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Moriarty’s One Thing I Love Today! Jim Henson's THE STORYTELLER!
Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
I had something else planned originally, but when I got out of DRILLBIT TAYLOR today, the first thing I wanted to do was get home and throw on my DVD of some of Anthony Minghella’s work on THE STORYTELLER, a Jim Henson series that I dearly love.
“When people told their past with stories... explained their present with stories... foretold their future with stories... the best place by the fire was kept for... The Storyteller.”
Before Minghella was known as a producer or a director, he made his bones as a working screenwriter. I haven’t seen GRANGE HILL, one series he wrote for, or any of his other early episodic work, but when NBC aired this strange and ambitious anthology show in 1987 and 1988, I was hypnotized by it. I have a long-standing fascination with the way we’ve bastardized fairy tales and folk stories over the years, the way we’ve sanitized them, and I admire anyone who makes an effort to preserve or understand these stories in their original form.
Minghella was the sole screenwriter on the nine episodes, and his work is literate, witty, and graceful. I’m sitting here watching “Sapsorrow” right now, and even his exposition is handled with keen intelligence. There were a number of different directors on the show, like Steve Barron and Jon Amiel, as well as Henson himself, but there was one unifying style to the entire series, and a big part of that was because of the creative choices made by Minghella. I love that they didn’t use any of the big standard fairy tales, but you can see similarities between these stories and stories you’re more familiar with, like “Sapsorrow” and “Cinderella,” for example. More than that, you can see how there are similarities in all of these stories, like the way three is always used as a number of importance or the way prophecy never quite plays out the way you might expect. It’s smart stuff, but it’s also (and this is something that seems mandatory in a show called THE STORYTELLER) just plain good storytelling. These are engrossing tales, and these may well stand as the definitive modern tellings of most of them, since I can’t imagine anyone else trying again anytime soon or bettering Minghella if they do try.
I liked his work as a writer/director quite a bit, and I love THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY and TRULY MADLY DEEPLY in particular, but tonight, it was watching THE STORYTELLER that most made me appreciate just how much he loved the very act of telling a story. The fairy tales themselves in THE STORYTELLER are compelling, but what makes the series special is the host material, featuring John Hurt as The Storyteller and Brian Henson as his dog. Hurt tells the stories to the dog, and in subtle, wonderful ways, they interact with the stories a bit. It’s an obvious device, but it’s a great showcase for Hurt, and it might be my favorite puppet work by Brian Henson ever. The dog is sarcastic at times, but he gets deeply emotionally invested in the stories, reacting with anger or sorrow when he feels like the story has betrayed him, or when he’s too upset by some character’s fate. All storytellers love to interact with their audience to some extent, and the brilliance of what Minghella does here is that he tells you a story, he shows you how wonderful it can be to tell that story, and he gets to insert the audience’s reactions right into the fabric of the piece.
Made in the verrrrrry early days of digital post-production, THE STORYTELLER was as cutting-edge as anything on TV in terms of how it was made at the time. Looking at it now, it’s held together more by scotch tape and good intentions than anything else, and that dated quality may hurt your chances showing it to very young kids who won’t see the sort of gloss and polish they’re used to with most stuff they watch now. But the quality of Minghella’s writing here... as with most everything he touched... is what guarantees that these versions of these stories, as told by this storyteller, will endure.
Here are some lovely extracts from the series, courtesy of YouTube:
I love how blunt and no-nonsense the writing in this one is, how Minghella doesn’t waste a single word, especially at the start, and I think it’s a beautiful image that carries you from Hurt to the story itself at the very start.
That opening is so cool. I wish this series had run long enough to see them redo that a few seasons in, a little slicker, the way the TWILIGHT ZONE openings got more polished over time.
The approach to storytelling in “Hans My Hedgehog” is so much warmer and more personal than in “Sapsorrow” above that it’s hard to believe the same writer adapted both stories. And I love how they use the puppets in this episode. Nothing cute about it. It’s practically ERASERHEAD at one point.
I highly recommend you pick this one up if you don’t already have it. These nine episodes are all worth revisiting, and I’m glad I was able to enjoy them today.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
“When people told their past with stories... explained their present with stories... foretold their future with stories... the best place by the fire was kept for... The Storyteller.”
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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That's all I remember of the show. Just being scared. I don't even remember why. I should probably go check it out. I have virtually no memories of it except that it existed and I'm pretty sure I saw at least one episode.
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i really miss the golden days of the henson company. they really need to get back to their roots and come out with some relevant stuff again. if the announcement that the "forgetting sarah marshall" gang is really doing the next muppetts flick is true, than that could finally be the kick in the balls this studio needed, lets hope that turns out great.
