The Jim Henson Hour

The Jim Henson Hour is an American 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 Muppets.
Nine of the twelve episodes produced aired on NBC before the program was canceled due to low ratings. Two episodes later aired on Nickelodeon in November 1992 and August 1993, and the final episode "Food" never aired in the United States, but was broadcast in the UK in December 1990. After The Jim Henson Hour, the Muppets' next prime-time TV show would be Muppets Tonight, six years after Jim Henson's death.

Format

The Jim Henson Hour was modeled after the 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 abstractly-decorated set and introduce the evening's show. Beyond that, the series never had a set structure. The room where Henson and the Thought Lion performed their introduction was a computer-generated environment.
Three of the twelve 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. 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 situations would close out the hour in the second half.
The first episode produced —Sesame Street… 20 Years & Still Counting— was aired as a stand-alone special. Henson's series officially premiered a week later.

''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 previous characters Kermit the Frog, Gonzo, and Link Hogthrob in addition to new characters Digit, Leon the Lizard, Lindbergh the Kiwi, Vicki, Clifford, Jacques Roach, and a computer-generated Muppet named Waldo C. Graphic, who was created through a collaboration between Jim Henson's Creature Shop and Pacific Data Images. Also appearing as a series regular was Bean Bunny, who had previously starred in the television special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. After The Jim Henson Hour ended, Waldo would go on to have a main role in the theme park film Muppet*Vision 3D, and Clifford and Bean Bunny would continue to make appearances in various Muppet productions.
Muppet characters Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy appeared intermittently on the series, due to scheduling conflicts with performer Frank Oz's directing career. Miss Piggy received her own thirty-minute special for one episode, in Miss Piggy's Hollywood she and Gonzo attempt to interview unwilling celebrities.
The house band for MuppeTelevision was called Solid Foam, taking the place of the Electric Mayhem band that had appeared in most previous Muppet projects. The band members included, Digit on keyboard, Flash on saxophone and vocals, Clifford on bass guitar and vocals, Beard on guitar and vocals and an unnamed female drummer.
Electric Mayhem regulars Zoot and Animal eventually made appearances with Solid Foam in the episode "Food." Dr. Teeth also appeared in the background of a few of Solid Foam's music videos.
MuppeTelevision would occasionally get interrupted by an illegal TV station called Gorilla Television run by new characters Ubu, Chip, and Zondra. After The Jim Henson Hour ended, Chip would go on to make minor appearances in various Muppet productions.
As with The Muppet Show formula, every episode had a celebrity guest star: Louie Anderson, Ted Danson, Smokey Robinson, Buster Poindexter, and k.d. lang appeared on the series.

Episodes

Cast

Jim Henson – Himself
John Hurt – Storyteller
Erica Lancaster – Amanda
Jennifer Lee – Bootsie
Andrew Wilson – Brad
Muppet performers
Jim Henson – Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Link Hogthrob, Waldorf, Muppet Newsman, Swedish Chef, Waldo C. Graphic, Whatnot, Timecaster, Timrek the Gorf, Doglion, Bugsy Them
Camille Bonora – Fern, Jojo, Miss Belle, Blanche, Ruth, Twitch Bunny
Rickey Boyd – Laughing Boy, Aart the Armadillo
Fran Brill – Vicki, Zondra, Merlin's Assistant, Alfonso D'Bruzzo, Maxine, Colleen
Kevin Clash – Clifford, Leon the Lizard, Codzilla, Doglion, Timmy Monster, Zoot, Ace Yu, Blue Extreme, Green-Furred Frackle, Nick the Anaconda
Dave Goelz – Gonzo, Digit, Cabbage, Doglion, Timmy Monster, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Frisky, Jade Green Frackle, Milton
Brian Henson – Storyteller's Dog, Dog the Dinosaur
Richard Hunt – Beaker, Statler, Lugsy Bunny
Brian Knatchbull
Trish Leeper
Rob Mills – Sweetums, Gramps, Solid Foam Drummer, Ubu the Gorilla, Animal
Jerry Nelson – Lobster, Narrator, Jo Beth Garfdoohoo, Sheep, Shark, Fish, Beard, Wolf, Bubba the Bartender, Luncheon Counter Monster, Cow, a guy with a sword through his head, Garbage, Raccoon, Slim, Orange Extreme, Ralph the Robin
Frank Oz – Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear
Mike Quinn - Devil
Dan Redican – Beautiful Day Monster, Rhonda, Anthony
Gord Robertson – Lindbergh the Kiwi, Chip, Luncheon Counter Monster, Timmy Monster, Rat, Scruffy, Vinnie Molar
Bob Stutt – Ubu the Gorilla
Karen Valleau
Steve Whitmire – Waldo C. Graphic, Bean Bunny, Foo-Foo, Yellow Extreme, Jacques Roach, Flash, Garbage, Billy the Bear, Doozer, Mad Dog, Wilf the Howler Monkey
Sharon Lee Williams – Purple Extreme
Special guest stars
Louie Anderson – Himself
Ted Danson – Himself
Willard Scott – Himself
The Nylons – Themselves
Jane Pauley – Herself
Bobby McFerrin – Himself
Dudley Moore – Himself
Justine Bateman – Herself
Karl Rumberg – Himself
Kathleen Wirt – Herself
Marc Weiner – Himself
George Wendt – Himself
Bob Hope – Himself
Smokey Robinson – Himself
Michael Kilgarriff - Thought Lion
K.d. lang – Herself
David Johansen – Himself
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 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 the previously unaired Living with Dinosaurs segment, as a standalone special in 1993. The Jim Henson and Muppets segments in that episode have never aired. The final hour, consisting of the MuppeTelevision installment "Food" and The Storyteller episode "The Three Ravens", has never aired, though "The Three Ravens" segment has aired in the UK as part of The Storyteller series.
In Canada, the MuppeTelevision segments have run as a separate series called The Jim Henson Show. All of the feature drama segments, except for "Miss Piggy's Hollywood", have been run as standalone specials in the US and other countries, and have been released on home video. The Storyteller segments have run with that series.

Unused episode ideas

In addition to the abandoned hour-long episodes of The Storyteller, Lead-Free TV and picture-book specials, Jim Henson had many ideas for potential episodes or features that were never produced. These ideas included: The Saga of Fraggle Rock, Inside John and ASTRO G.N.E.W.T.S.. Other stories were proposed by Henson involving enchanted bowling balls, extraterrestrial mailmen, outer-space adventures, and a detective story with Kermit and the other Muppets. Henson also considered adapting Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and the works of A. A. Milne. Also proposed was "an hour-long musical special featuring The Electric Mayhem in Mexico".

Ownership

After the sale of The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House to the Walt Disney Company in 2004, the rights to various portions of the show have been split between Disney and the Jim Henson Company. The Walt Disney Company owns all of the MuppeTelevision segments, Miss Piggy's Hollywood, and The Secrets of the Muppets, while the Jim Henson Company retains ownership of the rest of the series.