Probably though, by the time I was 17, I already knew that I was probably going to go into film

It was actually what my dad did and with the Muppets, the years with the Muppets, it was really all targeted to adults. It was in a time when everything had to be safe for the whole family. But he was targeting adults.

But if everybody's trying to stay safe, then you never really create something new and different and surprising.

I think it's a lot richer than what we call fleshy improv, I think it's very funny, puppet improv and fleshy improv.

I was already sort of mixing my science physics enthusiasm with entertainment and directing and puppetry.

And so as a director, as a leader, and myself as a director and a leader, I kind of try to make sure that we hold onto the vision and kind of corral it, but by the time you finish whatever the project is, a TV show, a series, a movie, a stage show, it should be a product of what all those people can do, and therefore, it can never be what you imagined it would be in the beginning.

At that point, I thought probably special effects, something like that, and indeed, the early days when I was working with my dad, after I left school, I only went to less than one year of college, and then I was transferring, and then I delayed my transfer, and I did a movie, and then another movie, and then I never finished college.