“Hi I’m Crispin Rosenkranz. Bumpity Returns is about two puppets named Bumpity and Fred Worm, the influence they have had on my life, and the legacy that has touched a small generation. Bob Griggs and I discovered by accident that one of us was the mastermind behind the long running program, and the other a “former child,” a one-time avid viewer! Making this video and starting this web page has been more than just another project for me, I hope it does something for other former fans and hope most of all I hope to share Bumpity memories with as many as you as possible, so please sign our guestbook. Below is a transcript of an interview from Bumpity Returns.”

Interview with Crispin Rosenkranz by Sarah McKinlay May 19, 2001

SM: When did you first start watching Bumpity?

CR: When I was really, really young. I first started watching it when I first started watching TV, probably between when I was 24 and 36 months old, the age that famous psychoanalyst Margaret Mahler considers the object constancy phase, when you are aware that objects have a consistency even when you don't see them. You begin to recognize them and anticipate them and know they're there even when they're not present.

SM: Do you think that affected your relationship with Bumpity?

CR: Yes because the reason I liked the show is that recognizing things and their names and characters on TV was very new to me, and that ability to go, oh look there's Bumpity and Fred the Worm that delightful little worm.

SM: Were there any particular things, moments in the Bumpity show that you liked best?

CR: I liked the sketches and when Bumpity would talk. I think I liked that more than the stories, and I think I grew to like the stories less and less as I got older, because I didn't have the patience to listen to the whole story but I like it when Fred and Bumpity would come up and do things. I would always look forward to that at the end of the story cause that was the exciting part.

SM: When did you stop watching Bumpity?

CR: Not completely until I was like ten or so, and because it was on a couple of years after I turned ten I would watch it occasionally for novelty but not because of the same reasons I used to when I was little.

SM: So the love had died?

CR: No, I became less and less patient with the slowness and the show and stuff, oh! and also the peer pressure, people at school would talk about cartoons that were cool -- I don't know, GI Joe or whatever, and Bumpity was out of the question, in terms of being like a cool show for 10 year olds, 11 year olds.

SM: And when did you meet Bob?

CR: A couple of years ago when I was like 27, 28.

SM: When did you realize that he was Bumpity?

CR: Not until a year or two later, when I was doing a film festival, and I was recruiting people that I knew to give me films for my festival and I said I bet this guy has some old interesting stuff and sure enough, he mentioned in kind of an aside that he used to do Bumpity and he was the puppeteer and the creator of the show.

SM: What was that like for you?

CR: When he told me he did Bumpity I was like, oh my god, that's my earliest memories of television, and I was like honored to meet him and talk to him. I though it was pretty amazing and I asked him if I could see clips of his shows and he said yes and gave me a copy of the shows he had which wasn't very many considering he was on forever but it was pretty exciting to meet the actual Bumpity guy. I hadn't seen them for twenty years so that was like introducing me to Bumpity again. I'd forgotten almost everything about the show, but then remembered it when I saw it again and he also took the puppet out of the suitcase and showed it to me. I didn't want to see it until there were cameras rolling and it was being recorded. It's pretty amazing to see it in real life cause it's different than on TV, especially as an adult when you know the tricks of puppeteering and video effects I didn't know as a kid. I think my mom used to tell me there are people hiding underneath there, holding the puppets. I think I had to have that explained to me.

SM: Did you learn anything as a child from Bumpity, you know just like share, be nice, don't shove when you're standing in line stuff like that?

CR: Yeah, things like brush your teeth and stuff. Yeah, yeah, he made me a better kid.

SM: So he was one of your TV friends?

CR: I liked Bumpity because he was funny and Fred, same reason. It engaged me. It was better than watching the news or something.

SM: Do puppets have secret lives? Could you talk about that?

CR: Ahh! If we are not looking at puppets, can they get up and do stuff without a person handling them? I had a dream where that actually happened where some puppet got up and wrecked some things in the prop room, and I called Bob the next day, and I said, do puppets have lives of their own, and he tells me this stuff like little things jump out of their mouths that I wasn't expecting. When Bumpity is on TV he says things that he didn't pre-plan, kind of spontaneous, but I think that they actually have the ability to do things on their own when people aren't watching, and you really have to pay attention to know that they are doing stuff.

SM: They're dangerous?

CR: Just as dangerous as people.

SM: When did you decide to do a documentary about Bumpity?

CR: A year later I got around to interviewing him on camera, and then like another year and a half later, I got around to doing a really good interview with him. I read a book to Bumpity and my father performed the expert interview with Bob and the puppets.

SM: I think that Bumpity park as represented in the show kind of looks like a labia majora and that Bumpity himself looks like a clitoris, and I always thought that was kind of weird and then I realized that Fred is clearly a phallus.

CR: You thought that when you were little?

SM: Uh huh, I thought that when I was little. You never really told me what you thought about this, because knowing how important Bumpity is to you, I was concerned that it would disturb you.

CR: I think it's, um, a perspective.

SM: A perspective?

CR: Well, you know kids have an imagination. It's a pretty good theory, especially with Fred.

SM: I think Fred clinches it. I'd be afraid to talk to Bob about it though, because I was pretty freaked out when Bob started talking to me about taking Bumpity and Fred and everybody out of the boxes and how they would like kind of come to life you know, and that's just kind of creepy.

CR: What's up with that?

SM: When he was telling that story about the formation of Bumpity. For some reason somebody drops ping pong balls on the park lawn and they roll together and they make eyes and then the eyes swell up and suddenly you have Bumpity and he is the spirit of the park come to life or something. Anyway it was very odd, very disturbing. I don't think Bob is all here? He's obviously a great guy, just kind of spooky. When he told the story it was as if he believed it.

CR: I think I thought it was a real place before I knew how to ask where is Bumpity Park, or before I could remember the word Bumpity. It's because of the word park, because around where I lived there was Mcgiver Park and different other parks, and I imagined it was a real small place cause it didn't look to big on TV. I thought what a weird place, people gather and read books,

SM: Why are you making this documentary?

CR: I have a garbage day job, so I'm going to make this film and use it as a way to impress people that I made this film about something interesting and maybe that will get me some attention. It's kind of unclear what kind of film I want to make. I just know I want to do something with it. I feel like if the old guy died I'd miss out on a chance to do a documentary on this, you know, take advantage of it, exploit it.

SM: Exploit it.

CR: Yeah, that's the word. It was also fun to hear the theme music again.