Michael K. Frith

Michael Kingsbury Frith (born 8 July 1941) is a British artist and television producer. He is the former Executive Vice-President and Creative Director of The Jim Henson Company. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and varied. Biography Frith was born in Bermuda and educated at Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1963. He and Christopher Cerf co-wrote Alligator, the 1962 Harvard Lampoon parody of James Bond novels. Later he illustrated the front cover of Bored of the Rings, the 1969 Lampoon parody of The Lord of the Rings. Frith began his career at Random House in 1963 as a children's book illustrator and editor. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Beginner Books series, the line of books created by Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss. He was also Dr. Seuss's book editor and close personal friend. In 1971, when Random House began publishing Sesame Street books, Frith was named editor and art director of the Sesame series. He produced a series of five annual large-format Sesame Street Storybooks, and contributed artwork for four of them: The Sesame Street Storybook (1971), The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook (1973), The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974), and Big Bird's Busy Book (1975). Appreciating Frith's talents as a designer, Jim Henson brought him on board his creative team. One of Frith's early projects was designing characters for The Land of Gorch, a segment of Saturday Night Live.