Biography

Jerry Juhl

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Jerry Juhl became the first full-time employee of Jim Henson Co. in 1961 after meeting Henson at a puppeteer's convention. The company coined the term "Muppet," a combination of the words marionette and puppet, and created a series of short skits parodying television news people. Juhl worked on Jim Henson's first television show, Sam and Friends (1955) as a puppeteer and later spent six years writing for Sesame Street (1969) after its 1969 premiere. He created scripts for the Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, Elmo, Bert, Ernie and The Count. He also created Super Grover, a superhero version of Grover, and received two Emmy Awards for his work. Juhl served as head writer for The Muppet Show (1976) from 1977-1981. He also was the writer and creative producer of Fraggle Rock (1983), which featured his wife as a writer and script editor. The show was met with critical acclaim when it appeared on HBO in 1983 and lasted four years.
- IMDb mini biography by: Austin R. Taylor

Joined the Jim Henson Company in 1961.
Son-in-law of former mayor of San Jose, Bob Doerr.
First met Jim Henson at a Puppeteers of America convention.
San Jose State graduate.
He was cremated at Monte's Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo, California. His urn was entombed at San Francisco Columbarium. His widow hosted a celebration of life for him at Caspar Community Center on November 12, 2005.

I've worked with genius performers. Sometimes they created great work with a bad script... but not often. Play it safe: write well.
Jim was a dreamer... but he was pragmatic enough to make the dream happen. He was just absolutely determined to do that. There were certainly elements of both. But a dreamer was what he really was.
Kermit is the eye in the middle of the hurricane. And, you know, he's always in control. Sometimes just barely, but he's always in control. And the interesting thing about it, of course, is that he created the hurricane.
Underneath the zaniness, or perhaps standing next to it, there was a sense of decency that the characters had, about the world and to each other. And I think that's one of the really legacies that Jim left. And I think it's one of the reasons he's so loved today, because he could be a pop culture figure doing mass entertainment, and he could explore the edges of crazy, goofy comedy. But at the core, there was always a sense of social values and decency.
We always used to kid Jim that after telling everybody 'simple is good,' he would turn around and try to produce the most complicated work in the world and just about wipe out all of us - him most of all - in the process.

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