Prologue
Who Are You?
It’s not easy being green.
—Kermit the Frog
In 1976, the show that Time would ultimately declare “the most popular television entertainment on earth” hit the airwaves. The premise behind The Muppet Show was quite absurd: a variety show consisting of hundreds of puppets in commonplace and ridiculous scenarios. The genius behind the creation was Jim Henson, a man of humble beginnings who happened to come of age during the golden era of television. Inspired by the fantasy of Disney films and the wit of popular comedians, Henson concocted a world at the intersection of whimsy and comedy.
Henson’s Muppets are indelibly blazoned on our cultural memory. As children, we remember learning the essentials of life from the fantastical creatures on our screen. As adults, we still identify with one or more of the puppets as reflections of our own selves or community. Henson did so much more than create a fresh approach to children’s programming. Indeed, he invented a new world where we could all lose ourselves, even if for only 30 minutes a week.
Before Henson entered the scene, puppets were limited to the confines of a real world—their expressionless bodies bound by the physical constraints surrounding them. Henson created an entirely new world void of these natural limitations and, in so doing, breathed new life into his art. Gone were the one-dimensional, one-hand puppets confined to the stage inherent in any theatrical production. In Henson’s world, the television ...
