Don Sahlin

For more than a decade, Don Sahlin was the Muppets' top designer/builder. Hw worked very closely with Jim, who remembered his time with Sahlin fondly. "The way Don and I used to work, I would generally do a little scribble on a scrap of paper-which Don would regard with a certain reverence as being the 'essence' which he was working toward. The work was a pleasant cooperative effort during which we would talk about the character and often change it quite a bit....Don had a very simple way of working-reducing all the nonessential things and homing in on what was important....[He] had more to do with the basic style that people think of as 'the Muppets' than anybody else.
"I loved the way Don played. Throughout his life he would play-pick up some bit of feathers and attach a long rubber band to it, stretch it down the hall, and release it as you came into the room. Or he'd pose a puppet on the john. He had this sense of playfulness that he actually used, and inspiration would come out of the free-release moments."
Don's playfulness affected everyone-Jim included. Knowing that Jim worked late, Don once set up an elaborate practical joke in their 53rd Street office. If Jim were to open the bathroom door in the middle of the night, the shower curtain would part, revealing a giant, monstrous face. As it turned out, Jim may or may not have used the bathroom that night; he never said a word about Don's prank to anyone.

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