When he did make the money, he realized he loved puppetry and it became his life for the next thirty years.In 1958, Jim graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in art. In 1959, Sam and Friends won an Emmy for Best Local Entertainment Program. The same year, Jim Henson and Jane Nebel married. In 1960, Jim and Jane celebrated the birth of their first child. They named their daughter Lisa. The following year their daughter Cheryl was born. In 1961, Jim ended Sam and Friends to expand Muppets Inc. That same year, Jim and Jane hired another puppeteer and writer named Jerry Juhl. Juhl would later become one of Jim's major collaborators. Soon after that, Don Sahlin and Frank Oz began working with the Hensons. Frank Oz later became the voice and performer of many Muppets including Miss Piggy. Frank became Jim’s best friend.The Hensons moved to New York in 1963 and television appearances grew to include The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan, The Jimmy Dean Show, and weekly appearances on The Today Show. Other companies also hired Muppets Inc. to create commercials. Jim created many short films at this time. One of these films was Timepiece, which received an Oscar nomination in 1964 for Best Live-Action Short Subject (Fionaurora). Jim did not win, but the nomination brought even more attention to his work with puppets. In 1968, Jim Henson’s first television special, Muppets on Puppets, aired.In 1968, Joan Ganz Cooney approached Jim with an offer to create puppets and write for a children’s television show that would mix education and entertainment. The show was being developed by the Children’s Television (*WRITTEN BY ERIC G.*)Workshop for PBS. They planned to use flashy imagery and quick pacing common in television commercials to teach preschoolers. “The show was an effort to give poor children whose parents couldn’t afford nursery school a chance to learn basic sk...
