The Jim Henson Company
History, Images and Videos of the Owner and Company that Developed the Muppets for PBS Television. The Jim Henson Company created Hand manipulated as well as Human Puppets for Feature Films.
Jim Henson founder of the Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company is an American company founded in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. Jim Henson’s children Brian, Lisa, Cheryl, John and Heather as of 2009 run the company. Brian and Lisa serve as co-chairs and co-CEOs. The Muppets helped the company gain worldwide acclaim in family entertainment for more than four decades. The company’s units include Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, a renowned animatronics and visual-effects workshop.
Jim Henson and the Muppets
Henson originally founded the company as Muppets, Inc. The name was later changed to Henson Associates (commonly abbreviated as ha!), then to Jim Henson Productions in 1988, and finally to its present name in the late 1990s. In 1996 the company, along with Hallmark Entertainment, launched Odyssey Network. In 2001 Henson’s contract ran out and The Jim Henson Company sold its half of the channel to Hallmark.
Between the Lions
Michael K. Frith joined ha! as a full-time Art Director in 1975, but moved to a new production company, Sirius Thinking Ltd. in 1995, first producing the PBS children’s educational show Between the Lions (2000).
Jim Henson and the Muppets. The Muppets were sold to Disney
On May 7, 2003, the Henson family repurchased the Henson Company for $78 million. Nine months later they sold the rights to the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House to The Walt Disney Company, 15 years after the announcement of the first Disney-Muppet deal.
Jim Henson Working Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney.
Dark Crystal and Labyrinth
The Jim Henson Company celebrated a fiftieth anniversary in 2005 with a number of events, starting with screenings of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth on April 23, 2005 at the Newport Beach Film Festival. (2005 marked fifty years since the premiere of Jim Henson’s first show on TV, Sam and Friends.)
Jim Henson Company Studios
The Jim Henson Company Studios at La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, formerly the Chaplin Studios, were built by Charles Chaplin in late 1917 and sold in the 1950s. The hit Sci-Fi Channel series Ghost Hunters did an episode there when it was supposedly haunted by Charlie Chaplin’s ghost. The site is also the former home of A&M Records.
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