Former featured articleJim Henson is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on July 19, 2004.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
January 19, 2004Refreshing brilliant proseKept
August 17, 2006Featured article reviewDemoted
July 14, 2007Good article nomineeListed
January 8, 2010Good article reassessmentKept
February 8, 2023Good article reassessmentDelisted
Current status: Former featured article

Wiki Education assignment: Equitable Futures - Internet Cultures and Open Access

edit

  This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 January 2024 and 10 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Asrogers23 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Asegura01.

— Assignment last updated by Asegura01 (talk) 19:09, 25 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

Henson's work/jobs in infobox and in the main text...

edit

There have been some recent revisions to the first sentence of this article. So let's discuss...
Was Henson
a puppeteer, producer, director and filmmaker -
a puppeteer, animator, inventor, creative producer, director and filmmaker -
or was he
a puppeteer, animator, actor, inventor, producer, director and filmmaker.
A couple of things to keep in mind:

  • voice acting is a recognized profession in acting. The people who provide voices for puppets or for cartoons are regarded as actors - like Mel Blanc or Daws Butler or June Foray among others. Henson provided the voice for the character of Kermit plus other Muppet characters, therefore he is an actor.
  • Per MOS:LEAD, the lead section is an introduction to an article and a summary of its most important contents and per MOS:ROLEBIO "The lead sentence should describe the person as they are commonly described by reliable sources."
  • The term "filmmaker" is commonly understood to describe many of the top-level jobs in the film industry - one can be a producer or a director or a multi-hypenate director-producer-writer and be regarded as a filmmaker. Perhaps the creative producer, director, and filmmaker terms could be combined into the overarching term "filmmaker"?
  • Though Henson did create the Muppets, there is nothing in the main article text that mentions inventing or inventor or inventions (even in the version I initially reverted to and the version that presently stands) so that term has been removed from the infobox and the first sentence.

And, as I quoted above, regardless of what anyone here might think, it all depends on how Henson is described in reliable sources.
So let's discuss, take a look at how reliable sources describe Jim Henson, and come to an editorial consensus. Shearonink (talk) 20:41, 5 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

The Deadline article on Idea Man describes Henson as "a puppeteer, filmmaker, artist, performer and inventor and the Vanity Fair article on Idea Man also describes him as an "innovating experimental filmmaker" and "Muppet impresario". As the filmmaker terminology encompasses such terms as producer and director, we can combine those into "filmmaker". Lord Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 00:47, 6 May 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thanks Sjones23 - I took a look at Filmmaking & its sources. Agreed. - Shearonink (talk) 01:20, 6 May 2024 (UTC)Reply