Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge — Season 1
About this season
Ten aspiring creature creators competing to out-imagine one another in a series of challenges where they build everything from mechanical characters to whimsical beasts, bringing high-end creature designs to life. The contestants compete for a prize worth up to $100,000 including the opportunity for the job of a lifetime - a contract working at the world-renowned Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™.
Episodes (8)
1. What Lies Beneath
7.7Aired 25 March 2014 • 60 min
Brian Henson welcomes 10 talented creature designers to Jim Henson Studios for their first Creature Brief: design and build an original underwater creature for a screen test on the Henson Soundstage.
2. Return of the Skeksis
8.0Aired 1 April 2014 • 60 min
The creature designers are given the chance to reimagine the fictional species Skeksis from "The Dark Crystal." Later, their characters appear in a screen test for the original 1982 film.
3. Assembly Inspired
8.0Aired 8 April 2014 • 60 min
Unconventional materials from a junkyard are used to create scrap-fantasy creatures that are trapped inside a hanging cage.
4. Heads Up!
8.0Aired 15 April 2014 • 60 min
A humor-filled challenge requires the designers to create mounted creature heads that magically come to life under the spell of a wizard played by Donald Faison.
5. Life in Motion
9.0Aired 22 April 2014 • 60 min
An appearance by Lady Gaga's unicorn inspires the creature designers to create a larger-than-life creation with realistic movement, performed on a blacklight soundstage.
6. Swamp Things
9.0Aired 29 April 2014 • 60 min
The designers make camouflaged creatures hiding in plain sight for a mystical swamp-theme challenge. Neville Page ("Face Off") serves as guest judge.
7. Alien Press Conference
9.5Aired 6 May 2014 • 60 min
Gigi brings her "Farscape" costar Rygel to the workshop to offer inspiration when the creature designers are given the task to build original alien species attending an intergalactic press conference. Director Barry Sonnenfeld is the guest judge.
8. Tavern at the Crossroads
9.0Aired 13 May 2014 • 60 min
The final three receive help from contestants who were previously eliminated as they face their toughest challenge, which is to design, build and perform a full-body mystical creature, complete with props and special effects, for the chance to win a job at Jim Henson's Creature Shop.