American entertainment economic company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Jim Henson Company is an American entertainment company. It started with Muppets, Inc. in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson. Henson is the creator of The Muppets.[1] The Muppets helped the company become popular worldwide. They were well known in family entertainment for more than forty years.[2]
Formerly | Muppets, Inc. (1958–1976) Henson Associates, Inc. (1976–1987) Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (1987–1998) |
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Company type | Private |
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | October 20, 1958 |
Founders | Jim and Jane Henson |
Headquarters | Jim Henson Company Lot, Los Angeles, California , U.S. |
Key people | Brian Henson (Chairman) Lisa Henson (President & CEO) |
Products | Puppetry, Animation, Computer graphics, Digital puppetry, Entertainment |
Brands |
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Owner | Henson family |
Parent | Independent (1958–2000, 2003–present) EM.TV & Merchandising AG (2000–2003) |
Divisions | Jim Henson's Creature Shop[broken anchor] Henson Recording Studios Henson Alternative |
Website | www |
In 1969, the company started making characters and more than 20 short movies for the popular children's show Sesame Street.
In 1976, British media mogul Lew Grade asked Jim Henson to make a weekly show based in England, which became The Muppet Show. The success of The Muppet Show led to many movies, specials, videos, and more.
In the early 1980s, Jim Henson also formed Jim Henson's Creature Shop. It made characters for shows such as The Storyteller, Farscape, and Dinosaurs; and movies such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. It was also in the 1980s that Jim Henson produced new television series such as Fraggle Rock and The Jim Henson Hour.
In 1990, Jim Henson was talking to The Walt Disney Company about selling his company. Henson died during the week that he was going to sign the contract. His family decided to have the company keep the rights to the characters.[3][4] However, on December 18, 1991, The Walt Disney Company bought the distribution rights to the entire Jim Henson Company library up to that time.[5]
In 2020, Jim Henson’s children sold the company to the German media company, EM.TV. In January 1, 2021 they sold the Sesame Street Muppets to Sesame Workshop. In 2023 Henson's children bought back the company.[6] In 2024, they sold the rights to The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House characters to The Walt Disney Company.[7] The Walt Disney Company now owns all Muppet-related trademarks, including the word “Muppet”.
Production company | Title | Release date | Production partners | Distributor |
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Muppets Inc. | Time Piece | 1965 | Pathé Contemporary Films | |
The Cube | February 23, 1969 | NBC | ||
Henson Associates | The Muppet Movie | May 11, 1979 | [lower-alpha 1] | |
The Great Muppet Caper | June 26, 1981 | Universal Pictures[lower-alpha 1] | ||
The Dark Crystal | December 17, 1982 | Universal Pictures[lower-alpha 2] | ||
The Muppets Take Manhattan | July 13, 1984 | TriStar Pictures[lower-alpha 3] | ||
Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird | August 2, 1985 | Children's Television Workshop[lower-alpha 4] | Warner Bros. | |
Labyrinth | June 27, 1986 | Lucasfilm | TriStar Pictures | |
Jim Henson Productions | The Witches | August 24, 1990 | Lorimar Film Entertainment | Warner Bros. |
Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D | May 16, 1991 | Walt Disney Imagineering | Disney-MGM Studios Walt Disney Attractions | |
The Muppet Christmas Carol | December 11, 1992 | Walt Disney Pictures | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution | |
Gulliver's Travels | February 4, 1996 | Hallmark Entertainment | NBC | |
Muppet Treasure Island | August 16, 1996 | Walt Disney Pictures | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution | |
Jim Henson Pictures | Buddy | June 6, 1997 |
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Sony Pictures Releasing |
Muppets from Space | July 14, 1999 | Columbia Pictures[lower-alpha 3] | ||
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland | October 1, 1999 |
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Rat | October 6, 2000 (UK) |
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Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story | December 2, 2001 | Hallmark Entertainment | CBS | |
