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100-437: Initially, the puppet characters on Sesame Street did not appear on the actual Sesame Street set, but were relegated to the intermediary segments. Muppets creator Jim Henson wanted them to be integrated into the series, suggesting a giant bird and also a creature living in the neighborhood's trash can. The character was developed by Sesame Street head writer Jon Stone and Henson. Puppeteer Caroll Spinney found inspiration for

200-480: A Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in nearby Leland, Mississippi , before moving with his family to University Park, Maryland , near Washington, D.C. , in the late 1940s. He remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence", being heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom on Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Bil and Cora Baird . He remained

300-422: A Christian Scientist at least into his twenties, when he taught Sunday school, but he wrote to a Christian Science church in the early 1970s to inform them that he was no longer a practicing member. Henson attended a variety of grade schools in his youth, including Hyattsville High School until it was closed in 1951. He completed his high school career at the newly opened Northwestern High School , where he joined

400-587: A backbone) such as blindworms and caecilians . Worms include several groups. The three main phyla are: Familiar worms include the earthworms , members of phylum Annelida . Other invertebrate groups may be called worms, especially colloquially. In particular, many unrelated insect larvae are called "worms", such as the railroad worm , woodworm , glowworm , bloodworm , butterworm , inchworm , mealworm , silkworm , and woolly bear worm . Worms may also be called helminths , particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms , especially

500-406: A backdoor and a gate to Grouchland USA, his hometown. While Oscar receives new names in international dubs, Sesame Street international co-productions have often created their own version of the character. In their second season, Germany's Sesamstrasse created an antagonistic character named Uli von Bödefeld. While not a Grouch, he served the same role in plots as Oscar. When a fire destroyed

600-521: A cannon, struck in the head with a hammer or baseball bat, or have a pie thrown in his face. The Jim Henson Company has posted a short selection of them. Henson later explained, "Till then, advertising agencies believed that the hard sell was the only way to get their message over on television. We took a very different approach. We tried to sell things by making people laugh." The first seven-second commercials for Wilkins were an immediate hit and were later remade for other local coffee companies throughout

700-480: A false but widespread rumor that Henson had died of AIDS — a rumor that was swiftly and directly refuted by Gelmont. Frank Oz believed the stress of negotiating with Disney contributed to Henson's death, stating in a 2021 interview: "The Disney deal is probably what killed Jim. It made him sick." His remains were cremated , and in 1992, his ashes were scattered near Taos, New Mexico . News of Henson's death spread quickly and admirers of his work responded from around

800-469: A hospital. Two hours later, Henson agreed to be taken by taxi to the emergency room at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan . Shortly after admission, he stopped breathing and was rushed into the intensive care unit. X-ray images of his chest revealed multiple abscesses in both of his lungs as a result of a previous Streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) bacterial infection he had apparently had for

900-506: A loaf. In 1969, television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and her staff at the Children's Television Workshop were impressed by the quality and creativity of the Henson-led team, so they asked Henson and staff to work full-time on Sesame Street , a children's program for public television that premiered on National Educational Television on November 10, 1969. Part of the show was set aside for

1000-455: A long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs , and usually no eyes . Worms vary in size from microscopic to over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms); 6.7 metres (22 ft) for the African giant earthworm, Microchaetus rappi ; and 58 metres (190 ft) for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm), Lineus longissimus . Various types of worm occupy

1100-472: A lot more of my time on the creative side of things" with Disney handling business matters. By 1990, he had completed production on the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World and the Disney-MGM Studios attraction Muppet*Vision 3D and he was developing film ideas and a television series entitled Muppet High . Henson and fellow puppeteer Jane Nebel were married on May 28, 1959, in

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1200-566: A medley of Henson's favorite songs in their characters' voices, ending with a performance of "Just One Person" while performing their Muppets. In accordance with Henson's wishes, no one in attendance wore black, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band finished the service by performing " When the Saints Go Marching In ". The funeral was described by Life as "an epic and almost unbearably moving event". The Jim Henson Company and

1300-453: A monster, on US Spanish version, Gugu on Brazil's Vila Sesamo , Kırpık on Turkey's Susam Sokağı , Ferrão on Portugal's Rua Sésamo , and Kewal Khadoosa on India's Galli Galli Sim Sim . Filipino adaptation Sesame! featured Kiko Matsing, basically a gorilla; also ATBP featured Bebong (The Trashed Monster). Some Grouches differ from the mostly antagonistic mold. France's 1, Rue Sésame featured Mordicus, who, like Oscar, lives in

