Jim Henson

Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in
puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The
vehicle that achieved it was
Sam and Friends (1955), a
late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington
DC. It proved to be very popular and inspired Jim to continue using
puppets for his work. He made many commercials, developing the
signature humor that Henson Productions is known for. A key reason for
the success of his puppets is that Jim realized he didn’t need to hide
puppeteers behind a structure when they were in front of a camera. All
he had to do was instruct the camera operators to focus on the puppets
and keep the puppeteers out of the frame. This allowed the puppets to
dominate the image and make them more lifelike. This work on puppets
and television would lead to separate projects that had different
goals. The first one was his work on the
The Jimmy Dean Show (1963)
with the character Rowlf the Dog, the oldest clearly identified
character that Henson Productions still uses. This show provided an
income that allowed Jim to work on a pet project. That project was
Time Piece (1965), a surrealistic
short about time which was nominated for best live-action short Oscar.
Henson shot to prominence when he was approached to use his muppets for
the revolutionary educational show
Sesame Street (1969). The show
was a smash hit and his characters have become staples on public
television. Unforetunately, this also led to Henson being typecast as
only an entertainer for children. He sought to disprove that by being
part of the initial crew of
Saturday Night Live (1975),
but his style and that of the creative staff simply didn’t jibe. It was
this circumstance that encouraged him to develop a variety show format
that had the kind of sophisticated humor that
“Sesame Street (1969)” didn’t
work with. No American broadcaster was interested, but British producer
Lew Grade was. This led to
The Muppet Show (1976). It
initially struggled both in the ratings and in the search for guest
stars, but in the second season it became a smash hit and would
eventually become the most widely watched series in television history.
Hungry for a new challenge, Henson made
The Muppet Movie (1979), defying
the popular industry opinion that his characters would never work in a
movie. The film became a hit and spawned a series of features which
included the moody fantasy
The Dark Crystal (1982), which
was a drastic and bold departure from the amiable tone of his previous
work. The most successful TV work in the 1980s was
Fraggle Rock (1983), a fantasy
series specifically designed to appeal to as many cultural groups as
possible. During this time he also established the Creature Shop, a
puppet studio that became renowned for being as brilliant with puppetry
as ILM was at special effects. When he died all too soon in 1990, he
was indisputably one of the geniuses of puppetry. More importantly, he
was a man who achieved his phenomenal success while still retaining his
social conscience and artistic integrity as his work in promoting
environmentalism and his brilliant
The Storyteller (1987) series
respectively attest to.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Kenneth Chisholm