Ed Christie

Ed Christie was interviewed for one-and-a-half hours plus at the Sesame Workshop in New York, NY.  Christie talked about his early interest in the arts and his studies in art education.  He talked about how his life changed when he accepted an internship at Jim Henson’s company in the spring of 1978.  He described his continuation with Henson over the summer (when he flew to Los Angeles to work on The Muppet Movie) and his return to the company, after college graduation, in early 1979.  He described the Henson workshop in these years (noting in some detail what was done on each of the floors of the building). He detailed how the puppets and the props were stored in organized sections in Oxford files and described the step-by-step process of creating a puppet for Sesame Street. He gave his impressions of Jim Henson and his managerial style and talked about the effect his sudden death had on the company.  He talked about the various jobs he has had through the years as supervisor of Sesame Street, workshop manager, and Vice President of the company, while still retaining his title as art director.  He talked about the changing hands of the show’s production company and rights to the characters.  Additionally he spoke about his work collaborating with international producers on series based on the Sesame Street model, including shows in South Africa, Russia, and Bangladesh.  The interview was conducted by Karen Herman on July 21, 2004.