Saturday

Saturday was a locally-produced show broadcast on the Washington, D.C. station WTOP in 1954. Jim Henson and fellow performer Russell Wall had impressed Roy Meachum, who had given them their start on The Junior Morning Show and looked for work for them, including his Saturday show. 

As with other early Henson appearances, the puppet characters lip-synched to novelty records, but the show was cancelled by August 1954.However, "At that point, Jim was just beginning to attend classes at the University of Maryland, and perhaps considered the demise of the Saturday show as a blessing in disguise -- with Saturday canned, he was free to concentrate on his studies and learn all he could about television design and production."

However, during his time on Saturday, Henson's work had attracted the attention of James Kovach, a program director at WRC-TV who had come to the station hoping to lure Meachum to the channel. While Meachum declinedand with the show facing cancellation, he asked Kovach to find work for Henson.