As the show's theme song goes, Henson swept "the clouds away" with various original characters, including Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Snuffulupagus and Elmo. Then, in 1969, Henson teamed up with Children’s Television Workshop to produce the now-classic children's show on PBS, Sesame Street. Members of Henson's growing puppeteering team also appeared on The Today Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.Īround the same time, Henson began experimenting with short films, including 1965's Academy Award-nominated Time Piece. Rowlf was brought to life with the assistance of puppet builder Don Sahlin and puppeteer Frank Oz. The first Muppet to gain national exposure, Rowlf the Dog, went from making appearances in Purina commercials to playing a sidekick on The Jimmy Dean Show in 1963. One of Henson's puppet characters, Wheel Stealer, who snatched a family’s snacks on a food commercial and later chomped on an IBM computer in a TV ad, was an early incarnation of the beloved blue Cookie Monster. The puppet characters' popularity continued to grow, and they were soon making appearances in TV commercials, including one for Wilkins Coffee. ![]() The Muppets, including an early version of Kermit the Frog, were born from Sam and Friends. The program scored a local Emmy Award in 1958, the same year that Henson founded the Jim Henson Company. By his freshman year at the University of Maryland, in 1955, Henson had scored a bi-weekly bit on a local NBC affiliate, Sam and Friends. He began performing with his puppets on a local Washington, D.C. Henson had his first dalliance with televised puppetry while still in high school. A major influence of his childhood was TV puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, of the show Kukla, Fran and Ollie. His youth was also spent toying with different visual mediums, including television, which he adored. Well before his teen years, Henson was performing puppetry for audiences, including his fellow Cub Scouts. His maternal grandmother, a painter, quilter and needleworker, encouraged his creative passions, including his puppetry. ![]() At a young age, Henson was drawn to the arts. ![]() Henson was born on September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi. Henson received several accolades for his work, including Emmys, Grammys and a Peabody Award. The Muppet Movie, the first of many movies featuring Henson's famous characters, appeared in 1979. He worked as a producer on Sesame Street, a popular kids' show that launched in 1969, and created The Muppet Show in 1976. Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets, began working as a puppeteer in college, creating characters like Kermit the Frog.
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