You may have noticed that we don’t normally do historic birthdays or deaths. But I’m going to make an exception today, because on this day in 1990, Jim Henson died. And we seem to be angling to become the Internet’s go-to blog for all things Henson. Regardless, the above video is Part One of the Muppets’ tribute to Henson after his death. The first three minutes are almost unbearably sad. So, if that’s not your thing, below you’ll find another Henson tribute, from his funeral, featuring the hilarious Kevin Clash. Finally, here’s the Times‘s Henson obit.
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The Edge of the American West 
36 comments
May 16, 2008 at 4:14 am
Richard Jackson
I would agree that jim henson was not only a successful icon but he was also a very important imagineer. He is one of the many people who found the keys to success and ran with it. He found something that he loved to do, optimized the product and gave us something that was never seen before in that fashion.
One other key point I would like to mention about Mr. Jime Henson is persistence and heart. he loved what he did so much that he stayed by his company until death and thats how true leaders work. A true leader should stay with their company like its there only line of support, if we had more CEO’s like that maybe the stock market wouldnt be so crazy.
Success via victoryblogger
May 16, 2008 at 4:40 am
bw
I’ve never seen any of the memorial footage before — and now have spent the better part of half an hour looking at more clips, including Big Bird singing “Bein’ Green,” which may be the smartest, most touching memorial anyone could have come up with for Henson.
Have you ever seen “The End of Sex and Violence on Television,” a prime-time special that preceded the Muppet Show (or was, perhaps, the pilot)? I don’t know if it’s released — maybe a special feature on a DVD? — but I saw it at the Museum of TV and Radio once. It has a really amazing closing credits sequence (over what would become the standard ballroom dance sketch) where the camera pans and you can see all the Muppeteers running around in circles with their characters dancing above. Most of the crew seemed to be hairy, bearded hippie types, wild-eyed and a little Muppet like themselves.
May 16, 2008 at 4:44 am
bw
I suppose from the way that second clip’s labeled this must be considered the first episode of the first season as far as DVD packaging goes.
May 16, 2008 at 5:05 am
standpipe
Sigh.
May 16, 2008 at 6:51 am
eric
Yes, bw, if you get the first season of TMS on DVD, that pilot is included.
May 16, 2008 at 7:00 am
bw
I thought I had netflixed the whole first season at one point or another but must have missed the first disc.
Watching the closing credits again this morning was still great. Until I saw that a couple years ago I’d never thought about where the Muppeteers were actually standing in a sequence like that.
Those folks look like they smoked a lot of weed before coming up with a show like that.
May 16, 2008 at 7:01 am
eric
I don’t own it—I got it from the library—but as I recall, it’s on there as an “extra,” not in the regular sequence of episodes.
May 16, 2008 at 7:02 am
eric
And yes, it’s only since my kids have been watching Sesame Street that it’s occurred to me to wonder how many people have to be standing very close together to make Muppet magic.
May 16, 2008 at 8:06 am
Megan
I cried when I heard about his death in 1990 and I cried again watching the tribute number this morning. But I am utterly delighted to know that he went to work every day with that crowd of goofballs. What a joy.
I wonder how strong their shoulders are.
May 16, 2008 at 8:10 am
eric
the hilarious Kevin Clash
There’s a man who is, in the best sense, in touch with his inner child. Actually, pretty much all of them obviously are.
May 16, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Kieran
And of course there is the remarkable and moving Sesame Street episode where the adults explain to Big Bird — who represents the point of view of children on the show — that Mr Hooper is dead. Very emotional, but unsentimental and honest.
May 16, 2008 at 1:18 pm
ari
Thanks, Kieran. That was amazing. And though it’s not the point of the segment, the opening, where the adults are talking about a political candidate from Ponyland, is also pretty great.
May 16, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Vance Maverick
How the hell did they do that? I have no memories of Mr. Hooper, fond or otherwise, and that still reduced me to a puddle.
May 16, 2008 at 1:42 pm
ari
Yeah, I didn’t watch Sesame Street as a kid. We didn’t have a working TV when I was little, so I missed that boat. Still, watching the old clips I can understand why the show figures so prominently in the collective memory of two generations. And that clip is just amazing. The depiction of trying to explain the finality of death to a child, a being with no frame of reference for mortality, is just perfect.
May 16, 2008 at 1:43 pm
BP
It’s amazing to me how much of that segment I still remembered, even though I’d seen it only once, when I had just turned 5. I remember my dad telling me that Will Lee, the actor, had died, but I don’t think I really understood what that meant until I saw it explained on Sesame Street.
It really drives home that we’re privileged to live in a society where death is something that needs to be explained to our young, rather than something that is assumed to be familiar.