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...making of thing from The Storyteller my dad had taped off TV when I was a kid. I watched it over and over and over. I rented the show again not long ago, and its not much to write home about, unless your a puppet fetishist like I am.
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It used to scare the crap out of me! My younger cousin couldn't sleep with his hedgehog toy in the room after he saw the hedgehog episode.
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I still have ropey quality VHS off-air copies from 1988. Anyone interested in fantasy , TV or storytelling should watch this series. My personal faves: Hans My Hedgehog and The Soldier and Death.
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I always thought it was better than the greek stories I remember being on just afterwards.
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I was going to mention this show in the actual obit but this is a fitting tribute. "The Soldier and Death" with the late Bob Peck is a classic.
Grange Hill was a cultural phenomenon when it started in the late seventies. Not sure what seasons Minghella worked on but it was a gritty, for the time, school drama series that kids across the UK watched and it was canceled a few weeks ago after 30 years on the air. -
in a wig and beard.
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this is my favorite thing he did. It is very personal to me, as I grew up with it as a kid. To this day, it is one of the pinacles of fantasy in my mind and is used to judge all other fantasy.
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i was just reading the BBC which had various quotes from directors actors and producers, all saying what a great guy he was, yadda yadda, but this is much better: showing something most people overlooked about his work and pointing to the difference it made.
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A real genious. I still miss him.
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Back in 2004, I recall walking through Blockbuster, and finding this(recalling it from childhood) and picking it up. Mori is right, the shows production hasnt aged awesomely, but alot of that is the actual quality of the image, and not the sets and puppets which are just as much fun as anything else Henson did. Seperated from the response I had to it as a child, I was most impressed that second go-round by the way the stories are adapted, and the way Mingella allowed them to follow the natural path of the original stories, and sometimes the endings weren't all happy but partly bittersweet.
In fact, so good was the writing on some of these, that they achieved the same effect that Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast had-conveying a classic story with the childlike wonder befitting it, and letting the seams of adult anxiety show through.
Since that release of theStoryteller, they have since had another that combines both this edition and a 1990's revamp that did Greek mythology. Michael Gambon was the storyteller in that series, and I think it ws on HBO or something. I havent seen them, and am not sure if Mingella wrote for it or not. -
not blockbuster..
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Hensons gang put the same kind of love and detail into each episode as they did for the Dark Crystal.
Hans my hedgehog is still my favourite , but they were all good .
Nice to see Fairy tales handled with such charm and serious tone . -
Can someone confirm if these two episodes were NOT shown on UK tv? I have a strange suspicion that these 2 particular episodes were perhaps not shown at all because of the 69 sex position (my jaw dropped there!) and the uneasy daughter marrying father. I would have remembered these episodes clearly. Loved the series though. I am now going to buy the DVD, thanks for the reminder Moriarty. My favourite episode was the one with the Sack.
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back on nbc it always had jim henson with a white lion telling whats next. usually had a muppet thing before it. am i right or nuts?
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Not often I find myself clicking a You Tube link and then watching on and on. I forgot how fun that show was. I kind of did a double take when I realized the evil sisters were Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The final clinch in Hans My Hedgehog with all the shapeshifting has been stuck in my head since it first aired. The princess's line about snoodling and hugging him to bits was even became a saying between me and my girlfriend who loved fairy tales. Ah, too bad life doesn't always work out like fairy tales.
Weird. When I heard Minghella had died I didn't realized he was connected to something so personally iconic in my life. Makes me feel extra sad now. -
All-time favourite episode ever. Those devils were genius. Wow I loved this series.
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EDIT
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Never heard of it. Looked it up. It's called Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths, by the way. It appears to be out of print, but I'm gonna start ebaying it now.Also, it appears that Minghella has a creator credit, but the writing credit goes to Nigel Williams, who seems to write a lot of British mini-series.
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...or something like that? I think it is. Powerful stuff, though a bit traumatic for me as a kid.
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**possible spoiler** Did he have a heart attack or something? Someone crushed an egg, or something, which caused the giant to die. Powerful stuff. Was that in this series?
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Mar 19, 2008 8:17:57 AM CDT
I think Fozzy really wants to fuck Miss Piggy but Kermit is fact
by donwillymo
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Mar 19, 2008 8:20:42 AM CDT
Gonzo had a fling with Piggy b/c his nose hit gspot perfectly
by donwillymo
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Great article Mori, I've rewatched this show and found that still works today for me. Yes the effects arent as impresive as they were back then but a good story is timeless. I remember seeing the one about the soldier trapping the death and not being able to get it out of my mind for months. They should show it to kids today. Let em see truly magic storytelling for once.
