EXTINCT? THINK AGAIN! PUPPETEERS AT HENSON SHOP HAVE ADAPTED, CREATED A NEW GENERATION OF PROGRAMMING.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

For nearly four decades, the Henson name has pretty much meant ``puppet'' in the minds of Americans.

The late Jim Henson's most durable brainchild, the Muppets, and all the spinoffs from that blissfully silly start on ``Sesame Street'' all have spun out of what once were essentially socks and foam and inspiration. Those have included all-puppet movies such as ``The Dark Crystal,'' TV shows such as ``Dinosaurs!,'' Henson Creature Shop creations such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and much more.

Even after Henson's death in 1990, his children and the creative crew continued to put out an array of puppet-based programs, movies and special effects.

But whither the kingdom of the puppet in the age of the computer-generated dinosaur?

As David Barrington Holt, head of the Henson Creature Shop operation in Burbank, puts it: `` `Jurassic Park' happened and everything changed.''

The 1993 dino-sensation sent producers scurrying to dust off old scripts that were only possible, they thought, with computerized special effects.

The seamless way director Steven Spielberg wove computer-generated creatures into his box-office smash seemed to imply that digital was the only choice for truly compelling special effects. Puppets were destined to go, well, the way of the dinosaurs.

But six years post-Jurassic, Henson's puppet-based empire is dancing on far more than a string.

The latest Muppet movie - ``Muppets From Space'' - just opened, and the Creature Shop has been finishing post-production work on a live-action movie of George Orwell's ``Animal Farm'' while shooting the sequel to another Spielberg dino-fest, ``The Flintstones Viva Las Vegas.''

In recent times, the company has created sophisticated gorilla suits for ``George of the Jungle,'' remote-controlled animatronic animals for the ``Dr. Dolittle'' remake, the massive hydraulic robots in ``Lost in Space'' and the expressive snowman in ``Jack Frost.''

They're continuing to put out ``Brats of the Lost Nebula,'' a sci-fi children's TV show influenced by Japanese anime, and routinely create television ads, especially in Europe.

And the company's big new venture is ``Farscape,'' an hourlong sci-fi show that's quickly become the highest-rated original programming on cable's Science Fiction Channel.

All this is happening as the company is absorbing what it can from the technological revolution around it, melding computer-imaging techniques and remote-control mechanical servo devices into the ancient arts so long synonymous with the Henson name.

``We think there's a big future for all the technology, and certainly computers are serving us in all sorts of ways,'' Barrington Holt said. ``But we believe, as Jim did, that there's something about puppets.''

Now son Brian is head of Jim Henson Studios, trying to figure out how to finance the ambitious ``Farscape'' while overseeing production work on three continents.

The show is part of an evolving experiment by the organization to develop computer skills over the past nine years, Henson said. It already has paid creative dividends, such as a 1991 technical Oscar for lip-synching technology for its remote-control puppets and a share of a 1996 Oscar for visual-effects work on ``Babe.''

``When the movie came out, we were besieged by calls from the press: `Well, what did you do in the movie?' '' Barrington Holt said. ``We told them we made the puppets. They said, `What puppets?' But when you do your job well, you can't tell they're puppets.''

The company has delved into computer-generated imagery quite a bit, using standard 3-D animation packages from companies such as Alias/Wavefront and SoftImage along with what Barrington Holt calls ``a lot of plug-in custom stuff.''

The work is mostly concentrated in the large Creature Shop operation in London, where initial efforts to get artists and designers to think in 3-D space proved less successful than converting puppeteers and even mechanics to the task.

``If you ask them to work in a virtual space, it's not a difficult transition for them,'' Henson said. He added wryly, ``CGI (computer-generated imagery) is making an insidious expansion in every corner of our operation.''

In the late 1980s, the company did animatronic stand-ins for Jean-Jacques Annaud's ``The Bear,'' generally avoiding intercutting the live and mechanical creatures in the same scene ``because it would show,'' Barrington Holt said.

That's less of a problem now because the technology allows the puppeteers to cover minor mistakes and glitches, while allowing interaction between live actors and remote-controlled puppets whose motions are largely already blocked out on a computer screen.

During filming, as many as several puppeteers may work fine facial and body movements in concert on a single puppet, reacting to actors' cues and movements.

It's that kind of interaction between a living creature and one that seems to be alive that make sophisticated puppeteering a viable, even preferable, alternative to using computers to conjure in a digital creature after live filming is done, Henson said.

``You get a realer performance, it's directable,'' Henson said. ``If the director doesn't like something in a take, he can go direct it again.''

That shows in some key scenes in ``Farscape,'' which follows the misadventures of a young American astronaut whose theories about galactic travel inadvertently punch him into a different part of the universe, and into the company of a motley group of fugitives fleeing an Inspector Javert-like military commander.

``We take an ordinary Joe and stick him in another world,'' Henson said. ``We constantly remind the audience how weird and wonderful this world is. That allows it to never become mundane.''

But Henson also had bigger aims in mind for the show.

``What we wanted to do was put something on TV that's never been seen,'' Henson said. ``We wanted something that was more daring, more fun, and more adult than we've done in the past, but still has all the imaginative content of our younger shows. We also wanted to show what we can bring to TV, with stuff that mostly you can only see in theaters.''

``Farscape'' combines digital effects such as the external spaceship shots; animatronic puppets such as an alien pilot of the runaways' ship; prosthetic makeup on another key character; and body-painting makeup on yet another.

The result is a space opera with a look and texture that's remarkably rich for a cable TV budget. And Henson hopes to bring more computer-generated work, even entirely CG characters, to the show as the cost of creating those characters drops.

``It's still proving too expensive, but the technologies are catching up,'' Henson said. ``The palette is there, and once it's cheap enough, we can bring CG characters into the show.''

Shooting of the last of 22 hours of ``Farscape'' episodes is wrapping up in Australia, as Henson continues to search for at least one more major market beyond the United States, Australia and England in which to sell it. The show has already been renewed for another season on the Science Fiction Channel.

``I can't tell you we've actually gotten there (financially with the show),'' Henson said. ``I believe we will get there.''

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7 Photos

PHOTO (1--3--Cover--Color) ADVENTURES IN SPACE

`Farscape' Takes Henson Creations into Realm of Sci-fi

(4) The cable series ``Farscape,'' produced by the Henson company, has quickly become the highest-rated original programming on the Science Fiction Channel.

(5) `We wanted something that was more daring, more fun, and more adult than we've done in the past but still has all the imaginative content of our younger shows.'

- Brian Henson, on the ``Farscape'' series

(6) `We think there's a big future for all the technology, and certainly computers are serving us in all sorts of ways. But we believe, as Jim did, that there's something about puppets.'

- David Barrington Holt

head of the Henson Creature Shop

(7) The work hasn't stopped at Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Burbank.