Happy Birthday Jim Henson!

Today September 24 would have been Jim Henson's 77th birthday. He was born in 1936 in Mississippi but was raised in Maryland. He worked as a puppeteer off and on for several years after college. In 1963 he and his Muppets, Inc troupe landed a job on The Jimmy Dean Show, where Rowlf The Dog made his public debut. In 1969 Henson and Co. was invited to work on a fledgling children's television show on Public Broadcasting called Sesame Street. From that success they created The Muppet Show, which originally no US network would agree to broadcast. Henson had to go to the UK to film and finance the show that ran for five successful years, from 1976 to 1981. Then Jim Henson made several Muppet movies as well as other television series such as Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs. He died on May 16, 1990.

Happy Birthday, Jim Henson! 

 

 

Jim Henson portrayed several Muppets, the most famous of them being Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog, and Ernie (of Bert and Ernie fame). My favorite was always Rowlf. Here he is in a tender moment from an episode of The Muppet Show circa 1977.