Today in History - May 16, 1990 Jim Henson dies
 

<b>A very sad day</b>

<a target=new href="http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/">From the History Channel</a>


1990 Jim Henson dies

Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, dies of pneumonia less than 24 hours after being rushed to the hospital.

Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1936 and grew up near Washington, D.C., where his father worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Henson joined a puppet club in high school and used his skills to land a job at a local TV station between high school and college. His homemade puppets tickled audiences, and during his freshman year at the University of Maryland, the TV station gave him his own show, called Sam and Friends. Just five minutes long, the show ran twice a day, just before popular news show the Huntley-Brinkley Report, and again before The Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Henson's program ran for eight years and won a local Emmy in 1958.

Meanwhile, Henson was studying theater and scenic design in college, where he met his future wife, Jane Nebel. She became a fellow puppeteer on Sam and Friends. In 1955, Henson took an old green coat of his mother's, attached two halves of a ping-pong ball for eyes, and created a lizard-like character named Kermit, who later evolved into Kermit the Frog. Other familiar characters took shape on Sam and Friends, as Henson's Muppets (a cross between marionettes and puppets) multiplied. In 1957, Negel and Henson made the first of more than 300 TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee. The Muppets became regular guests on talk shows, and in 1963 Rowlf the Dog became a regular on variety program The Jimmy Dean Show, which ran until 1966.

Henson showed an interest in filmmaking in the mid-1960s, making a short film called Timepiece in 1965, which was nominated for an Oscar. A few years later, he met Joan Ganz Cooney, a TV producer heading up a study of children and television, at a seminar for educators in Boston. Ganz was formulating an idea for a kids' TV program she called The Preschool Educational Television Show, and she quickly persuaded Henson and his Muppets to join her. The show, with its new, snappier title, Sesame Street, launched in 1969, and generations of children fell in love with Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, and many other Henson characters.

After seven years of children's television, Henson wanted to explore more sophisticated possibilities for his Muppets. He shopped around an idea for a variety show starring Kermit and a glamorous porker named Miss Piggy, but none of the networks were interested. Undeterred, Henson created The Muppet Show as a syndicated series; it became the world's most watched TV show, with 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries. The program ran from 1976 to 1981 and won three Emmys. Meanwhile, the Muppets launched a movie career in 1979 with The Muppet Movie, followed by The Great Muppet Caper(1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).

Other Henson creatures, less familiar than the Muppets, appeared in The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986), as well as in two cable TV series, Fraggle Rock and The Ghost of Faffner Hall. His Saturday morning cartoon, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, launched in 1984 and won four Emmys.


Can anyone find that photo of all the muppets in mourning?

Man. I remember that VERY clearly. What a sad day that was.

What do you do when the person who gave so much happiness to so many is suddenly gone?

The man was brilliant with an amazing imagination. The picture on the cover of Life (I believe it was) with Kermit sitting in Henson's director chair, crying....well it made me cry too. Sad day.

This says it well....

"That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children, who has filled his niche and accomplished his task, who leaves the world better than he found it, who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had." That sounds like a perfect description of my friend Jim Henson.
- Candice Bergan 1990

I lived briefly in Mississippi (Hensen's birth state). Something that always struck me about famous Mississippians is that they got the hell out and never came back.

After living there, I can't blame them at all. When my wife and I finally escaped Mississippi, we stopped our car at the state line, got out, and kicked the Mississippi dirt off of our shoes.

Other native Mississippians who got the hell out include:
Oprah
Morgan Freeman
Will Clark
Jim Dye
Robert Johnson
Howlin' Wolf
Lance Bass
etc, etc, etc.

Bastard! why didn't you take me with you?:)

yay.. and today is my birthday :S

I really did love Henson's work, he was a genius :)

Henson fans should D-load "halfway down the stairs" It always makes me sad.

An incredible loss to the world,
but such wonderful gifts before he went.

He could make children pay attention,
and adults smile.

Hey, in times of emergency evacuation, it's every man for himself.