Jim Henson and The Jim Henson Company Receive the Fred Rogers Award

For Immediate Release on March 9, 2009

Left to right: Cheryl Henson, President, The Jim Henson Foundation; Susan Zelman, Senior Vice President, CPB; Jane Henson; Lisa Henson, Co-CEO, The Jim Henson Company; Beth Courtney, Vice Chair, CPB Board of Directors; Elmo and Kevin Clash, Puppeteer

Washington, DC -- The late Jim Henson and The Jim Henson Company have received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's 2009 Fred Rogers Award.

CPB created the Fred Rogers Award in 2001 to honor an individual or organization that, like Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, has contributed to excellence in children's educational media.

Jim Henson was an extraordinary artist and visionary. A true television pioneer, he was an innovator in puppetry and the creator of some of television's most memorable and beloved characters. The family of characters Henson created for Sesame Street forty years ago -- Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and many others -- continues to entertain and educate today.

In 1975, he launched The Muppet Show, an international hit, which led to six feature films. During the 1980s, Henson brought two original fantasy films to the big screen, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. In recent years, under the stewardship of its founder's adult children, The Jim Henson Company has continued to create entertaining curriculum-based programs like Sid the Science Kid, currently airing on PBS KIDS, Pajanimals, currently airing on Sprout, and Dinosaur Train, currently in production for PBS KIDS.

"Similar to Fred Rogers, Jim Henson had the unique ability to both entertain and educate children," said Pat Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. "We congratulate the Henson family for honoring Jim's legacy by creating new and exciting children's content which will live on for generations."

Accepting the Fred Rogers Award, Lisa Henson, Co-CEO of The Jim Henson Company, said "My father truly believed that television can be used for good and can have a positive impact on the lives of children. At The Jim Henson Company, we honor his legacy by embracing this belief and striving to serve our audience with intelligent, entertaining programs like Sid the Science Kid, that can inspire children to develop an enduring love of learning."

"Few people have had such a profound influence on the hearts and minds of children and adults, as Jim Henson and The Jim Henson Company," said Beth Courtney, vice chair of the CPB board of directors and president and CEO of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, who presented the award to Lisa Henson. "Public broadcasting is grateful that this remarkable man and his company have made public broadcasting their home."

About The Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Independently owned and operated by the five adult children of founder Jim Henson, the company is also home to Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios.

The company is currently in production on 40 episodes of Dinosaur Train, an animated preschool series teaching concepts of natural science, natural history and paleontology, set to debut on PBS KIDS in fall 2009. The company also recently completed production of the first season of Sid the Science Kid, a science readiness animated series for preschoolers that debuted on PBS KIDS in September 2008. Additionally, the preschool, live-action short-form puppet series Pajanimals is seen daily on PBS KIDS Sprout.

About CPB

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,300 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services.

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