1400-436: A pair of jeans forming the sleeve for the puppeteer's arm. Though Henson told people that "Muppet" was a portmanteau of " marionette " and " Puppet ", many early Muppets were actually hand puppets , rod puppets , or some combination of the two. Direct control over the puppet's mouth, in combination with the softer construction materials, allowed the puppeteer to express a wider range of emotions and to more accurately move

1500-487: A part of it, but he ultimately concluded that "what we were trying to do and what his writers could write for it never gelled". The SNL writers were not comfortable writing for the characters, and they frequently disparaged Henson's creations. Michael O'Donoghue quipped, "I won't write for felt." Henson began developing a Broadway show and a weekly television series both featuring the Muppets. The American networks rejected

1600-747: A performing partnership that lasted until Henson's death; their teamwork is particularly evident in their portrayals of Bert and Ernie , Kermit and Miss Piggy , and Kermit and Fozzie Bear . In New York City, Henson formed a partnership with Bernie Brillstein , who managed Henson's career until the puppeteer's death. In the years that followed, more performers joined Henson's team, including Jerry Nelson , Richard Hunt , Dave Goelz , Steve Whitmire , Fran Brill , and Kevin Clash . In 1964 he and his family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut , where they lived until 1971, when they moved to Bedford, New York . Henson's talk show appearances culminated when he devised Rowlf ,

1700-437: A piano-playing anthropomorphic dog that became the first Muppet to make regular appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show . Henson was so grateful for this break that he offered Jimmy Dean a 40-percent interest in his production company, but Dean declined, stating that Henson deserved all the rewards for his own work, a decision of conscience that Dean never regretted. From 1963 to 1966, Henson began exploring filmmaking and produced

1800-419: A prerecorded vocal track by Spinney, and other times doing the voice himself. Spinney continued to provide Oscar's voice on the series for seasons 46 and 47, as well as select commercials, online videos, and the special Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas . Afterwards, Spinney entered semi-retirement, and Eric Jacobson fully assumed the role. Despite this, Spinney continued to receive onscreen credit for playing

1900-845: A series of experimental films. His nine-minute experimental film Time Piece was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1965. He produced The Cube in 1969. Around this time, he wrote the first drafts of a live-action movie script with Jerry Juhl which became Tale of Sand . The script remained in the Henson Company archives until it was adapted in the 2012 graphic novel Jim Henson's Tale of Sand . During this time, Henson continued to work with various companies who sought out his Muppets for advertising purposes. Among his clients were Wilson Meats , Royal Crown Cola , Claussen's Bread, La Choy , and Frito-Lay , which featured an early version of his character Cookie Monster to promote their Munchos line of potato snacks. Like

2000-499: A series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on Sesame Street, including Grover , Cookie Monster , Bert and Ernie , Oscar the Grouch , and Big Bird . Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley , and Kermit, who appeared as a roving television news reporter. Henson's Muppets initially appeared separately from the realistic segments on the Street, but the show

2100-469: A small ceremony at Jane's family home. They had five children: Lisa (b. 1960), Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1963), John (1965–2014), and Heather Henson (b. 1970). Henson and his wife separated in 1986, although they remained close for the rest of his life. Jane said that Henson was so involved with his work that he had very little time to spend with her or their children. His children began working with Muppets at an early age, partly because "one of

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2200-429: A small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals. Free-living worm species do not live on land but instead live in marine or freshwater environments or underground by burrowing. In biology, "worm" refers to an obsolete taxon , Vermes , used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non- arthropod invertebrate animals , now seen to be paraphyletic . The name stems from

2300-409: A song that he had debuted on The Muppet Show , as each member of the congregation waved a brightly colored foam butterfly attached to a puppet performer's rod. Later, Big Bird (performed by Caroll Spinney ) walked onto the stage and sang Kermit's signature song " Bein' Green " while fighting back tears. Dave Goelz , Frank Oz, Kevin Clash , Steve Whitmire , Jerry Nelson , and Richard Hunt sang

2400-433: A stand-alone application using the same animation and sounds. The software was discontinued after Children's Television Workshop sent Shapiro a cease and desist letter. The fumetti comic Twisted Toyfare Theatre once featured Oscar in an issue in which he sings a variation of his "I Love Trash" song about Wesley Snipes ' movies. In the end, Wesley Snipes (as Blade ) decapitates him. Oscar appeared on seven episodes of

2500-573: A trash can, and is slightly cynical, but is also described as lively and enthusiastic, and participated in the neighborhood band. In Pakistan , he is named Akhtar and lives in a rusty oil barrel . A hybrid of Oscar the Grouch, Ernie , and the Cookie Monster appears in The Goodies episode " The Goodies Rule – O.K.? ", where it attacked Tim Brooke-Taylor whilst in a bin, only for Tim to eat it. Oscar made what he called "a very brief cameo " in

