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A few months ago there was a similar thread regarding the Sesame Street timeline, but I feel it might be fun to do a similar one regarding the timeline of The Jim Henson Company. I put this in the General Discussions because I couldn't determine what Henson Company folder it would be most appropriate for.
1954-1961: The Washington, D.C./local television era
Jim Henson gets his start in television doing puppetry on a number of locally-produced shows in Washington, D.C., including The Junior Morning Show, Saturday, Circle 4 Ranch, Afternoon, and Footlight Theater, in addition to his own show, Sam and Friends. During this time, Jim only does puppetry because it's what gets him working on television (in fact he was more interested in working behind-the-scenes than performing.... on Circle 4 Ranch he was originally hired just to paint sets before being a puppeteer on that show). Jim does most of the work, with only a little bit of help: His friend Russell Wall performs with him in his earliest works, while Jane Nebel (later Jane Henson) assists in performing throughout the rest of the decade, and Bob Payne performs for a short while (in place of Jim during his European vacation).
At first, the Muppets don't have their own voices, instead lip-synching to existing recordings. A few other people who voices (including Joe Campbell as Longhorn and Shorthorn on Circle 4 Ranch), but Jim doesn't perform voices until 1957. The Jim Henson Company isn't actually started until 1958, before which all characters are self-copyrighted to Jim and Jane (though Joe Campbell paid for 57% ownership of Longhorn and Shorthorn, who he actually created and hired Jim to build).
While most of Jim's work this era is local to Washington D.C., the Muppets actually make their first national television appearance in 1956, on The Tonight Show. Jim would also make a living with commercials, starting with the locally-produced Wilkins Coffee but would also do commercials for other products that were local to different parts of the country, often reusing existing scripts and substituting the products. Jim would also start making industrial films for various companies.
1961-1969:The rest of the pre-Sesame Street era
The Jim Henson Company moves to New York, due to frequent appearances on Today. The company starts to get a little bigger, with more performers, including Jerry Juhl (who also writes and will eventually focus exclusively on writing), Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson (who would work on-and-off for Henson until performing full-time in 1970), as well as puppet builder Don Shalin. Jim usually only has one or two other performers working with him at a time (see above), while Jane limits her performing after the birth of their second child.
The Muppets start to have a more national presence, including frequent appearances on such shows as Today, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Jack Paar Show. While the company also makes commercials for local products in different parts of the country, the company also starts to produce commercials for national products, including Purina Dog Chow, which introduces the world to Rowlf. Rowlf would soon become the first Muppet to be a national star, when he makes weekly appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show.
After a successful career with the five-minute Sam and Friends, commercials, and guest appearances, Jim tries to develop longer narratives for the Muppets. He creates concepts for such shows as Tale of the Tinkerdee, The Zoocus, a miniseries based on Cinderella (which would later become a television special), and The Wizard of Id, but none of them would make it past the pilot stages.
Jim also starts to make some non-puppet productions. He works on a few live-action and animated films, which I am not entirely sure what they were for (I think some were more personal films not intended for the public, while some debuted on talk shows). Additionally, he makes the ten-minute Oscar-nominated short Time Piece and the NBC Experiments in Television specials Youth '68 and The Cube, as well as shooting film for a nightclub project called Cyclia. During this time Jim and Jerry Juhl write a screenplay for Tales of Sand, which in the end never gets made into a movie, but does get made into a comic book in 2012.
1969-1976: The rest of the pre-Muppet Show era
In 1969, Jim Henson's Muppets become part of a new educational show from the Children's Television Workshop, Sesame Street. Jim gets to not only create new Muppets, but also produces film inserts for the first two seasons. In exchange for going a year without pay for his services, Jim gets to keep the rights to all Muppets created for the show, as well as a split in profits from merchandise. Being on a children's educational show, as well as the show making him busier, leads to Jim doing less commercials, at the time limiting his commercial work to other countries.
When Sesame Street starts, Jim hires another performer, Caroll Spinney, but the success of the first season as well as sudden work in specials makes Jim start hiring more performers, including Fran Brill and Richard Hunt. Jim starts to make television specials, including The Great Santa Claus Switch, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. Jim also develops a live Broadway show, which never gets made.
