"Liberace? Thirty seconds to curtain, Liberace."
The Muppets! For over sixty years, they've been entertaining kids ...
"A B C D E F Cookie Monster"
... and adults alike.
"Look, mother, it's my life okay? So if I want to live on a beach and walk around naked
-- "
You probably know their creator, Jim Henson, who brought everyone together …
"Kermit, I thought you were the one person on this show who wasn't crazy."
"Me not crazy? I hired the others."
And you might be familiar with Frank Oz, Jim’s close collaborator…
"You are all weirdos."
But there’s another Muppet performer you might NOT know — part of the core group
who was there from almost the very beginning, and in the 1970s became one of the most famous
gay men in the world… who nobody recognized.
Hi there, I’m Matt, I make videos about pop culture. This time we’re looking at
Richard Hunt, the Muppet performer who created Scooter and Beaker and Statler and a ton of
other iconic characters. At the Muppet Show’s height, he was watched by over 200 million
people a week in over 100 countries — so now it’s time to get things started …
"Why don't you get things started?"
… with the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational life and loves of Richard Hunt.
Also big thanks to Joshua Gillespie who runs the Muppet History account on Twitter for
suggesting this video and helping with the research, to J. Max Stein who’s writing
Richard Hunt’s biography and shared interviews with me, and all my Patrons who helped me
find clips.
Before he was one of the founding performers on the Muppet Show, Richard Hunt was a New
Jersey theater kid. Born in 1951 into a family of actors and singers, he stole the show in
every school play that he was in. Richard’s first job out of high school was as a weather
forecaster on the local radio despite having zero qualifications — he’d just make stuff
up. As you can imagine he didn’t last very long in the job.
While he was sitting at home unemployed in the late 60s, he saw something on TV that
would change his life forever — The Muppets. He thought that what they were doing looked
fun, and realized that they filmed Sesame Street just a few miles away from his house.
So he drove into New York, found a payphone, and called to ask if they were hiring.
Now, today we know the muppets as a giant multinational Disney brand. But what would
they have been to Richard in the late 60s?
Well, at that point, the Muppets had only been on TV for like fifteen years, starting
in the mid-50s on a local TV station in Washington DC. A college student named Jim Henson had
created a show called Sam & Friends, featuring puppets made out of cut-up clothes. Each episode
was just five minutes long, and it looks kind of like The Muppet Show, just not quite fully
formed. Kermit’s not even a frog yet.
"I'm confused."
As a local show, Sam and Friends was an instant hit. Jim started getting booked to do commercials…
"Do you drink Nash's coffee?" "No."
[Sinister slurp] "Things seem to happen to people who don't
drink Nash's."
...and then within a few years, on national late-night shows. Often he’d do lip syncs
that look a lot like what we’d recognize today as drag numbers.
"I've grown accustomed to your face..."
Then in the mid-60s, something happened that changed the fate of the Muppets forever. In
New York, a group called the Children’s Television Workshop was trying to create educational
TV that kids actually wanted to watch. Their big idea was using the same attention-grabbing
techniques that worked in commercials.
"We're planning to treat them essentially the same way a commercial enterprise would
create a campaign. We're trying to sell the alphabet to preschool children."
Nobody knew if this was going to work, but commercials featuring Muppets were super popular,
so they asked Jim Henson to design characters for their experiment.
"Why don't you call your show Sesame Street?" "What was that?"
"Sesame Street. You know, like 'open sesame.' It kind of gives the idea of a street where
neat stuff happens." "Kermit, why you're a genius!"
As soon as it debuted in 1969, Sesame Street was an instant hit, both on TV and at live
events. Behind the scenes, everyone was working frantically, night day, to produce the 130
episodes of the first season. And that’s when Richard Hunt happened to call.
Richard was just 18 when he came to audition, and he blew them away. They hired him almost
immediately, and he instantly fit right in. Richard was bold and full of energy and loved
to be the center of attention.
"Richard Hunt didn't care one whit what anyone thought of him."
He started in the early seasons with background characters — here he is doing some bats.
He was the back half of Snuffy, and Ernie’s right hand. But before long, he moved on to
named characters like Bert’s nephew Brad
"Hi there, Brad, how are you?" "Is that right?"
And Forgetful Jones.
"I forgot!"
One of his favorites was Gladys the cow — who comes off today as kind of a drag character.
"I've always been curious what it would be like to be something else. And that's why
I've decided to become a cow-frog."
Off screen, this was a thrilling time to be gay in New York, and by all accounts, Richard
made the most of it. He had a relationship with Charles Gibson, a typist on Sesame Street,
who later recalled “Richard lived an exciting life. He knew celebrities. He was high, he
was up, and he was on. … The Muppets were emerging. They were novel and exciting. They
were big.”
