DefunctTV: The History of the First Muppet Show, Sam and Friends

Cody what are you doing well boss you told me to try to catch potential customers using the net so I am Cody what should you have done I should have you Squarespace in 1955 an 18 year old boy named James Morey Henson was hard at work in his parents living room he hovered over a small table on which he had placed some assortment of materials there were sewing tools glue an old felt coat that had once belonged to his mother and one ping pong ball he took the tattered coat now in a pile of separate pieces and stitched together a long tube just big enough for an arm on this he placed two smaller pieces of cloth tacked his two arms on a body he created a triangular head and jaw big enough for his large hand to operate finally he cut the ping-pong ball in half gluing the pieces to either side of the head and marking both with large black circles he then put his hand through the bottom of the puppet turning it to face him what was moments ago just felt and string Jim Henson had given character Kermit was alive hello there my name is Jim Henson and I'm a puppeteer I'm called a puppeteer because I work with puppets okay you're gonna love this story greatest story in the world [Music] [Music] Jim Henson was born on September 24th 1936 in Greenville Mississippi he was the youngest son of Paul and Betty Henson his father's work for the US Department of Agriculture force gem his mother and his older brother Paul jr. to move back and forth between Mississippi and Maryland eventually moving for the final time in 1948 landing just outside of the University of Maryland in a home in University Park Jim loved music and he would often sing with his brother as his mother played an old organ the family owned very song books with which Jim would become familiar such as a a Milnes songbook featuring a few personal favorites of Jim halfway down the stairs and coddle stone pie Jim's creativity was always encouraged by his grandmother dear who clearly saw something special in the young boy throughout their childhood Jim and Paul jr. would spend the majority of their time together often tinkering and building things such as model airplanes and radios Jim loved to listen to the radios with which he worked especially tuning into radio dramas however his love for radio would be overshadowed by the rise of a new invention a device that would change his life and a machine that he would use to change the world at the age of 13 Jim Henson heard of television he begged his parents to buy him a set and they would a year later in 1950 Jim was enamored with TV consuming as much as he could throughout his teenage years he was exposed to some of the most innovative comedy performances of the day with stars such as Ernie Kovacs and Milton Berle making a strong impression on the young boy in high school Jim joined his school's drama club where he took time performing and building sets although he heavily favored the latter as his high school career progressed his love for television Group and is yearning to be a part of it intensified he planned to attend the University of Maryland in the fall of 1954 hoping to study set design and throughout his senior year he began looking for ways to break into the television industry when his local CBS station WTOP posted positions for their new program the jr. morning show specifically asking for young puppeteers Jim was thrilled there was only one problem he knew nothing about puppetry despite this Jim jumped on the opportunity checking out two books on the performance medium from his local library these books taught him not only how to operate a puppet but how to properly build one as well Jim's first creation was a hand puppet named Pierre the rat which he used in his audition for the jr. morning show Jim's work paid off and he was offered a position at WTOP with the starting pay a $5 per episode or about $70 today when adjusted for inflation the show hosted by local television personality Roy Meacham only aired for three weeks it was quickly canceled for violating child labor laws by employing children under the age of 14 despite the jr. Morning Show airing for such a short time a local newspaper writer praised the puppet segments and Jim short stint on the show Meacham grew a fondness for the young man and he invited Jim to appear on his other WTOP show Saturday where Jim would create short skits in which puppets lip-synch to music Saturday would only last until August of 1954 just as Jim began his first semester of college but he wouldn't be absent from TV for long James Kovac a program director for the local NBC channel wrc-tv spotted Jim's talents through his work with Meacham Kovac would put Jim to work asking him to perform his puppets on various programs on the station it was around this time that Jim would first used the term Muppets to describe his creations for years and was believed to be a combination of marionette and puppets but he would later admit that it was just something he made up early in his college career Jim decided to switch his major from production design to Home Economics which taught similar skills with a less rigorous course load perfect for Jim consider he spent much of his free time performing serendipitously the University of Maryland had decided to add a puppetry class as part of the home economics curriculum the class was taught by a professor with no experience in puppetry meaning the Jim now somewhat known for his stints on local television had