Possible Puppet Show Passed On

Just to clear up this confusion, I've joined up with this wonderful site to sort out said silliness.

Kaiser Gonzo did indeed attend my character design workshop, but the news he's passing on is pretty misinformed - what he reports is not what I said, which is cool, I don't mind, misquoting happens a lot in television so I bear no ill will. For the TRUTH to this story please feel free to read on (under the proviso that you all call by the badablingthing blog and say hello )

Some years ago, just before Hensons Television "went under" in the UK, I was in protracted talks with them on a number of show ideas. The one that they were particularly keen to pursue was a concept that I'd developed with my colleague Ian Culbard, and we called the show "IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE!". Now, young kaiser seems to think it was "The New Muppet Show" or something, it wasn't - it was to feature a new cast of characters instead, although it was to capture a great many features from the original show.

SYNOPSIS:

A bunch of Circus Animals from the New York City Circus are kidnapped by a gang of animal rights activists. They're stuck in a giant crate and flown across the pacific ocean to be dropped onto a remote jungle island by an enormous striped red and yellow parachute. Thus they are liberated. The only problem? Nobody asked the stars of the show if they wanted to go.

These animals don't speak the language - they've lived in NYC all their lives. They don't like the food - they're used to burgers and fries not mangoes and bananas. They don't fit in. So, they do the only thing they know how to do. They build the BIGTOP BAR & LOUNGE, using the crate as the stage and the giant parachute for the tent top. And they entertain the locals (predominantly monkeys) with much hilarity.

Each week you'd get a "celebrity shipwreck" who would get washed up and get roped in to perform.

And that was the show. Hensons loved it (as did we) but it became apparent that the budget would be pretty huge and that Hensons were beginning to pull the plug on tv production. So, after much development and discussion, it was shelved. Thats the real story on this guys, and I hope you take the time to read it.

There will never BE another Muppet show I'm afraid guys. As enjoyable as the last series that they did was with the rastafarian character, it did lousey with the ratings and was too expensive to make. I know this from chats with Hensons. It's a huge shame but that's the world today.

As for my biog, I'm the designer of BOB THE BUILDER and the creator of new BBC animated series FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT amongst other things. Like I said, call by the blog and say hello by all means, you're all most welcome.

Very best for the new year

Curtis Jobling
badablingthing.blogspot.com

Welcome a-board, Curtis!

I appreciate that clearing-up. Good to know folks can get in here and visit like this. Having heard it this way, the idea is a LOT better. It didn't work for me thinking Muppets would be on the island.

I hope Diz/MHC will see fit to put out another series one day, or even a miniseries. That would be nice.

Hi Curtis. Thanks for clearing that up. I agree with Fozzie Bear, sounds like a great idea and one that would i think been very popular. I stopped by your blog and also found your take on the origins of "Bob" very interesting, i've read other interviews with Keith Chapman in License magazine along the same lines. That's television for you i guess, i can't stand Fifi anyway (but then again it's not really targeted at me, lol)

Thanks for the comments chaps and especially for the warm welcome.

Luke, indeed, some folk have no problem with claiming credit for things that they actually had no input in. Its a terrible shame, really, as anyone who works in the industry knows that the designs are mine, but he's trading off the success of BOB to try and raise the profile of his own new shows. There wouldn't have BEEN any new shows if BOB hadn't been the success it was, as it was those royalties that helped him set up his own company profile.

I can confidently tell you that he was involved in no show or design decisions on the show that you see on the Television. He had turned around a pilot at Ealing studios that was presented to the BBC some years before I worked on the show - the BBC said they never wanted to see it again and turned it down flat. I never saw his "take" on it until we'd completed the first season...

Do keep your eyes peeled for FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT developments - it kicks off in the UK and around the world in September this year.

Best to you all

Curtis
badablingthing.blogspot.com

Interesting story Curtis, and i can understand how legally he is "creator" with the very basic idea years before but quite shameless really just how much he has traded on it since his own take was never used. At least it should get a lot of press though for Frankenstein i should imagine. Really looking forward to that - good to see Joe Pasquale starting to do character voices (perhaps he'll become like the new David Jason, lol) and well, Jimmy Hibbert's a legend in kids cartoons. I sent you an email through the forum enquiring about your creative writing workshops.

Luke

I got your mail and replied via my main btinternet account - dont bin it as junk fella! Intrigued to hear of your collabs with the Ginger One, we should talk more...

C

It stinks that Memphis, TN, is so far off the beaten path. We never have any cool workshops here. It's always stuff about bankruptcy or triangle-money-making-schemes when we DO have one.

Fozzie

I'll be doing workshops at the Red Stick Animation Festival in Baton Rouge, LA, in Spring - you should come to that it's very well attended. Check out the link from my blog sir, I speak there every year. There's Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and WETA in attendance usually. Surely that's as near as it gets for you?

C
www.badablingthing.blogspot.com