May 16, 2008 at 1:45 pm
ari
It really drives home that we’re privileged to live in a society where death is something that needs to be explained to our young, rather than something that is assumed to be familiar.
This is a really good point, I think.
May 16, 2008 at 3:32 pm
d
Henson and Fred Rogers deserved to live forever. Also, probably, my dad.
I’ll be drinking now.
May 16, 2008 at 3:53 pm
ari
Saddest. Thread. Ever.
May 16, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Vance Maverick
I’ll be drinking now.
Yeah. I went to get a beer just now. Somewhere between the fridge and the computer, I lost it. And spent a good three minutes hunting it down — in a one-bedroom apartment. I’m too much of a wreck now even for drinking.
May 16, 2008 at 4:47 pm
ari
Bitch PhD had an awesome thread semi-recently (three months ago?) about losing some foodstuff in her small house. It was incredible. A better, more dedicated blogger would find a link. I, however, will open another beer. Cheers!
May 16, 2008 at 5:28 pm
d
My wife lost a plastic bag filled with shitty toddler clothing yesterday — and I mean shitty in the literal sense. My daughter had a blowout at daycare, and the clothes were in a bag. And she couldn’t figure out where the bag was.
We halted dinner preparations to find it. Turns out it was underneath the pile of produce I’d assembled for our salad.
We did not, in the end, eat salad last night.
May 16, 2008 at 7:33 pm
urbino
Bear Grylls would’ve eaten it.
May 16, 2008 at 7:45 pm
The Modesto Kid
We did not, in the end, eat salad last night
Thanks for the laugh — it was well-placed after the sad stuff in this thread. That Sesame Street video is really great — I think by the time I watched Sesame Street (which I think would have been at least like 1978, when I was 8 years old) I was already on the old side for it — I was clued into that this was a show for young kids, as which I did not want to self-identify. So I didn’t really get into it. (I got into The Muppet Show in a big way when that came along, it seemed more sophisticated.) It’s nice to be able to go back now and see some of this stuff.
May 16, 2008 at 8:07 pm
ari
Urbino! Still back! Hurrah! (I’m out of exclamation points Actually I’m out of punctuation entirely And lette
May 16, 2008 at 8:28 pm
urbino
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Yes, you may borrow some.)
May 17, 2008 at 9:51 am
Giblets
Edge of the American West only exists to make Giblets cry.
May 17, 2008 at 12:32 pm
RobinMarie
I used to watch this tribute episode over and over when I was a girl. My Mom had it on a tape. And I cried. A bunch.
May 17, 2008 at 1:13 pm
ari
I calibrate all of my posts using a Giblometer. As does any reputable blogger in the know and on the up and up. When my Giblometer reveals that my post will make Giblets cry, I’m assured that my post is just sad enough.
May 17, 2008 at 2:06 pm
urbino
Sad Muppets is more than I can bear, so I passed on the videos. However, every time I see the post’s title, I hear one of the verses of Greg Brown’s triff and not entirely off-topic song, Spring and All.
My friend Jim just broke up his band,
The guys all had jobs and the nights got too long.
Selling the amps, one guitar, and the van,
I’m sure you could have it all for a song.
May 17, 2008 at 11:43 pm
ben wolfson
I still think of you, Jim Henson.
May 18, 2008 at 9:33 am
ari
Don’t bother clicking the links in the post Ben. Really, it’s just fine. You can pretend that I’m not here. But that doesn’t make me any less of a person. I matter.
May 18, 2008 at 11:57 am
urbino
Because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.
May 18, 2008 at 11:58 am
urbino
Just not your links.
May 18, 2008 at 12:27 pm
ben wolfson
Many of your links were to The Edge of the American West, Ari, and, out of long-standing principle, I refuse to follow links to that blog.
May 18, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Hemlock
One morning before my mother drove me to school, I sat in the kitchen munching on Frosted Flakes and watching the Today Show or Good Morning America. Jim Henson appeared to discuss a forthcoming project. He seemed chipper and in good humor.
A few weeks later, I sat in the same kitchen munching on the same Frosted Flakes and watching the same news morning show (watching adult morning programs made me feel mature and intelligent despite difficulties understanding the humor). They dedicated the entire morning to the death of Jim Henson.
What’s bizarre is that I couldn’t fathom how an individual who I had just seen laughing had, in fact, passed away. I stopped munching and instead pondered the notion that my parents could be laughing on the couch one day and gone the next.
My own very short introduction to the transience of life. At least Tony the Tiger would always be there.
May 18, 2008 at 5:39 pm
belle lettre
This made me cry. My boyfriend was in this tribute band a couple of years ago playing the sax. I keep telling him that he should rejoin them.