Fraggle Rock Puppeteer Karen Prell Coaxes Out Her Inner Puppet

She was the nasal-voiced puppeteer behind Red Fraggle on Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock, and she hung out with David Bowie on the set of Labyrinth.

Speaking with Ross Reynolds on The Record, Karen Prell discussed her early career, from leaving her parents’ basement for Manhattan at age 20, to becoming Red Fraggle.

Prell also divulged how her romance evolved on the set of Labyrinth with the man she would eventually marry. (They have since divorced.) In short: Their puppets flirted.

“I might be in one part of the set, and my to-be husband, Quinn, was in another part of the set, but we could see each other on the video monitor,” she said. “So we would imitate what each other was doing, and the other one would laugh in puppet body language. We couldn’t talk, we couldn’t hear each other, but we were speaking in puppet body language which is an important part of the art in addition to the acting.”

This segment originally aired December 30, 2013.