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Jim Henson bio turns us on to early Muppets videos
Reading this year’s well-reviewed biography of Jim Henson by Brian Jay Jones has set me on a mission to revisit the entire Muppet oeuvre. My most delightful discovery? Some of Henson’s early commercial work with Muppets.
Real Muppet aficionados are probably well aware of these shorts, which are available on YouTube. But they came as a surprise to me.
My favorites: Henson’s series of 10-second commercials for Wilkins Coffee, a local Washington D.C. coffee company. The ads star “Wilkins,” who likes Wilkins Coffee, and “Wontkins,” who doesn’t. They highlight Henson’s delight in Muppets doing violence to one another: At one point Wilkins actually pulls a gun on Wontkins. Henson made almost 180 commercials for Wilkins Coffee from 1957-1961. For all the violence, the ads are laugh-out-loud funny, and TV viewers tuned in to some shows in the DC market just to see what Wilkins would do to Wontkins next.
How successful were the Wilkins ads? The company saw its sales rise 25% after the ads started to run. You can see more of the ads on the Muppet Wiki.
It’s also fun to see a proto-Cookie Monster chewing the scenery for an IBM training film Henson made in 1967. Look at those teeth! It’s no wonder the Muppet team made Cookie less toothsome when he made his move to Sesame Street.
