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There's an anecdote that's been floating around on sites that publish "10 Things You Didn't Know"-type articles that says David Kirschner's idea for Hocus Pocus started as a bedtime story he used to tell his daughters that he published in an issue of Muppet Magazine. I think I tracked down the origin of this claim from a panel he did at D23 Expo 2013 at the very beginning of this (YouTube) video. Unfortunately, he doesn't say what issue it was. I'm not super familiar with the Hocus Pocus story outside of the fact that it has to do with witches. Does anyone know what story in Muppet Magazine it might be? We've got scans of the full run; I've already skimmed through the Fall issues, assuming it was probably a Halloween story. But, I might have overlooked it and it may not even be in a Fall issue. In fact, it may not have gone to print at all, which would be something else to investigate.
Relatedly, Kirschner shared in this July 2018 "Dizney Coast To Coast" (YouTube) podcast (beginning at 2:12) that he worked as an illustrator on Sesame Street and Muppet merchandise back in the 70s. He doesn't go into specifics, but he does talk at length here about submitting story ideas to Jim Henson. I'm not entirely sure how we'd go about researching this.
Can anyone find any more info about any of these claims? —Scott 
(talk) 15:20, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
- If it was for Muppet Magazine, it's definitely not in the scanned issues and print run at all (they didn't actually include fiction stories as such, apart from the comics and illustrated Muppet pieces). Not just overlooking, it's not there (it may be muddled memory or just losing track of what actually went and appeared where; and even the published issues at least once mention a feature which never actually appeared, so he may be going by what he was told/paid for/whatever and not whether he had the actual magazine to confirm it).
- As for illustration, a lot of presskit bios mention Kirschner's early illustrator work with Muppets and Sesame Street, but no specifics. Sample from the presskit for CATS DON'T DANCE: "A native of Southern California, Kirschner began his career as an illustrator for Jim Henson's Muppet and Sesame Street characters." From the actual HOCUS POCUS presskit at the time: "At 23, DAVID KIRSCHNER (Producer/Story by) began writing and illustrating a series of children’s books, entitled Rose Petal Place, while holding down a job illustrating Muppet and Sesame Street characters." Same boiler plate reused throughout the 1990s in presskits and newspaper articles. -- Andrew
17:18, 5 February 2023 (UTC)