Richard and Charles dated on and off for a couple years. Charles said, “what I remember
is Richard calling me in the wee hours of the morning … inviting himself down with
a quart of orange juice and whatever drugs he had at the time. Probably pot. … We’d
get high and we’d drink our orange juice. And we’d go to bed, where we belonged. Richard
and I belonged together in bed. We were right together in bed. The less said the better.”
Unquote.
Steamy.
This was just after Stonewall, and New York was an exciting place for queer people, much
less inhibited than it had been just a few years before. There were bars, there were
parades, it was safer than ever to be open and out.
"And that was very liberating, because it removed shame. It replaced shame, in fact,
with great joy, and self discovery of your body and other people's body, and loving each
other, and I mean all the good stuff about free love."
Even so, a kids’ show like Sesame Street couldn’t put any sort of gay content on
their air in the 1970s. Around this time there was conservative movement to fire teachers
who were suspected of being gay — which took form as the Briggs Initiative in California.
If Sesame Street had included anything even remotely queer, the backlash would have been
overwhelming. At the very most, audiences might’ve read something into the relationship
between Ernie and Bert.
"I don't talk to girls very much."
That was something that the company denied — as well as Bert’s creator, Frank Oz.
When the topic came up, Oz would say that “they’re not, of course. … I created
Bert. I know what and who he is.” Or at least, that’s what Frank Oz said at first.
Keep that in mind, we’re going to come back to it.
"We are close friends, Bert and I." "We are, we're the best of friends."
"Yes." "What was that?"
By the way, in the process of making this video, I came across a lot of Ernie & Bert
discourse that didn’t fit into this script. But I’ve got a video about it over on my
Patreon that you can watch right now.
So even though Sesame Street couldn’t feature anything gay in the 1970s, there WAS room
for more adult content on a new project that Jim Henson was working on. Following Sesame
Street’s success, he wanted to create a weekly primetime variety show for the Muppets.
And he wanted Richard to be an integral part of it.
From the very beginning, Jim’s goal was to distance the Muppet Show from Sesame Street
so they could make more adult jokes and push the envelope — to the point that when they
made a pilot for the Muppet Show entitled “Sex and Violence.” Here’s Richard playing
the role of Lust on the never-aired pilot:
“Listen lust, you better get up to the studio because we're starting in a couple of minutes,
eh?" "Sure, love ya sweetheart."
"All right, all right, to the studio."
The Muppet Show gave the performers a lot more freedom. And that meant they could put
more of their real-life personalities into their characters than they had before.
"When I came to the thing I was 18, and I was really energetic, and I'd say 'yeah sure
anything you wanna do boss, no problem.' I talked a lot like him, because he's my voice
when I was younger, like this." "Hi, are you Kermit the frog?"
Because they could base characters on themselves, that allowed Richard to slip little sly gay
jokes onto the show every now and then.
“Wait a minute, you dated Ethel Barrymore?” “No, Lionel.”
Here’s the start of a long running joke about a relationship blooming between Beaker,
who was played by Richard, and Bunsen, played by Muppet performer Dave Goelz.
“Oh Beakypoo, that’s not funny! You’ll get dandruff in the milk!”
“Why Beaker ... you’re hauntingly attractive today.”
That Bunsen/Beaker storyline would continue over decades, so remember that they set it
up here, because we’ll come back to that too.
Aside from the occasional gay reference, there were also the guests, many of whom were queer
themselves. There's Elton John, Liberace, and Vincent Price, though they weren’t out
at the time. If you want to check out the episodes with gay guests, I’ve got a list
in the description of this video, with links to where you can watch them.
And there were other guests who were advocating for gay rights in real life, like Charles
Aznavour, who you’ve probably never heard of but back in the 70s he was a famous French
singer, and he was an early activist for gay causes. When he appeared on the Muppet Show,
he was widely known for his song “What Makes a Man” in which he sings in the voice of
a gay man. In an interview, he said, “I wanted to write about the specific problems
my gay friends faced. I could see things were different for them, that they were marginalized.”
Then here he is on the Muppet Show a few years after that song came out, singing The Gay
Old Fashioned Way, which would definitely have had a double meaning for people in the
know.
"The gay ... old fashioned way ..."
Another guest was the dancer Rudolph Nureyev, who was queer. Here he is in a steam room,
with a pig trying to get into his armpits. When Nureyev met Richard Hunt backstage, the
first thing the dancer said to him was “you love to suck c**k, don’t you?”
Which is maybe a little shocking to hear in the context of a show that seems so family
friendly! But behind the scenes of the Muppet Show were real people with real sexualities.
And Richard lived a fun, sexually free life in New York of the ‘70s — he dated, he
partied, he had gay friends.
