Martin G. Baker: Emmy Award-Winning Producer for the Muppets and Many Other Outstanding Stars & Events

 

When Martin Baker was eleven years old he wrote a letter to the BBC asking for a job. When they didn’t reply he wrote more. It was a foretaste of the direction and persistence which was to mark his career.

He left school aged fifteen and the next Monday started working at ATV, now ITV, running errands and making tea. This turned into a job in the design department, which turned into a job as a call boy (telling stars when they were about to go on), which turned into a job as a floor manager. And in 1979, a little-known puppeteer called Jim Henson offered him a one year contract to work on his production team.

That contract turned into a twenty-two year creative partnership and today, nearly fifty years later, Martin is a Proud Producer of one of the best-loved children's TV franchises of all time: the Muppets. He has also won two Saturn awards and an Emmy. Along the way he has worked with talent from Tom Jones to Liberace, produced a Rolling Stones live TV movie and worked on an Olympic Opening Ceremony.

For anyone who grew up watching the Muppets and looking up to their creator Jim Henson, he can offer insights into the people and inspiration which shaped them. For anyone who has ever dreamed of making a career in TV or film, he can offer advice, wisdom, and anecdotes about what it is really like.

Martin has worked worked on major entertainment shows including numerous one-hour Variety Specials featuring stars such as Julie Andrews, Andy Williams, Bob Hope, Tom Jones, Gene Kelly, Ann Murray, and Liza Minelli.

He was by Jim Henson’s side as production consultant of the Muppet movie in 1978, and executive producer of the 2011 Muppets Movie thirty two years later. He worked on the highly acclaimed Christmas movie ‘A Muppet Christmas Carol’ starring Michael Caine. He has worked on Labyrinth with David Bowie, co-produced Julie Andrews in the Sound of Christmas, staged an opening number for the Scissor Sisters

at the opening of the 2007 BAFTA awards which involved Bunraku puppetry - considered by many to be the most highly developed puppet theatre art in the world - and worked on the Opening and Closing Olympic Ceremonies at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.

Martin is a great speaker for anyone who wants to know how some of the best-loved TV and films have cast their spell on generations of adults and children alike.