As I do at the end of every week, I’ve been waiting patiently for Saturday Night. Speaking as someone who thinks a lot about the history of Saturday Night Live and the ups and downs of Jason Reitman’s filmography, I would’ve been first in line to see this movie whether it’s a classic or a catastrophe. But then we learned that the film would be featuring Jim Henson as a character, and suddenly Saturday Night became important to folks like us.
Saturday Night – a film dramatizing the lead-up to the premiere of Saturday Night Live, which featured the Muppets’ “Land of Gortch” characters – will be released widely in theaters on October 11th, but it opened early in select cities, including at our local theater in New York. We’ll be revealing all about Jim’s appearance (and little from the rest of the film), so spoiler alerts are on!
Before we talk about Jim Henson, let’s talk about the movie as a whole. Jason Reitman has directed 10 feature films, and I would argue that some are brilliant (i.e. Juno, Thank You For Smoking) and some are among the worst movies I’ve ever seen (I’m looking at you, Labor Day), so this could’ve landed anywhere. And in my professional opinion as a guy who watches a lot of movies, Saturday Night is almost exactly in the middle. Not great, not terrible, but perfectly adequate.
The highlight of the film was in the casting, with so many names we recognize paired up with actors who actually resemble them or match their voices. I’m sure that Muppet fans appreciated seeing portrayals of two Muppet Show guest stars (Gilda Radner and Milton Berle), one Muppets Tonight guest star (Billy Crystal) and two Follow That Bird cameos (Chevy Chase and Laraine Newman).
Hiding within Saturday Night are several much more interesting movies. The wacky SNL cast, a spiraling Milton Berle, the aloof Andy Kaufman, and a rebellious George Carlin all seem to be appearing in much more interesting stories, but the audience was forced to stick with the dull and uninteresting Lorne Michaels. Among those more interesting folks is, of course, Jim Henson.
Nicholas Braun portrayed both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman (there’s no clear reason for the double-casting, but it is a little bit of an unofficial Fantastic Miss Piggy Show reunion). Braun did a decent job with what he’d been given, giving Jim his signature soft voice and towering height. Unfortunately, we also have to mention the fact that Braun is currently facing allegations that he’s been inappropriate with underage minors, and we recommend you do your own research to learn more about this issue.
The portrayal of Jim Henson in the movie Saturday Night is a continuation of his treatment on the first season of the realSaturday Night Live. Famously derided by John Belushi as “mucking fuppets,” the Muppets were mocked by the Saturday Night Live cast and dismissed by the writers, who fought over who had to write for them (the Muppet staff were not allowed to write for their characters).
Seemingly everyone involved recognized that it was not a good fit. So the fact that the Muppets are portrayed in Saturday Night as out of step with the rest of the show is not surprising. What is striking to me, however, is the way in which Jim is belittled.
To be clear, Jim only appears in three very brief scenes. In a move that is somewhat Birdland meets 30 Rock, the camera follows Lorne Michaels producing Saturday Night Live, passing Jim in the hallway for just a few quick lines of dialog.
But it’s enough to be annoying to Muppet fans.
He’s first shown coming out from behind the King Ploobis and Vazh puppets when someone pretends to shoot them with an invisible gun. “Violence, man?” he asks in close to a hippie whine. He goes on to tell the person they should think of the puppets as their costars, showing a level of preciousness he was not known for with his puppets, some of whom ended up in his kid’s toy bin to be tossed around the living room.
(By the way, the brief glimpses of Ploobis and Vazh puppets look great on screen – better than the photos we’ve seen. It may be for the best that we never see them being performed, but it’s truly amazing that these two have now officially made their feature film debut!)
And as for violence, I’m pretty sure no one has killed off more Muppets than Jim Henson himself. Wontkins alone tested the limits of how many ways to eliminate felt and Crazy Harry was created just to blow things up. The very next television special the Muppets would do was titled “Sex and Violence.”
In another scene, Jim asks Lorne Michaels about the script since he has yet to see what is written for the Muppets and then he complains that he found his Muppets in sexually compromising positions and with a sign that says “f*@k rags for rent.”
“I know what that means,” he says like a child making sure his older siblings know he gets a sex joke. Lorne and his associate walk away laughing, almost certainly at Jim’s naivete and expense.
In his next scene he tells Lorne, “I know what people say when a man has his arm up a puppet,” and goes on to tell Lorne he believes there is room for puppetry for adults on TV. Which turns out to be true, but in the context of the scene comes off as if Jim is trying to needlessly justify his life’s work in a 30-second elevator pitch to a guy who isn’t interested.
A final scene is a passing glimpse of Jim and (a silent) Frank Oz finally getting the script for the Muppet scene and Jim saying “Oh, no.”
Jim’s portrayal is such a mixed bag. The connection between the SNL staff and the Muppets team have a well-documented history, which is reflected on screen. But the writers of Saturday Night took it an extra step further, pushing Jim into a thin-skinned parody of himself, taking his art too seriously and still thinking of himself as a Sesame Street performer over all. I get that this is meant to evoke additional conflict, but Jim becomes a punching bag, and the Muppets a punchline.
Of course, it’s a story where everyone ends up fine. Spoiler alert, Saturday Night Live does go on… and on… and on, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025. But you know what else has a milestone birthday next year? The Muppets, who went on to become the most widely watched television show for a time, airing in 106 countries with 235 million viewers each week. Someone should make a movie out of that.
Obviously, people aren’t going to see a movie about Saturday Night Live to see Jim Henson. If that’s what someone is looking for, there is a recent Emmy Award-winning documentary, Idea Man, about his life where people took time and care to show who this person was. Maybe check that out, why don’t ya.
People are, however, going to Saturday Night to watch creators and artists and people who took risks to follow a vision that redefined what television could be. It’s a missed opportunity that Jim isn’t counted as part of that.
Interestingly, while watching the zany madness of backstage, chaos of technical difficulties, moody stars, artists feeling they weren’t being appreciated, I was actually reminded of another show that would come to be fondly associated with the 70’s, guest hosted by comedians and musicians, making people laugh with innovative sketches, silly jokes, and yes, even some violence.
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by Joe Hennes and Drake Lucas