Meanwhile, the Muppet Show was watched by 235 million people every week in 100-plus
countries. But as instantly as people recognized Scooter and Statler and Janice, almost nobody
recognized Richard, or knew that the man behind these beloved characters was gay, or was aware
that just as the Muppet Show was ending, Richard was falling in love.
In the early 1980s, Richard met a friend of a friend, a painter from Alabama named Nelson.
Nelson was quiet and shy, so much so that nobody I spoke to was aware of any photos
or video of him. In many ways Nelson was the opposite of loud, outgoing Richard. But they
were crazy for each other, and people who knew Richard saw that he was in love. He called
Nelson “the most important person in my life.”
At the same time, Richard was also taking more of a leadership role with the Muppets.
After the Muppet Show ended in 1981, Richard took charge of auditioning and training performers,
and directing many of the spinoffs and specials. In his personal life, the HIV epidemic was
just starting to decimate his circle of friends. But professionally, he threw himself into
his work harder than ever, including with a new show called Fraggle Rock.
This was the Henson company’s big post-Muppet Show show, debuting in 1983. It was about
a society of cute musical creatures, and Jim Henson said his goal for the show was to teach
kids how to live in harmony with each other, and to create a more peaceful world. Speaking
for myself, I can tell you that this show meant a lot to me as a kid, and probably taught
me more about how to be a person than any other piece of media.
Richard provided the voice of Junior Gorg, and also played a few other characters.
"Let me make ravenous love to you!"
But I think his most meaningful performance was on a 1987 episode called Gone But Not
Forgotten.
In that episode, Wembley Fraggle makes a new friend named Mudwell played by Richard.
"You know, I don't know when I've had so much fun!"
"You can say that again!" "Okay. You know, I don't know when I've had
so much fun!"
They get along great, but then Mudwell suddenly pushes him away.
"Take your things and go."
Wembley can’t understand why, and Mudwell explains: It’s because he doesn’t want
to make Wembley sad when he goes away.
"Then don't say goodbye. Let's just hang around together and have fun. I really like you."
"And I really like you, Wembley. ... Goodbye."
Mudwell lays down and dies.
In real life, Richard had lost a lot of friends to HIV. And shortly before shooting this episode,
Nelson — who Richard called “the most important person in my life,” had fallen
ill, and passed away. They’d only had a brief time together, just like Wembley and
Mudwell. In a later interview, Richard said that this episode was personal, and he was
playing his feelings out on screen.
As the episode goes on, we see that Wembley is heartbroken and doesn’t think he’ll
ever be happy again. The rest of the episode is about his struggle to move on without a
friend that he thought he’d always have.
His friend Gobo tells Wembley to think about what Mudwell left behind.
"I get it. It's like if somebody drew pictures, like Mokey, or if somebody built a diving
board, like Red, we'd have those things to remember them by."
And he says it doesn’t even have to be a thing they left behind …
“It could just be a happy moment that you keep alive in your memory.”
Wembley goes on to make a new friend, and together they sing the song that Mudwell taught
him.
"We'll meet again someday ... just a dream away."
The episode ends on a comforting message — that even when somebody’s gone, part of them
never fully goes away, and you can keep their memory alive by sharing the art that they
made.
In an interview with J. Max Stein, the episode’s writer, Laura Phillips, said that “Richard
understood exactly what Mudwell was about and how I wanted the character interpreted.”
And one of the other performers, Mike Quinn, said, “I thought that was such a brave thing
to do … it was so nicely played by Richard. He knew what he was doing, for sure.”
This episode is about saying farewell and letting go, which is something Richard would
have been experiencing with a lot of the people he cared about in real life. During this time,
Richard just threw himself into his work, even as the epidemic was claiming lives all
around him. Much like Howard Ashman, the producer and lyricist behind The Little Mermaid and
Beauty and the Beast and many others — they were both creating work that changed the face
of family entertainment in America, amidst an apocalypse that was ravaging their community.
As a six-year-old who saw this when this aired, I didn’t know anything about the epidemic.
But the episode still made a big impression on me. I remember sitting on a swing in the
playground, and my dad asking me what I was thinking about, and I responded, “everyone
we know who will die,” which was probably a distressing thing for him to hear from a
small child! But Richard’s performance provided a really comforting way for me to learn about
what death is, and to know that even when someone’s gone, you can still hold their
memory close.
I thought about this episode a lot as a kid. Especially three years later in 1990, when
Jim Henson suddenly passed away.
Jim’s loss was unexpected and a terrible tragedy. But Richard was once again a voice
that helped everyone though it. He hosted Jim’s memorial service — it was a tricky
balance of keeping the tone loving and serene, but also reminding everyone of the beauty
and fun that Jim had left the world to remember him by.
