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| - Sam and Friends was a 5-min. television series. The show relied on lip-synching most of the time, but some of the time, the puppet spoke actual words. It is known in the puppet community for introducing 18-year old Jim Henson and his Muppets to the world. It aired on WRC-TV (NBC's Washington affiliate) from May 9, 1955 to December 15, 1961. Nowadays, very few episodes survive.
- Sam and Friends was Jim Henson's first television series, a five-minute show that aired twice daily on WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. from May 9, 1955 to December 15, 1961. __TOC__ The title character was a humanoid named Sam, but a more enduring star of the series was Kermit, who was not yet a frog. Other characters included the voracious Yorick, beatnik Harry the Hipster, excitable Professor Madcliffe, Chicken Liver, and utility players Hank and Frank. Other characters possessed more ephemeral personalities, and in many cases, their existence is defined only by photographs and surviving puppets. This roster includes Mushmellon, Icky Gunk, Henrietta, Omar, Moldy Hay, and the earliest Muppet star, Pierre the French Rat, amongst others. Characters were performed by Henson and
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| abstract
| - Sam and Friends was a 5-min. television series. The show relied on lip-synching most of the time, but some of the time, the puppet spoke actual words. It is known in the puppet community for introducing 18-year old Jim Henson and his Muppets to the world. It aired on WRC-TV (NBC's Washington affiliate) from May 9, 1955 to December 15, 1961. Nowadays, very few episodes survive.
- Sam and Friends was Jim Henson's first television series, a five-minute show that aired twice daily on WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. from May 9, 1955 to December 15, 1961. __TOC__ The title character was a humanoid named Sam, but a more enduring star of the series was Kermit, who was not yet a frog. Other characters included the voracious Yorick, beatnik Harry the Hipster, excitable Professor Madcliffe, Chicken Liver, and utility players Hank and Frank. Other characters possessed more ephemeral personalities, and in many cases, their existence is defined only by photographs and surviving puppets. This roster includes Mushmellon, Icky Gunk, Henrietta, Omar, Moldy Hay, and the earliest Muppet star, Pierre the French Rat, amongst others. Characters were performed by Henson and Jane Nebel, with Bob Payne (who joined in 1958 to substitute for a Europe-bound Henson) and Jerry Juhl filling in for Nebel in the final season. The series was heavily reliant, particularly in its earliest installments, on puppet characters lip-synching to records, usually novelty songs or comedy routines from the likes of Stan Freberg, Bob and Ray, Spike Jones, and Louis Prima, amongst others. Henson experimented with character voices in such sketches as "Visual Thinking," and in commercials for the show's sponsor, Esskay Meats. Though the earliest skits were in black and white, later sketches such as "Poisen to Poisen" were transmitted in color. Some of the show's original puppets have appeared on display in museum exhibits such as the Muppets and Mechanisms: Jim Henson's Legacy exhibit at The Smithsonian Institution (which later became a part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection), and the Worlds of Puppetry exhibit at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
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