The success of Sesame Street makes it harder to get Jim to sell a prime time Muppet show to networks. Still, he makes a pitch tape for CBS, and ABC broadcasts two pilots, but they pass on the show. Then the Muppets are hired for regular appearances during the first season of Saturday Night Live. These characters are more adult than the Muppets were known for at the time, but they're not exactly a hit with the audiences, the shows cast hates having to share the show with them, and unfortunately the regular Henson writers are not allowed to write (though there are exceptions), and the shows writers (which include cast members) hate writing for them. Fortunately, during this season Lord Grade contacts Jim to get The Muppet Show broadcast, under the condition that it be produced in England, ending the Muppet appearances on SNL.
1976-1990: Muppet stardom, creative new worlds, and the rest of Jim's life
The Muppet Show airs from 1976-1981, and the group of characters from that show, and although the Muppet name will continue to be used to describe characters from most Henson productions, the term is now best associated with the characters from this show, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo. The Muppet Show is a hit, leading to many TV specials, movies, and more. Jim also hires more performers, including Dave Goelz (who had been hired in 1974), Eren Ozker (for one year), Louise Gold, Steve Whitmire, Kathryn Mullen and Karen Prell for The Muppet Show, while for Sesame Street Brian Meehl, Michael Earl Davis, Martin Robinson, Kevin Clash, and Camile Bonora are hired.
Besides Muppets and Sesame Street, Jim creates new worlds and franchises. He makes the televison specials Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, The Christmas Toy, and Tale of the Bunny Picnic. After two successful Muppet movies, Jim directs a more realistic project, The Dark Crystal, with Frank Oz co-directing. This production is the first to use creations from what would become Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a company that would go on to produce other fantasy films, including Labyrinth and The Witches, create characters for movies not produced by the company (including Dreamchild, the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films, and the live-action Flinstones movies), and also such television series as The StoryTeller and Ghost of Faffner Hall.
Another new series to come during this time is Fraggle Rock. While the majority of productions from previous years involved the same performers, starting here the company stops using the same performers for everything. Jim scarcely performs on the show, now being super busy with projects throughout the decade, and Frank Oz doesn't perform on the show, either. A few years later, after a stint directing The Muppets Take Manhattan, Oz starts a directing career outside of The Jim Henson Company, limiting his performing time.
The Muppets continue to be fairly popular, with the animated series Muppet Babies (and short-lived Little Muppet Monsters), occasional specials, guest appearances, and various direct-to-video projects. In 1987, Jim develops The Jim Henson Hour, though he's a bit unsure of what all he wants it to be. While he had creative control for The Muppet Show (and, I assume, Fraggle Rock), NBC interferes a bit with the show, including having Jim host on-camera and having most shows split into two half-hours (as opposed to the rotating schedule of hour-long shows Jim wanted). Most shows feature MuppeTelevison in the first half, and The StoryTeller in the second, in additon to a number of specials (some hour-long, others in the second half-hour), but the show is canceled after only a few episodes.
Following the cancellation of The Jim Henson Hour, Jim gets in talks to sell the company to The Walt Disney Company, minus the Sesame Street Muppets but including Jim's exclusive services for 15 years. Jim develops a number of ideas for the company, but unfortunately dies in 1990.
1990-2004: After Jim/the rest of the era where the company owns all its characters
Following Jim's death, his family decides to keep the company private. Still, Disney does some things for the Muppets. Jim's last project, Muppet Vision 3D, opens at Walt Disney World in 1991, The Disney Channel begins broadcasting reruns of Fraggle Rock, Buena Vista Home Video releases Henson productions on home video, and Walt Disney Pictures releases the first two Muppet movies of the 1990s, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island (on a similar note, Nickelodeon also broadcasts a lot of the Henson Company TV library, including rerunning Muppet Babies and The Muppet Show as well as Muppet specials and a new series of insertials called Muppet Time). Disney also produces Dinosaurs, an idea Jim had pitched for the company.
The company creates a number of original series, including Mother Goose Stories, Dog City, City Kids, Animal Show with Stinky and Jake, Brats of the Lost Nebula, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and Aliens in the Family. The company also attempts a non-puppet series, Family Rules, which only lasts six episodes. A new Muppet series, Muppets Tonight, only lasts two seasons. The two most successful Henson shows from the end of the decade include Bear in the Big Blue House and Farscape.
In 1996, The Jim Henson Company forms Jim Henson Pictures, and enters into a distribution deal with Columbia. The deal includes distributing 10-15 films, but only three get made, as none of the three movies -- Buddy, Muppets from Space, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland -- do well at the box office. Columbia Home Video also releases Henson content on home video from 1998-2004.