the most experience in the class this combined with his abundant confidence and tall stature is what first caught the eye of 20 year old Jane Nebel after Jane proved to be a proficient puppeteer in the class Jim took notice of her as well the soft spoken yet commanding freshman approached her asked if she would be willing to perform with him on some of his programs she agreed with the help of an additional talent at hand the two continues to develop and improve the style of the Muppets with more elaborate lip synching routines and skits in early 1955 Jim and Jane began performing puppets kids on WRC TVs new variety program afternoon despite his success on local TV and healthy compensation for his work Jim was not content it might have been self-doubt of his own talents or it could have been a general disinterest in puppetry as a future career no matter the reason we begged a reporter at wrc-tv to talk to Kovac for him and convinced him to give him a job as a crew member instead of as a performer the reporter laughed gym off and encouraged him to stick with puppetry it might just make him rich Jim and Janes segments on afternoon were so entertaining that it was no surprise that wrc-tv wanted more however the offer they extended was more lucrative than they could have realistically hoped wrc-tv wanted to place Jim and Jane in a five-minute slot between the Evening News and The Tonight Show where they would exclusively write and perform their Muppet segments the new duo would not hesitate to accept the offer and they were excited to play around in their new creative sandbox Jim and Janes new show Sam and Friends made its debut on May 9th 1955 on wrc-tv the show started full cast of Muppets many of which Jim had built for variety shows that he had been working on over the past year the show's titular star a puppet named Sam found his uniqueness and his inflexibility he had a solid face unlike many of the other felt puppets on the show he would only be seen lip-synching to records and he was the only human in the show's cast his friends were much more abstract there was Yorick a purple school with a large appetite professor mad cliff a rambunctious character that often found himself promoting products on the shows commercials chicken-liver a grumpy character that was disgusted by the immaturity of the rest of the cast harry the hipster a cool jazz loving character that wouldn't be caught without a signature shades and kermit an abstract lizard like turquoise monster that seemed to find himself in front of the camera more often than the others the main members would often wear wigs or outfits almost as if the characters themselves were performing as another character in the early days of the show the skits consisted almost exclusively of the puppets lip-synching to records the climax of the formula Jim had developed was the explosive finale most of the skits ended with the character getting swallowed alive or blown up some viewers were shocked or confused by these endings but Jim loved them over time the show would add bits of woody humor painful puns and genuine sentimentality the show was supposed to revolve around Sam coping with the struggles of everyday life often finding solace if not distraction in his energetic and wild friend in the show's world Sam was the only character that existed in reality and Kermit Yorick and all his other friends were either figments of his imagination or exaggerated parts of his own and herself this would be one of the first attempts Jim made to instill a deeper meaning to the muppet mayhem the cast of salmon friends grew as Jim continued to build more Muppets with other creatures such as icky gunk Omar and mushmelon being added is difficult to tell just how large the cast became or just how many episodes Jim and Jim produced one shortcoming of the young crater was his lack of foresight in recording his first original series to be fair Sam and Friends aired during the age of the kinescope a device in which a film camera recorded the live television feed in order to play it back this was necessary without the existence of videotapes Jim and wrc-tv recorded very few episodes of Sam and Friends and many of those that were recorded have been lost ironically there is only one publicly available Sam and Friends episode featuring Sam himself although photos of him appearing and others could sexists and other episodes could be in various archives more episodes that are viewable have been documented in either TV listings script form or picture form a myriad of episodes have been described from the memories of fans but even if these skits existed in the way in which they are remembered it is nearly impossible to tell if this kidding question was shown on Sam and Friends afternoon or the countless other DC area shows that Jim and Jane appeared luckily the most popular skits from Sam and Friends have either been found or had been Reaper formed by Jim and Jane elsewhere audiences were mesmerized by the Muppets at this point in time puppets were thought to be exclusive to bouncy marionettes or wooden dolls where only the mouth was able to be manipulated Jim and Jane subverted this expectation completely the Muppets could show a wide range of emotions thanks to their malleable shape for instance Kermit could displays in her feelings clearly for the audience just by Jim adjusting the placement of his fingers this purposeful design was necessary for television which due to the placement of the camera tended to be much more intimate