Sam and Friends

Sam and Friends
"The Art of Visual Thinking" sketch of Sam and Friends in which Kermit and Harry the Hipster make their thoughts appear above their heads. "Watch!"
Created by	Jim Henson Jane Henson
Starring	Jim Henson Jane Henson Bob Payne Jerry Juhl
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	86
Production
Running time	5 minutes per sketch (and episode)
Release
Original network	WRC-TV (NBC's owned-and-operated station in Washington, D.C.)
Audio format	Mono
Original release	May 9, 1955 (1955-05-09) – December 15, 1961 (1961-12-15)

Sam and Friends is an early live-action/puppet television show created by puppeteer Jim Henson and his eventual wife Jane Nebel. It was taped and aired twice daily as a local series in Washington, D.C., on WRC-TV in black-and-white, and later color, on weeknights from May 9, 1955, to December 15, 1961. Most of the original episodes were wiped after airing on TV. The few surviving episodes can be viewed at the Paley Center for Media.

Sam was a bald-headed human puppet with wide eyes, large ears, and a big nose. His friends included Yorick, Harry the Hipster, Professor Madcliffe, Chicken Liver, and a lizard-like character named Kermit (who later evolved into Kermit the Frog).

Early in its run, the show mostly featured the puppets lip-synching to popular songs of the day (if the song was by a female performer, the puppet would wear a wig while singing). Later, formal sketches were drawn up, many spoofing well-known television shows at the time, including the series which followed Sam and Friends in the Washington market, The Huntley-Brinkley Report.

A popular early sketch that would be used often in subsequent Henson productions was "Inchworm", in which a character, often Kermit, would nibble on what looked like a worm, but would ultimately turn out to be the tongue or nose of the monster Big V, who would devour him.

Bob Payne once substituted for Jim Henson while he was in Europe. Jerry Juhl also worked on the show toward the end of its run where he substituted for Jane Henson. Also around 1959, advertisements for Esskay Meats would appear at the end of the show, as well as Wilkins Coffee (the latter featured two Muppets created exclusively for the spots, "Wilkins" and "Wontkins").

While Payne, Juhl, and Jane Henson all puppeteered in the series alongside Jim Henson, Jim provided all of the voices himself (unless the voices were taken from a record).