In 1999, Henson teams up with Hallmark to purchase The Odyssey Channel, and produces new shows such as Donna's Day (which had been on the air for two years before the company got involved) and Telling Stories with Tommie De Paola. In 2000, The Jim Henson Company is sold to German company EM.TV. EM.TV soon suffers financial problems, and decides to sell The Jim Henson Company. A few of the companies assets are sold separately, including Henson's shares of Odyssey to Hallmark (which renames the channel The Hallmark Chanel) and the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets to Sesame Workshop (formerly Childen's Television Workshop), but despite offers from many studios, both major and minor, it is Jim Henson's children who buy back the company from EM.TV in 2003.
The company still does quite a bit with the Muppets during the EM.TV period, including the first-ever (and so far only) Muppet fan convention, Muppetfest, as well as the made-for-video movie Kermit's Swamp Years and the made-for-TV It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. During this time, however, the world of Muppet merchandise is a lot better, started by the 25th anniversary of The Muppet Show, with such products as action figures from Palisades, video games from TK Productions, and a Muppet Monopoly, as well as plush and beanies from Sababa.
2004-present: After Muppets
In 2004, The Walt Disney Company buys the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House franchises from The Jim Henson Company, including the Muppet trademark, all associated characters, and the respective TV and film libraries. The company continues to build Muppets and develop Muppet and Bear productions for a few years, but otherwise focuses on its own projects and stops using the Muppet name for its characters. I might do another post for the next few "Muppet eras" later.
With the company no longer owning it's biggest properties (Muppets, Sesame Street, and Bear), the company starts paying more attention to past properties the company hadn't paid much attention to in the last few years, including Fraggle Rock and Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. The Henson Company starts releasing more of its family library, with video distributor changing from HIT! to Lionsgate to Vinvendi.
The company starts to do adult puppetry, starting with a series of Puppet Improv shows, which has changed its name over the years. Many adult puppet shows are developed but don't make it past the pilot stages. Speaking of which, the company also struggles to get more projects released, with a Dark Crystal prequel, a Fraggle Rock movie, and a murder mystery all in development heck. More successfully, the company becomes involved in computer animation, putting out a series of CGI videos called Unstable Fables, and a few successful series, such as Sid the Science Kid and Sid the Science Kid.
Online, the company puts out a podcast and starts the Jim Henson's Red Book section of the Henson Company website.
1954-1961: The Washington, D.C./local television era
Jim Henson gets his start in television doing puppetry on a number of locally-produced shows in Washington, D.C., including The Junior Morning Show, Saturday, Circle 4 Ranch, Afternoon, and Footlight Theater, in addition to his own show, Sam and Friends. During this time, Jim only does puppetry because it's what gets him working on television (in fact he was more interested in working behind-the-scenes than performing.... on Circle 4 Ranch he was originally hired just to paint sets before being a puppeteer on that show). Jim does most of the work, with only a little bit of help: His friend Russell Wall performs with him in his earliest works, while Jane Nebel (later Jane Henson) assists in performing throughout the rest of the decade, and Bob Payne performs for a short while (in place of Jim during his European vacation).
At first, the Muppets don't have their own voices, instead lip-synching to existing recordings. A few other people who voices (including Joe Campbell as Longhorn and Shorthorn on Circle 4 Ranch), but Jim doesn't perform voices until 1957. The Jim Henson Company isn't actually started until 1958, before which all characters are self-copyrighted to Jim and Jane (though Joe Campbell paid for 57% ownership of Longhorn and Shorthorn, who he actually created and hired Jim to build).
While most of Jim's work this era is local to Washington D.C., the Muppets actually make their first national television appearance in 1956, on The Tonight Show. Jim would also make a living with commercials, starting with the locally-produced Wilkins Coffee but would also do commercials for other products that were local to different parts of the country, often reusing existing scripts and substituting the products. Jim would also start making industrial films for various companies.
1961-1969:The rest of the pre-Sesame Street era
The Jim Henson Company moves to New York, due to frequent appearances on Today. The company starts to get a little bigger, with more performers, including Jerry Juhl (who also writes and will eventually focus exclusively on writing), Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson (who would work on-and-off for Henson until performing full-time in 1970), as well as puppet builder Don Shalin. Jim usually only has one or two other performers working with him at a time (see above), while Jane limits her performing after the birth of their second child.