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie | November 29, 2002 | Universal Pictures[lower-alpha 3] | ||
Good Boy! | October 10, 2003 |
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Five Children and It | October 15, 2004 |
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Capitol Films | |
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars | October 17, 2004 | Hallmark Entertainment | Syfy | |
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz | May 20, 2005 | ABC | ||
MirrorMask | September 30, 2005 | Destination Films |
| |
The Jim Henson Company | Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby | March 4, 2008 |
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Genius Products |
Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs. Hare | September 9, 2008 | |||
Unstable Fables: The Goldilocks and the 3 Bears Show | December 16, 2008 | |||
Sid the Science Kid: The Movie | March 25, 2013 |
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PBS NCircle Entertainment | |
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | October 10, 2014 |
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Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | |
Lily the Unicorn | June 26, 2015 |
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Amazon Prime Video | |
Turkey Hollow | November 21, 2015 | Lifetime | ||
The Star | November 17, 2017 |
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Sony Pictures Releasing | |
Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island | April 10, 2021 |
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PBS Universal Pictures | |
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio[13] | December 9, 2022 |
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The Portable Door | April 7, 2023 | Story Bridge Films | ||
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip | TBA |
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Disney+ | |
Untitled Labyrinth spin-off sequel[14] |
|
Sony Pictures Releasing | ||
Muppet Man | Walt Disney Pictures | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | ||
The Buried Giant | Netflix | |||
Company type | Division of The Jim Henson Company |
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Industry | Television production |
Founded | 1955 |
Founder | Jim Henson |
Defunct | April 28, 2006 |
Fate | Disbanded and folded into The Jim Henson Company |
Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products | Television series |
From 1969 to 2000, Henson was contracted to design and create Muppet characters for Sesame Street. With the exception of occasional appearances in the Muppets franchise, the characters were used exclusively for Sesame Street, but Henson legally owned these characters prior to their acquisition by Sesame Workshop. The only exception was Kermit the Frog, who was featured in other projects prior to Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop retains the rights to use any Sesame Street footage featuring the character.
The sale ended any direct affiliation between The Muppets and Sesame Street, although the series retains use of the term "Muppet" under license from Disney. Many of the puppeteers continue to perform with both The Muppets and Sesame Street franchises. While no longer owning the Sesame Street characters, Henson continues to design them.[15] This list excludes pre-2001 Sesame Street co-productions outside the United States.
Production company | Title | Creator(s) / Developer(s) | Release date | Production partners | Network |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Henson Associates, Inc. | The Muppet Show | Jim Henson | 1976–1981 | ITV (UK) Syndication (US) | |
Fraggle Rock | 1983–2007 | CBC (Canada) HBO Television South |
CBC (Canada) HBO (US) ITV (UK) | ||
Muppet Babies | Jim Henson (d): Jeffrey Scott |
1984–1991 | NBC | ||
Little Muppet Monsters | Jim Henson | 1985 | |||
Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series | Jim Henson (d): John Semper & Cynthia Friedlob |
1987 | NBC | ||
Jim Henson Productions, Inc. | The StoryTeller | Jim Henson (d): Anthony Minghella |
1988–1990 | TVS | NBC (US) Channel 4 (UK) HBO (US) (Greek Myths) |
The Jim Henson Hour[lower-alpha 3] | Jim Henson | 1989 | NBC | ||
The Ghost of Faffner Hall | Tyne Tees Television | ITV (UK) | |||
Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories | 1990 | Television South West | ITV (UK) The Disney Channel (U.S.) | ||
Dinosaurs | Michael Jacobs Bob Young (d): Jim Henson |
