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The term Muppet was invented by Jim Henson at the beginning of his career to describe his puppet act. It is sometimes claimed, and refuted, that Henson created the term as a combination of the words marionette and puppet. Henson used the Muppet name to define the characters in all of his productions, and to distinguish his act from those of other puppeteers.
Early history
The word Muppet appeared in print as early as the spring of 1955 in an advertisement for Afternoon with Inga. Henson's appearances on variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show were billed as "The Muppets" and, as on Saturday Night Live, "Jim Henson's Muppets."
Sesame Street
During the development of Sesame Street, when it was decided that the show would add a fantasy element, Jim Henson's Muppets were singled out as the only puppet act that would be worth approaching. After Henson became involved, a cast of new Muppet characters were created for the show. They have become known as The Sesame Street Muppets or The Muppets of Sesame Street.
Sesame Workshop retains the Muppets name in its credits and products for Sesame Street, continuing to call its characters "Jim Henson's Sesame Street Muppets" and the puppeteers "Muppet Performers" or "Muppeteers." However Sesame Workshop does note that "Muppets™ is a trademark of The Muppets Studio." From 1990-1991, the credits for Sesame Street and related productions referred to its Muppets as "Sesame Street Puppet Characters."
The Muppet Show
When The Muppet Show became an international hit, the word Muppet became more closely associated with characters from that show. Productions and merchandise started to become branded from The Muppet Show’s cast of characters.
Television specials and theatrical films created throughout the 1980s strengthened this branding, as the group of characters established in The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Show continued to receive significant focus. This family of characters continued on into the MuppeTelevision portions of The Jim Henson Hour and Muppets Tonight.
The franchise was further solidified as being separate from other "Jim Henson's Muppets" projects when Disney purchased the characters from the Henson company in 2004. Disney went one step further to segregate their property, by designating this group and their endeavors as The Muppets Studio.
Other productions
Even so, the word Muppet continued to be used to describe characters from productions featuring mostly original characters, such as in Fraggle Rock where the credits read "with Jim Henson's Muppets," even though none of The Muppet Show characters were used.
In the late-1980s/1990s, the word Muppet would start being associated with new productions less often than it had been (unless that production featured characters from The Muppet Show, such as Muppets Tonight and the Muppet movies). The phrases "Muppet Performers" or "Jim Henson's Muppets" still appeared in the credits to such shows as Dog City and Big Bag.
Since selling the Muppets to The Walt Disney Company in 2004, the Jim Henson Company has stopped using the Muppets name for characters in newer productions. They stopped including the Muppets name on new Fraggle Rock products (the first three Fraggle Rock DVDs actually cut the "With Jim Henson's Muppets" credit in the opening, though it's been included in the opening for later DVDs). This is to create a distinction between the Muppet Show -brand characters (Disney owned) and other Henson Company puppets.
Outside of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop used the word Muppet in association with the characters and performers of their series Panwapa.
The Jim Henson Company rarely used the Muppets name to describe creations from the Creature Shop. Rare examples of Muppets created from the Creature Shop include the casts of The Ghost of Faffner Hall and Mother Goose Stories, as well as the ghosts from The Muppet Christmas Carol. See Muppet vs Creature for more on this.
Slang
In some regions of the world, namely Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the word muppet (lowercase) has come to be used as a mild term of abuse, meaning a stupid, incompetent, or idiotic person, or someone who is inanimate or somehow not there.