The Muppets start to have a more national presence, including frequent appearances on such shows as Today, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Jack Paar Show. While the company also makes commercials for local products in different parts of the country, the company also starts to produce commercials for national products, including Purina Dog Chow, which introduces the world to Rowlf. Rowlf would soon become the first Muppet to be a national star, when he makes weekly appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show.
After a successful career with the five-minute Sam and Friends, commercials, and guest appearances, Jim tries to develop longer narratives for the Muppets. He creates concepts for such shows as Tale of the Tinkerdee, The Zoocus, a miniseries based on Cinderella (which would later become a television special), and The Wizard of Id, but none of them would make it past the pilot stages.
Jim also starts to make some non-puppet productions. He works on a few live-action and animated films, which I am not entirely sure what they were for (I think some were more personal films not intended for the public, while some debuted on talk shows). Additionally, he makes the ten-minute Oscar-nominated short Time Piece and the NBC Experiments in Television specials Youth '68 and The Cube, as well as shooting film for a nightclub project called Cyclia. During this time Jim and Jerry Juhl write a screenplay for Tales of Sand, which in the end never gets made into a movie, but does get made into a comic book in 2012.
1969-1976: The rest of the pre-Muppet Show era
In 1969, Jim Henson's Muppets become part of a new educational show from the Children's Television Workshop, Sesame Street. Jim gets to not only create new Muppets, but also produces film inserts for the first two seasons. In exchange for going a year without pay for his services, Jim gets to keep the rights to all Muppets created for the show, as well as a split in profits from merchandise. Being on a children's educational show, as well as the show making him busier, leads to Jim doing less commercials, at the time limiting his commercial work to other countries.
When Sesame Street starts, Jim hires another performer, Caroll Spinney, but the success of the first season as well as sudden work in specials makes Jim start hiring more performers, including Fran Brill and Richard Hunt. Jim starts to make television specials, including The Great Santa Claus Switch, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. Jim also develops a live Broadway show, which never gets made.
The success of Sesame Street makes it harder to get Jim to sell a prime time Muppet show to networks. Still, he makes a pitch tape for CBS, and ABC broadcasts two pilots, but they pass on the show. Then the Muppets are hired for regular appearances during the first season of Saturday Night Live. These characters are more adult than the Muppets were known for at the time, but they're not exactly a hit with the audiences, the shows cast hates having to share the show with them, and unfortunately the regular Henson writers are not allowed to write (though there are exceptions), and the shows writers (which include cast members) hate writing for them. Fortunately, during this season Lord Grade contacts Jim to get The Muppet Show broadcast, under the condition that it be produced in England, ending the Muppet appearances on SNL.
1976-1990: Muppet stardom, creative new worlds, and the rest of Jim's life
The Muppet Show airs from 1976-1981, and the group of characters from that show, and although the Muppet name will continue to be used to describe characters from most Henson productions, the term is now best associated with the characters from this show, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo. The Muppet Show is a hit, leading to many TV specials, movies, and more. Jim also hires more performers, including Dave Goelz (who had been hired in 1974), Eren Ozker (for one year), Louise Gold, Steve Whitmire, Kathryn Mullen and Karen Prell for The Muppet Show, while for Sesame Street Brian Meehl, Michael Earl Davis, Martin Robinson, Kevin Clash, and Camile Bonora are hired.
Besides Muppets and Sesame Street, Jim creates new worlds and franchises. He makes the televison specials Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, The Christmas Toy, and Tale of the Bunny Picnic. After two successful Muppet movies, Jim directs a more realistic project, The Dark Crystal, with Frank Oz co-directing. This production is the first to use creations from what would become Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a company that would go on to produce other fantasy films, including Labyrinth and The Witches, create characters for movies not produced by the company (including Dreamchild, the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films, and the live-action Flinstones movies), and also such television series as The StoryTeller and Ghost of Faffner Hall.
Another new series to come during this time is Fraggle Rock. While the majority of productions from previous years involved the same performers, starting here the company stops using the same performers for everything. Jim scarcely performs on the show, now being super busy with projects throughout the decade, and Frank Oz doesn't perform on the show, either. A few years later, after a stint directing The Muppets Take Manhattan, Oz starts a directing career outside of The Jim Henson Company, limiting his performing time.
