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Muppet Show
''The Muppet Show'' is a variety sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with running gags taking place backstage and in other areas of the venue. ''The Muppet Show'' is known for its uniquely designed characters, burlesque nature, slapstick, sometimes absurdist and surreal humour, and parodies. Within its context, Kermit the Frog (performed by Henson) acts as showrunner and host, who tries to maintain control of the overwhelming antics of the other Muppet characters as well as appease the rotating slate of guest stars. As ''The Muppet Show'' became popular, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in subsequent films. Henson produced two pilot episodes for ABC in 1974 and 1975, but neither went forward as a series. While other networks in the United States rejected Henson's propos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sketch Comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in music hall in Britain and vaudeville in North America, today it is used widely in variety shows, as well as in late night talk shows and even some sitcoms. While sketch comedy is now associated mostly with adult entertainment, certain children's television series such have used it, too. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. History Sketch comedy has its origins in music hall and vaudeville, where many brief humorous acts were strung together to form a larger programme. In the 1890s, music hall impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue, and in 1904 he produced a sketch called ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathryn Mullen
Kathryn Mullen (born February 10, 1940) is an American puppeteer, actress, and voice actress most closely associated with Jim Henson projects. History Mullen began performing on ''The Muppet Show'' in its third season, primarily as Gaffer the Backstage Cat. She also voice directed ''Dog City'' for Nelvana, worked as a designer for '' The Muppet Movie'', right-handed for Frank Oz on Yoda on ''The Empire Strikes Back'', and was one of the creators of '' Between the Lions''. While reprising Gaffer for several Muppet movies, she also performed Mokey Fraggle and Cotterpin Doozer on Henson's ''Fraggle Rock''. She performed the Gelfling Kira in the movie ''The Dark Crystal'', Allegra on ''Allegra's Window'', and Leona the Lion on '' Between the Lions''. Mullen, with her husband, former Muppet designer Michael K. Frith, founded "No Strings" along with emergency aid worker Johnie McGlade. The company originally created a film for children in Afghanistan, warning of the dangers of lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muppets Tonight
''Muppets Tonight'' is an American live-action/puppet family-oriented comedy television series, created by Jim Henson Productions and featuring The Muppets. The series ran for two seasons between March 8, 1996 to February 8, 1998, originally airing on ABC before later being aired and rerun on the Disney Channel. The show was a continuation of '' The Muppet Show'', with Kermit the Frog and the Muppets running their own television channel and studio, only to request one of their own to run a new show to fill in a timeslot in their channel's scheduling. The series brought back several notable Muppet characters from ''The Muppet Show'' while introducing several new ones to the program, and made parodies of television programs ranging from game shows, chat shows, and educational entertainment. Each episode featured one principal guest star, but a number of episodes also featured additional guest stars; one episode featured a cameo from Leonard Nimoy. ''Muppets Tonight'' received ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jim Henson Hour
''The Jim Henson Hour'' is an American 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 Muppets. Nine of the twelve episodes produced aired on NBC before the program was canceled due to low ratings. Two episodes later aired on Nickelodeon in November 1992 and August 1993, and the final episode "Food" never aired in the United States, but was broadcast in the UK in December 1990. After ''The Jim Henson Hour'', the Muppets did not have another prime-time TV show until '' Muppets Tonight'' (1996–98), six years after Jim Henson's death. Format ''The Jim Henson Hour'' was modeled after the '' Walt Disney Presents'' specials, in which every week Disney would show off the latest innovations and creations of his production company. At the beginning of each episode, Jim Henson would enter an abstractly-decorated set (alongside the Thought Lion from his series '' The StoryTeller'') and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muppet Babies (1984 TV Series)
''Jim Henson's Muppet Babies'', commonly known by the shortened title ''Muppet Babies'', is an American animated television series produced by Marvel Productions for Jim Henson Productions. The show portrays toddler versions of the Muppets living together in a nursery under the care of a woman known as Nanny, involving the concepts of the power of imagination and creative problem-solving. The show's main target group is for children aged 2–5. The idea of presenting the Muppets as children appeared in a dream sequence in '' The Muppets Take Manhattan'' (1984), released two months before ''Muppet Babies'' debuted. The idea was a success, and it transformed into a spin-off. The show aired from September 15, 1984, to November 2, 1991, as part of the Saturday-morning cartoons lineup on CBS. The show received universal acclaim for its animation, visuals, writing, humor, educational values, and appeal to younger and older audiences. It spawned a successful merchandise and won seven D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known as Elstree Studios. History One of the earliest mentions of Bosci de Boreham (Wood of Boreham), is in 1188: :"In 1188 Pope Clement granted to the kitchen of the monastery the whole land of Elstree. He also gave to the Abbey the wood of Boreham for the feeding of the swine." In 1776, Parliament enacted: :"An Act for dividing and closing the Common or Waste Ground, called Boreham Wood Common, in the Parish of Elstree otherwise Idletree, in the County of Hertford." Borehamwood was historically part of the parish of Elstree. A separate ecclesiastical parish of "All Saints, Boreham Wood" was created on 26 February 1909, covering the part of Elstree parish east of the Midland Railway. Despite this change to the ecclesiastical boundaries, B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Elstree Centre
