Muppets and Klingons invade Bay Area - Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito, California; California Academy of Sciences, San Franciso, California

Sunset, Feb, 1994 by Hilary Doubleday

Two exhibitions take you behind the scenes of two of television's most popular shows

FOR ONCE, YOUR FRIENDS and family will have to do more than nod politely when you tell them that you've been talking to animals and riding in spaceships. If in the past they blamed such claims on your eccentric personality, this month they just might believe you, since talking animals and a spaceship have indeed landed in the Bay Area.

The talking animals are, of course, the Muppets. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the gang will be at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito as a part of an exhibit called The World of Jim Henson: Muppets, Monsters and Magic. The spaceship is the starship Enterprise, which touches down at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park for a show called Star Trek: Federation Science.

Both exhibits are designed to educate and entertain. At The World of Jim Henson, which runs from February 16 through May 1, you can trace the late puppeteer's work on the "The Muppet Show," "Sesame Street," "Dinosaurs," and the rest of Henson's TV repertoire, as well as through such movies as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. In addition to looking at Muppets, visitors will be able to put their hands on a "touch wall," where they can feel materials used to make the characters. For more information, call (415) 332-7674. Star Trek: Federation Science, which runs from February 5 through May 1, also mixes education with entertainment, and features more than 40 modular displays. The focus of the exhibit is a full-size recreation of the bridge on the starship

Enterprise. A simulated transporter room will give exhibitgoers the sensation of being beamed down to another world, while other displays teach basic scientific principles, including particle physics and planetology. For more information, call 750-7145.