The Muppets continue to be fairly popular, with the animated series Muppet Babies (and short-lived Little Muppet Monsters), occasional specials, guest appearances, and various direct-to-video projects. In 1987, Jim develops The Jim Henson Hour, though he's a bit unsure of what all he wants it to be. While he had creative control for The Muppet Show (and, I assume, Fraggle Rock), NBC interferes a bit with the show, including having Jim host on-camera and having most shows split into two half-hours (as opposed to the rotating schedule of hour-long shows Jim wanted). Most shows feature MuppeTelevison in the first half, and The StoryTeller in the second, in additon to a number of specials (some hour-long, others in the second half-hour), but the show is canceled after only a few episodes.
Following the cancellation of The Jim Henson Hour, Jim gets in talks to sell the company to The Walt Disney Company, minus the Sesame Street Muppets but including Jim's exclusive services for 15 years. Jim develops a number of ideas for the company, but unfortunately dies in 1990.
1990-2004: After Jim/the rest of the era where the company owns all its characters
Following Jim's death, his family decides to keep the company private. Still, Disney does some things for the Muppets. Jim's last project, Muppet Vision 3D, opens at Walt Disney World in 1991, The Disney Channel begins broadcasting reruns of Fraggle Rock, Buena Vista Home Video releases Henson productions on home video, and Walt Disney Pictures releases the first two Muppet movies of the 1990s, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island (on a similar note, Nickelodeon also broadcasts a lot of the Henson Company TV library, including rerunning Muppet Babies and The Muppet Show as well as Muppet specials and a new series of insertials called Muppet Time). Disney also produces Dinosaurs, an idea Jim had pitched for the company.
The company creates a number of original series, including Mother Goose Stories, Dog City, City Kids, Animal Show with Stinky and Jake, Brats of the Lost Nebula, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and Aliens in the Family. The company also attempts a non-puppet series, Family Rules, which only lasts six episodes. A new Muppet series, Muppets Tonight, only lasts two seasons. The two most successful Henson shows from the end of the decade include Bear in the Big Blue House and Farscape.
In 1996, The Jim Henson Company forms Jim Henson Pictures, and enters into a distribution deal with Columbia. The deal includes distributing 10-15 films, but only three get made, as none of the three movies -- Buddy, Muppets from Space, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland -- do well at the box office. Columbia Home Video also releases Henson content on home video from 1998-2004.
In 1999, Henson teams up with Hallmark to purchase The Odyssey Channel, and produces new shows such as Donna's Day (which had been on the air for two years before the company got involved) and Telling Stories with Tommie De Paola. In 2000, The Jim Henson Company is sold to German company EM.TV. EM.TV soon suffers financial problems, and decides to sell The Jim Henson Company. A few of the companies assets are sold separately, including Henson's shares of Odyssey to Hallmark (which renames the channel The Hallmark Chanel) and the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets to Sesame Workshop (formerly Childen's Television Workshop), but despite offers from many studios, both major and minor, it is Jim Henson's children who buy back the company from EM.TV in 2003.
The company still does quite a bit with the Muppets during the EM.TV period, including the first-ever (and so far only) Muppet fan convention, Muppetfest, as well as the made-for-video movie Kermit's Swamp Years and the made-for-TV It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. During this time, however, the world of Muppet merchandise is a lot better, started by the 25th anniversary of The Muppet Show, with such products as action figures from Palisades, video games from TK Productions, and a Muppet Monopoly, as well as plush and beanies from Sababa.
2004-present: After Muppets
In 2004, The Walt Disney Company buys the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House franchises from The Jim Henson Company, including the Muppet trademark, all associated characters, and the respective TV and film libraries. The company continues to build Muppets and develop Muppet and Bear productions for a few years, but otherwise focuses on its own projects and stops using the Muppet name for its characters. I might do another post for the next few "Muppet eras" later.
With the company no longer owning it's biggest properties (Muppets, Sesame Street, and Bear), the company starts paying more attention to past properties the company hadn't paid much attention to in the last few years, including Fraggle Rock and Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. The Henson Company starts releasing more of its family library, with video distributor changing from HIT! to Lionsgate to Vinvendi.
The company starts to do adult puppetry, starting with a series of Puppet Improv shows, which has changed its name over the years. Many adult puppet shows are developed but don't make it past the pilot stages. Speaking of which, the company also struggles to get more projects released, with a Dark Crystal prequel, a Fraggle Rock movie, and a murder mystery all in development heck. More successfully, the company becomes involved in computer animation, putting out a series of CGI videos called Unstable Fables, and a few successful series, such as Sid the Science Kid and Sid the Science Kid.
Online, the company puts out a podcast and starts the Jim Henson's Red Book section of the Henson Company website.