The Jim Henson Hour

The Jim Henson Hour
Created by	Jim Henson
Starring	Jim Henson as Himself Muppet Performers: Fran Brill Kevin Clash Dave Goelz Jim Henson Jerry Nelson Steve Whitmire
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jim Henson
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	April 14, 1989 – July 30, 1989

The Jim Henson Hour is a short-lived television series that aired on NBC in 1989. It was developed as a showcase for The Jim Henson Company's various puppet creations, including the popular Muppet characters. Only nine of the twelve episodes produced managed to air on NBC before the low-rated program was cancelled. Two later aired on Nickelodeon in 1992 and 1993, and the final episode never aired in the US, but it did air in the UK in 1990.

Format

The Jim Henson Hour was modeled after the old Walt Disney Presents specials, in which every week Disney would show off the latest innovations and creations of his production company. At the beginning of each episode, Jim Henson would enter an oddly-decorated set (alongside the Thought Lion puppet from his series The Storyteller) and introduce the evening's show. Beyond that, the series never had a set structure. The room where Jim and the Thought Lion performed their introduction was computer animated.

Three of the thirteen installments were hour-long mini-movies:

• The faux film noir "Dog City", narrated by Muppet Rowlf the Dog
• "Monster Maker", in which an alienated teenager begins secretly working at a special-effects company
• "Living with Dinosaurs", in which a young boy's stuffed Dinosaur comes to life and helps him deal with a troubled family life.

Other shows like "Secrets of the Muppets" went behind the scenes at Henson studios, showing how the Muppets are built and operated.

Ordinarily, however, the hour was split into two thirty-minute segments. These shows would always start with a modernized variation of The Muppet Show, titled MuppeTelevision (see below). That would often lead into more serious and sometimes darker content, such as a rerun of The Storyteller. Occasionally, a light-hearted story or more Muppet antics would close out the hour in the second half.

The first episode produced -- Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting -- was aired as a lone special. Henson's series officially premiered a week later.

Ratings Data

All ratings data courtesy of TVTango.com's TV listings database.

• Episode 1: 7.7 rating
• Episode 2: 6.2 rating
• Episode 3: 5.8 rating
• Episode 4: 5.6 rating
• Episode 5: 5.2 rating
• Episode 6: 4.6 rating
• Episode 7: 3.9 rating
• Episode 8: 4.0 rating
• Episode 9: 4.6 rating

The show on average brought in an average household rating of just 5.29. The show ranked only 100th out of 105 programs to air that season, and was the lowest-rated program to air on the Big Three networks that season.

MuppeTelevision

MuppeTelevision regularly occupied the first half of The Jim Henson Hour. It was an updated version of the classic series The Muppet Show, the new twist being that the Muppets were now running an entire cable television network rather than a single variety show. The Muppets broadcast their network's programming from a unique control room called "Muppet Central". Regulars included past favorites Kermit the Frog, The Great Gonzo and Link Hogthrob in addition to new characters Digit, Leon the Lizard, Lindbergh the Kiwi, Vicki, Clifford, and Waldo C. Graphic.

Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy appeared only intermittently, as their performer Frank Oz was busy with a directorial career. Miss Piggy did get her own thirty-minute special in one show, called Miss Piggy's Hollywood, in which she and Gonzo tried to interview unwilling celebrities.

The house band for MuppeTelevision was called Solid Foam, taking the place of the psychedelic Electric Mayhem band that had appeared in most previous Muppet projects. The band included:

• Digit on keyboard
• Flash on saxophone and vocals
• Clifford on bass guitar and vocals
• Beard on guitar and vocals
• The Female Drummer of the Solid Foam on drums

Electric Mayhem regulars Zoot and Animal did eventually creep into Solid Foam in the episode "Food." Only Clifford would sustain any existence outside of MuppeTelevision.

MuppeTelevision also tends to get interrupted on some occasions by an illegal TV station called Gorilla Television run by Ubu the Gorilla, Chip, and Zondra.

Continuing in The Muppet Show tradition, every episode had a celebrity guest star. Louie Anderson, Ted Danson, Smokey Robinson, Buster Poindexter, and k.d. lang were among those who got a chance to appear in the show's brief run.

Episodes

1. Science Fiction -
2. Aquatic Life -
3. Monster Telethon -
4. Dog City -
5. The Ratings Game -
6. Monster Maker -
7. Health and Fitness -
8. Musicians -
9. Garbage -
10. Secret of the Muppets -
11. Living with Dinosaurs -
12. Food -

Episode 4 included Dog City, which was released on DVD in 2010.

