The Storyteller (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Four episodes aired in the United States on NBC as standalone specials between January 1987 and April 1988: "Hans My Hedgehog", "Fearnot", "A Story Short", and "The Luck Child".
• "The Three Ravens" was included in the Jim Henson Hour's twelfth episode, "Food", but the series was cancelled before it aired; it was not shown in the US until 1997.

History

The series retold various European folk tales, particularly ones considered obscure in Western culture, using a combination of actors and puppets. The framing device featured an old Storyteller (John Hurt) sitting by a fire telling each tale to both the viewers and to his talking dog, a realistic puppet of a brown and blonde Pudelpointer performed and voiced by Brian Henson, who acted as the voice of the viewers. The language and traditional style were in keeping with old folk tales. Jim Henson said on the first episode of The Jim Henson Hour that he came up with the idea because he wanted to mashup old folk stories with elements from music videos shown on MTV and VH1 at the time. In the "Secret of the Muppets" episode, Henson stated that the Storyteller has a half-puppet appearance; heavy make-up created large ears and a prosthetic nose, resembling the titular character from Roald Dahl's The BFG. The Storyteller was initially conceived as an animatronic puppet, but Ron Mueck filmed a test with facial prosthetics suggesting an actor in make-up would be more effective. Henson invited director Steve Barron to direct several episodes after being impressed with his work on music videos for David Bowie songs from Henson's Labyrinth.

The episodes

One episode, taken from an early Russian folk tale retold in English by Arthur Ransome and also inspired by "Godfather Death", follows a soldier returning home after 20 years of war with three biscuits in his knapsack. He meets three beggars and gives them the biscuits; in return one gives him a ruby whistle, one the jolliest dance, and the final man gives him a pack of magic playing cards and a musty sack that can trap anything ordered into it. Using the sack, the soldier traps a flock of geese and feeds himself. At an abandoned castle overrun with small devils, he plays them in a game of cards, winning 40 barrels of gold, and when they try to kill him he captures them in the sack, releasing them only when they promise never to return. He makes one devil swear to serve him and keeps its foot as leverage. He becomes rich and famous after removing the devils from a palace owned by the Tzar, but his luck runs short when his son becomes deathly ill. The devil gives him a glass goblet that allows the owner to see Death: if Death is at the foot of the bed, the person recovers if sprinkled with water from the goblet; if at the head, nothing can be done. The Tzar becomes ill, and the soldier, seeing Death at the head of the bed, bargains his own life for the Tzar's. Death takes the offer, giving the illness to the soldier. On his deathbed, the soldier summons Death into his sack, stopping death everywhere. Seeing people waiting for death that will not come, he frees Death, who fears the soldier and his sack so much that he refuses to take his life. The soldier, weary of life, travels to the underworld and forces the devils to give him two hundred souls and a map to heaven. At the gates of heaven, he is denied entry. He gives the sack to a soul, asking to be summoned into it after passing through, but since there is no memory in heaven, the soul forgets, and the soldier is condemned to live forever upon the Earth.

The Storyteller: Greek Myths

The Storyteller: Greek Myths is a four-part spin-off series featuring a new narrator, played by Michael Gambon, who is joined by the same dog from the original show, performed and voiced by Brian Henson. Jim Henson produced this series in 1990, with work starting just before his death and continuing afterward. No American network picked it up; NBC had already decided the earlier episodes were too intense for children and would not air them as a separate series. The entire 13-episode collection did not air in the United States until HBO reran it in 1997. The four episodes first broadcast in the Netherlands in April 1991 and in the United Kingdom that December. Nigel Williams wrote the series, which follows a fresh Storyteller as he shares tales from Greek mythology while his dog offers remarks and asks questions. The pair wander through underground ruins, discovering objects that lead into the stories. In one episode, an Athenian Storyteller and his dog take refuge in the labyrinth at Knossos. There, he tells the myth of the Minotaur, imprisoned in the maze by King Minos a thousand years earlier. King Aegeus had hidden his sword beneath a large rock, telling Aethra that their son Theseus must move the rock when grown to learn his father’s identity. Theseus grew into a brave young man, moved the rock, and claimed the sword. His mother then revealed his father’s name. Theseus chose the dangerous land route to Athens, killing Procrustes, Sciron the Kicker, and Sinis the Pine Bender along the way. In Athens, King Aegeus welcomed him, while Medea plotted to poison Theseus so her own son could inherit the throne. Aegeus recognized the sword and knocked the poisoned cup from Theseus’s hand. Medea vanished with a curse. Theseus then insisted on sailing to Crete to slay the Minotaur, promising to raise a white sail if he succeeded. Ariadne, Minos’s daughter, gave him a ball of thread to find his way out of the Labyrinth. Theseus killed the Minotaur, took Ariadne with him, but later left her behind on the island of Naxos.

Media

In the UK, all nine episodes of series 1 were made available in 1989 on a set of four VHS tapes released by Channel 4. In 1999, four stories were re-released by Columbia Tri-Star across two VHS tapes in both the UK and the US: A Story Short, The Luck Child, The Soldier and Death, and Sapsorrow. Both series 1 and 2 are available in region 1 and 2 DVD format with no extra features other than the original episodes in stereo. A collection titled Jim Henson's The Storyteller - The Definitive Collection, containing both series in full, was released on DVD in the US in May 2006. Jim Henson's The Storyteller: The Complete Collection, featuring both the original series and Greek Myths, was scheduled for Blu-ray release in a 2-disc set from Fabulous Films in the UK on 11 August 2025, but was later delayed to 3 November 2025; the same version will be made available in Australia from Via Vision on 20 August 2025. Two editions of a book have been published, with text by Anthony Minghella adapted to prose. One edition (Boxtree) features a photograph of the Storyteller on the cover and illustrations by Stephen Morley; the other (Random House) has full-page color hand illustrations by Darcy May.