PBS

PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, is a national public television network.

One of PBS' most successful programs is Sesame Street, which has aired on the network for 40 years. PBS is also home to the Jim Henson Company's television series Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train.

A popular series on the channel, Great Performances, aired the documentary The World of Jim Henson.

The television specials Sesame Street, Special and Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake were both produced as pledge-drive specials and included sequences that discussed public television, mentioned various PBS shows, and led to real pledge breaks.

Muppet characters (especially ones from Sesame Street) have appeared in PBS Interstitials, and have made guest appearances on PBS shows including The Electric Company, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, and Between the Lions. PBS also broadcast Here Come the Puppets, which was hosted by Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog, with appearances by other Muppets. And the stations

Pledge drive sketch
Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster recorded a sketch for PBS pledge drives in the 1970s.

In the sketch, Kermit appears in a PBS studio and explains to the viewers why the stations need contributions: "Do you know how much it costs to produce good television these days? Well, I got the figures right here. For instance, this station spends over 14,000 dollars a month just on microphones. And that's, that's just the microphone bill alone." Behind him, Cookie Monster enters, eyes an expensive microphone, and eats it. Kermit hears the crunching -- but when he turns around, Cookie is hiding. Kermit resumes: "You take spotlights... Now, the figure on spotlights is 57,000 dollars a month we spend for spotlights!" Again, Cookie Monster grabs a hunk off a spotlight and chomps on it.

Kermit continues: "But the most expensive of all is the television cameras. Now, we spend for cameras eight hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars --" Behind him, Cookie Monster approaches a camera and starts to eat it. Kermit sees him, and asks what he's doing. "Oh, me just stopped by for lunch," the monster says, and continues to munch on the camera. Disgusted, Kermit walks off.