This one caught me off guard too.

Before the world knew the Muppets as a global phenomenon, Jim Henson and his small crew were grinding away on a local kids’ show in Washington, D.C. From 1955 to 1961. They were on WRC‑TV, doing inventive, scrappy work that hinted at what was coming — but nobody knew just how big it would get.

Across town, over at WTOP, a young Jimmy Dean was hosting a daytime show called Country Style. CBS eventually picked it up nationally as the first version of The Jimmy Dean Show. Henson and Dean crossed paths back then, but it was nothing more than two rising talents bumping into each other in the same city, BUT…

Everything changed when Dean moved to ABC.

That’s where the real collaboration began — and where Rowlf the Dog stepped into the national spotlight. In the clip below, Frank Oz talks about meeting Dean for the first time and about being Henson’s right hand (literally) during the Rowlf sketches. It’s a great reminder of how small and hands‑on the early Muppet team really was.

And Jimmy Dean? Smooth as ever. One of the most naturally easygoing hosts television ever had.

The clip comes from a documentary called The World of Jim Henson, a terrific biography of Henson’s career and the early Muppet years. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth tracking down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pbKHDpOmYU

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