The Muppets

• 1. Introduction

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  The Muppets are an American ensemble of puppets, and Jim Henson told the story of their name two different ways. At first he claimed he coined the word as a blend of marionette and puppet. Later he denied it. The mystery suits a cast built on absurdity, slapstick, and jokes that wink at the audience. In Ireland, Britain, and Australasia, the word has even drifted into everyday speech as an insult for a stupid or ineffectual person. The real cast is stranger and warmer than that. It includes a frog, a vain and formidable pig, a bear who tells bad jokes, and a rock band called the Electric Mayhem. How did hand puppets made for a single local television station grow into a franchise lasting seven decades? Who has owned them, and what did that ownership cost? And what actually happens inside a Muppet, when the performer must stay hidden just out of frame?

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• 2. Sam And Friends

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  In 1955, a short television series called Sam and Friends began airing on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. Jim Henson developed it with Jane Nebel, who later became his wife. Its puppets were the first Muppets, and they were conceived for an adult audience rather than for children. The show also broke with habit. Earlier puppet programs relied on a physical stage frame, called a proscenium arch. Sam and Friends let the edges of the television set do that job instead. The series ran until 1961 and also reached viewers through syndication.

  Among Henson's earliest creations was Kermit the Frog, who became his most recognizable character. During the 1960s, Kermit and Rowlf the Dog appeared in skits on several late-night talk shows and in television commercials. One of those stages was The Ed Sullivan Show. Rowlf then became the first Muppet to appear regularly on network television, when he joined Jimmy Dean on The Jimmy Dean Show.

  In 1966, Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett were developing a children's educational program, and they asked Henson to design a cast of characters for it. The Children's Television Workshop produced the program, which debuted as Sesame Street in 1969 on NET and later moved to PBS. Henson waived his performance fee in exchange for keeping ownership of the Muppet characters he created for it. The audience responded warmly, and the puppets became a vital part of the show's rising popularity. They gave its educational lessons what was described as an "effective and pleasurable viewing" method of presentation. That trade of a fee for ownership would shape every later negotiation over who controlled the Muppets.

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• 3. A Show For Adults

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  In the first season of NBC's Saturday Night Live, Henson used a segment called The Land of Gorch to push the Muppets toward adult material. Its characters behaved boorishly and joked about drug abuse, sex, and drinking. Henson wanted to avoid being typecast, along with his puppets, as entertainment for children. The show's writers clashed with his vision and often refused to commit the segments to writing. Several cast members complained about having the Muppets around. After that single season, the Muppets left.

  Henson then aimed for a network series of his own, separate from Sesame Street and aimed at grown-ups. Two pilots aired on ABC to test the idea: The Muppets Valentine Show in 1974 and The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence in 1975. ABC passed on the project, and other American networks showed little interest. British producer Lew Grade stepped in and agreed to co-produce the series for Associated Television.

  The Muppet Show debuted in 1976 and aired in first-run syndication in the United States. It introduced Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo, who joined Kermit and Rowlf. Viewers came for the sketch-variety format, the vaudeville-style humor, and a long roster of guest stars. Across its run, the show earned twenty-one Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won four, including Outstanding Variety Series in 1978.

  Success on television opened the door to cinema. The Muppet Movie, the first theatrical film, was released in 1979. The Great Muppet Caper followed in 1981, and The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984. Together the three films received four Academy Award nominations. The Muppet Show itself ended its five-season run in 1981. Henson was already looking elsewhere, and in 1983 he debuted Fraggle Rock, which aired on HBO until 1987.

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• 4. Inside The Puppet

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  From 1962 to 1978, Don Sahlin served as the primary designer and builder of the Muppets. Henson called him "the man most responsible for the look of the Muppets." Sahlin's designs are often recognizable by spheroid heads that are partly split to form large mouths. He shaped Rowlf the Dog, Bert and Ernie, Grover, and Cookie Monster.

  Most Muppets are hand puppets, and a few use rods. Their faces are flexible, with wide mouths and big protruding eyes. Builders mold or carve foam and cover it with felt-like material. A Muppet might be a human, a realistic animal, a robot, an extraterrestrial, a mythical creature, or even an animated object.

  A ventriloquist dummy usually moves only its head and face. A Muppet's arms and other features move too, and its material is generally softer. Muppets are presented as independent of the puppeteer, who is officially called a Muppet performer. That performer usually hides behind a set or outside the camera frame. Using the frame this way was a Muppet innovation. Earlier productions used a stage to mask the performers, as in a live show.

  The usual grip explains a famous quirk. During most performances, the performer holds the character above their head or in front of their body. One hand works the head and mouth, while the other works the arms. Control rods can move the hands, or in the case of live-hand Muppets, the performer wears the hands like gloves. Because the right hand typically runs the head, most Muppets are left-handed.

  Some Muppets are too complex for one person. Several performers may operate a single character, and the one controlling the mouth usually supplies the voice. Over time the Henson team developed suspended rigs, internal motors, remote manipulators, and computer-enhanced or superimposed images. Since 2006, Disney has contracted Puppet Heap to produce and maintain newer models.

