Jim Henson

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Early work 1960s 1970s Contributions to film Death Tributes Further reading

External links Selective Filmography Jim Henson fan mail Latest news on Jim Henson Web sites about Jim Henson  French |  German |  Italian

Jim Henson: 1960s

The success of Sam and Friends led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. To this day, Muppets appear as "guests" on shows such as The Tonight Show and Hollywood Squares, with particularly memorable appearances by Kermit and Miss Piggy on 60 Minutes and Cookie Monster on Martha Stewart Living. Henson himself appeared as a guest on many shows, including the Ed Sullivan Show. The greatly increased exposure led to hundreds of commercial appearances (mostly for Wilkins Coffee) by Henson characters through the 1960s.
 
In 1963 Henson and his wife Jane, also a puppeteer, moved to New York City, where the newly formed Muppets, Inc. would reside for some time. Henson devised Rowlf, a piano-playing anthropomorphic dog, the first Muppet to make a regular appearance on a network show (The Jimmy Dean Show). At that time Henson's long-time partner Frank Oz also came on board with the new company.
 
From 1964 to 1968, Henson began exploring film-making, and produced a series of experimental films. His nine-minute experimental film Time Piece was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in 1966. The NBC TV movie The Cube from 1969 is another experimental film that Jim Henson had produced.
 
In 1968, Joan Ganz Cooney and the team at the Children's Television Workshop began work on Sesame Street, a visionary children's program for public television. Part of the show was set aside for a series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on the titular street. These included Oscar the Grouch, Ernie and Bert, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird. Kermit was also included as a roving Television News Reporter; a frill was added around his neck, to make him a frog. At first the puppetry was separated from the realistic segments on the street, but after a poor test screening in Philadelphia, the show was revamped to integrate the two and place much greater emphasis on Henson's work.
 
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Table of Content

Early work 1960s 1970s Contributions to film Death Tributes Further reading

External links Selective Filmography Jim Henson fan mail Latest news on Jim Henson Web sites about Jim Henson  French |  German |  Italian

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Literature

Interview with Miss Piggy's creator

Bonnie Erickson was the creator of such esteemed Muppets as Miss Piggy, Statler and Waldorf, and Zoot from the Electric Mayhem band. Erickson's work is featured in the traveling Smithsonian exhibition Jim Henson's Fantastic World, and Smithsonian magazine interviewed her for the new issue. From Smithsonian: Let's say you get a contract to make a character. How does your creative process work? Well let me take the Philly Phanatic as an example. The managers approached us to design a mascot who could encourage fans to bring their families to the games. So we had to design a character who was child-friendly, who was playful and a little irreverent but not too silly. We'd heard from the Phillies that their crowd had booed the Easter bunny, so it was a challenge to come up with something that was not going to talk down to their audience. We wanted a character who had a life and a story. A lot of our characters are still performing today. We created Youppi for the Montreal Expos, and when the team moved out of Montreal Youppi was left without a home. So he was taken in by the hockey team. In my mind I've always thought of these characters as having a life, so they're free agents in many ways. When they lose a team, they go out and try to find another job. "The Woman Behind Miss Piggy" (Smithsonian)...
Published: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:55:58 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article

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George Lucas