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Mar 19, 2008 8:24:59 AM CDT
I think Anthony Minghella cured cancer too...and aids too.
by donwillymo
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What was not to love?
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Actually, I looked it up on Bestbuy and Deep Discount and it is being sold with the original Storyteller as a compilation for 14.99, which is a good deal if you don't already own the first Storyteller collection.
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RIP anthony minghella
his early work on grange hill was brill,every night when i got in from school we'd sit there the whole family eating dinner and watching grange hill the big star of the show was todd carty who played the young tearaway with a heart tucker jenkins' he also played oswyn(the young lad) in krull. the writing on grange hil was fantastic and touched on a lot of hard hitting subjects for a kids tv show in the late 70s early 80s and is till running on the bbc.the first four seasons are available to buy at the following link http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/6-/Search.html?searchstring=grange+hill&searchtype=R2&searchsource=1 -
The Storyteller started out as a standalone series with Hans My Hedgehog. Eventually it was folded into the second half of the Jim Henson Hour on NBC. The Greek Myths version came later. I loved the first series with those excellent German Folk Tales. That's probably the greatest German contribution to the world, folk tales.
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...at least when I was a little guy. I also remember not wanting to watch this show after the Hedgehog episode because I nearly shit my pants from fear...
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All the episodes were shown in the UK - I have them all recorded off-air.
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Two days in a row you win the AICN Asshole Award. Congrats.
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were shown on Brit TV, but at something like 6.30 AM on a sunday morning!!!!!They were still pretty good , but much darker in tone , and Michael gambon , seemed an odd replacement for Hurt{ he had no chemistry with the dog at all!}and was visually rather boring.
The make-ups and animatronics were still awesome though , especially Medusa and her sisters
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There was no cable in my town, so stuff like this was a real treat. I happend to see this set at WallMart and picked it up. The nostalgia came flooding back! Watching it now I have some issues with it, I didnt like the Icarus episode, but the hedghog one was brilliant.
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on something 20 years old. hey did you see star wars yet? it's awesome. you chould check it out.
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thanks for your work on this new collumn. I like it alot, and it was nice to see someone recognize this after so many years. Also, thanks for the heads-up on Adam's Apples. I've added to the netflix list. I figure we should express our thanks, since I think this article a day thing is quite refreshing.Stick with it! Great work.
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The Storyteller was no doubt the strongest aspect of this hour, but there were some other interesting aspects as well-Lighthouse Island(I think this is what it was called) and The Dream Child and some classic Muppet related stuff(with Kermit and what not). Does anyone know where one can find all of that material? With a limited amount of Henson stuff out there, it would be nice if all of it was available?
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Back in 89 when this was on, I distinctly remember it often being shuffled around and canceled, and not all of it being aired. So, why The Storyteller, but not any of the other stuff created for The Jim Henson hour, which did open with Henson and that white lion from The Storyteller.
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I'll have to go back and check it out again. It makes me sad to think about this series because it really made a statement for the direction Henson was going in before he died. I love the Muppets and what they still are today but I can only imagine what Henson would be doing if he were still alive today.
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I was a little down, not finding it on Ebay.
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Great column for a great show! I'd love to see the Greek Myths series some day. Drew, being a Poppa and all, how 'bout doing a semi-regular column on children's DVDs for us other parental types? I don't let my kids watch commercial television, so am always looking for discs to add to our library. Lately, they've really been getting into the "Old School" Sesame Street and classic Electric Company box sets with episodes from the '70s, which is Nostalgia City for me.
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though I wouldn't mind busting out the VHS's I have at home riddled with bad tracking for old times sake. Donwillymo, you must be a lonely one.
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still remember that episode but none of the others. sorry for the double post
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Fucking hilarious, dude. That was my instantaneous reaction - "Why is Dubya on that DVD cover?"
This show was fucking great. They still run it on Nick when they either run out of other shit to put on or fall asleep at the control decks. -
Each has it's own look that is rooted in the culture but uniform across the whole series. Top notch actors all around - Miranda and Joley Richardson, Brenda Blethyn, Johnathan Pryce, French and Saunders, Alison Doody...
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...Looking through that magic glass of water to see where death was sitting... I remember that so clearly...
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Just watched the episode "Soldier and Death" and damn what an epic story told in just half an hour. It has bloody everything, devils, death, hell, heaven, whistling, dancing, magical item including the sack traded for biscuits, several years span. This episode was directed by Jim Henson, I still miss him. But what a great series.
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I'd just like to thank my mother and father for supporting me...and you for following my progress...couldn't do w/o you. You like me you really like me!
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