  In his 2008 book Street Gang, author Michael Davis wrote that the characters develop "organically." Performers could spend up to a year finding a character's voice. Characters were passed from one troupe member to another until the right human-Muppet match appeared. Children who met the Muppets believed they were living beings, even with the performers standing right there.

  After Disney's purchase, puppets made by the Jim Henson Company are no longer called Muppets. Puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, including those in Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, were never Muppets, because they are more complex in design and performance. The Star Wars character Yoda is often loosely called a Muppet, but he is not. Frank Oz performed Yoda at Henson's suggestion, and Henson had no other part in conceiving the character.

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• 5. The Muppet Performers

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  In 1955, Jim and Jane Henson established the troupe of Muppet performers, and for the early years they were the only two. Jane retired from performing in 1961 to focus on raising their children. Jim then began recruiting. That same year he met Frank Oz, who was interested but declined because he was young and still in high school. Oz recommended Jerry Juhl, a colleague from the Vagabond Puppet Theater in Oakland, California. Oz joined in August 1963, when the troupe included Henson, Juhl, and designer Don Sahlin.

  By 1976, when The Muppet Show entered production, the principal performers were Henson, Oz, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, and Richard Hunt. Juhl moved into the role of head writer. Steve Whitmire joined in the show's third season, in 1978. Other puppeteers performed minor characters and assisted the main cast, including Kevin Clash, Kathryn Mullen, Louise Gold, Karen Prell, Fran Brill, Caroll Spinney, and Brian Henson. Many of them also worked on Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.

  Then the founding generation began to change. Hunt kept performing until his death in 1992, and Nelson until his death in 2012. Goelz, Whitmire, and Bill Barretta, who joined the main cast in the mid-1990s, took over several of Henson's characters. Whitmire inherited Beaker from Hunt, and Nelson inherited Statler. Hunt's other characters had no regular performer until David Rudman took several of them in the 2000s.

  Oz retired from puppeteering in 2000, and Eric Jacobson began taking over his characters in 2002. At Nelson's request, Matt Vogel gradually began performing Nelson's characters in 2008. Peter Linz joined the main cast in 2011 and debuted the role of Walter in The Muppets.

  Whitmire was dismissed from the troupe in 2016, and Vogel was cast as Kermit the Frog in 2017. Most of Whitmire's remaining characters went to the existing performers, mainly Linz. In 2025, Bradley Freeman, Jr. joined and took over Rizzo the Rat and Bean Bunny, whom he performed in the 2026 anniversary special. Today seven principal puppeteers carry the cast: Goelz, Barretta, Jacobson, Vogel, Rudman, Linz, and Freeman. Occasional additional performers include Julianne Buescher, Tyler Bunch, Alice Dinnean, Bruce Lanoil, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Drew Massey, Mike Quinn, and Michelan Sisti.

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• 6. The Henson Sale

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  On the 28th of August 1989, Disney and Henson publicly announced an "agreement in principle" at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Walt Disney World Resort. Henson had been negotiating with Michael Eisner, and Disney was interested in buying his company for $150 million. Eisner also wanted the Sesame Street Muppets. Henson refused, calling that idea a "non-starter" for the deal. The announcement came with plans for Muppet attractions at that park and at Disneyland the following year.

  The television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World premiered on the 6th of May 1990 in anticipation of the acquisition. Ten days later, on the 16th of May 1990, Henson died, and the proposed merger was cancelled. Disney still signed a licensing agreement with Jim Henson Productions for attractions and for using the characters in its theme parks. Walt Disney Pictures later co-produced The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992 and Muppet Treasure Island in 1996.

  In 2000, the Jim Henson Company was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $680 million. EM.TV's stock collapsed, and the Henson family re-acquired the company in 2003. The Sesame Street characters were not part of that return. In the interim they had been sold to Sesame Workshop.

  On the 17th of February 2004, Disney acquired the Muppets intellectual property from the Henson company for $75 million. The package included most of the Muppet film and television library, along with the series Bear in the Big Blue House. Several pieces stayed elsewhere. Henson kept the Fraggle Rock characters, and the Sesame Street characters were excluded. Sony Pictures Entertainment kept distribution rights to The Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppets from Space, and the 2002 direct-to-video film Kermit's Swamp Years. NBCUniversal Television Distribution kept It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

  Disney then formed the Muppets Studio, first called The Muppets Holding Company, as a wholly owned subsidiary to manage the characters. The word Muppet became a legal trademark of Disney. Sesame Workshop continues to use the term for its own characters under license, along with archival footage of Kermit the Frog.

  Henson retained rights to several productions featuring Disney-owned characters, including Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and The Christmas Toy. Most current releases of both cut out Kermit's appearances. The 2015 ABC Family airing, the 2017 DVD, and the 2018 Blu-ray of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas restore his scenes. So does the Amazon Prime Video release of The Christmas Toy.

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• 7. The Disney Years

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  After the sale, Disney tried to win back a wide audience by making short vignettes for YouTube and Disney.com. One of them, a cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," went viral immediately. It reached 90 million views and won two Webby Awards. The Muppets had already starred in the ABC television film The Muppets' Wizard of Oz in 2005, and in a Christmas special, A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, on NBC on the 17th of December 2008.

