#popculture55: Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog Make Their TV Debut With “Sam and Friends”

Those most sensational, inspirational, dedicational, Muppet-ational TV stars, and their creator, had humble beginnings on this local show.

by Rich Watson 

I have seen one description of the Muppets as “socks with attitude.” Oversimplified, perhaps, but I doubt that’s far off the mark. The creations of puppeteer Jim Henson have endured because of their distinctive personalities, their charm, and their heart, beginning with the flagship character, Kermit the Frog.

Long before The Muppet Show or any of their successive TV shows, the Muppets debuted on the small screen with a 1955 show called Sam and Friends. 

Henson’s career, and Kermit’s, launched from there.

My childhood love for the Muppets

The Muppets might’ve been the first artifact of pop culture for which I could call myself a fan. I watched The Muppet Show in the late-70s-early-80s, when I was still in grade school. I made time to watch it—weeknights at 7:30–and let nothing interfere with this special period. 

Fozzie Bear was my favorite. I actually flirted with the idea of becoming a comedian one day because of him. Alas, my stand-up routine, like Fozzie’s, was less than stellar.

Like Charles Schulz’ Peanuts gang, I could perceive something of the way adults behaved through these broad caricatures. This made them feel real to eight-year-old me. Kermit’s exasperation over Miss Piggy’s diva-tude belied the affection he felt for her. Fozzie’s stand-up routine would bomb and he’d put on a brave face, but it embarrassed him. These characteristics of frogs and pigs and bears were like a window into a wider world for me.

That, I think, was why I kept coming back to them. That and the humor, of course.

But the Muppets were always more than mere children’s entertainment.

Jim Henson’s early days on TV

Henson, from Greenville, Mississippi, was the grandson of a painter and crafter. He would design posters and sets for his high school plays. His high school also had a puppetry club. As a studio arts major at the University of Maryland at College Park, he took a puppetry class. It was there he met future wife and collaborator Jane Nebel.

As a high school senior, he worked on a local TV program called The Junior Morning Show. This led to a gig at NBC affiliate WRC in Washington, DC, and eventually, his own show.

Sam and Friends

Sam and Friends was a five-minute program, twice daily on WRC, beginning on May 9, 1955. Sam was a humanoid who usually lip-synced to popular songs or comedy routines with a supporting cast of weird-looking characters. Esskay Meats was the sponsor.

“Muppet” is commonly believed to be a combination of puppet and marionette. According to Henson in the book Jim Henson: The Biography, however, the name’s origin is simpler than that:

It was really just a term we made up. For a long time I would tell people it was a combination of marionettes and puppets but, basically, it was really just a word that we coined. We have done very few things connected with marionettes.

Unlike other puppet shows on TV, Sam didn’t have a proscenium arch. Henson used the TV screen like a stage. He and his puppeteers would watch themselves on a monitor and tailor their performances to the screen. He also studied the work of the camera crews. 

Henson performed the Muppets on Sam with Nebel and, in later years, Jerry Juhl, a co-writer; Paul Frees (who went on to work for Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward, and Rankin-Bass); and Bob Payne. Don Sahlin was a later Muppet designer on the show.

The breakout character on Sam was Kermit.

The evolution of Kermit

Kermit wasn’t identified as a frog at first. Made from an old turquoise coat and two halves of ping-pong balls, Henson described his creation in a book published in 1993, Jim Henson: The Works:

Kermit started out as a way of building, putting a mouth and covering over my hand. There was nothing in Kermit outside of the piece of cardboard—it was originally cardboard—and the cloth shape that was his head. He’s one of the simplest kinds of puppets that you can make, and he’s very flexible because of that… which gives him a range of expression.

His voice was inspired by Stan Freberg.

A version of Kermit appeared on WRC-TV’s Afternoon in 1955 prior to his debut on Sam. Kermit was part of that show’s ensemble, but grew into more of a featured character as Henson grew comfortable with him. 

Kermit was firmly established as a frog by 1965, thanks to a Tonight Show appearance. By 1969, he was redesigned as such, including his familiar collar.

In 1959, Sam won a regional Emmy Award for Best Local  Entertainment. The show lasted until 1961.

The Muppets in later years

Henson and the Muppets made regional and national commercials in the late fifties and into the sixties, which led to the creation of newer characters, such as the dog Rowlf. In 1963 Frank Oz joined Henson, the McCartney to his Lennon. Henson also made short, Muppet-less films, including the Oscar-nominated Time Piece.

In 1968, Henson and Kermit joined the creators of what would become the long-running children’s show Sesame Street. Henson and his team created a new generation of Muppet characters, who remain popular today. From there came The Muppet Show and its subsequent spin-offs and movies. Disney acquired the franchise in 2004.

Remembering Henson today

Henson died in 1990 at the young age of 53. I remember how devastated I was by his passing. For the first time, it felt like a piece of my childhood had been destroyed. Fortunately, many tributes to him exist.

Here in New York, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens has an ongoing Henson/Muppets exhibition.

There is a book about Henson and the making of Sam and Friends.

And in Leland, Mississippi, near Henson’s birthplace of Greenville, there is a museum which proclaims itself as Kermit’s birthplace. 

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Also in 1955:

• The first TV appearance of Elvis Presley.
• The $64,000 Question debuts, kicking off the game show craze.
• The Mickey Mouse Club debuts.
• The Mighty Mouse Playhouse is the first Saturday morning cartoon.
• The World Series (Yankees-Dodgers) is broadcast in color for the first time, in North Carolina.

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Do you remember Sam and Friends or the Muppets’ TV appearances in the sixties? Leave a comment and let me know!

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