Dennis Lee

Something that felt like it was in its own world.

Jim brought in Canadian poet Dennis Lee, the guy who wrote the Fraggle Rock lyrics.

okay yeah to turn the idea into something usable so dennis wrote what he called a poetic novella right it was never finished right

then terry jones right from monty python yes that terry jones from monty python got handed the job of turning it into an

Laura Phillips, who had written for Fraggle Rock.

George Lucas...

Dennis Lee Elaine May they all took passes at him for a moment I thought you could say Dennis Leary that'd be a very different script yeah Terry Jones is the only one who got the actual screenplay credit but this was very much a group effort by the end

but it doesn't sound like a coordinated group effort it sounds like

The music was never an afterthought, though.

Jim Henson commissioned Canadian composer Philip Balsam and lyricist Dennis Lee to score the show, which meant writing multiple original songs per episode across wildly different genres.

And to open the whole thing, they needed to come up with a theme that could immediately communicate the good vibes feel of Fraggle Rock.

That wouldn't come easy.

He experimented with different tempos, different instrumentation, and different melodies.

And Jim Hansen ultimately chose a version with clear narrative lyrics so that the new viewers could easily understand the world that they were entering if they'd never seen an episode.

As lyricist Dennis Lee later described, and I quote, we knew the main theme had to function as a universal invitation into an interconnected world.

I mean, we went through dozens of trial iterations and variations, experimenting with rhythm and scat vocalizations and all kinds of other things before finding the exact celebratory energy that captured the Fraggle spirit.

Responsible for composing the music was Philip Balsam, who is the composer.

And then there was Dennis Lee, who is the lyricist.

And together, over the course of the show, they wrote about 190 songs.

That's like at least two songs per episode.

Okay, because it's a tough question, I'll go first.

So for me, the poem that immediately came to mind when I was thinking about this question was called Lizzie's Lion by Dennis Lee.

And I remember my dad said he would give me $5 if I memorized it, which in the early 90s was basically like a million dollars.

And I will tell you some lines.

Oh, yeah, true.

That could definitely be in a Dennis Lee reboot.

Cool.

Anything else to say about Kitchen Confidential?