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 introduce the evening's show. Beyond that, the series never had a set structure. The room where Henson and the Thought Lion performed their introduction was a
computer-generated environment. Three of the twelve installments were hour-long mini-movies: • The faux
film noir "Dog City", narrated by Muppet
Rowlf the Dog • "Monster Maker", in which an alienated teenager begins secretly working at a special-effects company • "Living with Dinosaurs", in which a young boy's stuffed Dinosaur comes to life and helps him deal with a troubled family life. Other shows like "Secrets of the Muppets" went behind the scenes at Henson studios, showing how the Muppets are built and operated. Ordinarily, however, the hour was split into two thirty-minute segments. These shows would always start with a modernized variation of
The Muppet Show, titled
MuppeTelevision. That would often lead into more serious and sometimes darker content, such as a rerun of
The Storyteller. Occasionally, a light-hearted story or more Muppet situations would close out the hour in the second half. The first episode produced —
Sesame Street… 20 Years & Still Counting— was aired as a stand-alone special. Henson's series officially premiered a week later.
MuppeTelevision MuppeTelevision regularly occupied the first half of
The Jim Henson Hour. It was an updated version of the classic series
The Muppet Show, the new twist being that
the Muppets were now running an entire cable television network rather than a single variety show. The Muppets broadcast their network's programming from a unique control room called "Muppet Central". Regulars included previous characters
Kermit the Frog,
Gonzo, and
Link Hogthrob in addition to new characters Digit, Leon the
Lizard, Lindbergh the
Kiwi, Vicki,
Clifford, Jacques
Roach, and a
computer-generated Muppet named
Waldo C. Graphic, who was created through a collaboration between
Jim Henson's Creature Shop and
Pacific Data Images. Also appearing as a series regular was
Bean Bunny, who had previously starred in the television special
The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986). After
The Jim Henson Hour ended, Waldo would go on to have a main role in the theme park film
Muppet*Vision 3D (1991), and Clifford and Bean Bunny would continue to make appearances in various Muppet productions. Muppet characters
Fozzie Bear and
Miss Piggy appeared intermittently on the series, due to scheduling conflicts with their performer
Frank Oz's directing career. Miss Piggy received her own thirty-minute special for one episode; ''Miss Piggy's Hollywood'', in which she and Gonzo attempt to interview unwilling celebrities. The house band for MuppeTelevision was called Solid Foam, taking the place of the
Electric Mayhem band that had appeared in most previous Muppet projects. The band members included, Digit on keyboard, Flash on saxophone and vocals, Clifford on bass guitar and vocals, Beard on guitar and vocals and an unnamed female drummer. Electric Mayhem regulars Zoot and
Animal eventually made appearances with Solid Foam in the episode "Food."
Dr. Teeth also appeared in the background of a few of Solid Foam's music videos. MuppeTelevision would occasionally get interrupted by an illegal TV station called
Gorilla Television run by new characters Ubu, Chip, and Zondra. After
The Jim Henson Hour ended, Chip would go on to make minor appearances in various Muppet productions. As with
The Muppet Show, every episode had a celebrity guest star. Celebrities such as
Louie Anderson,
Ted Danson,
Smokey Robinson,
Buster Poindexter, and
k.d. lang appeared on the series. ==Episodes==