A variety show that’s still revered for its absurdist, slapstick humour debuted 50 years ago. It starred an irreverent band of characters made of foam and fleece.
Long after The Muppet Show‘s original 120-episode run ended in 1981, the legend and legacy of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and other creations concocted by puppeteer and TV producer Jim Henson have kept growing. Thanks to the Muppets’ film franchise and the wonders of YouTube, the wacky gang is still delighting, and expanding, its fan base.
As a scholar of popular culture, I believe that the Muppets’ reign, which began in the 1950s, has helped shape global culture, including educational TV. Along the way, the puppets and the people who bring them to life have earned billions in revenue.
Muppets, a portmanteau of marionette and puppet, first appeared on TV in the Washington, DC, region in 1955, when Henson created a short sketch show called Sam and Friends with his future wife, Jane Nebel.
Their motley cast of puppets, including a lizard-like character named Kermit, sang parody songs and performed comedy sketches.
Henson’s creations were soon popping up in segments on other TV shows, including Today and late-night programmes. Rowlf the Dog appeared in Canadian dog food commercials before joining The Jimmy Dean Show as the host’s sidekick.
After that show ended, Rowlf and Dean performed on the Ed Sullivan Show” where Kermit had occasionally appeared since 1961.
As Rowlf and Kermit made the rounds on variety shows, journalist Joan Ganz Cooney and psychologist Lloyd Morrisett were creating a new educational programme. They invited Henson to provide a Muppet ensemble for the show.
Henson waived his performance fee to maintain rights over the characters who became the most famous residents of Sesame Street. Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Big Bird were joined by Kermit, who, by the time the show premiered in 1969, was identified as a frog.
When Sesame Street became a hit, Henson worried that his Muppets would be typecast as children’s entertainment. Another groundbreaking show, aimed at young adults, offered him a chance to avoid that.
Saturday Night Live’s (SNL) debut on NBC in 1975 — when the show was called Saturday Night — included a segment called The Land of Gorch, in which Henson’s grotesque creatures drank, smoked and cracked crass jokes.
The Land of Gorch segments ended after SNL’s first season.
The Muppet Show was years in the making. ABC eventually aired two TV specials in 1974 and 1975 that were meant to be pilots for a US-produced Muppet Show.
After no US network picked up his quirky series, Henson partnered with British entertainment entrepreneur Lew Grade to produce a series for ATV, a British network, that featured Kermit and other Muppets. The new ensemble included Fozzie Bear, Animal and Miss Piggy — Muppets originally performed by frequent Henson collaborator Frank Oz.
The Muppet Show parodied variety shows on which Henson had appeared. Connections he’d made along the way paid off: Many celebrities he met on those shows’ sets would guest star on The Muppet Show, including everyone from Rita Moreno and Lena Horne to Joan Baez and Johnny Cash.
The Muppet Show, which was staged and shot at a studio near London, debuted on September 5 1976, in the UK, before airing in syndication in the US on stations like New York’s WCBS.
Big screen
The Muppet Show was a hit, amassing a global audience of more than 200-million. It won many awards, including a Primetime Emmy for outstanding comedy-variety or music series — for which it beat Saturday Night Live — in 1978.
While his TV show was on the air, Henson worked on the franchise’s first film, The Muppet Movie. The road film, released in 1979, was another hit: It earned more than $76m at the box office.
The Muppet Movie garnered two Academy Award nominations for its music, including best song for Rainbow Connection. It won a Grammy for best album for children.
The next two films, The Great Muppet Caper, which premiered in 1981, and The Muppets Take Manhattan, released in 1984, also garnered Oscar nominations for their music.
The cast of The Muppet Show and the three films took a break from Hollywood while Henson focused on Fraggle Rock, a TV show for kids that aired from 1983-1987 on HBO.
Like Henson’s other productions, Fraggle Rock featured absurdist humour — but its puppets aren’t considered part of the standard Muppets gang. This co-production between Henson, Canadian Broadcast Corporation and British producers was aimed at international markets.
The quickly conglomerating media industry led Henson to consider corporate partnerships to assist with his goal of further expanding the Muppet media universe.
In August 1989, he negotiated a deal with Michael Eisner of Disney, who announced at Disney-MGM Studios an agreement in principle to acquire The Muppets, with Henson maintaining ownership of the Sesame Street characters.
The announcement also included plans to open Muppet-themed attractions at Disney parks.
But less than a year later, on May 16 1990, Henson died from a rare and serious bacterial infection. He was 53.
Henson’s death led to the Disney deal’s collapse. But the company did license The Muppets to Disney, which co-produced The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992 and Muppet Treasure Island in 1996 with Jim Henson Productions, which was then run by Jim’s son, Brian Henson.
In 2000, the Henson family sold the Muppet properties to German media company EM.TV & Merchandising for $680m. That company ran into financial trouble soon after, then sold the Sesame Street characters to Sesame Workshop for $180m in late 2000. The Jim Henson Company bought back the remaining Muppet properties for $84m in 2003.
In 2004, Disney finally acquired The Muppets and most of the media library associated with the characters.
Disney continued to produce Muppet content, including The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz in 2005. Its biggest success came with the 2011 film The Muppets, which earned more than $165m at the box office and won the Oscar for best original song Man or Muppet.
Muppets Most Wanted, released in 2014, earned another $80m worldwide, bringing total global box office receipts to more than $458m across eight theatrical Muppets movies.
The Muppets continue to expand their fandom across generations and genres by performing at live concerts and appearing in several series and films.
Through these many hits and occasional bombs, and the Jim Henson Company’s personnel changes, the Muppets have adapted to changes in technology and tastes, making it possible for them to remain relevant to new generations.
That cast of characters made of felt and foam continue to entertain fans of all ages. Though many people remain nostalgic over The Muppet Show, two prior efforts to reboot the show proved short-lived.
But when Disney airs its The Muppet Show anniversary special on February 4 2026, maybe more people will get hooked as Disney looks to reboot the series
Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
This article appeared first on The Conversation.
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