Richard Hunt: The Gay Man Behind the Muppets

uh liberace 30 seconds to curtin liberace the muppets for over 60 years they've been entertaining kids abcde after cookie month 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 the show 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 he became one of the most famous gay men in the world who nobody recognized hey 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 a hundred countries so now it's time to get things started with the most sensational inspirational celebration of 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 to 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 just makes 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 15 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 salmon friends featuring puppets made out of cut up clothes each episode was about five minutes long and it kind of looks 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 things seem to happen to people who don't drink nashes and then within a few years on national late night shows often you do lip syncs that look a lot like what we'd recognize today as drag numbers i've grown accustomed to your face [Music] 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 the 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 [Music] as soon as it debuted in 1969 sesame street was an instant hit both on tv and live events behind the scenes everyone was working frantically night and 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 he loved to be the center of attention richard hunt didn't care one wit what anyone thought about him he started in the early seasons with background characters here he is doing some bats he was the back half of snuffy he was ernie's right hand but before long he moved on to named characters like bert's nephew brad you're brad how are you 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 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 of years and charles said what i remember is richard calling me 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 belong 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 the air in the 1970s around this time there was a conservative movement to fire teachers who were suspected of being gay that took the form of the briggs initiative in california if sesame street included anything even remotely queer the backlash would have been overwhelming at the very most audiences might have read something into the relationship between ernie and bert i don't talk to girls very much that was something the company denied as well as bert's creator frank oz when the topic came up oz would say quote they're not of course i created bert i know what and who he is or at least that's what frank oz said it first keep that one in mind we're gonna 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 and burt discourse that just didn't fit into the script but i've got a video about all of 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 prime time 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 it was entitled sex and violence here's richard playing the role of lust on the never aired pilot uh listen lust you better get right up to the studio because we're starting in just a couple of minutes huh sure love you sweetheart 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 into the thing i was 18 and i was really energetic and uh you know i'd say yeah sure everything you want to do boss no problem i talked a lot like him 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 into 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 the relationship between beaker who's played by richard and bunsen played by muppet performer dave goals oh beaky poo 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 a decade so remember that they set it up here because we're going to come back to that too aside from the occasional gay reference they were also the guests many of whom were queer themselves so john liberace vincent price even 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 are guests who are advocating for gay rights in real life like charles aznavour who you've probably never heard of but back in the 1970s 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 was in 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 another guest was the dancer rudolf nuriev who was queer here he is in a steam room with a pig trying to get into his armpits when nurif met richard hunt backstage the first thing the dancer said to him was you love to suck 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 in the 1970s he dated he partied he had gay friends meanwhile the muppet show was watched by 235 million people every week in a hundred plus countries but as instantly as people recognize scooter and statler and janus almost nobody recognized richard or knew that the man behind these beloved characters was gay or were 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 them 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 directing many of the spin-offs and specials in his personal life the hiv epidemic was just starting to decimate a 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's 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 to create a more peaceful world speaking just for myself i can tell you that this show meant a lot to me as a kid 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 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 when we 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 manuel 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 and in a later interview richard said that this episode was personal for him that 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 if somebody drew pictures like moki or or somebody built a 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 that they left behind 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 that 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's 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 people 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 it 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 very 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 through 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 the 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 you yourself will start to see what everybody sees [Music] this memorial was one of the last time that all these performers were all together two years later richard fell ill with age-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 than the years since have continued to grow more open and more inclusive for example remember the little bunsen beaker moment from the muppet show that little aspect of their characters would return in various appearances over the years [Music] and by the 2015 muppet show they're wearing each other's clothes on something bigger why are you wearing each other's clothes if it happens outside of work we don't own an explanation oh 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 and kids meals and henson donated all the money from that deal to glad but the biggest changes are over on sesame street there's now an openly gay actor in the cast allen who runs mr 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 his husband frank hi and my sabrina mia hi hi mia 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 burke came from frank oz who played bert at first he said flat out that they weren't gay and 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 reach out to him with stories about how meaningful the characters were to them in 2018 frank tweeted i've 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 well i found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream and it 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 it's grown to include queer characters and welcome queer fans it's like a part of him still alive [Music] here i am captain vegetable hey look i caught a couldn't i be a dancer or a singer i don't want to go to hollywood hey if you ask me you should get a new dancer i know i'm very talented no i 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 then you need a beach ball [Music] oh 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 [Music] in making this video i dug up a ton of stories that i didn't have room for in the script more about ernie and bert about other gay guests on the muppet show and about david bowie's cod piece and 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 think thanks to everyone who helped me with this video joshua over at muppet history on twitter for suggesting this video and providing a ton of research j max stein who's writing biography of richard hunt and shared interviews with me for more check out jessicamackstein.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 magically heated milking machine

Channel: Matt Baume

Views: 315,913

Keywords:

Id: AwwdwFTuLRY

Length: 19min 3sec (1143 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021