Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of The Jim Henson Company

In 1955, a young man named Jim Henson created a television show featuring puppets called Sam and Friends and the rest is history. The Jim Henson Company has entertained multiple generations of children and adults, with television shows including The Muppet Show (1976–81), Farscape (1999–2004), Dinosaur Train (2009–21), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019), and most recently Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (2021– present) along with memorable films, including The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022). Join puppet designer and costumer Bonnie Erickson, The Jim Henson Company’s Archives Director Karen Falk, puppeteer and voice actor Dave Goelz, producer Alex Rockwell, and CEO of The Jim Henson Company and daughter of Jim Henson, Lisa Henson, as they share their favorite memories of the last seven decades of Henson productions full of humor, heart, and hope in a panel discussion moderated by Emmy®-nominated actress, writer, producer, and host Yvette Nicole Brown.

Tickets for Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of The Jim Henson Company are available as follows:

• Walt’s Circle Donors: Purchase tickets beginning Tuesday, May 6 at noon PST by emailing membership@wdfmuseum.org.
• Supporter, Founding, and Friend-level members: Purchase tickets beginning Wednesday, May 7 at noon PST by emailing membership@wdfmuseum.org.
• All member levels: Purchase tickets beginning Thursday, May 8 at noon PST via the Member Portal.
• Public (non-members): Purchase tickets beginning Friday, May 9 at noon PST online.

Join as a member or upgrade your current membership to receive priority access and discounts to programs like these. For more information, please visit our Membership page.

Bonnie Erickson studied Art and Theatre at the University of Minnesota before moving to New York City to attend the Art Students’ League. While still a student, she produced one-of-a-kind fashion accessories for the retail market and created masks and specialty costumes for the stage.

Her distinctive style attracted the attention of the late Jim Henson. As Design Director for The Muppets, she created some of the most beloved characters on television.

Among the best known are the feisty Miss Piggy and the heckling old men in the balcony, Statler & Waldorf of The Muppet Show. Following a year of television production in London, Erickson returned to New York to establish her own design business. Jim Henson and the production of the Fraggle Rock series was one of her first design consulting assignments.

Erickson’s company, Harrison/Erickson Inc., has developed an international clientele for her unique and humorous characters for TV commercials, print advertising campaigns and merchandising. Her Creative Direction and Product Development for Sesame Street produced a range of products from clothing to the award-winning Tickle-Me-Elmo doll. She also licensed her own line of signature toys, Central Casting and Party Animals. On stage, her work has been featured in The Warrior Ant—a multimedia production for The Next Wave Festival in New York—and the nationwide Bette Midler Millennium Tour.

Recognized as America's foremost developer of sports mascot marketing, Erickson has developed characters for professional franchises in baseball, basketball, and football. Philadelphia’s Phillie Phanatic—one of the most popular and enduring mascots in all of sports—has joined another of her characters, Montreal Expos’ Youppi!, in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

Erickson is a trustee and Past President and Executive Director of The Jim Henson Legacy, a foundation dedicated to preserving and perpetuating Jim Henson’s contributions to the worlds of puppetry, television, motion pictures, special effects, and media technology.

Since 1992, Karen Falk has served as the Archives Director for The Jim Henson Company and is Vice President of The Jim Henson Legacy. She is the author of Jim Henson’s Imagination Illustrated and the main contributor to The Jim Henson Company website “Jim’s Red Book”. With The Jim Henson Legacy, she has organized numerous Henson programs and exhibits and works closely with the Worlds of Puppetry Museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the Museum of The Moving Image in New York where she serves on their Board.

Dave Goelz joined Jim Henson in 1973 as a puppet designer/builder and eventually became a core Muppet Performer. He performs The Great Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot, Beauregard, Waldorf, Chip, Boober, and Traveling Matt Fraggle, along with many others. He has starred in most Jim Henson and Muppet television programs and feature films since 1973, including The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.

Alex Rockwell began her career working for Jim Henson as his creative assistant. In 1992, she was named Executive Vice President of Creative Affairs for the Jim Henson Company charged with overseeing the creative on all television, film, and home video productions.  She developed a variety of projects including primetime series Dinosaurs (ABC), Muppets Tonight (ABC), and Farscape (SYFY), primetime mini-series Gulliver’s Travels (NBC) and Jack in the Beanstalk (CBS), Muppet feature films The Muppet Christmas Carol (Disney), Muppet Treasure Island (Disney), and Elmo in Grouchland (which she produced), in addition to an array of children’s series including Bear in the Big Blue House (which she executive-produced). From 1998 to 2008, Rockwell worked as an in-house producer and consultant for the Jim Henson Company. In 2008, Rockwell became a freelance writer/producer.

Alex Rockwell was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Yale University in 1985, Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. In 1992, she married David Kissinger. They now have four children and reside in Santa Monica, California.

As CEO of The Jim Henson Company, Lisa Henson oversees all television and feature film production, from early development through post-production.

She recently produced the critically acclaimed, Oscar®-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) for Netflix and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Road Trip (2025) starring Eva Longoria and Cheech Marin for Disney+. She executive-produced the feature film The Portable Door (2023) for MGM+, Apple TV+’s Harriet the Spy television series, and Apple TV+’s Emmy®-winning Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (2022) television series. Lisa’s other television credits include the popular Word Party (2016) and the Emmy®-winning series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) both for Netflix; in addition to the Emmy®-nominated PBS KIDS® series Sid the Science Kid (2008), Dinosaur Train (2009), and Splash and Bubbles (2016).

Lisa’s other feature film credits include MGM’s Good Boy! (2003), The Jim Henson Company’s MirrorMask (2005) and The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz (2005) starring Ashanti, Sony Pictures Animation’s The Star (2017), and Henson Alternative’s The Happytime Murders (2018). She is currently developing the highly anticipated sequel to the classic fantasy film Labyrinth and a television adaptation of Webtoon’s Lore Olympus.

Prior to her current position, Lisa was President of Columbia Pictures where she oversaw a string of critical and commercial successes including Little Women (1994), Immortal Beloved (1994), and Ang Lee’s Oscar®-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995). Before joining Columbia Pictures, Lisa served as an executive at Warner Bros. for ten years. 

Lisa was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Greenwich, CT and Westchester County, NY. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University, where she was the first female president of The Harvard Lampoon.

Yvette Nicole Brown is an Emmy®-nominated actress, writer, producer and host best known for her roles on the television shows Community, The Mayor, Drake and Josh, The Odd Couple, Big Shot, and Act Your Age, and films including Dreamgirls (2006), Tropic Thunder (2008), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Disney's Disenchanted (2022). In the voiceover world, she can be heard in Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (2024) in addition to animated shows as varied as Pupstruction, Frog and Toad, My Dad The Bounty Hunter, FireBuds, and the newly announced Among Us. She is also a 2020 NAACP Image Award®-nominated writer for Always a Bridesmaid—the romantic-comedy she penned and executive-produced that is streaming on Netflix and BET+. Brown sits on the national boards of Donors Choose (where she is Vice Chair), EMILY's List, and MPTF Next Gen, and is also a caregiver and advocate.

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