The Jim Henson Hour is a 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 Muppet characters.
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 1992 and 1993, and the final episode "Food" never aired. The show was never broadcast in the UK. After The Jim Henson Hour, the Muppets did not have another prime-time TV show until Muppets Tonight in 1996, 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 (alongside the Thought Lion from his series The StoryTeller) 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. Also appearing as a series regular was Bean Bunny, who had previously starred in the television special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986). After The Jim Henson Hour ended, Waldo would go on to have a main role in the theme park film Muppet*Vision 3D (1991), and Clifford and Bean Bunny would continue to make appearances in various Muppet productions.
Muppet performer Frank Oz's characters Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy made appearances the show. Their appearances were intermittent, however, due to scheduling conflicts with Oz's directing career. Miss Piggy received her own thirty-minute special in one show, called Miss Piggy's Hollywood, in which she and Gonzo tried 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 get interrupted on some occasions 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, every episode had a celebrity guest star. Louie Anderson, Ted Danson, Smokey Robinson, Buster Poindexter, and k.d. lang were among those who appeared on the show.