2600-839: A variety of prominent characters, notably Miss Piggy , Gonzo the Great , and Fozzie Bear , in addition to its large cast of supporting characters such as the Muppet musicians Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem with their chaotic drummer Animal . Henson's teammates sometimes compared his role to that of Kermit: a shy, gentle boss with "a whim of steel" who ran things like "an explosion in a mattress factory." Caroll Spinney , who performed as Big Bird , remembered that Henson would never say he did not like something. "He would just go 'Hmm.' ... And if he liked it, he would say, 'Lovely!'" Henson recognized Kermit as an alter ego, though he thought that Kermit

2700-460: A year later in 1959. Henson graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in home economics. In 1969, Henson joined the children's educational television program Sesame Street (1969–present) where he helped to develop Muppet characters for the series. He and his creative team also appeared on the first season of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (1975–present). He produced

2800-510: Is given. When Spinney performed Big Bird, a second puppeteer operated Oscar to Spinney's vocals; occasionally, Matt Vogel instead operated the Big Bird puppet to a vocal track by Spinney, while he performed Oscar. Previous Oscar puppeteers have included Jerry Nelson and Jim Martin . In 2015, due to being diagnosed with dystonia , Spinney no longer puppeteered Oscar full-time on the show. Eric Jacobson became his understudy; often lip-syncing to

2900-622: Is held at the Academy Film Archive . In 2019, the YouTube channel Defunctland released a six-part miniseries on the life and legacy of Jim Henson. A biopic film based on Henson's life, known as Muppet Man , has been in development at Walt Disney Pictures and The Jim Henson Company since 2010. In April 2021, it was reported that Michael Mitnick was hired to rewrite the screenplay, previously written by Aaron and Jordan Kandell . Lisa Henson will serve as producer. In March 2022, it

3000-544: Is mashed bananas with ice cubes and cold beef gravy, and in Season 12, he owns a car called "The Sloppy Jalopy". The October 12, 2019 episode of season 45 of Saturday Night Live , hosted by David Harbour , included a sketch presenting the origin story of Oscar the Grouch in a Joker spoof. In 2023, Oscar the Grouch was appointed the Chief Trash Officer of United Airlines' Sustainable Airline Fuel (SAF) program. On

3100-489: Is nice, except young human children (the only people that he can actually act nice to without facing ridicule from his fellow Grouches) as well as older fans of the show. The only person he liked on camera was Maria , which he would never admit. He once inadvertently complimented a dance that his followers, The Grouchketeers, had performed for him. Oscar has shown rare acts of kindness such as trying to replace Ernie's rubber duckie when Ernie had lost it. He also went out to find

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3200-651: Is not a worm at all, but a skin fungus. Lobopodians are an informal grouping of extinct panarthropods from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous that are often called worms or "worm-like animals" despite having had legs in the form of stubby lobopods. Likewise, the extant Onychophora are sometimes called velvet worms despite possessing stubby legs. Wyrm was the Old English term for carnivorous reptiles ("serpents") and mythical dragons . "Worm" has also been used as

3300-653: Is not evil, just "vaguely grouchy". The Oscar puppet that was used in filming is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History . On May 29, 2009, Oscar the Grouch appeared in an ABC television special on economics called Un-broke: What You Need to Know About Money . He appeared showing the viewers what investing stocks means. It is shown that he has investment filings with Lehman Brothers , Worldcom , Enron , and Washington Mutual even though they are bankrupt companies, but he then says that they are not really his filings. The press kit for

3400-459: Is sometimes used to refer to parasitic worms. The term is more commonly used in medicine , and usually refers to roundworms and tapeworms. In taxonomy, "worm" refers to an obsolete grouping, Vermes , used by Carl Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non- arthropod invertebrate animals , now seen to be polyphyletic . In 1758, Linnaeus created the first hierarchical classification in his Systema Naturae . In his original scheme,

3500-630: The Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song . The Henson-directed The Great Muppet Caper (1981) followed, and Henson decided to end the Muppet Show to concentrate on making films, though the Muppet characters continued to appear in TV movies and specials. Henson also aided others in their work. During development on The Empire Strikes Back (1980), George Lucas asked him to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in

3600-657: The Emmy Award twice for his involvement in The StoryTeller (1987–1988) and The Jim Henson Hour (1989). Henson died in New York City in 1990 from toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes . At the time of his death, he was in negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company , but talks fell through after his death. He was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991, and

3700-590: The Jim Henson Foundation continued after his death, producing new series and specials. Jim Henson's Creature Shop also continues to create characters and special effects for both Henson-related and outside projects. Steve Whitmire , who had joined the Muppets cast in 1978, began performing Kermit the Frog six months after Henson's death. He was dismissed from the cast in October 2016, and Matt Vogel succeeded him in

