The Muppets: More than Loveable
Characters on Sesame Street

It was Jim Henson’s dream to bring the puppeteer’s world out of the toy-box by removing the confining stigma that this world was only appropriate for children’s imaginations. And from his beginnings as a boy from Mississippi, to his being the creator of some of the most world renowned iconic characters to have ever been born, he worked towards the successful accomplishment of that dream.

His characters anthropomorphic or human like qualities and mannerisms allowed him to portray his characters as being part of the fabric of reality. So much so, that when the first test screening of Sesame Street was shown in Philadelphia, where the Muppets were initially depicted as simply puppets, apart from the realistic, human segments of the show, the response was so negative that before officially airing the show was reworked so that the Muppets and the realistic human segments were integrated. But this didn’t open the doors to Henson’s dream of reaching older audiences.

Even though the Muppets made numerous appearances on the, at that time, avant-garde Saturday Night Live show, who’s creator Lorne Michaels was ready and willing to make the Muppets a regular feature on SNL, the writers resisted and made demeaning references to writing for the Muppet characters, as one writer, Michael O’Donoghue, put it, “I won’t write for felt.” This setback forced Jim Henson to try and develop other projects for the Muppets. So he approached the television networks with plans to create a weekly TV series, but the networks balked at the project claiming that it would only appeal to children and they dropped plans to do the series.

This shortsightedness by the American broadcast networks and their support teams pushed Jim Henson to seek out other media venues and in 1976 he finally convinced British producer Lew Grade to shoot the show in the United Kingdom and syndicate it worldwide. Henson moved the Muppets to England and began shooting episodes of The Muppet Show that not only had the allure to draw the children’s audience but also featured an older satirical sense of humor that appealed remarkably to mature audiences as well.