This is a part of Jim Henson's career that has only been briefly touched upon. In telling this story in depth for the first time, we'll also be exploring his partner (and eventual wife) Jane Nebel's role in launching the Muppets.

The primary source of research for the book is The Jim Henson Company archives, led by Archives Director Karen Falk. Jim Henson had the foresight to save many scripts, clippings and other items connected with the show. While, sadly, only about 15 kinescopes survive from the program's 7+ year run, Jim had the foresight to make audio recordings of more than 400 episodes. Those tapes, plus the scripts, kinescopes, and original acetate records of the songs the Muppets lip-synced to were used to construct a partial episode guide.

The author conducted an extensive interview with Jane Henson before her death (and before he knew he would be writing this book). Bob Payne, (above at left), who was recruited to work on Sam and Friends while Jim took a trip to Europe, also spoke to the author, as did Jim's best friend from that era (and best man at his wedding), Joe Irwin. Archival interviews from the Henson Archive and from Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones, as well as other archival sources, were used.

The author was fortunate to visit the WRC studios in Washington, D.C. where Sam and Friends was broadcast for some of its run. Washington, D.C. is also the permanent home to these first Jim Henson characters, as they were gifted to the Smithsonian by the Henson family. During the research, we paid a visit to Sam and his friends in the vault at the American Museum of American History (pictured above). Kermit, Sam and Harry are now on display in the museum’s new "Entertainment Nation" exhibition.

Frank Oz (pictured above with the author, Craig Shemin during an event at the Museum of the Moving Image). Frank Oz first met Jim Henson during the run of Sam and Friends, and had he not still been in high school, Frank could have joined the Muppets before the end of the series. Instead, Frank’s friend Jerry Juhl, who was a few years older, got the gig. Frank was a great supporter of this project and agreed to write the foreword less than two hours after the author asked him to.

Work on the book began in earnest in September, 2019 with a research trip to Washington, D.C. The next month, the project was derailed when the author had to undergo cardiac bypass surgery. Upon his recovery, work on the book became more challenging when the Covid-19 pandemic began, forcing all research to transition to remote work. Karen Falk at the Henson archives scanned a vast amount of scripts and other material, including the first Muppets, Inc. expense ledgers. The archives pulled all of the surviving Sam and Friends acetate recordings from storage and had them delivered to the author's home, where he painstakingly cleaned and digitized them (Pictured above - before and after cleaning).