Ep 14 - Kirk Thatcher

The brothers are joined today by Kirk Thatcher, an Emmy award winning writer/producer, an award winning television, commercial and viral video director, as well as a creature maker and character designer for both films and television.

 

Expect to hear...

 

...How and why Kirk became an artist in spite of having parents that did not see it as a lucrative or even practical career path.

 

...what it was like to design and create creatures for Return of the Jedi, Star Trek II and III, E.T., and others.

 

...the process behind writing Muppet films and the secret to bringing Muppet characters to life.

 

MEMORABLE QUOTES BY KIRK

• “I was interested in the cinema as not only a diversion but also as a career. Seeing that there were, indeed, vocations and avocations in the industry of cinema, or film if you will, I realized that not only did I enjoy viewing these productions, but I was also quite curious and interested in making them.”
• “They’re dead. They’re dehydrated, mummified Muppets. Whereas, when we’re in the moment, and the characters come alive, particularly once you create out of yourself, that’s the magic.”
• “Performers are more than just the people who read the lines. The Muppets, because they’ve been around so long, the performers are so integral, so it has to be much more of a collaboration.”

 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

• Growing up in Los Angeles as an adopted child [05:18]
• Where Kirk discovered and developed his artistic abilities [12:48]
• Working on Return of the Jedi [18:12]
• Kirk’s life in snapshots [24:30]
• Becoming an associate producer on Star Trek IV [32:10]
• Co-writing Muppet Treasure Island [46:30]
• Bringing that “extra insanity” to storytelling and character development [52:03]
• Taking risks with the Muppets [59:27]
• Collaborating with the brothers to create Pepe the King Prawn [1:01:40]

 

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Kirk R. Thatcher is an Emmy award winning writer/producer, an award winning television, commercial and viral video director, as well as a creature maker and character designer for both films and television.

Kirk began at nineteen working at Industrial Light and Magic, designing, creating and puppeteering creatures for blockbusters such as, Return of the Jedi, Star Trek II, Star Trek III, E.T., Poltergeist, and Gremlins. He was also an associate producer on Star Trek IV, in which he had a memorable cameo as the Punk on the Bus, rocking out to the Punk anthem he both wrote and sang, called, “I HateYou!”

Kirk has co-written several Muppet films including Muppet Treasure Island and directed four television movies: “The Muppets Wizard of Oz”, which premiered at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Festival, “It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie,”  “The Muppets Letters to Santa” as well as the Lifetime Network Thanksgiving movie, “Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow” starring Mary Steenburgen. He was Supervising Producer on the Emmy Award winning ABC series, Muppets Tonight, and co-producer on the ABC series Dinosaurs, on which he designed most of the characters, working closely with one of his mentors, the Muppet’s creator Jim Henson. As well as his long form work, Kirk has directed over thirty Muppet commercials and web shorts including, Muppet’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which has been viewed over 72 Million times, and all of Neil Patrick Harris’ web comedy series, “Neil’s Puppet Dreams”. Kirk has also written episodes for the Cartoon Network series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and directed episodes of Nickelodeon’s series Lazy Town, PBS’ Sid the Science Kid and Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers. Kirk was also one of the three recurring judges on the Syfy channel series, “Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge” which had over 11 million viewers.

More recently, Kirk created, wrote, and Executive Produced a series for Netflix entitled, “The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell” with Christine McConnell and the Jim Henson company. Kirk directed every episode and the series has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes! Kirk recently directed an episode of, “The Kids are Alright” entitled, “Mailbox” for ABC Network. He also directed 3hrs of episodes of the Muppets new series, “Muppets Now” on Disney +, which debuted in 2020. He also co-wrote and co-directed the hit Muppet Live Shows that played at the Hollywood bowl and in London’s O2 stadium.  He is currently developing shows for Netflix, Disney + and the Amazon. When he isn’t busy creating or directing shows, Kirk is also a voice talent and has done many of the memorable voices on the feature films, Spaced Invaders, Gremlins II and the animated series, “Klutter” as well as playing Dr Thatch in Medal of Honor, Above and Beyond, released in December of 2020.