American networks passed on The Muppet Show, so Jim Henson made it in England
Jim Henson feared Sesame Street had typecast him as a children's entertainer, so he pitched a variety show for grown-ups. ABC aired two pilots and passed; other US networks said no. A British producer said yes, and the show recorded near London ended up reaching 235 million viewers a week.
Henson's Muppets had been on Sesame Street since 1969, and he wanted something with more adult appeal. ABC made two specials, The Muppets Valentine Show in 1974 and the cheekily titled The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence in 1975, but ordered neither to series. Lew Grade, who ran the British commercial station ATV and had bankrolled Gerry Anderson's puppet shows, stepped in. The series was recorded at ATV's Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, and sold into syndication in the United States.
Henson also learned speed from a failure. His Land of Gorch sketches in the first season of Saturday Night Live clashed with that show's writers and did not survive, but taught his team to build television within seven days, and brought celebrity friendships. The format was a backstage farce wrapped around a vaudeville bill: Kermit the Frog, played by Henson, tries to run a shabby old theatre while chaos erupts around him, and the hecklers Statler and Waldorf mock everything from their balcony.
It premiered in Britain on 5 September 1976. By December about 14 million people watched on Sunday evenings, and by January 1977 more than 100 countries had bought it or bid, earning over 6 million pounds abroad. Early on, producers had to beg friends to fly to Britain as guests. That changed after the ballet star Rudolf Nureyev appeared in the second season; afterwards stars queued up, and no guest was ever booked twice. Rita Moreno won an Emmy in 1977 for her episode.
One early custom, giving each guest a Muppet likeness of themselves, lasted only two episodes, dropped for its cost and legal headaches. The run ended on 15 March 1981 after five seasons and 120 episodes. Disney's Muppets Studio has owned the rights since buying the characters from the Jim Henson Company in 2004.
Source: The Muppet Show
