Jim Henson and Frank Oz/best friends

[Pug Lover]

I've noticed how over the years,Jim Henson and Frank Oz performed together a lot.They seemed to be a great puppeteer team,and have puppeteered a lot of muppets together.
Ernie & Bert
Kermit & Fozzie
Kermit & Miss Piggy
Kermit & Grover
Ernie & Cookie Monster
Kermit & Harvey Kneeslapper
(In Kaye Ballard's Muppet Show episode)Kermit & Animal
I wonder if this was because Jim and Frank were best friends in real life.I'm told that best friends tend to stick together in show business.

 

[DerekJ]

And don't forget co-directing "Dark Crystal"...

Nowadays, though, Oz's been mostly estranged from the group:
Aside from his existing distractions of being a mediocre film director, Frank also reportedly had a falling-out with Brian Henson over organization issues during "Muppets From Space", and the breaking-up and selling-off of HA! and CTW's Sesame arm didn't help resolve feelings any...

Currently, he reportedly just voiceovers most Piggy and Fozzie appearances for other performers, and will still do an occasional Grover or Cookie segment for SS--Disney wants to get him back in for a reunion project (now that Brian's gone), but so far, it's been Beatles-reunion level.

 

[Mickey Moose]

They did seem like that had a lot of fun with each other. It always seemed to me they never followed a strict script, but just had a general idea on how the sketch would run, and basically just wing it, throwing in ad-libs. At least that's how it looked to me. You could say the same about the other Muppeteer combos, but Jim & Frank seemed to have a certain unique chemisty that couldn't be duplicated by anyone else.

But maybe that's just me.

 

[sugarbritchez]

I think he (Oz) would have done a wonderful job if he would have taken over the Muppets. Maybe they wouldn't have fallen in the wayside like they have. (after Henson's death that is)

Who knows?

 

[muppetmonster]

In the 1986 "Little Shop of Horrors", the crying girl in the DDS building with the headgear was actually Jim Henson's daughter, Helen (the scene was with Bill Murray, he asked the girl what the dentist did to her). Frank Oz, being the director, said this in the commentary.

Muppetmonster