Episode 7 included The Song of the Cloud Forest, which was released on DVD in 2010.

Cast

• Jim Henson - Himself
• John Hurt - Storyteller
• Erica Lancaster - Amanda
• Jennifer Lee - Bootsie
• Andrew Wilson - Brad

Muppet Performers

• Camille Bonora - Fern, Jojo
• Rickey Boyd - Laughing Boy
• Fran Brill - Vicki, Merlin's Assistant, Alfonso D'Bruzzo, Maxine, Solid Foam Drummer, Zondra, Colleen
• Kevin Clash - Leon the Lizard, Clifford, Codzilla, Doglion, Voice of Timmy Monster, Zoot, Ace Yu, one of The Extremes(blue)
• Dave Goelz - Digit, Gonzo,Cabbage, Doglion, Timmy Monster, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Frisky
• Brian Henson - Storyteller's Dog, Dog the Dinosaur
• Jim Henson - Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Link Hogthrob, Waldorf, The Muppet Newsman, the Swedish Chef, Waldo C. Graphic (demonstration only), Whatnot (demonstration only), Timecaster, Timrek the Gorf, Doglion, Bugsy Them
• Richard Hunt - Beaker, Statler
• Brian Knatchbull -
• Trish Leeper -
• Rob Mills - Sweetums, Gramps, Ubu the Gorilla (2nd Time), Animal
• Jerry Nelson - Lobster, Narrator, Jo Beth Garfdehoo, Sheep, Shark, Fish, Beard, Luncheon Counter Monster, Cow, a guy with a sword through his head, Garbage, Raccoon, Slim, one of the extremes(orange)
• Frank Oz - Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy
• Dan Redican - Beautiful Day Monster, Rhonda, Anthony
• Gord Robertson - Lindbergh the Kiwi, Chip, Luncheon Counter Monster, Timmy Monster, Rat, Scruffy
• Sandra Shamas -
• Bob Stutt - Ubu the Gorilla (1st Time)
• Karen Valleau -
• Steve Whitmire - Waldo C. Graphic, Bean Bunny, Foo-Foo, one of the Extremes (yellow), Jacques Roach, Flash, Garbage, Billy the Bear, Doozer, Mad Dog

Special Guest Stars

• Louie Anderson - Himself
• Justine Bateman - Herself
• Ted Danson - Himself
• Michael Gambon - Ultragorgon (voice)
• Bob Hope - Himself
• David Johansen - Himself
• K.d. lang - Herself
• Bobby McFerrin - Himself
• Dudley Moore - Himself
• The Nylons - Themselves
• Jane Pauley - Herself
• Smokey Robinson - Himself
• Karl Rumberg - Himself
• Willard Scott - Himself
• Harry Dean Stanton - Chancey Bellows
• Marc Weiner - Himself
• George Wendt - Himself
• Kathleen Wirt - Herself

Cancellation and "lost" episodes

The show frequently acknowledged its own low ratings, with segments offering satirical takes on what viewers would rather watch—violent movies, ridiculous stunts, etc. In the end, the show produced just twelve episodes, three of which did not make it to air before cancellation.

In 1992, children's cable network Nickelodeon aired Secrets of the Muppets, one of the lost episodes. They followed with another unaired episode, Living with Dinosaurs, in 1993. The final hour — consisting of the MuppeTelevision installment "Food" and Storyteller episode "The Three Ravens" — aired in the UK in 1990. This is the only episode of The Jim Henson Hour that has never aired in the US.

After The Jim Henson Hour, the Muppets would not have another prime-time TV show until Muppets Tonight in 1996, long after the death of Jim Henson.

Today, the MuppeTelevision segments are bundled with the original Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight episodes into a single syndication package.

Other media

• Outside of Clifford making later appearances in other Muppet projects, some of the other Muppets from this show were featured in other Muppet-based projects.
  • Lindbergh's puppet was later used for Clive the Kiwi in Jim Henson's Animal Show.
  • Chip made other background appearances in Muppets Tonight and Muppets from Space.
  • Zondra was used for Darcy in the Muppets Tonight sketch "The Real World Muppets."
  • Anthony's puppet was later used as Professor Hugh Mungous in Mopatop's Shop.
  • Digit, Leon, Anthony, and others appeared in an episode of The Cosby Show, entitled "Cliff's Nightmare".
  • Digit hosted the "Short Circuits" mini-game in Muppets Party Cruise.

Funding

• Viewers Like You

External links

• The Jim Henson Hour on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki
• The Jim Henson Hour at the Internet Movie Database
• Jim Henson Hour/summary.html The Jim Henson Hour at TV.com