Nostalgia November: The Jim Henson Hour
By Mariah Beachboard
More than any other TV show, The Jim Henson Hour blew my mind as a kid. Premiering in 1989, it featured my favorite Muppets like Kermit and Gonzo, and new stars like Vicki, Digit, and Clifford. The hour was made up of either “MuppeTelevision,” The Storyteller, and/or stand-alone movies featuring Jim Henson creations.
The digital backgrounds and screen-in-screen directing techniques in “MuppeTelevision” added delightful unpredictability. While watching Kermit, Gonzo, and Digit figure out how to solve the latest backstage crisis, you could peek over their shoulders at other possible sketches on the screens. Fun guest stars appeared such as Ted Danson, k.d. lang, and Smokey Robinson.
Sometimes it got weird. Imagine Ken and Barbie, but think of them as live-action characters. Now, let’s rename them Bootsie and Brad. Complete the image in your mind with huge white teeth, bad acting, and a plastic hair helmet stuck to Brad’s head. Strange, right? Almost nightmarish? But the form met the function: these sketches highlighted gender inequality in a memorable way.
Episode two ends poignantly. After a pirate sketch where Ted Danson swash-buckles his way to a bar, he stars in Clifford’s story about a fish who evolves into a man. In the end, Danson promises his sea creature family that he will remove the trash from the ocean. Clifford pointedly says, “Under the sea, no one ever breaks a promise to a relative.” Then Ted Danson stares off into the distance, two ideas at war within himself: ecological responsibility and technological convenience. There is no frolicking closing number to this episode, only a shot of Kermit in his control room watching Danson’s conflicted face. And then our beloved little frog turns to the audience, and quietly says “Goodnight folks.”
My favorite “MuppeTelevision” character is Bean Bunny. He’s a cute little creature, but he delights in mayhem. Check out “Beanbo,” a spoof featuring Bean Bunny as Rambo, with machine guns and a helicopter.
Announcer: “Now anger has a new name. Rage has a new voice. And revenge has a new face. Beanbo!”
Bean Bunny:“Sucker!”
Announcer: “Beanbo! Now cute has learned to kill!”
The exquisite puppetry, especially in “The Soldier and Death” (from The Storyteller) always filled me with awe. Those little demons have delicate fingers and wings, and their expressive faces can be horrifying to a kid. And yet I loved them. When they’re angry, steam pours out of their ears!
The movies shown in The Jim Henson Hour transported me to wondrous worlds. My sister and I can still sing the opening song to our favorite: the Emmy-winning Dog City. Rowlf narrates this particular pun-filled crime comedy set in a 1930s world inhabited only by dog puppets. Lighthouse Island is another favorite, with a terrifying monster sequence and a fun twist at the end. Song of the Cloud Forest is a visual acid trip that haunts me to this day.
No other TV show held such imaginative possibilities. It ended way too soon, perhaps because Jim Henson had the audacity to demand more of audiences. You can’t always just sit back and watch without being affected and questioning your own role in the world.
Regardless of the reason, after nine of the twelve episodes aired on NBC, the Jim Henson Hour was canceled. Luckily, some YouTubers uploaded their taped copies of “MuppeTelevision” onto YouTube. There you can also find The Storyteller episodes, for a fee. The Song of the Cloud Forest, Dog City, and Lighthouse Island are on Amazon Prime Video.