As an author, I can appreciate that every writer approaches their subject in a different way. The best biographies of creative people I've read, such as Philip Norman's John Lennon: The Life or David Michaelis' portrait of Charles Schulz Schulz and Peanuts tell you about the individual, what influenced their work, and what its appeal was to the masses so if you knew nothing about the person, you would understand their place in the pop cultural pantheon. Too often Jones assumes you are familiar with the material he discusses, and he can't be bothered to describe the humorous premise of the classic "Mahna Mahna" sketch or the insane appeal of Gonzo. His description of Fraggle Rock barely mentions the witty Uncle "Traveling" Matt segments that illustrated the show's theme of understanding between different cultures by showing how Matt, a Fraggle, misunderstood the world of the "silly creatures," aka humans, by humorously misinterpreting our everyday practices.
Even worse are the factual omissions. Jones got much of his information through personal interviews of living Henson associates and family members and "unpublished" interviews from the deceased, but this lifelong Muppets freak couldn't believe how much he left out. The most shocking omission is the failure to credit Jeff Moss, the writer of the biggest Muppets Top 40 hit "Rubber Duckie," Sesame Street favorite "People in Your Neighborhood," and the soundtrack to the film The Muppets Take Manhattan. (Jones does manage to credit almost every other composer of every other Muppet project, though.) He mentions that Life magazine devoted one page to Street's debut but fails to mention the the publication's main competitor Look gave it an even more in-depth multi-page spread. He mention that The Muppet Show's makers unsuccessfully attempted to reunite The Beatles, but ignores that John Lennon was one of the Muppets' biggest fans, even referencing Cookie Monster in one of his songs. In his discussion of Muppet/celebrity collaborations that led up to The Muppet Show he neglects the long-lost 1974 Emmy-nominated TV special Out To Lunch that teamed the Mupppets with the likes of Elliott Gould, Barbara Eden and the adult cast of The Electric Company, nor does he think it worthwhile to include the Street cast's big screen debut in 1985's Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird. He even misses the in-joke of two Fraggles being named after stage/film terminology; another, Mokey, that was named after one of Henson's childhood friends and a third character, Marjorie the Trash Heap, that was originally rejected by the makers of Sesame Street before being resuscitated for the show.
Jones also has no feel for the coincidental connections that make history fun. He mentions that a pre-fame Tim Burton worked as a puppeteering extra on The Muppet Movie but doesn't note that one of Henson daughter Lisa's first assignments as an executive at Warner Brothers was overseeing his film Batman. He also dutifully notes every vacation Henson took with his kids but misses that Frank Oz's first non-Muppet directorial project Little Shop of Horrors employed Henson offspring Brian and Heather in on- and off-screen roles. The author can't even finish the story right, neglecting to mention that Henson's abandoned screenplay Tale of Sand was recently turned into a graphic novel.
I'm probably giving this book a higher grade than it deserves, but I did learn a lot from it. However, it's far from definitive due to Jones' information omissions. For the ultimate Henson biography, I highly recommend Christopher Finch's 1993 book Jim Henson:The Works. At least that includes Henson's quirky and often heartwarming hand-designed Christmas cards.
Grade: a very grudging Statler and Waldorf-esque B+