Memoirs of a Muppets Writer: (You mean somebody actually writes that stuff?)

Sehr gut, unterhaltsam, kurzweilig, pointiert. wir kinder der 80er und 70er verdanken ihm unzählige stunden gelächter, vorm fernseher, als es noch viel weniger auswahl gab.

In "Memoirs of a Muppets Writer", Joseph Bailey begins with the story of leaving his job as a staff writer on Sesame Street in 1977, and writing a spec script for The Muppet Show, which was just beginning production on the second season. Jim Henson read the script and talked to Bailey, and then, in his gentle, not-quite-of-this-Earth Jim Henson way, thought that he'd hired Bailey without ever actually making him a job offer. A few weeks later, Henson called Bailey, who was on vacation in Antigua, asking why he wasn't at the writers' meeting. When Bailey pointed out that he hadn't actually been hired, Henson answered, "Oh. Well, how soon can you get here?"Bailey writes, "This was my first indication that behind the scenes, The Muppet Show was very much like, well, behind the scenes of The Muppet Show, only with people."And here's the thing -- that's just the first half of Chapter 1. This is a 275-page book, and it's packed with great stories like that -- warm, intimate, surprising, funny stories that give you a glimpse of what it was like to work for Jim Henson just at the start of the Muppets' most creative and exciting period.I'm just going to flip through and pull out some sample sentences from whatever page I land on:"When Edgar Bergen was scheduled for The Muppet Show, the usually easy going Jerry Juhl announced in no uncertain terms that he was going to pull rank as Head Writer and write every scene that included the famous ventriloquist and his characters.""The first year I joined Sesame Street, Jon Stone announced it was time to win some Emmys.""It was Jerry who first taught me the cardinal rule of writing for the Muppets: After you finish writing a piece, read it over. If it can be performed with human beings, it's not Muppet material.""There was a musical number starring Gonzo already produced, but it only ran one minute and forty seconds. Something had to be written to fill twenty seconds so the piece would time out to two minutes.""The Research Department rejected the piece, saying I really didn't explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity."Obviously, you want to read the rest of those stories, right? Every single page in the book is like that. If you love The Muppet Show and Sesame Street -- then you're about to read one of your all-time favorite books. I'm very grateful that Mr. Bailey took the time to share his memories with us, and I hope other people who have worked with the Muppets follow his example. We could use another dozen books just like this one.

Of all the autobiographies I've ever read, this one is about Joseph A. Bailey."Memoirs of a Muppets Writer" is chock full of anecdotes from his days providing sketches for frogs, dogs, bears, and weirdos to inhabit. Mr. Bailey covers his 'colorful' childhood in Boston's Combat Zone, his days as an honest to goodness Mad Man (ask your wife if you can write THAT book, Joe), dealing with styes in London, up through his collaborations with the likes of Jon Stone, Jerry Juhl, and Jim Henson.All of this would be enough to make "Memoirs" a fascinating and joyous read, but Mr. Bailey throws in some practical advice for the aspiring writers in the audience. He shares invaluable jewels of wisdom that can only come from someone versed in the knowledge that it takes much discipline to be silly.I highly recommend this book to anyone with a love of the Muppets, comedy writing, or making people in tuxedos fall down on the QE-2.Viva Rameau!

So great to find a book about the creative process behind my favorite entertainers of all time. Bailey has a great treasure chest of stories of all aspect of the Muppets at their peak...but he could have used an editor to help shape each chapter to read as compellingly and smoothly as the Milton Berle chapter, which was detailed, insightful, thorough and thoughtful. Another chapter lumped together reflections of a half dozen or so Muppet Show hosts, and some were only a few lines (and not worthy of entry) and some were rambling graphs (not worth the space). It's rife with glaring incorrect or weird punctuation that broke the flow of the great stories...I had to train myself to overlook them.That said, great book, a MUST for Muppet fans.

what can I say about this book? Well, reading this book let me travel to my past, to my childhood, I could see myself watching TV every afternoon The Muppets Show and Sesame Street with excitement and happiness I used to do.Every chapter trasmit full of lovely memories and unforgettable moments, written with a great sense of humour from the author.I must thank to the author to share with us all his amazing experiences on these part of his life, due to this I definetely I put this book like one of the most beautiful books I've read in my life.