Bob Flanagan

Bob Flanagan was a puppet builder and puppeteer who worked in the Muppet Workshop in the 1980s, building minor characters for productions. He helped create puppets for Fraggle Rock, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Sesame Street (two seasons and Follow That Bird), and Little Muppet Monsters. Bob also performed in one Muppet Meeting Films as an office worker, his only instance of doing puppetry, at least I think it was. After filming The Song of the Cloud Forest in 1989, Flanagan left the workshop to branch out in the world with different companies. He started out designing and building C.J. for the show Eric's World before operating his own company known as Den Design Studio. The company has supplied puppets, costumes, and specialty props for Saturday Night Live and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, not to mention the original Crank Yankers. In addition to working on TV, Bob Flanagan worked extensively on stage productions such as the puppets and props for the Broadway production of Wicked. He mostly did off-Broadway shows in his life, like the puppet and mask designs for Beowulf, The Hairy Ape, and The Emperor Jones, to name a few. He also performed the puppets on some of the shows depending on what the director wanted. Sadly, Bob's life came to an end for he died in February 2024, leaving his company to continue without him as what he would've wanted. Flanagan made so many friends during his time with the Muppets like Caroly Wilcox, Rollie Krewson, Ed Christie, and Bruce Edward Hall, to name a few. I'm sure the people at Den Design Studio will always remember him as well as the hosts from those late night shows he worked with. Several people on and off-Broadway are probably still remembering him as well. Bob Flanagan, you've done wonderful with the Muppets, the late night shows, and all of those on stage productions. It's no wonder everyone likes you, because you've done so much for them. Everyone misses you so much. Farewell Bob. R.I.P. Flanagan!

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