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Center of Attention: Kermit and Miss Piggy are helping ring in the season on Christmas in Rockefeller Center December 3 on NBC. Celebrating the lighting of New York City's most famous Christmas tree alongside them are hosts Al Roker and Jane Krakowski, Miley Cyrus, Stephen Colbert, the Radio City Rockettes, and many more. Letters Arriving Soon: The Muppets' new Christmas special, Letters to Santa: A Muppets Christmas, will air on NBC on December 17th. The plot involves the Muppets mistakenly intercepting three letters sent by children to Santa Claus and their attempts to fix the problems created by their mishap. The special features songs by Paul Williams, who wrote the music for The Muppet Movie and Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, and includes appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, Uma Thurman, Jane Krakowski, Petra Nemcova, Nathan Lane and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Big Bird and Elmo promote NYC: As part of a promotional campaign for tourism in New York City called "Just Ask the Locals", Elmo and Big Bird are appearing in bus stop ads, as well as in videos shown in taxi cabs. Also featuring Wynton Marsalis, Itzhak Perlman, Alan Cumming, Debbie Harry, and Matt Lauer, the campaign reveals among other things that Big Bird has a lot of friends in the Upper West Side, while Elmo's parents prefer SoHo. The Muppets Take Over Today: The November 13, 2008 broadcast of The Today Show featured an entire half hour of Muppets, as the Whatnots took over the program in promotion of the Muppet Whatnot Workshop. The segment featured familiar characters like Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, obscure characters like Mr. Easy Peasy, and caricatures of the hosts. Christopher Meloni and Harry Connick Jr. appeared as guests, and Statler and Waldorf presented their "Picks for Obama's Cabinet," such as Secretary of the Inferior Fozzie Bear. Fraggle Rock Complete Series DVDs: The Fraggle Rock complete series DVD set arrived in stores in early November! The 20-disc set features all 96 episodes from all four production seasons. The set is supplemented by rare footage, new interviews and featurettes, and an original poster. Meet the Pajanimals: Jim Henson's Pajanimals, a brand-new short form series produced by The Jim Henson Company debuted this month! The show features the musical adventures of four plush animals as they prepare for bed. The series, which is also available on-demand, airs nightly at 7:00pm and 8:45pm ET on PBS Kids Sprout during "The Good Night Show" programming block. A Prawn's Life: Pepe the King Prawn's new book, It's Hard Out Here for a Shrimp, is available in stores now. The book details Pepe's life and offers his self-help tips. A similar book written by Miss Piggy, The Diva Code: Miss Piggy on Life, Love, and the 10,000 Idiotic Things New Viral Videos: Two more "virmup" videos are online -- "Rolling with the Skateboarding Dog", a clip of Rowlf, Fozzie, Gonzo and Rizzo watching Tyson the Skateboarding Dog do his thing on the pier. The video is up on YouTube, MySpace and Vimeo. A follow-up, "Skateboarding Dog gets served" is up on YouTube, MySpace and Vimeo as well. Lots of Whatnots: The Muppet Whatnot Workshop is now open at FAO.com, allowing customers to create their own Muppet Whatnot from a selection of bodies, eyes, noses, hairstyles, and costumes. The in-store workshop at FAO Schwarz in New York City is now open as well. Street Gang Event: Sesame Street at 40: A Night of Celebration with the Legendary Cast is a scheduled event to be held January 30, 2009 at William Patterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Hosted by Michael Davis (author of the upcoming Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street), the lecture will include speakers Frank Oz, Kevin Clash, Caroll Spinney, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath, Marty Robinson, Fran Brill, David Rudman, and Tony Geiss. Sesame Street DVDs: Sesame Workshop has announced its home video line-up for 2009, including new content, repackaged material and fan favorites. Elmo Loves You! is expected in time for Valentine's Day, Sesame Street Pirates features the Season 38 premiere with Tina Fey, and Birthday Fun with Elmo and Abby is a new production also starring Super Grover. Other titles include Bedtime with Elmo and three more episodes of Elmo's World in One Fine Face. Finally, to celebrate its 40th year educating children, Sesame Street 40th Anniversary will feature two discs filled with classic moments from all 40 years of its history. |
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| Jim Henson |
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Jim Henson began working with puppets as a college student, creating the show Sam and Friends in 1955 for a local Washington, D.C. television station. The energetic Muppets soon became a popular fixture, and led to appearances on national variety shows. Henson's commercials for a local coffee company, Wilkins Coffee, were so popular that he was hired to create similar commercials around the country. In the early 1960s, Henson moved to New York City, working with collaborators Frank Oz, Jerry Juhl and Don Sahlin on a variety of projects, including a regular guest spot on The Jimmy Dean Show for the first Muppet star, Rowlf the Dog.
In 1969, Henson was invited to participate in a ground-breaking educational show for television, Sesame Street. Initially, the Muppets were meant to be just one element among many on the show -- but the popularity of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, Grover, Ernie and Bert soon made the Muppets the core of the show. Over the years, the Muppet cast has grown to include Mr. Snuffleupagus, Telly Monster, Count von Count, Zoe, and, of course, the international superstar Elmo, who stars in his own segment, Elmo's World. Sesame Street is now in its 39th season, and the newest star is fairy-in-training Abby Cadabby.
In 1976, Henson created his signature project -- The Muppet Show, a weekly prime-time variety show filled with songs, sketches and talented guest stars. Kermit the Frog is the charming and mostly unflappable host, presiding over a motley crew of performers, including diva Miss Piggy, hopeful comedian Fozzie Bear, daredevil performance artist Gonzo, and the house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. The Muppet Show was a huge international success, making unlikely stars out of the Swedish Chef, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker, the brave crew of "Pigs in Space", and the two old cranks in the balcony, Statler and Waldorf.
The Muppet Show cast has continued to entertain audiences for over 30 years, spinning off into a popular series of movies, including The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Muppet Christmas Carol. In 2008, the Muppets return for a new TV special, Letters to Santa: A Muppets Christmas.
In the 1980s, Henson created new worlds -- the magical underground civilization of Fraggle Rock, the imagination-filled nursery of Muppet Babies, and the fantasy worlds of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Henson's work has continued to live on beyond his death in 1990, and new productions featuring his creations are always in progress.
This wiki is dedicated to documenting, exploring and enjoying the enormous body of work that Jim Henson has created and inspired.
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