than staged puppetry early in Sam and Friends production Jim would place live feed monitors on the studio floor in order to see what the camera was seen this greatly helped both his and Jays performance and it was a practice that he would keep Jim also saw an opportunity to change the way children's entertainment was filmed up to this point every puppet show filmed and aired on TV was a production that existed outside of the television medium their performers would set up their puppet stages on a set and the TV studio would focus the cameras head on framing their stages perfectly into the square box frame of the television screen salmon friends would be the first puppet show created for and taking advantage of the new medium of television Jim didn't eat a puppet stage to frame all the action the television screen was the puppet stage and with the flexibility of the television camera Jim and Jane had a lot more space to perform for the first time the puppets here was not constrained to a tiny stage jim's creations could roam free each episode of salmon friends would be an average of four minutes with the last 60 seconds dedicated to a sponsor typically SK meets Jim and Jane would shoot a short skit to advertise the products using the characters from the main show pork and bacon sausage it combines a wonderful salmon friends was an immediate hit those tuning in on weeknights loved the unique and funny show and local newspapers praised the addition to WR C's lineup with the main complaint being the show short running time it was difficult to tell just how many fans Jim and Jane had but some bad news would give them a rough estimate in the summer of 1955 just months after Sam and Friends first episode WRC canceled the show in order to rearrange their late night programming block immediately after the announcement angry fans contacted the station until they had no choice but to uncancelled the show this would result in salmon friends only airing three times a week instead of five but Jim and Jane were thrilled to have the ability to continue performing Sam and friends would be moved throughout WRC's lineup as the station saw fit and Jim and Janes focus shifted toward their work on afternoon during late 1955 and early 1956 Jana graduated from the University of Maryland and began to pursue her master's at a school in Washington DC she purposefully built her schedule in a way to continue working on both afternoon and salmon friends prioritizing puppetry and Jim Jim was thrilled to have Jane continue her work with him and she had proven to be the perfect partner great things were happening for the young Jim Henson but a tragedy would distract from the success on April 15 1956 a car accident took the life of Jim's brother Paul Henson jr. the event devastated both Jim and his parents Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones detailed the lasting impact the loss had on the young creator describing Jim's repressed sadness over the loss of his brother and the way in which the tragedy motivated Jim's creative work in an unexpected way instead of using his sorrow to create dark and gritty material the loss of his brother only pushed jim's creations towards zany colorful humorous and above all optimistic works jim would later describe himself as having an unnatural amount of quote ridiculous optimism a trait that those close to him would cherish and that the audience of his shows would gravitate toward his brother's death had another impact in acute awareness of his own mortality a ticking clock in May of 1956 Jim and Jane would bring them up it's to yet another WRC show footlight theater an interstitial between Western films in which the Muppets would interact with the show's hosts guitarist Paul Arnold the work on the show was not their favorite and with Sam and Friends unpredictable timeslot it seemed that the duo had hit a wall however Jim's create a mine was too big for just the DC market and he and Jane would have their chance to prove the wide appeal of the Muppets and a big unexpected way years ago and in DC there are two young college students Jim Henson and Jane Nebel they got together with some little puppets and [Music] they form what people in Washington now know as the Muppets a little different than the puppet and you folks in Washington DC know them very well they've been appearing there over two wrc-tv for two and a half years and they're very big favorites and we can see why we had them on our Tonight Show a few weeks ago and they broke it up so we're happy to have them with us today here are a muffins on October 11th 1956 Jim and Jane would make their first appearance on The Tonight Show with Steve Allen the show that they regularly proceeded in WRC's lineup producers of tonight had caught wind of a peculiar puppet show that was airing before them in Washington DC and they had asked Jim and Jane to audition for the show it would be brought on to perform a sketch introducing the Muppets to the entire country for the first time Jim decided to take I've grown accustomed to your face a funny lip-synching sketch with Kermit and York at this point York was the audience favorite of the Muppets coming out on top of a popularity poll Sam and mushmelon were second and third respectively and Kermit was fourth the appearance convinced WRC to give salmon friends its original lucrative timeslot before The Tonight Show back and increased Jim's output significantly causing him to temporarily withdraw from his studies at the University of Maryland