THE FAIRY TALES OF JIM HENSON feat. TALES OF THE TINKERDEE (1962)

An exclusive audiovisually illuminated conversation w/ author Andrea Wright exploring Jim Henson’s lifelong fascination with fairy tales! As part of Through Mirrors, Webs, & Woods: A Month of Folk & Fairy Tales at PRS, a journey through the strange, magical, and transformative worlds of folk and fairy tales, 7th House and Cinemyth proudly present a very special evening exploring Jim Henson’s lifelong fascination with fairy tales and folklore, and the many ways they inspired and shaped his work throughout his career. Featuring an exclusively recorded and audiovisually illuminated conversation with author and Henson scholar Dr. Andrea Wright, rare archival materials provided by the Jim Henson Legacy, and a complete screening of Henson’s unaired fairy-tale series pilot TALES OF THE TINKERDEE (1962) from an HD scan of the original kinescope, the evening will be followed by a separate, free RSVP screening of episodes of Jim Henson’s acclaimed television series THE STORYTELLER (1987–89)*. Long before The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, fairy tales were woven through Henson’s extraordinary body of work. Spurred by a trip to Europe in 1958, the young puppeteer began developing an ultimately unfinished version of Hansel and Gretel, and over the next three decades, fairy and folk tales became a persistent, if sometimes overlooked, thread running through his work. From playful retellings of familiar stories to the creation of elaborate new fantasy worlds, Henson returned to the forms, characters, and traditions of fairy tales again and again, his restless creativity continually finding within them new possibilities for puppetry, storytelling, and world-building. It’s this often overlooked dimension of Henson’s work that Dr. Andrea Wright explores in her new book, The Fairy Tales of Jim Henson: Keeping the Best Place by the Fire, the first book devoted specifically to considering Henson as an important creator of fairy tales for the screen. In an exclusively recorded and audiovisually illuminated conversation with 7th House and Cinemyth programmers Alex McDonald and Devon Deimler, Wright will trace Henson’s engagement with the form across his career: from the unrealized Hansel and Gretel and two unaired fairy-tale series pilots, Tales of the Tinkerdee (1962) and The Land of Tinkerdee (1964), through the playful late-’60s/early-’70s “Muppetization” of Cinderella, The Frog Prince, and The Bremen Town Musicians in Tales from Muppetland. Fairy tales would turn up in some less expected corners, too, from a pair of wonderfully strange 1965 commercials for pre-shrunk Pak-Nit fabric—featuring Henson’s Hansel and Gretel surrogates, Shrinkel and Stretchel—to recurring riffs on familiar stories in Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The conversation with Dr. Wright will lead us further along this path into the 1980s, where Henson’s engagement with fairy tales expanded into the creation of elaborate worlds of his own, from the dark, intricately imagined mythology of The Dark Crystal (1982) to Labyrinth (1986), a coming-of-age fantasy drawing on Alice’s Wonderland adventures and Dorothy’s journey through Oz, and ultimately to The Storyteller (1987–89), in which Henson devoted an entire series to exploring the fairy and folk tales that had fascinated him throughout his career. Encouraged by his daughter Lisa’s folklore studies at Harvard, Henson looked beyond the best-known stories to the stranger, darker corners of the European folk-tale tradition, bringing them to life through his remarkable command of puppetry, performance, and creature-making. The program will showcase rare archival materials provided by the Jim Henson Legacy, featuring Henson’s fairy-tale-themed Wilkins Coffee commercials, the Pak-Nit Hansel and Gretel riff “Shrinkel and Stretchel,” and rare color footage of the Tinkerdee characters shot by Jim Henson himself, before concluding with a rare screening of the unaired 1962 pilot TALES OF THE TINKERDEE in its entirety, scanned in high definition from the original kinescope recording. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind, tailor-made program, presented for one night only and exclusively at the Philosophical Research Society. Come celebrate the wondrous, strange, and endlessly imaginative worlds of one of the great creative minds of the 20th century. Suitable for all ages. PLEASE NOTE: The public free RSVP for the accompanying presentation of The Storyteller is currently at capacity. However, RSVP spots are still available for Fairy Tales of Jim Henson ticket holders, who will receive priority admission to the second screening. **Upon purchase, you will receive an exclusive private RSVP link.* A separate RSVP is required for the screening. To receive priority admission, ticket holders must check in for the first program, at which time they will receive a wristband granting readmission to the theater. Public free RSVPs do not guarantee admission. Admission for public free RSVP holders is first come, first served and subject to capacity. For The Storyteller, 8:30pm is the listed door time rather than the program start time. Doors will not open 30 minutes prior as usual. Tickets: $15 (All Screenings Are In Person Only) Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions. Banner image credit: Pak-nit RX “Shrinkel and Stretchel” commercial, 1965. Courtesy of The Jim Henson Company. Jim and Jane Henson shooting a fairy tale themed Wilkins Coffee commercial, c. 1960. Photo by Del Ankers. Courtesy of The Jim Henson Company. Princess Gwendolinda and King Goshposh from Tales of the Tinkerdee. Courtesy of The Jim Henson Company. The Crystal Chamber scene from The Dark Crystal, 1982. Courtesy of The Jim Henson Company. Goblins ready for battle in Labyrinth, 1986. Courtesy of The Jim Henson Company. John Hurt and Jim Henson on the set of The Storyteller, 1988. Courtesy of The Jim Henson Company. DR. ANDREA WRIGHT Dr. Andrea Wright is a Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Development within the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Edge Hill University, United Kingdom. Her PhD focused on 1980's screen fairy tales, and she has published work on fantasy and fairy tale films, New Zealand cinema, and British television costume dramas. Her book, The Fairy Tales of Jim Henson: Keeping the Best Place by the Fire (2025, Manchester University Press) is the first book to specifically consider Henson, best known for the immensely popular The Muppet Show, as an important creator of screen fairy tales. In a chronological overview of Henson's career from the 1950s to his death in 1990, and incorporating his ongoing legacy, it explores key themes, artistic practices and innovations that make his contributions to the genre unique. Drawing upon a range of fairy tale scholarship, Dr. Wright also situates Henson's work within the wider context of the genre, specifically its conventions, themes and inherent intertextuality. ABOUT CINEMYTH Cinemyth is a screening and lecture series for taking in and seeking out the mythic dimensions of movies and considering cinema itself as a type of myth. Its home base, the Philosophical Research Society, was founded around a library of multicultural wisdom texts, which for nearly 100 years has been utilized for wide-ranging research and discussion. Cinemyth extends this same invitation to the PRS community by treating film and television as “wisdom texts” of sound and vision, stories full of truths told slant, the aesthetic creation of other-worlds, instillation of waking dreams, dismantling of prevailing myths, and (sometimes) the formation of new myths and icons. Myth is, at heart, our many-patterned ways of imagining, expressing, recognizing, and recreating meaning—whatever fantastic or everyday style that may appear in.