Just watching something (again) on Fred Rogers and thinking how much I loved his Daniel the Striped Tiger puppet character! Daniel would be in my tv puppet pals hall of fame for sure! I don't remember why he lived in a big clock or wore a wrist-watch, but I'd love to spend a few minutes to meet and ask him now, like a lot of kids actually did get to... if only I could! I'd have to include Jerome the Giraffe (from the Canadian The Friendly Giant music show), Oscar the Grouch (used to have a nice hand puppet of him), and that scoundrel Sooty from England (wonderfully brought to life by Harry Corbett). Who would be your inductees into a make believe puppetry hall of fame?
For 20 years, I've been involved with a theater company. Almost that long ago, I attended an early preview of a play. All I knew was that it had puppets. I asked the Executive Director why our adult-oriented theater was doing a puppet show, and he just told me to watch. I saw this: At intermission, I turned to the Executive Director and said, "We're going to make a fortune." And we did. The show moved to Broadway, beat out "Wicked" for the best musical Tony and ran for five years, before it moved off-Broadway where it ran for another 10. They're my heroes (and heroines).
Never heard of Avenue Q (a street in Washington DC maybe?), but I'd pay to see those guys. I found I couldn't resist the adult Ted whereas I thought maybe I wouldn't like that at all, and those Anipals in the old TV Funhouse were pretty entertaining.
I'd like to nominate The Clangers, but realise that it would be a controversial inclusion, due to no strings attached nor hands up their backsides.
Statler and Waldorf...The two crotchety, comment throwing, heckling, old men in the balcony from The Muppet Show.
