Jim Martin is a lifelong puppeteer. He was Garry Gnu on the Great Space Coaster and he worked on Sesame Street for 22 years. We talked about his distinguished career and his efforts to save and reshow The Great Space Coaster.
0:27 – Jim talks about how he got into puppeteering.
1:20 – Jim talks about what puppets he liked and the fairy tale worlds he liked putting them in.
3:25 – Jim talks about how his career progressed.
5:32 – Jim compares animated characters versus puppet characters.
6:10 – Jim talks about his time with Great Space Coaster.
7:20 – Jim talks about the business side of making the show including directing.
8:24 – Jim talks about how great a guest Mark Hamill was on the show. Mark loves puppets and enjoyed being on the show.
14:15 – Jim Martin was on Sesame Street for 22 years doing oscar the grouch’s right hand and also directed some of the shows.
15:00 – Jim talks about the different ways a puppeteer works.
15:55 – Jim jokes about how Ron Burgandy was stolen from Garry Gnu.
17:22 – Jim talks about what it takes to be a puppet performer.
18:15 – Jim talks about what happened to the ownership of the Great Space Coaster after the show was over.
22:29 – Jim talks about how great it is to see old versions of the show on youtube.
23:05 – Jim talks about licensing challenges with re-showing the Great Space Coaster.
24:53 – Jim talks about his inspirations.
31:10 – They have a website at Thegreatspacecoaster.tv where people can find out more about how the show was created. They’re on twitter and facebook at TheGreatSpaceCoaster.
Links of interest
http://thegreatspacecoaster.tv/
https://twitter.com/tgsc_official
https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatSpaceCoaster/
For more of “Science Fiction and the Fantastic Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi
Guests: Jim Martin
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: howdy doody, captain kangaroo, puppeteering, jim henson, muppet show, big bird, great space coaster, Mark Hamill, Mr. Spaghettio, sesame street, puzzle place, teenage mutant ninja turles, Ron Burgandy, sunbow productions, sony, hasbro, youtube, mr. rogers, jazz