Henson of course was the creator of Sesame Street, The Muppets, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and a load of other well-known works, before his unfortunate, early passing. The older I get, however, the more I realise what a wunderkind, famed creator he was *well* before Sesame Street.
Time Piece was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1966, so it certainly got some eyes on it at the time, even if it isn't very well-remembered by posterity. If pressed, I'd say it's a surreal, refreshing exploration of how a curious, creative person experiences time, and vice-versa. Or something like that.
It's only 9min if you feel like giving it a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJhcDhHAH1k
Just in general, I'm relentlessly amazed by how vastly more creative Henson was than I even imagined as a kid, and that was already after falling in love with all his iconic stuff.
(this post dedicated to my man @PugJesus@piefed.social)
I'd bet that once Lorne Michaels is dead, there will end up being numerous skeletons emerging from the closet. No real basis for that assumption, just a gut feeling.
He's one of those Weinstein sorts of figures, who could either start or end your career as a comedian with a snap of his fingers. I can't imagine many in that position would feel comfortable speaking up about anything he does as a result.
That all could well be true, and altho I feel like Michaels could certainly be the stereotypical 'pitiless showbiz boss' at times, I do get the sense that based on what the heavyweight comedians have said about him (starting with the very first cast), that he's arguably a better media boss than most.
If I understand correctly, he's moreso been a guy under fairly unique pressure from the bosses above to consistently deliver ratings, and comedy isn't exactly like that, and he's pushed back when he can in a lot of cases, including going to bat for various comedians.
The firing of Norm MacDonald is debatable either way, of course.
Me, I don't have a 'finished' opinion of Michaels, but I want to say that he's a better boss and human than you'd usually expect in his position, which is yeah-- the ability to fuck with underlings lives in various ways.
That all said, the various realities of what new hires need to do in order to get a proper audition go back to... I don't know when. Probably to the dawn of civilisation. So I wouldn't say that's off the table there, with the female (or possibly male) comedians not being willing to talk about that unless Lorne Michaels was a complete monster like Weinberg.
(sorry my lack of proofreading, but I'm not feeling too well)