later on, I wrote for Norman Styles when he became the Head Writer. But, unlike many shows today, Sesame Street wasn't written by committee. A writer was assigned a script for a particular day's show, and he or she was responsible for the entire show script. So, although there were many fine writers on the staff, like Emily Pearl Kingsley or Ray Sipherd, we didn't actually work together. Eventually, I did co-write a lot of stuff with Jon.
RYAN: What about the Muppet performers? Did you get to work closely with any of them?

RYAN: Many of the writers I’ve talked to always have favorite Muppets to write for. Which characters did you most enjoy writing for on The Muppet Show?
BAILEY: Since I'm probably an anarchist at heart, I always got a kick out of writing for Animal. I also have a soft spot in my head for Dave Goelz’s Gonzo. I wrote the Swedish Chef/lobster bit as part of my Muppet Show audition material. Of course, Piggy and Kermit's relationship was a constant source of material.
RYAN: What about Sesame Street?

RYAN: One of my personal favorite Christmas specials of all-time is Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. What was the best part of working on that special?
BAILEY: Not to bring it up again, but Christmas Eve takes up a whole chapter in the book. Jon Stone was Sesame Street in those days, He was my co-writer on the special. But he was also the Executive Producer and the Director. So, Jon had a lot of visuals in his head that he didn’t put into the script. He didn’t have to. So, a lot of the show was a surprise to me when I first saw it screened.
I also wasn't around when he shot the interviews with the Muppets and the kids about how Santa gets down the chimney. That was pure magic. The "Keep Christmas With You" sign language song was also a surprise. Most of the main story line was written in collaboration. Most of the "heart" was Jon. I wrote the Cookie-writing-to-Santa scenes. When Cookie gets Santa on the phone, it's Jon Stone doing Santa's voice. Most people don't know that I wrote the Bert and Ernie/Gift of the Magi sequence for a Christmas album several years earlier.
I was just at a screening of Christmas Eve at the Museum of the Moving Image. It was great to see it on a big screen in front of a live audience. But it's a little weird to hear people finally laugh at jokes you wrote over 30 years ago. It was also bitter-sweet since so many people on the show are gone now.
RYAN: You worked on quite a few Sesame Street music albums as well. Can you talk to us about the process that goes into working on an album for the show?
BAILEY: Well, the Bert and Ernie/Magi sequence was instigated in a record meeting when Jim said, "Let's do something on the Gift of the Magi." That was how Jim worked. He'd throw out a rough suggestion and let you run with it.
RYAN: One of the other challenging aspects of writing for The Muppet Show was writing for the various guest stars on the show. How much input did the various stars have on the material written for them?
BAILEY: Jim Henson was a very cordial man and that cordiality permeated The Muppet Show. So, before we started a script, Head Writer, Jerry Juhl, would call the guest star and ask them what they wanted to do. Usually the singers wanted to sing and the dancers wanted to dance. But Beverly Sills, the opera star, said she wanted to tap dance and sing a Country and Western song. We were happy to accommodate her.
Usually, there was a one-on-one interview with Kermit and the guest star. But when Peter Sellers saw the interview in his script, he asked what character he would be playing. When he was told to just use his own personality, he said he couldn't. He said he once had a personality but he’d had it surgically removed.
I went back to my office and realized that I was supposed to create choreography for the great Rudolf Nureyev–Not exactly my strong suit. My inspiration finally came with the word, "perhaps." Perhaps the pig can lift Mr. Nureyev. Or, perhaps Mr Nureyev can throw the pig in the air and, perhaps the pig can land on him and knock him on his keister. I stretched that out for a page and a half.
RYAN: Any favorite guest stars to work with?
BAILEY: Well, Bob Hope said some really nice things about The Muppet Show writing staff. Gotta love him for that! Jaye P. Morgan said she would do anything with a Muppet. All Elton John could talk about was his soccer team, Watford. One day after rehearsal, Edgar Bergen did about an hour’s private performance for us with all his characters. I remember Jim and the crew were sprawled on the floor like a bunch of 12-year-olds watching television. And, working with Milton Berle was like a crash course in comedy. I devoted a whole chapter in the book about working with him.
RYAN: What is your favorite memory of working on The Muppet Show?
RYAN: What is your favorite memory of working on Sesame Street?

I remember being on location in Taos, New Mexico. One cold, rainy day Jon and I were scouting locations in the Indian pueblo. A beautiful Indian woman who thought we were trespassing ran us out before we could explain who we were. I rewrote the script so that Big Bird had trepidations about going to the pueblo. But the cast explained to him that it was just somebody’s home and you behave the way you do in anyone’s home--politely and respectfully. After we wrapped, that same Indian woman invited us up into her own pueblo apartment as her guests. We had to climb up two or three stories on outside ladders to get to it. And Jon hated heights.
RYAN: What was it like working with Jim Henson?

I always described writing for the Muppets as loading a blunderbuss, handing it to Jim and the Muppets, and then making sure there was a barn door in the vicinity. They never missed. But, they didn’t always hit the side of the barn door you expected.
RYAN: Finally, Joe, can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
BAILEY: Sure. Second star on the right and straight on 'til morning!
Thanks so very much to Joe Bailey for doing an interview with us. I encourage every Muppet fan out there to order Joe’s book, Memoirs of a Muppets Writer, for some fantastic behind the scenes stories, insight from the mind of a writer, and much more.
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com
Great interview. So very great. And his answer to your last question: "BAILEY: Sure. Second star on the right and straight on 'til morning!"
ReplyDeleteWow! That one almost choked me up.
When Sesame Street came on the air, I was an almost instant fan of the Muppets even though I had no children. Then, like millions around the world, I was entranced by the Muppet Show. The Bailey book lived up to my hopes to recapture the fun, the inspired craziness of Henson and his henchmen. It's filled with great stories and an insider's perspective of some of the best entertainment I have ever enjoyed.
ReplyDelete