:For other uses of "Henson", see: Henson. James Maury "Jim" Henson (September 24, 1936 - May 16, 1990), was the most widely known puppeteer in American television history. He was the creator of The Muppets and the leading force behind their long creative run in the television series Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Dark Crystal (1982). He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Henson is widely acknowledged for the ongoing vision of faith, friendship, magic, and love which infused nearly all of his work.

When Henson died on May 16, 1990, his sudden death resulted in an outpouring of public and professional affection. There have since been numerous tributes and dedications in his memory. Henson’s companies, which are now run by his children, continue to produce films and television shows.

The Jim Henson Hour was a short-lived television series that aired on NBC in 1989. It was developed as a showcase for The Jim Henson Company's various puppet creations, including the popular Muppet characters.

This show was Jim Henson's return foray into television and consisted of two separate parts. The first part is the adventures of Muppet TV as Kermit the Frog struggles to operate a Muppet TV super station with the usual level of help from his friends. The second part was the Storyteller as an old bard and his sarcastic dog tell more obscure fairy tales from the tradition of the great classics. Written by Kenneth Chisholm

In this anthology show, roughly half of the thirteen episodes revolved around "Muppet Central", a television station run by the Muppets, while the other half were more eclectic pieces: The Storyteller who told his dogs stories based on traditional folktales; The Monster Maker, about a boy who wants to work in a creature effects shop; Living With Dinosaurs where a boy has a talking dinosaur doll; Lighthouse Island, the story of a young man and a mermaid; Song of the Cloud Forest where a tree frog attempts to stop his own extinction; Dog City the adventures of a canine gumshoe; and the Secrets of the Muppets wherein Jim Henson personally reveals all the secrets of Muppet design, construction, camera-tricks, and operation. Written by Kathy Li

Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The vehicle that achieved it was "Sam and Friends" (1955), a late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington DC. It proved to be very popular and inspired Jim to continue using puppets for his work. He made many commercials, developing the signature humor that Henson Productions is known for. A key reason for the success of his puppets is that Jim realized he didn't need to hide puppeteers behind a structure when they were in front of a camera. All he had to do was instruct the camera operators to focus on the puppets and keep the puppeteers out of the frame. This allowed the puppets to dominate the image and make them more lifelike. This work on puppets and television would lead to separate projects that had different goals. The first one was his work on the "Jimmy Dean Show, The" (1963) with the character Rowlf the Dog, the oldest clearly identified character that Henson Productions still uses. This show provided an income that allowed Jim to work on a pet project. That project was Time Piece (1965), a surrealistic short about time which was nominated for best live-action short Oscar. Henson shot to prominence when he was approached to use his muppets for the revolutionary educational show "Sesame Street" (1969). The show was a smash hit and his characters have become staples on public television. Unforetunately, this also led to Henson being typecast as only an entertainer for children. He sought to disprove that by being part of the initial crew of "Saturday Night Live" (1975), but his style and that of the creative staff simply didn't jibe. It was this circumstance that encouraged him to develop a variety show format that had the kind of sophisticated humor that "Sesame Street" didn't work with. No American broadcaster was interested, but British producer Lew Grade was. This led to "Muppet Show, The" (1976). It initially struggled both in the ratings and in the search for guest stars, but in the second season it became a smash hit and would eventually become the most widely watched series in television history. Hungry for a new challenge, Henson made Muppet Movie, The (1979), defying the popular industry opinion that his characters would never work in a movie. The film became a hit and spawned a series of features which included the moody fantasy Dark Crystal, The (1982), which was a drastic and bold departure from the amiable tone of his previous work. The most successful TV work in the 1980s was "Fraggle Rock" (1983), a fantasy series specifically designed to appeal to as many cultural groups as possible. During this time he also established the Creature Shop, a puppet studio that became renowned for being as brilliant with puppetry as ILM was at special effects. When he died all too soon in 1990, he was indisputably one of the geniuses of puppetry. More importantly, he was a man who achieved his phenomenal success while still retaining his social conscience and artistic integrity as his work in promoting environmentalism and his brilliant "Storyteller, The" (1988) series respectively attest to.