Jim Henson
Henson has often been compared to his most famous muppet, Kermit the Frog: a shy, gentle boss with a whim of steel who ran things like an explosion in a mattress factory.
- 1954- Henson worked for WTOP-TV during high school where he created puppets for the Saturday morning children’s show, The Junior Morning Show.
- 1955- Henson created Sam and Friends, a short-form (just 5 minutes long) comedy television program, including a lizard-like puppet named Kermit who would later become Kermit the Frog. On Sam and Friends, Henson experimented with several techniques that changed the way puppetry was performed on television, including defining the frame by the camera shot, not by a small stage, which allowed the puppet performer to work from off-camera. He also used flexible fabric and materials to give his puppets “life and sensitivity,” instead of carved wood, the standard for puppets at the time. Additionally, Henson used metal rods to control his puppets movements instead of strings to give them a wider range of expression. Finally, he used more precise mouth movements instead of random mouth movements used by marionettes. It ran until 1961.
- 1960- Henson graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in home economics.
- Sam and Friends was a financial success, but Henson doubted whether he should go into a career of performing with puppets. He took a break from the show and spent several months in Europe where he was inspire by European puppet performers who looked at their work as an art form. From this point Henson also viewed his puppetry as an art.
- 1969- Henson joined the children’s program Sesame Street to help develop the puppet characters for the series. He was involved in producing various shows and animated inserts during the first two seasons including a series of films on counting numbers. He also directed the original “C Is for Cookie” segment, a now iconic song on the show.
- 1975- Henson and his company were worried they were being typecast as providers of children’s entertainment so they created a series of sketches that aired on the first season of Saturday Night Live. But the writers were disinterested in writing for his characters so the muppet skits were discontinued after the first season.
- 1976- Henson created The Muppet Show, a more adult-focused television series featuring muppets. After getting rejected by American television networks he pitched the show to British impresario Lew Grade who agreed to finance the show. The Muppet Show was filmed in the United Kingdom and syndicated worldwide. The show featured Kermit and introduced many characters who would become muppet icons including Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, Fozzie Bear, and Animal. It ran until 1981.
- 1977- Henson directed Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, an hour-long television holiday special. It was one of the first muppet productions to use radio-controlled puppet effects.
- 1979- Henson produced The Muppet Movie, which was a critical and financial success. Henson, as Kermit, sang “Rainbow Connection” and it hit 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- 1980- The producers of The Empire Strikes Back asked Henson to help with creating Yoda. He suggested Frank Oz as the voice and puppeteer who played that role in five subsequent Star Wars films.
- 1982- He formed the Jim Henson Foundation, a non-profit organization to aid the art of puppetry in the United States.
- 1982- Henson co-directed The Dark Crystal with Frank Oz. The film explored darker themes of mortality with more realistic looking puppets. It was a financial and critical success.
- 1983- Henson created Fraggle Rock, a show featuring muppets from interconnected societies interacting with one another. The program proved accessible to audiences of all ages, and used the fantasy creatures as an allegory to deal with serious issues such as prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, the environment, and social conflict. It was intended to be an international production from the start and the entire show was constructed with that in mind. It ran until 1987.
- 1984- Henson created Muppet Babies which was inspired by a dream sequence scene from The Muppets Take Manhattan during which Miss Piggy imagines what it would be like to grow up with Kermit. The sequence was so popular Henson turned it into a separate show. Muppet Babies was a critical and financial success, winning four consecutive Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program and a Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation. It ran until 1991.
- 1986- Henson directed Labyrinth, but it was considered a commercial disappointment. The film later became a cult classic.
- 1987- Henson was the executive producer on a British puppet show called The Storyteller which retold various European folk tales, particularly ones considered obscure in western culture. The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program.
- 1989- Jim Henson developed the The Jim Henson Hour, a television series to showcase the Jim Henson Company’s latest innovations. The first half hour was regularly a show called MuppeTelevision, a modernized variation of The Muppet Show. The second half hour would often be darker, more serious content including reruns of The Storyteller. The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program.
- 1989- Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company for almost $150 million, hoping it would give him more time to spend on side projects.
- 1990- Henson died from organ dysfunction due to toxic shock syndrome, a condition that's relatively easy to treat. However, Henson delayed seeking medical attention because he didn't want to stop working. He was known to spend a lot of time working, so much so that he had little time to spend with his family. In fact, his five children worked with Henson at Muppets Inc. from an early age so they could spend more time with him.