You can’t blame Jim Henson for trying to make The Jim Henson Hour Babies work. He had such a hit on his hands with Muppet Babies on CBS, an animated television program that sold a lot of toothbrushes with pictures of cartoon versions of baby versions of Muppets on them. That’s why the president of NBC, Lee Iacocca, called him into a meeting one day in 1989 and said, “We would like you to create an animated television program for our network that will also sell a lot of toothbrushes with pictures of cartoon versions of baby versions of Muppets on them.”
This was right before The Jim Henson Hour premiered, so it must have seemed completely logical to develop a companion series, The Jim Henson Hour Babies. Everyone was pretty certain that names like “Vicki” and “Lindbergh” and “Solid Foam Drummer” would soon be known around the globe, as familiar to children and their parents as “Fozzie” and “Scooter” and “Animal.” So why not “Baby Vicki,” “Baby Lindbergh,” and “Baby Solid Foam Drummer?”
You know the rest of the story. The Jim Henson Hour Babies only aired three episodes, in the Tuesdays at 3:30 AM time slot. And although we don’t have exact statistics, we know it only sold between five and seven toothbrushes with pictures of cartoon versions of baby versions of Muppets on them.
There were several reasons for this. It didn’t help that the “parent” show, The Jim Henson Hour, was cancelled as quickly as it was. Also, viewers were confused by the title: Muppet Babies is obviously a show about baby Muppets. So did that mean The Jim Henson Hour Babies was a show about baby Jim Hensons? And what about the fact that it had the word “hour” in the title, but it was only a half-hour show?
And yet, there was some pretty creative stuff in the show, using cutting-edge technology… Etch-a-Sketches, Lite Brites, Speak & Spells… All that stuff. The Baby MuppeTelevision segments in which Baby Kermit plays a TV station game with his friends was often entertaining, and it’s always fascinating to revisit the Baby Storyteller segments featuring Baby John Hurt and his puppy telling stories about scary stuff like ceiling fans. The series is worth another look.
So join me in this article series as I review every single episode of The Jim Henson Hour Babies, which I managed to buy on a bootleg laserdisc at the New Jersey Boat Show. You’ll read my argument that Baby Louie Anderson was the best guest star, you’ll witness my odd enthusiasm over the Baby Bootsie sketches — and wait until you get to my 8,000-word entry on how Baby Waldo doesn’t make sense because computer graphics don’t have childhoods!
Stay tuned, and if you want to watch along with me… Well, good luck getting your hands on one of those laserdiscs.
Special thanks to Noah Ginex for archival art assistance!
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by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