  In 2011, a film called The Muppets was meant as a "creative reboot." Disney had been developing a Muppet film since 2008, when it considered adapting an unused screenplay by Jerry Juhl. James Bobin directed, and Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller wrote it. Segel starred alongside Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, and Rashida Jones. The film was a critical and commercial success and became the highest-grossing puppet film of all time. Bret McKenzie's "Man or Muppet" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

  Muppets Most Wanted arrived in 2014 with Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, and Ty Burrell. Reviews were positive, but the film was a commercial disappointment. Disney turned its attention to television. In May 2015, ABC commissioned a series co-developed by Bill Prady and Bob Kushell and directed by Randall Einhorn. It parodied mockumentary comedies such as The Office, Modern Family, and Parks and Recreation. The Muppets followed the personal and professional lives of the characters in Los Angeles as they produced a late-night talk show hosted by Miss Piggy.

  The series premiered on the 22nd of September 2015 and portrayed the characters in more adult situations than earlier versions, with drinking, sexual innuendo, and mild profanity. Critics praised the adult humor but criticized the writing and characterization. It was canceled after one season, which concluded on the 1st of March 2016.

  Disney+ brought a new round of attempts. In February 2018, Disney announced Muppets Live Another Day, set in the 1980s, in which Kermit recruits the Muppets to find Rowlf after his disappearance. After an executive change at The Muppets Studio led to a different creative direction, Disney canceled it in September 2019. Muppets Now, a short-form improvisational comedy series, was released on the 31st of July 2020. Muppets Haunted Mansion followed on the 8th of October 2021.

  In March 2022, Disney ordered The Muppets Mayhem, starring Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem alongside Lilly Singh and Tahj Mowry. Adam F. Goldberg, Bill Barretta, and Jeff Yorkes developed and wrote it. It earned five nominations at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards and won one, for Outstanding Children's or Family Viewing Series.

  On the 4th of February 2026, a revival special of The Muppet Show premiered on Disney+ to coincide with the series' 50th anniversary. Alex Timbers directed it, and Sabrina Carpenter appeared as special guest star. Goelz played the same roles he originated in the original run. Since 2022, Muppets have also turned up at The Game Awards. Animal presented an award that year, and Gonzo performed in 2023. Statler and Waldorf provided commentary in 2024, and in 2025 Miss Piggy sang with Rowlf playing the piano. Jennifer Lawrence has revealed a Miss Piggy film that she is producing with Emma Stone, with Cole Escola writing the script.

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• 8. Parks, Pages, And Culture

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  At Walt Disney World, the Muppets first appeared in 1990, and their first featured attraction, Here Come the Muppets, ran for a year at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Muppet*Vision 3D opened there on the 16th of May 1991. It was a 4D film attraction with Audio-Animatronics characters, and it was Henson's final directorial effort. A version opened at Disney California Adventure on the 8th of February 2001 and closed in 2014. The original closed on the 8th of June 2025.

  In 2007, the Muppet Mobile Lab, a free-roving vehicle with Audio-Animatronics figures of Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, premiered at Disney California Adventure. It later appeared at Epcot and Hong Kong Disneyland. In November 2024, Disney announced that the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith would be re-themed to the Muppets. The new ride opened on the 26th of May 2026, with The Electric Mayhem as the marquee artist. Since 2004, the parks have also released more than 100 collector pins featuring the characters.

  On the 21st of September 1981, a Muppets comic strip by Guy and Brad Gilchrist first ran in over 500 daily newspapers. By the end of its run in 1986, it appeared in over 660 newspapers worldwide. Muppet Magazine, published from 1983 to 1989, was presented as if the Muppets themselves ran it. In 1984, Marvel Comics adapted The Muppets Take Manhattan as a 68-page story in Marvel Super Special issue #32. It remains the only Muppet film adapted as a comic book. Star Comics turned Muppet Babies into a bi-monthly title that produced 26 issues. In 2009, Boom! Studios began publishing Roger Langridge's Muppet Show comics. The first Muppet video game, Kermit's Electronic Storymaker, came out for the Commodore 64 in 1984.

  By 2012, the characters had become celebrities in their own right, with a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Kermit had been inducted individually in 2002. The Muppets made cameos in films including Rocky III and An American Werewolf in London, and 60 Minutes interviewed them. Kermit was interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and served as Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade. On the 28th of September 2005, the United States Postal Service released a Jim Henson and the Muppets postage stamp series.

  Satire followed fame. The Broadway musical Avenue Q, with Muppet-like characters, parodies Sesame Street. Peter Jackson's film Meet the Feebles satirizes the television industry in a way that echoes The Muppet Show. The sitcom Greg the Bunny centered on sentient hand puppets working on a Muppet-like children's show. On the 25th of July 2007, the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta announced plans for a Jim Henson Wing to house up to 700 retired Muppet characters. It was set to open in 2012. It finally opened in November 2015 as a gallery within the Worlds of Puppetry exhibition.

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