Why didn't Jim Henson have any writing credits in the first three Muppet movies?

[Count von Count]

Why didn't Jim write any of the Muppet Movies? Writers of The Muppet Movie (1979)-Jack Burns & Jerry Juhl Writers of The Great Muppet Caper (1981)-Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses and Jerry Juhl & Jack Rose Writers of The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)- Tom Patchett & Jay Tarses Was he too busy? Did he not like to write? If you think about it he didn't write Much Muppet Show episod. -Does someone know?

 

[Count von Count]

He did write-The Dark Crystal (1982)(story)-The Muppets Go to the Movies (1981)(TV)(writer)-"The Muppet Show" (6 episodes)

 

[David French]

Jim Henson is credited as writer on all 120 episodes of TMS, so I don't know where you got six from (probably IMDB).

Nevertheless, Jerry Juhl was the Muppets' head writer so it naturally would have been his job to come up with the screenplay.

 

[minor muppetz]

It's odd that Henson didn't write any of the movies. When he started out he did almost everything, and as time went by and more people were hired he did less. But I'm sure that he trusted Jerry Juhl. I am sure that many elements of the movie were hs ideas (shooting outdoors, Kermit riding a bike, the big finale), though I don't know if the producer would get a writers credit just for having ideas that got used.

I think that Jim Henson: The Works mentions that Jim Henson did write the first draft (or maybe it was an outline) for The Muppet Movie, and I think it also said he wrote the final draft. If that's true (I don't own a copy of the book) then he should have gotten a writers credit.