David Lazer with Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and the Muppets during filming of The Great Muppet Caper.
David Lazer 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.
Credits
Produced, co-produced, or executive produced:
- The Muppet Show
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
- The Muppet Movie
- Of Muppets and Men
- The Great Muppet Caper
- The Dark Crystal
- The Muppets Take Manhattan
- Fozzie's Muppet Scrapbook
- Labyrinth
Trivia
- A caricature Muppet was made of him by the Muppet Workshop.
- His name reversed inspired the character Rezal-evad-gib.
