Olivia Telecky-

This month, the final season of Sesame Street was released on Max, as HBO ended its partnership with the classic children’s show. Sesame Street was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. After Ganz Cooney released a report entitled “The Potential Uses Of Television In Preschool Education”, the duo created the idea for the show, and the Children’s Television Workshop. After realizing the potential of the television industry on teaching children from low-income areas who might not receive proper early education due to expensive preschool programs and little state funding to schools, Ganz Cooney and Morrisett reached out to John Stone to help with creative development, and Jim Henson to create segments with his colorful and fun creatures ‘The Muppets’. While Henson didn’t wish to become a children’s performer, he did respect the goals of Ganz Cooney and Morrisett, so he agreed. Initially, The Muppets were only supposed to be used for short learning segments to be placed in between scenes of human actors in the larger plot of the show. However, when testing children’s attention span they realized that it dropped significantly when The Muppets weren’t on the screen. And as such, The Muppets became an integral part of Sesame Street. When the show premiered on November 10th, 1969, it became an instant success, cementing The Muppets as an integral part of pop culture. 

The Muppets were not to be confined to Sesame Street forever, as they would soon get their own show. The Muppet Show, premiering in 1974, was a variety show in the truest sense of the word. Sketches lasted an average of 1 minute and 51 seconds, as the muppets fell into chaos while trying to create their own vaudeville show. Each episode had a guest star, who was the only human in the production, and they would sing, dance, or perform comedy routines. The Muppet Show was intended to prove to audiences that Muppets are not simply for kids, and as such, many sketches parody adult shows such as medical soap operas or Star Trek, or historical characters such as Gladiators or Vikings. 

The Muppet Show (1974) had something to teach everyone. Kermit shows the importance of patience as he keeps a relatively calm demeanor when everything eventually comes crashing down around him, and episodes focus on themes of friendship, with Bert building up Ernie’s confidence to perform and Kermit explaining to Fozzie that he is valued by The Muppets. The Original Muppet Movie built off of this idea of friendship, with Kermit stating that “I’ve found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And, that kind of makes us like a family”. 

The original The Muppet Movie (1979) has a large focus on dreams. The opening song “Rainbow Connection” asks the audience “Who said that every wish / Would be heard and answered / When wished on the morning star? / Somebody thought of that / And someone believed it. / Look what it’s done so far.” The movie builds off of this idea in the final number, where The Muppets sing “Life’s like a movie / Write your own ending. / Keep on believing / Keep on pretending.” The importance of following your dreams is the focus of The Muppets (2011), as “Rainbow Connection” is played at the climax of the movie, with the 1979 movie’s lesson coming full circle. While in the 2011 version, The Muppets don’t succeed in achieving their dreams, Kermit still maintains the importance of trying by saying that “If we failed, we failed together. To me, that’s not failing at all”. 
Throughout the decades, The Muppets have been in kid-oriented shows, such as Muppets Now (2020), or fully adult shows, such as The Muppets (2015), which is a mockumentary. They have taught us that it is important to keep your promises, even ones made to yourself, that perseverance is “That quiet place where the good guy lives and the best intentions start”, and that the best goal in life is to make others happy. Even when The Muppets creator, Jim Henson, passed away, The Muppets lived on. They performed at his memorial service, and have been revamped time and time again to inspire other generations. While this is the end of the chapter for many beloved Sesame Street Muppets, as Kermit so beautifully put it “It’s not starting over, it’s just going on”.