Visitors to Muppets, Inc. in the 1960s would have found Jim Henson stretched out almost completely horizontal on a black Eames Lounge Chair. From here Henson wrote story ideas and sketched new characters to be realized in cloth by his collaborators in their small office, located above a nightclub on 53rd Street in Manhattan. Soon the Henson-led team would revolutionize puppetry on television in the 1970s, first with Sesame Street and its gentle giant Big Bird and odd couple Bert and Ernie, then with The Muppet Show. Each project, including 1980s films like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, was an opportunity to build fantastic worlds populated by fuzzy creatures that moved with a believable physicality. Imagination was Henson’s greatest resource, and he put in the hard work to make his visions possible. When Kermit the Frog sings “Rainbow Connection” while seated on a log in a swamp, the lanky Henson is performing his movements from below the water, cramped in a diving bell. Decades after his death in 1990, Henson still inspires and brings joy to viewers of all ages through his characters, whether the insatiable Cookie Monster, the bombastic diva Miss Piggy, or the drum-thumping Animal.—ALLISON MEIER