Jim Henson’s 88th Birthday Marked By Reunion Video With Kermit The Frog, Oscar The Grouch, And Gobo Fraggle
Jim Henson’s 88th Birthday Marked By Reunion Video With Kermit The Frog, Oscar The Grouch, And Gobo Fraggle
Henson, the creator of the Muppets of 'Sesame Street', 'The Muppet Show', and 'Fraggle Rock' was born September 24, 1936 and died on May 16, 1990
Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, was born September 24, 1936. Tuesday would’ve been his 88th birthday, had we not been spending the last 35 without him since his sudden death on May 16, 1990. How his properties, namely the Kermit and friends Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock have been handled by their respective handlers has been well-documented by others, but enough hands being different has made get-togethers usually impossible. Or so we thought. 88 might not be the roundest number, but it seems it was an occasion worthy of what might be crossover of the year.
The Muppets and The Jim Henson Company posted a video to their respective YouTube channels Tuesday morning titled “Happy Birthday, Jim Henson!”, running about a minute and a half. It opens with Kermit the Frog sitting on a bench as Gobo Fraggle pops out of a trash can in disdain, that he’d never “traveled through a Fraggle cave like that before.” Once he’s exited the can, he’s quite amazed by where he’s ended up and asks Kermit if he wants to “explore outer space” with him. Kermit declines. It’s a special day that he considers to be about creativity, imagination, innovation, and its ubiquity. Gobo concedes as they look out together before Oscar the Grouch makes his disgust for the sentimentality known. He wants the pair to scram, and wouldn’t you know it, they actually listen, deciding to go to a pond to look for “good flies” and to swim. When they’re gone, Oscar pulls out a heap of trash, including Gobbo’s whole radishes, and the day’s edition of the Muppet Daily News, bearing the headline that reads “A City In Celebration,” placing it carefully on the bench that’s engraved “Happy Birthday Jim”.
As alluded to earlier, any reunion of Henson’s properties is monumental. According to Muppet Wiki, the most recent crossover performance was The Jim Henson Retrospectacle Live in Concert in Wellington, New Zealand in 2018, led by Bret McKenzie. The last broadcast crossover reunion? The televised wake that is The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, which aired in November 1990 on CBS. The one everyone remembers is the one Henson appeared onscreen for, 1987’s A Muppet Family Christmas on ABC. Decades of separation on broadcast finally ended. Watch the momentous occasion below, and know it’s okay to cry.
Source: Muppet Wiki
His death created a massive gap in the world of media that has never been filled.