Lazer on the set of The Muppets Take Manhattan.
David Lazer with Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and the Muppets during filming of The Great Muppet Caper.
Lazer in Henson's Place.
David Lazer (January 23, 1936 - April 10, 2025) started his career with Jim Henson in 1965. As an executive with IBM, he helped develop the Muppet Meeting Films commissioned by IBM. When he later joined Muppets Inc., producing meeting films became standard practice for the company.
Lazer served as executive producer for The Muppet Show where he also acted as a liaison for the show's guest stars. He would show the guest star how to walk on the elevated sets, how to speak to a Muppet (as opposed to the performer), and would make sure the star was comfortable with the very different production atmosphere.
After the death of Jim Henson in 1990, Lazer was instrumental in keeping Jim Henson's company going. Brian Henson said of him: "David sort-of came and lived with us for a while there just to help figure it all out. I'd say that David Lazer was probably the biggest influence, through that period, to help figure out how we were going to go forward."[1]
From May to December of 1990, Lazer came out of semi-retirement to serve as acting CEO of Henson Associates in the wake of Jim Henson's death. After Brian Henson was named president in 1991, Lazer became vice chairman for the company, a position he held until retiring in 1994.
Credits[]
- Muppet Meeting Films: producer
- The Muppet Show: executive producer
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas: executive producer
- The Muppet Movie: co-producer
- The Muppets Go Hollywood: co-producer
- Of Muppets and Men: producer
- The Muppets Go to the Movies: executive producer
- The Great Muppet Caper: producer
- The Dark Crystal: executive producer
- The Muppets Take Manhattan: producer
- The Muppet Show home videos: executive producer
- Labyrinth: executive supervising producer
- It's the Muppets! home videos: executive producer
Notes[]
Lazer's cameo with Liza Minnelli in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
- A caricature Muppet was made of him by the Muppet Workshop and was featured in several of the Muppet Meeting Films.
- Lazer made on-screen cameos in The Paperwork Explosion (as an office worker) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (as the man escorting Liza Minnelli into Sardi's). He was interviewed as part of the Henson's Place documentary and was featured in Of Muppets & Men: The Making of the Muppet Show.
- The Newsman mentions a "Mr. and Mrs. Lazer" in the "Muppet News Flash" segment of The Muppet Show episode 313. His name reversed inspired another character introduced in a "Muppet News Flash" sketch, Rezal-evad-gib.