"Jim did not cling to the past. He did not worry about the future, that would work itself
out. And he did not live for the moment. Instead he lived in the moment. Because that's all
we really have.
The memorial was all bright colors, and meaningful songs,
"If just one person believes in you, deep enough and strong enough, believes in you
... And if all those people believe in you, deep
enough and strong enough, believe in you. Hard enough and long enough, it stands to
reason you yourself would start to see what everybody sees in you."
This memorial was one of the last times all these performers were all together. Two years
later, Richard fell ill with AIDS-related complications. Frank Oz sat by his bedside
in his final days — this was a time when people with HIV were often abandoned by everyone
in their lives, but the other Muppet performers stayed by his side.
Even after he was gone, that wasn’t the end of Richard’s story. Just like that episode
of Fraggle Rock said, when you keep a happy moment of someone in your memory, it’s like
a part of them is still alive.
And Richard didn’t just give us countless happy memories, he helped create a whole universe
of Muppet stories and characters, that in the years since have continued to grow more
open and inclusive.
For example, remember the little Bunsen and Beaker moment from The Muppet Show? That little
aspect of their characters would return in various appearances over the years…
"May I cut in?"
And by the 2015 Muppet show, they’re wearing each other’s clothes...
"Bunsen, Beaker, why are you wearing each other's clothes?"
"Bup bup bup! If it happens outside of work we don't owe him an explanation."
And in a 2018 live show, we even get a kiss.
When a new Muppet movie came out in 2011, the Muppets specifically marketed to gay audiences.
Miss Piggy wrote a column for Out Magazine, and walked the red carpet at the Out 100.
More recently, she appeared on Drag Race.
In 2012, when it was revealed that Chick-Fil-A sends money to homophobic organizations, the
Henson company announced that they’d cut ties with the chain — they had a deal to
put Muppet toys in kids' meals — and Henson donated all the money from that deal to GLAAD.
But the biggest changes are over on Sesame Street. There’s now an openly gay actor
in the cast, Alan — he runs Mister Hooper’s shop. And Sesame Street’s recent Family
Day episode, which he directed, includes two gay dads.
"I want you to meet my brother Dave." "Hi."
"And his husband Frank." "Hello."
"And my sobrina, Mia, my niece."
And then there’s the show’s evolution on Ernie and Bert. Remember, when people used
to ask if they were more than friends, the show would put out official statements that
they’re not gay. But in recent years, top leaders at Sesame Workshop, which makes the
show, had this to say:
“If you relate to these characters as gay, that's fine, that's what makes Sesame so special.
If you relate to them as not, that's fine. But that denial, if you will, I think was
a mistake.”
But I think the final word on Ernie and Bert came from Frank Oz, who played Bert. At first
he said flat out that they weren’t gay, that they were based on him and Jim Henson,
and it would be inauthentic for two straight men to present a gay couple. But a lot of
gay fans reached out to him with stories about how meaningful the characters were to them,
and in 2018, Frank tweeted, “I have now learned that many view them as representative
of a loving gay relationship. And that’s pretty wonderful. Thanks for helping me understand.”
Nearly all of the Muppet stuff we know and love today stems from that original little
group that Richard joined when he was 18 years old.
"I found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And that kind of makes us
like a family."
He spent his whole life making people happy, and his work continues to do so today, even
as its grown to include queer characters and welcome queer fans.
"It’s like a part of him is still alive." "Here I am, Captain Vegetable!"
"Hey look Ma, I caught a Fraggle!" "Couldn't I be a dancer or a singer?"
"Hey I want to go to Hollywood!" "If you ask me you should get a new dancer.
I know a very talented cow!" "Never mind that. Now listen."
"Look buddy, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is artistic."
"Well, that was different." "Yep, lousy but different."
"I'll trade with anyone that has a jacuzzi." "And you need a beach ball."
"Hit it, boys!" "Hey, a movie!"
"Is there any way to stop it?" "Aw gee thanks! Hey, this is a -- "
"I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't watched it."
"Believe what?" "I don't know, I wasn't watching."
In making this video, I dug up a ton of stories that I didn’t have room for in this script
— more about Ernie and Bert, about other gay guests on the Muppet show, and about David
Bowie’s codpiece in Labyrinth. I’m putting those into bonus videos that you can watch
over on my Patreon — the first one is up right now, and I’ll be posting more over
the next couple weeks.
Huge thanks to everyone who helped with this video — Joshua Gillespie at MuppetHistory
on Twitter for suggesting the video and providing a ton of the research, and J. Max Stein, who’s
writing a biography of Richard Hunt and shared interviews with me — for more check out
JessicaMaxStein.com. And also thanks to patrons and friends who sent me clips that were a
huge help.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to try out my latest invention.
"An electrically heated milking machine!"