Sam and Friends Come Home to Washington
On August 25, 2010, ten puppets from Sam and Friends, Jim Henson's first television show, were donated by the Henson family to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in a special ceremony attended by Jane Henson.
Sam and Friends was a five minute show aired twice daily on WRC-TV in Washington, DC from 1955 through 1961. The puppets donated to the NMAH include Sam, Yorick, Harry the Hipster, Moldy Hay, Mushmellon, Chicken Liver, Icky Gunk, and Professor Madcliffe, as well as Pierre the French Rat, the oldest surviving puppet that Jim Henson built, and the original Kermit.