3800-469: The Masked Singer , guest Oscar was treated to Linda Ronstadt 's song You're No Good ; Oscar replies, "You're Too Good!" Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer , animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets . Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as

3900-462: The Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence, " helminthology " is the study of parasitic worms. When a human or an animal, such as a dog or horse, is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms , typically roundworms or tapeworms . Deworming is a method to kill off the worms that have infected a human or animal by giving anthelmintic drugs. " Ringworm "

4000-411: The Old English word wyrm . Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates , but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slowworm Anguis , a legless burrowing lizard . Invertebrate animals commonly called "worms" include annelids , nematodes , flatworms , nemerteans , chaetognaths , priapulids , and insect larvae such as grubs and maggots . The term " helminth "

4100-545: The 13th century, worms were recognized in Europe as part of the category of reptiles that consisted of a miscellany of egg-laying creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, lizards, assorted amphibians", as recorded by Vincent of Beauvais in his Mirror of Nature . In everyday language, the term worm is also applied to various other living forms such as larvae , insects , millipedes , centipedes , shipworms (teredo worms), or even some vertebrates (creatures with

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4200-629: The 1960s. Among the most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, D.C. , created for a campaign managed by advertising manager Helen Ver Standig . Most of the Wilkins advertisements followed a similar formula: two Muppets, in this case named Wilkins and Wontkins (usually both voiced by Henson), would appear. Wilkins would extol the product while Wontkins would express his hatred for it, prompting physical retaliation from Wilkins; Wontkins might be shot with

4300-587: The 1981 Jim Henson movie The Great Muppet Caper . When Miss Piggy threw a truck driver (played by Peter Ustinov ) into a pile of boxes and a pile of trash cans, Oscar emerged from his trash can and demanded "Hey, what's all the racket?" Oscar also appeared in the Jim Henson holiday special, A Muppet Family Christmas , when the Sesame Street Gang comes to the Grizzly Farm House for the holidays. In

4400-401: The 40th anniversary of Sesame Street . In an interview with Anderson Cooper , Oscar reveals that he would still be orange if he bathed; his green exterior is apparently moss . On an episode of Cake Boss , Buddy and his bakers visited Sesame Street, and Danny could be seen inside Oscar's trash can. He tries his best Oscar impression by saying "I live in the trash." Oscar can also be seen at

4500-478: The Creature Shop as well as the rest of its film and television library, including Fraggle Rock , Farscape , The Dark Crystal , and Labyrinth . Brian Jay Jones wrote the book Jim Henson: The Biography. It was released on what would have been Henson's 77th birthday, September 24, 2013. The moving-image collection of Jim Henson, which contains the film work of Jim Henson and The Jim Henson Company ,

4600-522: The Frog. Of the show's guests, the Henson Archivist points out that Jim Henson placed a special importance on meeting Obraztsov: "As a teenager learning to make puppets, Jim checked out some books from the public library for instruction – one was Obraztsov’s 1950 book, My Profession " Henson continued creating children's television, such as Fraggle Rock and the animated Muppet Babies . He also continued to address darker, more mature themes with

4700-410: The Muppets , and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character Kermit the Frog . He remained at WRC until Sam and Friends aired its last episode on December 15, 1961. In the show, Henson began experimenting with techniques that changed the way in which puppetry was used on television, foregoing the convention of pointing the camera at a stationary Puppet theatre and instead using

4800-829: The Muppets, the puppets in The Dark Crystal were based on conceptual artwork by Brian Froud , and it was a critical success, winning several industry awards including the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the Grand Prize Winner at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival . The film was less financially successful in theaters, but later claimed an enormous following and revenue when it was introduced on VHS for home entertainment. Also in 1982, Henson co-founded Henson International Television with Peter Orton and Sophie Turner Laing as his partners. The company

4900-477: The Titans ", a season 9 episode of The Simpsons . Oscar inspired an Apple Macintosh INIT written by Eric B. Shapiro and shown at the 1989 MacHack conference, featuring a singing animated Oscar that appeared from the trash can when the trash was emptied. The hack was so popular that some parents lost the entire contents of their hard disks to preschoolers wanting to see more of Oscar, prompting Shapiro to create

5000-652: The United States, such as Community Coffee , Red Diamond Coffee, La Touraine Coffee, Nash's Coffee , and Jomar Instant coffee. The characters were so successful in selling coffee that soon other companies began seeking them to promote their products, such as bakeries like Merita Breads , service station chains such as Standard Oil of Ohio and the downstream assets of Marathon Oil , and beverage bottlers such as Faygo . Over 300 "Wilkins and Wontkins" commercials were made. The ads were primarily produced in black and white, but some color examples also exist. Henson sold