Jim would continue her schooling leading to an even more hectic schedule than Jim's they were now having to perform salmon friends live twice a night and make appearances on other shows the hard work was paying off Sam and Friends was getting better with the duo improving the puppetry gags effects and scenarios their audience loved all of it but WRC seemed indifferent to the show's success during yet another programming change Sam and friends first evening appearance was cut angering fans once again and same as before WRC listen to their frustrated audience returning the 6:50 timeslot to the show the timeslot would prove even batter after NBC moved its soon-to-be popular news cast huntley-brinkley to 6:45 and WRC placing Sam and Friends right before it this meant salmon friends was the lead-in to the two most popular shows on the channel Jane exclaimed quote I mean what could be better you have national news international news weather sports and Kermit between the new programming and their appearance on The Tonight Show The Muppets were on their way to stardom the sheer amount of content that Jim and Jane were outputting was impressive even more incredible was its quality Jim quickly developed a sort of perfectionist nature while it's time to develop and rehearse was limited and there was only so much he could do before they went on the air his crate of I was sharpening in the little tweaks and nitpicks that he had were helping produce something extraordinary he was beginning to come around on puppetry as an art in the summer of 1957 Jim and Jane were approached by the John H Wilkins company to create a series of short commercials promoting Wilkins coffee Jim agreed but if Wilkins was expecting anything short of absolute Muppet madness they were in for quite the surprise we're here to persuade people to drink more Wilkins coffee what's the club for to get their attention you have any Wilkins coffee in your house no you know how I said no home without Wilkins coffee the ten-second adverts featured two new characters Wilkins a muppet that loved Wilkins coffee and won't consume up it they hated it Wilkins would constantly punish won't cannot drinking the coffee sometimes threatening the audience as well both would be voiced by Jim in what would be his first consistent vocal roles as Sam and Friends still heavily relied on lip syncing the Shore ads were funny and violent and they were more successful than Wilkins or Jim could have imagined the advertisements became sort of a national phenomenon further placing the Muppets into the national cultural conscience Wilkins coffee would even merchandise the advertisements with two hand puppets of Wilkins and Wilkins which would be a huge hit in 1958 Sam and friends would win the Emmy for best local entertainment program there seemed to be no limit to the Muppets potential but Jim was unfazed although he was making a healthy living especially for his age he considered himself to be an artist first and a puppeteer second and his allegiance was not to puppetry but to the audience that loved his work he was finally able to shake this mindset once and for all after a trip to Europe exposed him to the art and diversity of puppetry of this experience he said quote it was at that point that I realized that puppetry was an art form a valid way to do really interesting things I came back from that trip all fired up to do wonderful puppetry during this trip he had grown a full beard which he would keep and will become another aspect of his unique look he returned to performing on salmon friends a college friend of Jim Bob Payne had assisted in Jim's absence Jim's trip had taken his abundant creative energy and focused and he had a few things he needed to do in order to become the creator he knew he could be in 1959 he would resume his classes at the University of Maryland and more notably Jim Henson will begin to date Jay Neville the two had actually both been engaged Jim to a teaching student named anne-marie Hood and Jay and to a man named Bill Schmidt men despite this their close proximity and performing relationship was so strong that it seemed only a matter of time before the two were to get together they both broke off their relationships and began dating the newly formed of Muppets Inc in which the Jim owns 60% and Jayne 40 would be the foundation for their relationship Jayne would recall that a relationship was less based in romantic passion than it was in the passion for the work and the admiration respect the two had for each other and their talents the two would be married on May 28th and 1959 taking a short break from salmon friends to go on their honeymoon when they returned Jim's passion for puppetry and the show was stronger than ever the Wilkins ads had instilled confidence in his ability to create sketches without a track and he began testing out different voices for his Sam and Friends characters giving Kermit what seemed to be his favorite Muppet the voice that was closest to his own a soft-spoken throat heavy nasally voice that would become both Kermit and Jim's trademark sound [Music] these original sketches were created by Jim producing a four and a half minutes soundtrack of the dialogue and music that he and Jane would then perform to Jim also began to experiment with animation he always enjoyed drawing his Muppet creations before building them and much of Sam and Friends promotional material were images he had drawn himself animation a natural next step for the ambitious creator would become a