Jim Henson Gives Birth to the Muppets

James Maury Henson, known to most of us as Jim Henson the “Father of the Muppets”, was born on September 24, 1936 in Greenville Mississippi. As a young man he was enamored (as was much of the world) with Edgar Bergen who he listened to on the radio. And when Henson’s family got their first television set, he saw the puppet creations Kukla, Fran and Ollie of Burr Tillstrom, and the seeds that would eventually grow into the Muppets were sown.

When Jim Henson was a freshman at the University of Maryland he enlisted the aid of fellow freshman, Jane Nebel, and developed Muppet like characters for a five minute children’s spot on WRC-TV called, Sam and Friends. In this puppet show the most recognizable character to us would have been a green lizard like creature that later became a frog named Kermit.

In the early years, after marrying Jane, Jim Henson’s beloved Muppets did commercials, talk shows, and children’s events; then he, Jane and the Muppets moved to New York City where his children and the Muppet characters that we now love were born. Jane, now a mother, stepped away from an active part in the Muppets so that she could take care of their children and Jim Henson hired writer, Jerry Juhl and puppeteer Frank Oz. Many of the characterizations and scenarios that we see in the Muppets come from Jim Henson’s deep relationship with Frank Oz and life on the streets of NYC. In fact, Bert and Ernie are direct reflections of the Henson, Oz relationship.

Jim Henson started to become widely recognized when his puppet character “Rowlf” made frequent appearances on the Jimmy Dean Show. This anthropomorphic dog proved to skeptics that there was a niche for puppet characters that could play to all people, young and old. And so, during the mid to late 1960s, due to this rising popularity, the stage was set for history to be made as Henson began developing ideas for other projects, like his early films: Time Piece (nominated for an Oscar) and The Cube and of course his work on the show, Sesame Street.