5100-529: The Wilkins Coffee ads of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the formula stayed fairly similar. For instance, one of the Claussen's commercials featured Kermit the Frog dangling from a window while a character named Mack asks him if he brought a loaf of the company's bread; when Kermit says he did not, Mack closes the window on Kermit's fingers and causes him to fall, suggesting he "drop down" to the grocery store to buy

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5200-542: The animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes , Insecta , Pisces , Amphibia , Aves , and Mammalia . Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, the Chordata , while his Insecta (which included the crustaceans and arachnids) and Vermes have been renamed or broken up. The process was begun in 1793 by Lamarck, who called the Vermes une espèce de chaos (a sort of chaos) and split

5300-399: The art of puppetry in the United States. Around that time, he began creating darker and more realistic fantasy films that did not feature the Muppets and displayed "a growing, brooding interest in mortality." He co-directed The Dark Crystal (1982) with Oz, "trying to go toward a sense of realism—toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive". To provide a visual style distinct from

5400-636: The best ways of being around him was to work with him", according to Cheryl. Henson was a strong supporter of the civil rights movement . Henson appeared with Kermit on The Arsenio Hall Show in Los Angeles on May 4, 1990. This was his final television appearance. Shortly afterwards, he privately disclosed to his publicist that he was tired and had a sore throat, but that he believed it would soon go away. On May 12, Henson traveled to Ahoskie, North Carolina , with his daughter Cheryl to visit his father and stepmother. They returned to their home in New York City

5500-562: The biographical dramedy Saturday Night , which chronicles the production of the first episode of Saturday Night Live . Henson's characters are currently performed by the following puppeteers: Matt Vogel (Kermit), Peter Linz ( Ernie , Link Hogthrob ), Eric Jacobson ( Guy Smiley , The Newsman), Dave Goelz ( Waldorf ) and Bill Barretta ( Rowlf the Dog , The Swedish Chef , Dr. Teeth ). Worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have

5600-541: The bottom of his trash can to allow him to walk around. Similarly, in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), Oscar is seen ice skating. For several seasons, Oscar was frequently shown with his friend and pet Slimey, an orange worm . On occasional episodes he has mentioned leaving Sesame Street to attend "the annual Grouch convention in Syracuse , New York ". Oscar openly admits that he does not like anything or anybody that

5700-614: The car and "Oscar" then instruct the viewers that it is wrong to play with scythes (in response to Irwin's stealing and misuse of Grim's scythe) and to "tell an adult immediately" if they find one. In the Night at the Museum sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian , Oscar has an appearance with Darth Vader , trying to become part of Kahmunrah's team—only to be discovered that he

5800-404: The characters through Season 50. On October 17, 2018, Spinney announced his official retirement from both his characters. The following day, he recorded his final performances as Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird as part of Episode 5022 for the series' landmark 50th anniversary, though, when the episode aired, none of his vocals were kept in. Spinney's final vocal performance as Oscar the Grouch to air

5900-418: The characters. In 1963, Henson and his wife moved to New York City where the newly formed Muppets, Inc. resided for some time. Jane quit performing to raise their children, and Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppet performer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her. Henson credited them both with developing much of the humor and character of his Muppets. Henson and Oz developed a close friendship and

6000-504: The company was becoming typecast solely as purveyors of children's entertainment, so they targeted an adult audience with a series of sketches on the first season of the late-night live television variety show Saturday Night Live . Eleven Land of Gorch sketches were aired between October 1975 and January 1976 on NBC , with four additional appearances in March, April, May, and September 1976. Henson liked Lorne Michaels ' work and wanted to be

6100-418: The computer animation "Nobody Counts To 10." He also directed the original " C Is For Cookie " and Tales from Muppetland , a short series of TV movie specials that were comic retellings of classic fairy tales aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. The series included Hey, Cinderella! , The Frog Prince , and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen . Henson, Oz, and his team were concerned that

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6200-539: The costume in 1988, a decade after he debuted, he and American segments of Oscar were both replaced by a Grouch named Rumpel. He has a pet caterpillar named Gustav, who is based on Slimey. Israeli Grouch, Moishe Oofnik , Oscar's cousin, is the only character to survive the first Rechov Sumsum , appearing in its current reboot; English/Hebrew series Shalom Sesame ; and Israeli-Palestinian co-production Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim . Other Grouches include Bodoque on Mexico's Plaza Sésamo , Pancho Contreras, technically

6300-403: The creation and articulation of Yoda . Lucas had also wanted Henson to puppeteer the character, but Henson instead suggested Frank Oz for the role; Oz performed the role and continued in the subsequent Star Wars films. Lucas lobbied unsuccessfully to have Oz nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor . In 1982, Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop

