THE DARK CRYSTAL, THE LABYRINTH, any MUPPET movie ever, you think of one thing, the amazing creatures brought to life by Jim Henson’s Creature shop. SYFY last year brought us an amazing reality show competition called JIM HENSON’S CREATURE SHOP CHALLENGE and I was super excited to see it as one of the Comic-Con Panels.
Kirk Thatcher one of the main judges moderated the panel with host Gigi Edgley, and judge Beth Hathaway. Also on the panel was winner Robert Bennett, Melissa Doss Diwa runner-up, contestant Lex Rudd, and Ivonne Escoto.
Here are some Fun Facts from the Creature Shop Challenge Panel:
- Contestants couldn’t talk with each other the first day in the house.
- They could only call home once a week for 15 minutes
- They had to build their own creature and film it to get on the show.
- Many of the contestants had to learn as they competed since some have never worked with foam or mechanics before.
- All the contestants had help making the forms for their sculpts since they were busy doing everything from mechanics to costumes.
- Even though the show was one of SYFY’s highest rated, the channel did not pick it up for a second season.
- No announcement has been made if there will be a second season, but they are hoping.
- They had to film the finale several times, the other contestants knew who the winner was before filming.
- The power went out right before the Kirck was telling Robert he had won the show. They had to film it again.
- Each of the contestants there even without winning has come back to work with the Jim Henson company at one point this last year.
THE END!