The BBC Elstree Centre, sometimes referred to as the BBC Elstree Studios, is a television production facility, currently owned by the BBC. The complex is located between Eldon Avenue and Clarendon Road in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. This site was the first of several such complexes colloquially referred to as Elstree Studios located in the area. Originally created as a film studio in 1914, the site was converted for use as a television studio in 1960, becoming the main television production site for Lew Grade's ATV franchise for the ITV network. After ATV became Central Television in the early 1980s and moved to a new Midlands-based complex, this site was sold to the BBC in 1984. It is currently a main production base for BBC Television, with the television studios being run by the BBC's commercial subsidiary BBC Studioworks, previously known as BBC Studios and Post Production. The BBC Elstree Centre site includes the external set for the long-running soap opera '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadcast Syndication
Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States where broadcast programming is scheduled by television networks with local independent Network affiliate, affiliates. Syndication is less widespread in the rest of the world, as most countries have centralized networks or television stations without local affiliates. Shows can be syndicated internationally, although this is less common. Three common types of syndication are: ''first-run'' syndication, which is programming that is broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show and is made specifically for the purpose of selling it into syndication; ''Off-network'' syndication (colloquially called a "rerun"), which is the licensing of a program whose first airing was on stations inside the Television broadcaster, television network that prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV, legally known as Channel 3, is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is branded as STV (TV channel), STV. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been Legal name, legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time: BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was, for decades, a network of separate companies that provided regional television services and also shared programmes among themselves to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs ITV1, the ITV1 cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in the production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme Company Television mogul Lew Grade set up the Incorporated Television Programme Company (ITP) with Prince Littler and Val Parnell in 1954. Originally designed to be a contractor for the UK's new ITV network, the company failed to win a contract when the Independent Television Authority felt that doing so would give too much control in the entertainment business to the Grade family's companies (which included large talent agencies and theatre interests) although the ITA said that ITP were free to make their own programmes which they could sell to the new network companies. ITP put most of the production budget into producing one show, '' The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (ITV, 1955–59). However, the winner of one of the contracts, the As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its innovations in the field of puppetry, particularly through the creation of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets characters. Brian Henson is chairman and Lisa Henson is CEO. Since 2000, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered at the Jim Henson Company Lot, the historic former Charlie Chaplin Studios, in Hollywood. The company was established in November 1958 by puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson, and is currently independently owned and operated by their children. Henson has produced many successful television series, including ''The Muppet Show'' (1976–1981), ''Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987), and ''Bear in the Big Blue House'' (1997–2006); as well, the company designed the Muppet characters for ''Sesame Street'' (1969–present ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associated Television
ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (TV network), ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and subsequently to the Midlands all week from 1968 to 1982. It was one of the "History of ITV#The Big Four and Big Five, Big Four" until 1968, and the "Big Five" after 1968, that between them produced the majority of ITV networked programmes. In 1982, ATV was restructured and rebranded as Central Independent Television, under which name it continued to provide the service for the Midlands. ATV was awarded its first franchise by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide the Independent Television service at weekends for the London region. This service started on Saturday, 24 September 1955, the second ITA franchise to go on air, and was extended until Sunday, 28 July 1968. ATV was also awarded the franch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