6400-657: The director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). Born in Greenville, Mississippi , and raised in both Leland, Mississippi , and University Park, Maryland , Henson began developing puppets in high school. He created Sam and Friends (1955–1961), a short-form comedy television program on WRC-TV , while he was a freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park , in collaboration with fellow student Jane Nebel . Henson and Nebel co-founded Muppets, Inc. – now The Jim Henson Company – in 1958, and married less than

6500-423: The early 1960s, Henson and Stone often had lunch there and observed that the owner, Oscar Karp, dressed in black, looked unkempt, and had a gruff disposition. The Oscar Muppet was orange for the first season of Sesame Street and then changed to green, which remained his permanent color. This was explained within the show by a visit to Swamp Mushy Muddy. According to Sesame Street ' s Robert W. Morrow, Oscar

6600-498: The end when Buddy reveals his cake, but then goes back in his trash can, ostensibly to get away from the laughing and cheering. Oscar also made appearances in episodes of the Cartoon Network show MAD . On a Q TV interview promoting the benefits of being "[Eco-]Green", Oscar suggests that he is actually Canadian. He later mentions that his favorite dessert is spinach sardine chocolate fudge sundaes. His second favorite dessert

6700-544: The film he befriends Rizzo the Rat who asks the Grouch if he could stay in his trash can for the night. Oscar agreed saying that he never had a rat in his trash can before. Oscar could be seen among many villains in the South Park episode " Imagination Land III ". Oscar appears in the episode "Fashion" of the IFC show Portlandia . Oscar was on an episode of Scrubs , imagined as

6800-403: The first season of Sesame Street, the street set was arranged in such a way that Spinney, who was right-handed, was forced to operate Oscar's head with his left hand. After the set was redesigned, Spinney was able to switch hands. In scenes where Oscar and Big Bird (both performed by Spinney) interact in a scene together, the situation has varied depending on the number of lines one or the other

6900-436: The first two seasons. He produced a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10 which always ended with a baker (voiced by Henson) falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. He also worked on a variety of inserts for the numbers 2 through 12, including the films "Dollhouse"; "Number Three Ball Film"; the stop-motions "King of Eight" and "Queen of Six"; the cut-out animation "Eleven Cheer"; and

7000-712: The folklore and mythology-oriented show The StoryTeller (1988), which won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program. The next year, he returned to television with The Jim Henson Hour , which mixed lighthearted Muppet fare with more risqué material. It was critically well-received and won him another Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program , but it was canceled after 12 episodes due to poor ratings. Henson blamed its failure on NBC's constant rescheduling. In late 1989, Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company and characters (excluding those from Sesame Street ) to The Walt Disney Company for almost $ 150 million, hoping that he would "be able to spend

7100-406: The following day, and Henson cancelled a Muppet recording session that had been scheduled for May 14, 1990, due to his ill health. His wife came to visit that night. Henson was having trouble breathing when he woke up at around 2:00 a.m. EDT on May 15, and he began coughing up blood. He suggested to his wife that he might be dying, but he did not want to take time off from his schedule to visit

7200-459: The game show 1 vs. 100 , which aired between January and February 2008. Beginning in 2008, Oscar became the mascot for Waste Reduction Week in Canada, an environmental campaign. In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy called "Scythe for Sale", a parody of Oscar emerges from a dumpster telling Billy to "get outta my house" and a car then crashes into his dumpster. The man in

7300-442: The group into three new phyla, worms, echinoderms, and polyps (which contained corals and jellyfish). By 1809, in his Philosophie Zoologique , Lamarck had created 9 phyla apart from vertebrates (where he still had 4 phyla: mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish) and molluscs, namely cirripedes , annelids, crustaceans, arachnids, insects, worms, radiates , polyps, and infusorians . Chordates are remarkably wormlike by ancestry. In

7400-495: The hospital just a few hours sooner. Medical expert Lawrence D. Altman also stated that Henson's death "may have shocked many Americans who believed that bacterial infections no longer could kill with such swiftness." A lack of familiarity with this possibility, combined with the then-recent deaths of prominent men (including Rock Hudson , Liberace , Roy Cohn , and others) whose AIDS deaths had first been publicly euphemized as other illnesses due to AIDS's pervasive stigma, led to

7500-465: The image created by the TV camera and lens to dynamically engage with his characters. He believed that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity". Rather than carving wooden puppets Henson built characters from softer, flexible materials like foam rubber; his first iteration of Kermit was made from a halved table tennis ball and fabric from an old coat belonging to his mother, with denim from

