The DC Traveler

Jim Henson is best known as the creator of The Muppets, and the PBS television series for children, Sesame Street.

While in high school in the early 1950s, Henson started creating puppets for local television station, WTOP, (now WUSA channel 9) Saturday morning children’s program.

He later attended college at the University of Maryland’s studio arts program in nearby College Park.  In his first year, WRC-TV (NBC-4) hired him to create a five-minute puppet show called Sam and Friends, which aired from 1955 to 1961.  The puppets Hansen created were the first versions of the Muppets, including a primitive lizard-like creature named Kermit, which would eventually evolve into the Kermit the Frog Muppet we know today.

Until 1969, when Hansen joined a team developing Sesame Street in New York, the work done commercials for television as well as continuing to hone his puppeteering concepts.

Initially the Muppets puppet segments on Sesame Street were separate from live actor interaction, but that quickly changed and thrust Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, the Cookie Monster and the lovable Kermit the Frog into stardom.

The Sesame Street characters encouraged children to be tolerant and taught kids the values of equality, honesty and fair play. Some sociologists say that Sesame Street raised a generation of American kids.

Hanson’s Muppets went on to star on the big screen in  a series of films, including The Muppets Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan.

He died at the age of 53, in 1990 with a filmography listing over 80 films.

On the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park is the Jim Henson memorial statue. The statue, located in front of the Stamp Student Union building, captures Jim in conversation with Kermit the Frog.

The University has also set up a digital library of 70 of Hansen’s groundbreaking videos spanning his 35 year career in film and TV. Unfortunately, you can only access the videos from a public computer located at one of these three on-campus locations (Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, Hornbake Library, McKeldin Library).  Videos include television appearance and interviews, television shows and movies.

Jim Henson and Kermit Statue
University of Maryland - College Park
Stamp Student Union Building
Campus Drive and Union Lane
College Park, MD,  20743 (map it)

Dates and Times - open 24-hours daily.

Admission - FREE

Nearest Metro Subway Station - College Park/U of MD - Green line line, then a 1.7 mile walk or take the university’s Shuttle-UM bus. Pick up the bus on the east side of the Metro station.

Parking - $2 per hour, $10 maximum at the Union Lane Garage, located between the Stamp Student Union and Cole Fieldhouse.

Images - Jim Henson statue, close up, Kermit the Frog,  cookie monster,  Bert & Ernie,

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