Jim Henson

:For the company founded by Henson, see The Jim Henson Company.

Early work

Born in Greenville, Mississippi in 1936, Henson moved with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. in the late 1940s. In 1954, while still in high school, he began working for WTOP-TV creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show. The next year he created Sam and Friends, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV, while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. Sam and Friends were already recognizably Muppets, and the show included a primitive version of what would become Henson's signature character, Kermit the Frog. Already he was experimenting with the techniques that would change the way puppetry was used on television, notably using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppeteer to work from off-camera.

Related Topics:
Greenville - Mississippi - 1936 - Hyattsville - Maryland - Washington, D.C. - 1940s - 1954 - Sam and Friends - University of Maryland, College Park - Muppets - Kermit the Frog

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