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For decades, Jim Henson’s Muppets have been tucked in and around the Disney Parks. Sometimes they are front-and-center, like Muppet*Vision 3D. Other times they can be hard to track down, like the Muppet Mobile Lab. But one thing is for sure – they never fail to pull a chuckle out of the audience.

The documentary Jim Henson: Idea Man, recently released on Disney+, chronicles the life and career of the Muppets’ creative visionary. But Henson’s life ended way too young, at age 53, just before the first Muppets moved into Walt Disney World. In honor of Henson’s life and in celebration of his beloved creatures, let’s take a look through their Muppetational history in the Disney Parks.

A Giant Among Puppets

Disney Legend James Maury Henson was born in 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi. Though he spent the early part of his childhood down south, he moved north...

Hugh Downs, anchorman for the ABC news program “20/20” and, before that, NBC’s “The Today Show,” died Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 99.

Downs’ career in broadcasting spanned more than half a century. And despite his assertion “I am not a talent, I am a personality,” Downs proved a first-rate interviewer and journalist time and again. His personality was ingratiating and low-key; well into his 70s, his pleasant demeanor made him a welcome guest in the nation’s living rooms. With Barbara Walters, his co-host on both “Today” and “20/20,” he formed one of the most complementary partnerships in television news programming.

Prior to “Today,” Downs made a name for himself as emcee of the quizshow “Concentration” and as sage in residence on the Jack Paar “Tonight Show.”

After early work in radio and TV, Downs moved to New York in 1954 to join Arlene Francis on NBC’s “Home” show,...

Several recent DVD releases have enabled me to revisit my childhood—and adolescence—and it’s been a blissful time trip. Some of the shows I enjoyed back then have held up quite well, none more so than Burr Tillstrom’s Kukla, Fran & Ollie. I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to check out the series on video, but I’ve just spent some time with Volume 3, which includes 24 complete episodes from different periods in the run of the show (starting in 1949, winding up in 1957) as well as some terrific bonus features.Puppets were a mainstay of early television but Tillstrom, like some other talented performers, didn’t think of himself as a children’s entertainer. (One...

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