Jim Henson’s Original, Spunky Pitch for The Muppet Show

A few weeks back, we fea­tured the pilot of The Mup­pet Show that first aired on ABC in 1975. When you watch it, you’ll be struck by two things — 1) the unex­pect­ed title, “Sex & Vio­lence,” and the show’s some­what jar­ring focus on an adult mar­ket. Today, we’re fea­tur­ing anoth­er mile­stone in Mup­pet Show his­to­ry — the orig­i­nal pitch reel Jim Hen­son made when try­ing to sell the series to CBS. The pitch con­fi­dent­ly promis­es the moon and more, but it’s noth­ing Hen­son could­n’t deliv­er on. Enjoy, and don’t miss Hen­son’s 1969 Pup­pet-Mak­ing Primer. It’s a lit­tle gem.

via Laugh­ing Squid

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Jim Hen­son Teach­es You How to Make Pup­pets in Vin­tage Primer From 1969

Jim Hen­son Cre­ates an Exper­i­men­tal Ani­ma­tion Explain­ing How We Get Ideas (1966)

Jim Henson’s Orig­i­nal, Spunky Pitch for The Mup­pet Show

Jim Henson’s Zany 1963 Robot Film Uncov­ered by AT&T: Watch Online


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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.