UMD JIM HENSON PUPPETRY TV

He wisely realized that the TV screen itself is the stage. The second innovation was to get rid of the stage that all puppets on TV hid behind, just as they did in conventional theater. The first is that he did away with tiny one-hand puppets whose heads only bobbed when they talked, preferring instead to use puppets with moving mouths and often real hands.

Jim Henson made several important innovations in terms of how puppets were used on TV. Of the cast of characters created for this series, only Kermit would remain as a major figure with Jim Henson for later productions. Henson's co-puppeteer was the woman who would later become his wife, Jane Nebel.

The five-minute shows aired live twice a day after the news, and often involved the puppets lip-syncing to a comedy or novelty record. In 1955, while a college student at the University of Maryland, WRC-TV offered Henson his own show, resulting in the creation of Sam and Friends. Although the show lasted only three weeks before being cancelled, Henson quickly landed a puppeteering job on the show Afternoon at NBC affiliate WRC-TV. The two created the puppet Pierre the French Rat and performed on The Junior Morning Show on local station WTOP. Henson made his earliest foray into television puppetry with friend and first puppeteering partner Russell Wall in the summer of 1954. Henson graduated as a member of the National Honor Society from Northwestern Senior High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, on June 14, 1954. He would grow up to pay tribute to-and work with-many of these same legends. While growing up, he loved watching Disney films and movies with comic legends like Bob Hope and George Burns, and enjoyed listening to such radio acts as Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Ten years later, in 1946, Henson moved with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, a suburb near Washington, D.C. Henson attended elementary school in the neighboring community of Leland. The Henson family lived in Stoneville, an adjacent unincorporated community where Henson's father worked as a USDA agronomist. James Maury Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi on September 24, 1936. These newsletters and many others found in the records of the Children’s Television Workshop provide detailed insight into the activities and programs of the Workshop, including some of their lesser known programs. Highlighting the ways the Workshop used newsletters to communicate withĮducational broadcasters, school officials, health educators, and parents. The collection contains research studies, production notes, memos and correspondence, promotional material, viewer mail, and other material documenting the first twenty years of the Workshop and its programs.Īnniversary of the first airing of Sesame Street in November 1969, we are One of the largest and most significant collections found in Special Collections and University Archives are the records of the Children’s Television Workshop, best known as the creator of Sesame Street. On display now in the Maryland Room in Hornbake Library through the end of 2019… In 2000, CTW officially changed its name to the Sesame Workshop which today continues with the mission to “help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.”Įxplore the Children’s Television Workshop records finding aid In 1968, Cooney also managed to recruit Jim Henson and his puppets for their help on their new program Sesame Street, which debuted in November 1969 and continues on air today.ĬTW debuted several subsequent programs including The Electric Company, Feelin’ Good, The Best of Families, 3-2-1 Contact, and Square One TV, among others. With support from several organizations, including the United States Office of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Ford Foundation, and NET, among others. Two years later, in 1968, CTW was officially founded. Included are administrative reports and correspondence, program files, research articles and data, press clippings and notices, international programming files, and the files of the Community Education Services.ĬTW, now known as Sesame Workshop, was conceptualized as a television program that would promote early childhood education, especially for low0income families. The Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) records document the founding and organization of CTW, as well as the public television programming that they produced and distributed.

Umd jim henson puppetry