The Jim Henson Hour

From Freepedia

The Jim Henson Hour was a television show that aired on NBC in 1989.

The show began its run in early April, but the first show Sesame Street… 20 Years & Still Counting aired solo. The show premiered the following week.

At the beginning of each show, Jim Henson would come out with the white lion from The Storyteller to introduce the show. Then he would talk about the first half: MuppeTelevison, a variation on The Muppet Show in which the Muppets are running a cable television network called Muppet Central instead of a theatre.

The main Muppet Central cast included:

• Kermit the Frog
• Gonzo
• Digit
• Leon
• Link Hogthrob
• Waldo C. Graphic
• Vicki

Fozzie Bear appeared in a couple episodes travelling somewhere including to the set of The Today Show and a horror film. Miss Piggy appeared once talking to Kermit on the phone, setting up the episode's second half.

Instead of the Electric Mayhem for a band, they had a band simmilar called Solid Foam. The band included:

• Digit, keyboard
• Flash, saxophone and vocals (later replaced by Zoot)
• Clifford, bass guitar and vocals
• Beard, guitar and vocals
• The Female Drummer of the Solid Foam, drums (later replaced by Animal)

They made fun of what people would "rather" watch, like violent movies, stupid stunts, etc. and continuing the Muppet Show tradition, every episode had a guest star. The guest stars on the show included:

• Louie Anderson
• Ted Danson
• The Nylons, Willard Scott and Jane Pauley
• Bobby McFerrin and Marc Weiner
• Smokey Robinson
• Buster Poindexter
• K.D. Lang

The second half of the show was either an episode of The Storyteller or a half-hour special. The second half was more serious at times (Lighthouse Island) but sometimes it was funny (Miss Piggy's Hollywood). Several episodes were one-hour specials like "Dog City" or "Monster Maker."

The show had 13 episodes, 1 of which aired solo, 9 episodes aired and 3 remained unaired. There were four hour-long shows: Monster Maker, Living With Dinosaurs, Secrets of the Muppets and Dog City. After the thirteen episodes, the show was cancelled. Fortunately in the 1990's, Secrets of the Muppets found it's way on to the children's cable network Nickelodeon and even had the original intro in it when it aired.

After the Jim Henson Hour, the Muppets would not have another prime-time TV show until Muppets Tonight, 7 years later.