By the mid-1970s, Jim Henson and the Muppets were as big as they'd ever been. They'd helped turn Sesame Street into a household name and continued to be a hot commodity on the variety show circuit.

But Jim had yet to do the one thing he'd been trying to accomplish since the early 1960s: Create a prime time television show starring the Muppets, and one that wasn't solely aimed at a preschool audience.

He made several attempts along the way, filming several pilots with varying degrees of sucess, and even had a stint alongside the Not Ready For Prime Time Players on the first season of Saturday Night Live, but it would take a while before he was able to convince anyone to give The Muppets a shot at their own show.

That all changed in 1976, with a little help from Julie Andrews (yep, that Julie Andrews) and a British Lord. With the debut of The Muppet Show, Jim and his gang of puppeteers would become one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons on the planet.

This is the story of how they got there.

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ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS:

Andrew C. | Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | Curt M. | Elton Novara | Interzone78 | Jackson_Baker | Justin V. | lolodrummer | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | qoheleth | Robert Stinson

Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.

This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis.

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