There was a little afternoon show that was called Afternoon. Back in those days in television, most local stations had a midday show for housewives that had a series of things. It was like a variety show for midday.

We thought it would be fun to try to design a show that would work well internationally and so that' s what we're intending to do with Fraggle Rock, and we are indeed now selling it around the world.

Yeah, I did some small parts in high school and the first year of college and then fairly soon thereafter I settled into the backstage scenery, and then at the University of Maryland I was doing posters for their productions.

Yeah, we pretty much had a form and a shape by that time - a style - and I think one of the advantages of not having any relationship to any other puppeteer was that it gave me a reason to put those together myself for the needs of television.

Yeah, well when I first started working, it was $5 a show; it was probably a little higher by the time I got to my own show, but I remember that they put me under contract at $100 a week, which to me was really an astronomical price.

You're assisting the audience to understand; you're giving them a bridge or an access. And if you don't give them that, if you keep it more abstract, it's almost more pure. It's a cooler thing.

Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.

My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.

When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.

When The Muppet Show ended, we all sat around and said, what kind of television show would we like to do. We felt the need these days are for some quality children's programming.

I've never felt any sense of competition with anybody, and we're all friends; we're all good friends.

At the University of Maryland, my first year I started off planning to major in art because I was interested in theatre design, stage design or television design.

The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children.

No, there's not much competition between puppeteers in general because everybody's working their own style.

When I was a kid, I never saw a puppet show. I never played with puppets or had any interest in them.

I decided that what I really wanted to do was go off and paint.

And also there wasn't much money in television in those days anyhow.

I do remember doing shows strictly in black and white, too, so you're right.

I think my own strengths are in television production.

I was very interested in theatre, mostly in stage design. I did a little bit of acting.