The Muppet Show Turns 50: Kermit, Miss Piggy and Co. in Pictures

Fifty years ago, on September 5, 1976, the first episode of The Muppet Show aired. The series was produced in Britain and broadcast by ITV, launching a puppet comedy that would bring together Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and a cast of unruly performers.

Jim Henson was already known in the United States for children’s television. Kermit, for example, had become a popular character on Sesame Street. But none of the major US networks initially wanted a puppet show for adults, even after two pilot films had been made.

Henson’s creative partnership with Frank Oz began with Sesame Street and continued into The Muppet Show. Before that, Henson had produced Sam and Friends on a local Washington station from 1955 to 1961. The program aired in the evenings and targeted older children and teenagers. Kermit appeared among Sam’s friends, already green but not yet explicitly a frog.

Jane Nebel also worked with Henson on Sam and Friends. The pair married in 1959. Another character had already built a career before the Muppet Theater opened: Rowlf, the shaggy pianist, appeared as a sidekick to country singer Jimmy Dean from 1963 to 1966 before making a comeback in The Muppet Show.

Henson made Kermit the theater’s director, leaving the good-natured frog to manage stars such as the formidable Miss Piggy, the famously unsuccessful comedian Fozzie Bear, the all-purpose Scooter and Gonzo the Great, who saw himself as a daring stunt performer. The retrospective also recalls Henson’s death in 1990 at the age of 53.