1991–1994 | Michael Jacobs Productions Walt Disney Television |
ABC | |
Dog City | Jim Henson (d): Peter Sauder J.D. Smith |
1992–1995 | Nelvana Limited | Fox Kids (USA) YTV (Canada) | |
CityKids | Jeffrey Solomon | 1993–1994 | The CityKids Foundation | ABC | |
Secret Life of Toys | 1993 | The Disney Channel (U.S.) BBC (UK) | |||
Jim Henson's Animal Show | 1994–1998 | Fox Kids (seasons 1–2) Animal Planet (season 3) | |||
Muppets Tonight | 1996–2001 | ABC Disney Channel | |||
Aliens in the Family | Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz |
1996 | The Stuffed Dog Company | ABC | |
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss | Dr. Seuss (characters) | 1996–2004 | PBS | ||
Jim Henson Television | Bear in the Big Blue House[lower-alpha 6] | Mitchell Kriegman | 1997–2006 | Shadow Projects | Playhouse Disney |
Brats of the Lost Nebula | Dan Clark | 1998–99 | Decode Entertainment Wandering Monkey Entertainment |
The WB (U.S.) YTV (Canada) | |
Mopatop's Shop | (d): Jocelyn Stevenson | 1999–2003 | Carlton Television | ITV (CITV) | |
Construction Site | |||||
Farscape | Rockne S. O'Bannon | Hallmark Entertainment | Nine Network (Australia) Sci-Fi Channel (USA) | ||
The Fearing Mind | Billy Brown | 2000–01 | Angel/Brown Productions | Fox Family | |
The Hoobs | Jocelyn Stevenson Brian Henson |
2001–2003 | Decode Entertainment | Channel 4 (UK) TVOKids (Canada) | |
Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola | 2001 | Hallmark Channel | |||
Bambaloo | 2002–03 | Yoram Gross-EM.TV | Seven Network ABC TV | ||
The Jim Henson Company | Animal Jam[lower-alpha 7] | John Derevlany | 2003 | TLC Discovery Kids | |
Frances [lower-alpha 8] | Russell Hoban (d): Alex Rockwell Halle Stanford |
2008 | HIT Entertainment | ||
Sid the Science Kid | 2008–13 | KCET (2008–09) KOCE-TV (2010–12) |
PBS Kids | ||
Jim Henson's Pajanimals | Jeff Muncy and Alex Rockwell | Sixteen South John Doze Studios Ingenious |
PBS Kids Sprout | ||
Dinosaur Train[17] | Craig Bartlett | 2009–20 | Info-communications Media Development Authority Sparky Animation FableVision Snee-Oosh, Inc. (uncredited) Tail Waggin' Productions |
PBS Kids | |
Jim Henson's The Possibility Shop | Courtney Watkins | 2009–2011 | |||
Hot Dog TV | 2010 | Cartoon Network | |||
Me and My Monsters | Mark Grant Claudia Lloyd (d): Rebecca De Souza |
2010-2011 | Tiger Aspect Productions Sticky Pictures |
Network Ten (Australia) CBBC (UK) | |
Wilson & Ditch: Digging America | Joe Purdy Craig Bartlett |
2010-2012 | PBS Kids | ||
That Puppet Game Show | Jamie Ormerod | 2013–14 | BBC Entertainment | BBC One | |
Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge | 2014 | Syfy | |||
The Doozers | 2014–2018 | DHX Studios Halifax | Hulu (US) Kids' CBC (Canada) | ||
Hi Opie! | Barbara Slade | 2014–2016 | marblemedia | TVO Kids | |
Dot. | Randi Zuckerberg | 2016–2018 | Industrial Brothers | CBC Kids (Canada) Universal Kids (USA) | |
Splash and Bubbles | John Tartaglia | 2016–2018 | Herschend Studios | PBS Kids | |
Word Party | Alex Rockwell | 2016–2021 | Netflix | ||
Julie's Greenroom | Julie Andrews Emma Walton Hamilton Judy Rothman |
2017 | |||
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance[18][19] | Jim Henson (characters) (d): Jeffrey Addiss Will Matthews |
2019 | |||
Fraggle Rock: Rock On! | 2020 | Apple TV+ | |||
Earth to Ned[20][21] | 2020–2021 | Marwar Junction Productions | Disney+ | ||
Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time | Duff Goldman | 2021 | Discovery+ | ||
Harriet the Spy[22] | 2021–present | Apple Studios Postworks New York Wellsville Pictures Titmouse, Inc. |
Apple TV+ | ||
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock[23] | Jim Henson (original series) (d): Matt Fusfeld Alex Cuthbertson |
2022–present | New Regency Fusfeld & Cuthbertson Regional Entertainment | ||
Slumberkins[24] | Alex Rockwell | 2022 | Factory | ||
The Storyteller[25] | Jim Henson (original series) | TBA | Fremantle | ||
Lore Olympus[26] | Rachel Smythe | TBA | Webtoon | ||
The following list contains projects of The Jim Henson Company under its Henson Alternative banner.
Title | Release date | Production partners | Distributor |
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The Happytime Murders[31] | August 24, 2018 |
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STX Entertainment |
The first eight series are produced under its Henson Alternative banner exclusively in North America before premiering worldwide in 2015.
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