7600-524: The late spring of 1954, at age 17, hired to "manipulate marionettes" on a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show , until the show was cancelled only three weeks later. This first break into the Television industry was short-lived, but his talent landed him and his puppets an opportunity to continue working at WTOP-TV, lip-syncing on Roy Meachum's Saturday show. Henson's employment at WTOP-TV lasted only until August, when Saturday

7700-613: The missing Big Bird in " Christmas Eve on Sesame Street ". He and his girlfriend Grundgetta also love each other, though their relationship is somewhat rocky. While appearing to be the size of a normal trash can on the outside, Oscar's trash can is much bigger on the inside , as revealed in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland . Oscar has said it holds a farm, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, and piano. Other items include his pet worm Slimey, his pet elephant Fluffy, his shoes,

7800-415: The new chief of medicine. Oscar is one of numerous PBS personalities chasing after Homer Simpson for not being able to pay a pledge in a Simpsons season 11 episode , " Missionary: Impossible ". Oscar crashes through the window of the church Homer is hiding in, and demands the money while Elmo, who was hiding in the trash can with him, tells Homer he knows where he lives. He also appears in " Trash of

7900-645: The next two decades working in commercials, talk shows, and children's projects before realizing his dream of the Muppets as "entertainment for everybody". The popularity of his work on Sam and Friends in the late 1950s led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. He appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Steve Allen Show , The Jack Paar Program , and The Ed Sullivan Show . (Sullivan introduced him as "Jim Newsom and his Puppets" on September 11, 1966.) These television broadcasts greatly increased his exposure, leading to hundreds of commercial appearances by Henson characters throughout

8000-736: The past few days. Henson was placed on a ventilator but quickly deteriorated over the next several hours despite increasingly aggressive treatment with multiple antibiotics. Although the medicine killed off most of the infection, it had already weakened many of Henson's organs, and he died at 1:21 a.m. the following morning. He was 53. David Gelmont, the hospital's intensive care unit director, announced that Henson had died from Streptococcus pneumoniae , an infection that causes bacterial pneumonia . However, on May 29, Gelmont reclassified it as organ dysfunction resulting from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes . Gelmont noted Henson might have been saved had he gone to

8100-450: The puppet's mouth along with the character's dialogue or while lip-syncing to music. Commenting on his puppet design philosophy, Henson said, "A lot of people build very stiff puppets—you can barely move the things—and you can get very little expression out of a character that you can barely move. Your hand has a lot of flexibility to it, and what you want to do is to build a puppet that can reflect all that flexibility." Sam and Friends

8200-449: The puppetry club. He enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park , the following fall as a studio arts major, thinking that he might become a commercial artist. As a freshman at the university, Jim took a newly offered puppetry class mostly populated with seniors, including his future wife Jane Nebel . He graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics . Henson began working at WTOP-TV (now WUSA-TV) in

8300-519: The rights to Wilkins and Wontkins to the Wilkins Company, who allowed marketing executive John T. Brady to sell the rights to some toymakers and film studios. However, in July 1992 Brady was sued by Jim Henson Productions for unfair competition in addition to copyright and trademark infringement. The Henson company claimed that Brady was incorrectly using Henson's name and likeness in their attempts to license

8400-609: The role of Kermit. The Children's Television Workshop was renamed Sesame Workshop , which retained the Sesame Street characters in 2000. On February 17, 2004, the Muppets and the Bear in the Big Blue House properties were sold to Disney. One of Henson's last projects was the attraction Muppet*Vision 3D , which opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios on May 16, 1991, exactly one year after his death. The Jim Henson Company retains

8500-470: The series in 1976, believing that Muppets would appeal only to a child audience. Then, Henson pitched the show to British impresario Lew Grade to finance the show. The show would be shot in the United Kingdom and syndicated worldwide. That same year, he scrapped plans for his Broadway show and moved his creative team to England, where The Muppet Show began taping. The show featured Kermit as host, with

8600-409: The sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show (1976–1981) during this period. Henson revolutionized the way puppetry is captured and presented in video media, and he won fame for his characters – particularly Kermit the Frog , Rowlf the Dog , and the characters on Sesame Street . During the later years of his life, he founded the Jim Henson Foundation and Jim Henson's Creature Shop . He won

8700-696: The special reveals that Oscar was popular with the crew for the special even during filming. On October 11, 2009, Oscar appeared on the CBC Radio One show Q , hosted by Jian Ghomeshi . Beyond talking about his time on Sesame Street , his love for trash and recycling , Oscar revealed that his father is actually from Saint David, New Brunswick and his mother grew up in Nova Scotia , thus making him of Canadian descent. He further went on to suggest that he had cheated on Grundgetta , his long-time girlfriend. On November 12, 2009, Oscar appeared on CNN to celebrate

