Television series
The Jim Henson Hour
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Jim Henson's ambitious late-80s variety hour: a showcase of puppetry, short films, and experimental storytelling aimed squarely at adults who'd grown up with the Muppets. It's playful and visually inventive, sometimes uneven, occasionally surreal. For anyone who loved the craft behind the curtain or wants to see a master at work when constraints were still loose.
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The Dark Crystal1982
A fully puppeteered dark-fantasy masterpiece with the most intricate creature design ever captured on film. No CGI, no compromise. Pure Henson ambition made visible.
But The pacing is deliberate and the world-building is dense; it's not a quick watch and demands attention from start to finish.
Fraggle Rock1983
Henson's most ambitious TV creation before The Jim Henson Hour: a musical fantasy series about creatures living in caves, anchored by genuine warmth and smartly layered storytelling for kids and adults.
But Some episodes are uneven, and the 80s production values—while charming—can feel dated if you're not in the mood for them.
Labyrinth1986
A fever-dream fantasy film that pairs Henson's puppetry genius with David Bowie and plays like a very strange dream about growing up. Genuinely inventive, visually stunning, and deeply weird in the best way.
But The plot is slight and the tonal shifts from whimsy to menace can feel jarring if you're expecting something more grounded.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Witches1990
Both are Henson productions made around the same time exploring how far puppetry and creature work can push into darker, more adult territory than his Muppet work allowed.
Adapted from Roald Dahl with direction by Nicolas Roeg and creature design by Jim Henson. It's a children's film that genuinely frightens and unsettles, technically stunning, and willing to let darkness sit in the room.
But The ending compromises its own vision with a sugar-coating, and the witch makeup effects are genuinely grotesque in ways young viewers might find distressing.
More like this (8)
The Muppet Show1976
The obvious touchstone: variety-show chaos with Henson's most iconic characters, celebrity guests, and a real sense that anything might happen. Peak Henson playfulness and comic timing.
But It's episodic by design, and some sketches land better than others; there's a lot of chaff mixed in with the wheat.
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story1993
A sit-com starring an entirely puppeteered dinosaur family dealing with modern issues. Wickedly smart, surprisingly dark in later seasons, and technically a marvel of practical effects engineering.
But The premise can feel gimmicky, and it takes a few episodes to find its tone. Some humor doesn't age as gracefully as you'd hope.
Jim Henson's The Storyteller1988
A lean, gorgeously designed anthology series pairing an old man and his dog with fairy tales from around the world. Each episode is a self-contained gem with real emotional weight and craft.
But There are only sixteen episodes; if you fall in love with it, you'll run out quickly. Some darker tales might not appeal to everyone.
Sesame Street1970
The foundational work: where Henson's puppetry principles met educational television and changed both forever. Watching the early seasons shows you where so much of modern children's TV came from.
But It's aimed at young children, so if you're watching as an adult without kids, the pacing can feel slow and the simplicity occasionally condescending.
The Muppets Take Manhattan1984
A perfectly structured comedy that gives each Muppet their moment and a genuine emotional core about ambition and friendship. Works as both satire and sincere entertainment.
But It's the third Muppet film and the formula is starting to show wear; if you've seen the first two, the novelty has worn off somewhat.
Farscape1999
A Henson-produced sci-fi adventure that mixes practical puppetry with live action in ways that feel genuinely hybrid and strange. If you want that Henson texture applied to space opera, this delivers.
But It's very 90s, the puppet characters take time to warm up to, and the serialization deepens in ways that demand real commitment.
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse2005
Both operate in the space where puppetry and performance art collide, using Henson-style creature work and variety-show structure to explore ideas that the mainstream wouldn't touch.
Four British comedians playing grotesque, deformed puppet versions of themselves in a deranged variety-show nightmare. It's Henson's playful form language repurposed as surreal horror-comedy for adults.
But It's deeply strange, often very dark, and the humor is specific to British comedy sensibilities; if you haven't encountered League of Gentlemen before, it can feel alienating and mean-spirited.
Being John Malkovich1999
Both ask what television and film can *do* when you're willing to break format and convention; both prioritize the inventive idea over whether audiences will immediately understand what they're watching.
A mind-bending fantasy about entering another person's consciousness that could only exist as pure cinema. It has the same spirit of imaginative audacity and formal experimentation that drives The Jim Henson Hour's best moments.
But It's deliberately abstract and philosophically dense; the narrative is more a vehicle for ideas than plot, which can feel cold and inaccessible on first viewing.
