Jim Henson

Jim Henson
Birth name	James Maury Henson
Born	September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi, USA
Died	May 16, 1990 in New York, New York, USA from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by bacterial pneumonia
Notable Shows	The Muppet Show
Awards	star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Jim Henson was an American TV pioneer, innovator, and independent filmmaker, whose most famous creations are a group of puppets known as the Muppets.

Biography

Originally, Henson only began performing puppets as a back door to get into the then-fledging TV industry. In 1955, while still in college, he created a 5-minute show called Sam and Friends, which aired just after the news for Washington, D.C. station WRC-TV. He directed nearly every show, and also performed many of the puppets, along with his future wife, Jane (Nebel) Henson. He also wrote many scripts for the show, although frequently the show would be a lip-synch to a popular song of the day, or to a comedy sketch from an album by Stan Freberg.

Though mainly a nameless lizard at this point, an early version of what would become Henson's most famous creation, Kermit the Frog, first appeared on this show.

Until Henson arrived on the scene, all televised puppet shows looked the same: that is, they were filmed standing in a traditional puppet stage. Henson realized that in TV, the camera is itself the stage, and the puppets didn't need to be bound by old-fashioned conventions. The puppets were suddenly free to move about on increasingly elaborate sets.

Henson also favored open-mouth puppets, which allowed for greater expressiveness and character than simple finger puppets (which were more the standard at the time - think Kukla from Kukla, Fran and Ollie). Later, Henson would add one more crucial innovation: he discovered that puppets could interact better with humans when the stages were "platformed up" so that the puppeteers could walk about in trenches around the human performers. Henson's innovations have become the standard for puppetry in all of television.

Henson and his small company survived for many years by making TV commercials, through which he was able to make a number of experimental films and TV specials, such as Youth '68 and The Cube.

In 1969, the Children's Television Workshop created an educational show for preschoolers called Sesame Street, and asked Henson and company to provide puppets for the show. A number of memorable characters were created for the show, including Big Bird, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, Grover, The Count, and (later) Elmo. Sesame Street was a phenomenal critical and commercial success, and continues to run with new episodes to this day.

Despite Sesame's success, Henson was frustrated that the Muppets had been pigeonholed as a "children's act." He determined to create a prime-time puppet show that would appeal to adults and children. In 1976, he created The Muppet Show, which introduced viewers to such unforgettable creations as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and The Great Gonzo.

In 1983, Henson created Fraggle Rock for HBO, about a group of fanciful creatures that lived underground and just out of sight of humans. The goal of the show was to promote cultural understanding, by showing how different societies depend on each other to survive, and how they can get along despite their differences.

Henson's mind was always moving forward, and he created a pair of fantasy movies that had puppet creations that were significantly more advanced than anything he had done before. The two films, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, were initially box-office failures, but have since grown cult followings, and helped pave the way for groundbreaking puppet and CGI effects in movies such as Babe and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Henson also created a number of other acclaimed but short-lived series, such as The Storyteller. He died unexpectedly in 1990 due to complications from a rare form of pneumonia. Today the Muppet characters (and their related shows and movies) are owned by the Walt Disney Company, while his son Brian runs his father's company, producing such projects as the popular sci-fi TV program Farscape.

Roles

Starring Roles

Series	Role	Year(s)	Season(s)
Sesame Street	Kermit the Frog, Ernie, et al.	1969–1990
The Muppet Show	Kermit the Frog, et al.	1976–1981	1	2	3	4	5

Specials

Title	Role	Airdate	Series/Banner
The Muppets Go Hollywood	Himself and other Muppet characters	May 16, 1979

Talk Show Appearances

• The Mike Douglas Show

Producer

Series Produced

Series	Year(s)	Credit	Season(s)
The Muppet Show	1976 –1981	Executive Producer
Fraggle Rock	1983 –1987	Executive Producer
Muppet Babies	1984 –1991	Executive Producer
Jim Henson's The Storyteller	1988	Executive Producer
The Jim Henson Hour	1989	Executive Producer

Specials Produced

Title	Credit	Airdate	Series/Banner
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas	Producer	1977

Writer

Series Created

Series	Premiere Date	Creation Credit
Fraggle Rock	1983	Co-Creator
Muppet Babies	1984	Co-Creator

Series Written

• The Muppet Show

Director

Series Directed

• Fraggle Rock

Specials Directed

Title	Credit	Airdate	Series/Banner
The Muppets Valentine Show		January 30, 1974
Muppets No-Nonsense Show		March 19, 1975

Awards and Accolades

Primetime Emmy Awards

• Won: Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program (1989)

The Jim Henson Hour