8800-449: The voice in the driver of a New York City taxi he took to the studio. His first line was "Where to, Mac?". Henson credits the character's name based on the personality of a "magnificently rude" restaurant owner and namesake of Oscar's Salt of the Sea which Henson and Stone frequented. Henson's office was on East 67th Street, just around the corner from Oscar's Salt of the Sea on Third Avenue. In

8900-666: The world with tributes and condolences. Many of Henson's co-stars and directors from Sesame Street , the Muppets, and other works also shared their thoughts on his death. On May 21, 1990, Henson's public memorial service was conducted in Manhattan at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine . Another was conducted on July 2, at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Harry Belafonte sang "Turn the World Around",

9000-497: Was a commercial disappointment. This demoralized Henson; his son Brian Henson described it as "the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed." The film later became a cult classic. In 1984 Henson traveled to Moscow, where he made a film about Sergei Obraztsov . Henson also donated four dolls to the puppeteer to replenish the Moscow Museum of Obraztsov Puppets: Fraggle, Skeksi, Bugard, and Robin

9100-472: Was a distribution company for children's, teens' and family television. Henson worked with Oz again on The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), this time with Oz as sole director. The film grossed $ 25.5 million domestically of a budget of only around $ 8 million, and ranked as one of the top 40 films of 1984. Labyrinth (1986) was a fantasy that Henson directed by himself, but—despite some positive reviews; The New York Times called it "a fabulous film"—it

9200-588: Was a financial success, but Henson began to have doubts about going into a career performing with puppets once he graduated. He spent six weeks in Europe during the summer of 1958, originally with the intent to study painting, but was surprised to learn that puppets were considered just as serious of an art form as painting or sculpture. After returning to the United States he and Jane made their partnership official, creating Muppets, Inc. in November of that same year, then marrying each other in 1959. Henson spent much of

9300-404: Was also cancelled. Meachum then referred Jim to the local NBC-affiliate station WRC-TV , where Henson continued performing his puppets with Jane's help. The two were eventually offered a nightly segment for which they created Sam and Friends , a five-minute puppet show that afforded Henson much more freedom to develop his own creative work. The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of

9400-531: Was announced that Ron Howard planned to direct a documentary on Henson's life, with Brian Grazer 's Imagine Entertainment collaborating with Disney Original Documentary to produce it. The project was reported to have "the full participation and cooperation of the Henson family". In April 2024, it was announced the documentary was titled Jim Henson Idea Man . It began streaming on Disney+ on May 31, 2024. In 2024, Henson would be portrayed by Nicholas Braun in

9500-500: Was bolder than he; he once said of the character: "He can say things I hold back." The Muppets appeared in their first theatrical feature film The Muppet Movie in 1979. It was both a critical and financial success; it made $ 65.2 million domestically and was the 61st highest-grossing film at the time. Henson's idol Edgar Bergen died at age 75 during production of the film, and Henson dedicated it to his memory. Henson as Kermit sang " Rainbow Connection ", and it hit number 25 on

9600-410: Was created to indirectly demonstrate racial and ethnic diversity. Since his manners and tastes were different from those of the other characters, his creators hoped to address social issues by using his differences as a metaphor for racial and ethnic differences. Some viewers saw Oscar as a "surrogate for poor, urban Americans" during the show's early seasons. In the early Sesame Street development there

9700-475: Was criticism that Oscar represented residents of inner city who had grown to accept injustice unchallenged, whilst other observers perceived Oscar to be a negative impression of African-Americans even though the Sesame Workshop did not intend the character to be a representation of black people. Joan Ganz Cooney was confused by this viewpoint when journalist Linda Francke informed her of its existence. During

9800-551: Was for Episode 4731. Oscar can also become mobile with the help of his friend Bruno the Trashman, who carries Oscar around in his trash can. Bruno is a full-body costume which allows Oscar's puppeteer to manipulate Oscar while remaining hidden by the Bruno costume. Bruno's tenure on the show lasted from 1979 to 1993. Also, as seen in the Elmo's World episode "Dance", Oscar's legs can protrude from

9900-475: Was named a Disney Legend in 2011. James Maury Henson was born on September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi , the younger of two children of Betty Marcella ( née Brown, 1904–1972) and Paul Ransom Henson (1904–1994), an agronomist for the United States Department of Agriculture. Henson's older brother, Paul Ransom Henson Jr. (1932–1956), died in a car crash on April 15, 1956. He was raised as

10000-436: Was revamped to integrate the two segments, placing much greater emphasis on Henson's work. Cooney frequently praised Henson's work, and PBS called him "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service." The success of Sesame Street also allowed him to stop producing commercials, and he said that "it was a pleasure to get out of that world". Henson was also involved in producing various shows and animation inserts during

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