Talk:Jim Henson#rfc B322AF0

{{dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment | course = Wikipedia:Wiki_Ed/Columbia_College_Chicago/Equitable_Futures_-_Internet_Cultures_and_Open_Access_(Spring_2024) | assignments = Asrogers23 | reviewers = Asegura01 | start_date = 2024-01-22 | end_date = 2024-05-10 }}

— Assignment last updated by Asegura01 (talk) 19:09, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

There have been some recent revisions to the first sentence of this article. So let's discuss...

Was Henson

a puppeteer, producer, director and filmmaker -

a puppeteer, animator, inventor, creative producer, director and filmmaker -

or was he

a puppeteer, animator, actor, inventor, producer, director and filmmaker.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• voice acting is a recognized profession in acting. The people who provide voices for puppets or for cartoons are regarded as actors - like Mel Blanc or Daws Butler or June Foray among others. Henson provided the voice for the character of Kermit plus other Muppet characters, therefore he is an actor.
  
• Per MOS:LEAD, the lead section is an introduction to an article and a summary of its most important contents and per MOS:ROLEBIO "The lead sentence should describe the person as they are commonly described by reliable sources."
  
• The term "filmmaker" is commonly understood to describe many of the top-level jobs in the film industry - one can be a producer or a director or a multi-hypenate director-producer-writer and be regarded as a filmmaker. Perhaps the creative producer, director, and filmmaker terms could be combined into the overarching term "filmmaker"?
• Though Henson did create the Muppets, there is nothing in the main article text that mentions inventing or inventor or inventions (even in the version I initially reverted to and the version that presently stands) so that term has been removed from the infobox and the first sentence.

And, as I quoted above, regardless of what anyone here might think, it all depends on how Henson is described in reliable sources.

So let's discuss, take a look at how reliable sources describe Jim Henson, and come to an editorial consensus. Shearonink (talk) 20:41, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

:The [https://deadline.com/2024/04/ron-howard-jim-henson-idea-man-documentary-1235895563/ Deadline article] on Idea Man describes Henson as "a puppeteer, filmmaker, artist, performer and inventor and the [https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/jim-henson-documentary-disney-ron-howard Vanity Fair] article on Idea Man also describes him as an "innovating experimental filmmaker" and "Muppet impresario". As the filmmaker terminology encompasses such terms as producer and director, we can combine those into "filmmaker". Lord Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 00:47, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

::Thanks {{u|Sjones23}} - I took a look at Filmmaking & its sources. Agreed. - Shearonink (talk) 01:20, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Per Jim Henson: The Biography, by Brian Jay Jones, p.209: On Tuesday, July 30, 1974, impressed with Jane Roberts' The Seth Material, Henson visited her in Elmira, NY. M.mk (talk) 03:23, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

:Here is the passage:

:Brian Jay Jones, Jim Henson, the Biography, 2016, page 209:

:"There were spiritual matters to tend to that summer, too. Over the past several months, Jim had been

:reading the metaphysical, The Seth Material, written by Jane Roberts, who claimed to be channeling a male

:personality that called itself, Seth. In her books -- and through Seth -- Roberts explored life after death and

:the pros and cons of reincarnation, with the underlying message that 'You create your own reality.' That

:intrigued Jim -- it was a message that must have resonated with a man who regularly spent his days

:creating completely new personalities at the end of his arm -- and on July 30, he drove to Elmira, New

:York, to pay his respects to Roberts and her husband. 'I find this inspired material very beautiful,' Jim

:said of The Seth Material. 'It puts everything into a harmonious totality that I just love.' Jim's interest in

:other realities was no surprise to Jon Stone. 'He was always interested in getting beyond,' said Stone. 'I

:think he saw his mind as a sort of prison. He was always kind of outside of it, trying things that the rest of us just ... keep going without blinders on, down our own little path, and he was out in the woods

:somewhere. He was great.' Oz, too, understood, and listened patiently but skeptically as Jim enthused

:about Roberts and Seth. 'I didn't believe a word of them,' said Oz, 'but Jim truly believed in other realms. His willingness to believe gave him a kind of noble cause. There is a nobility in the Muppets, and Jim

:brought that.'" M.mk (talk) 18:32, 28 April 2025 (UTC)