personal passion of his the new aspects of the show results in some of the most impressive and memorable episodes of Sam and Friends been doing it for years in May of 1960 Jim finally graduated from the University of Maryland and the time he resumed his college education and completed it he and Mary Jane and she had given birth to their first child a girl named Lisa Marie Henson just weeks after her birth Lisa was already engulfed in the hectic life of the Muppets that summer Jim Jane and Lisa traveled to the 1960 puppeteers of America convention Jim went to the convention to see the works of and network with the famous puppeteers of the time here he would meet television puppeteer Bert til strim who was well known for his program Kukla Fran and Ollie a show on which an ensemble puppets acted as members of a theater troupe trying to put on a show till strim would introduce Jim to a few of his acquaintances including his puppet builder a man named Don Selene and a young agent named Bernie Brillstein Brillstein was uninterested in taking another puppeteer on as a client but tilts from urged him to give Jim a chance Burrell Cena invited Jim to a meeting in his New York office describing that the first time he saw the puppeteer he looked to be quote a cross between Abe Lincoln and Jesus Jim brought in a box of Muppets and performed a few skits for the agent Brill steam was blown away signing him on as a client without further hesitation the next year Jane became pregnant with her second child Jim and Jane began discussing the possibility that Jane would have to stop performing and the two started to look for new talent they did so by traveling once again to the puppeteers of America Convention this time hoping to find someone to hire the couple ran into a 21 year old puppeteer named Jerome Jewell a smart witty performer that was already a fan of the Henson's Jim would sign Aman is the first employee of Muppets Inc another potential candidate was the 17 year old son of notable performers Mike and Frances oz nowit's the shy young boy was a gift to performer but like Jim before him he had little interest in making puppetry a career Jim was determined to stay in touch with them and hopefully after he graduated Jim could hire Frank Oz to be a full-time performer with Muppets Inc jewel began work on Sam and Friends taking over James position he proved himself to be a competent puppeteer and an incredible Rider Sam and Friends was at the height of its popularity throughout 1961 however Jim was ready to move on from the show to experiment with the art form and push the boundaries of puppetry Jim would write the following and is often succinct Journal quote salmon friends last show December 15 1961 the end of the final show saw the entire set exploding around the cast a fitting finale Sam and Friends characters would continue to be used by Jim and Jerry in various live and televised performances over the next few years some would evolve into some of today's recognizable Muppets and Kermit would remain on Jim's arm as he took Muppets Inc on its next adventure Sam and Friends would be missed by its fans in the DC area but they had a feeling that this would be the less they would see of Jim Henson I'm going to explain about Muppets meteoric rise and fame in both the world of entertainment and the field of commercials okay this or you don't tell them the truth I tried [Music] this is Don Sahlin who is our puppet builder Mike at the right hand and you have the left and really keep operating this hole in your head now get out of here [Music] you know we got interested in the foam medium very lucky with one of their nominated for an Academy Award yeah we called timepiece it was just this past year who can help this man hello joy dragon friend oh yeah you need much joy show me is it easy that's a six minute shopper here are two comedy scenes with the Muppets I'm quite sure the adults enjoy him to the Muppets the sixties had been a time of growth for Jim and the Muppets Jimmy groans team finally adding puppeteer Frank Oz and puppet builder Don Saleem as well as puppeteer Jerry Nelson Jim's family had grown with him and Jay now having four children Lisa Cheryl Brian and John that much larger Muppets Inc and moved to New York City produced a variety of commercials appeared on nearly every variety and late-night show of the day and it even produced a few art films despite all of the success and even some well-deserved fame The Muppets had still yet to have their big break but it was certainly on the horizon a man named John Stone who Jim had worked with years previously on a small project asked Jim to come sit in on some meetings for a show being developed by a new children's entertainment company Jim agreed to attend the seminar located at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City after all it was just right down the street [Music] [Music] this episode of defunct TV is sponsored by 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Channel: Defunctland

Views: 1,328,618

Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, history, disney, sam and friends, jim henson, jim henson documentary, wilkins wontkins, sam and friends documentary, jim henson history, sam and friends history, kermit the frog history, kermit history, kermit the frog documentary, muppet show history, sesame street history, sam and friends lost episodes, sam and friends full episodes

Id: BVoGf1JTVeI

Length: 26min 25sec (1585 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019