The Junior Morning Show

A surviving still of The Junior Morning Show.

The Junior Morning Show was a short-lived Washington, D.C. Saturday morning children's show featuring youngsters. Jim Henson got his start in television on this show in 1954 before he began work on Sam and Friends. The show premiered on June 19, 1954, running its second and final episode the following week on June 26, 1954.

According to Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles:

“One afternoon in his senior year of high school, two production assistants from local station WTOP visited [Henson's] high school puppetry club. The station manager had sent them to find puppeteers for a Saturday morning children's program, called The Junior Morning Show. Jim jumped at the opportunity... [The show] only aired for two weeks, but out of the experience Jim got a favorable mention in a local newspaper and a chance to work in front of a television camera.”

Pierre the French Rat, a character Henson created for a comic strip he made in high school, appeared in puppet form on this show along with another unnamed puppet with a bulbous head and hollow eyes.

The show was cancelled due to discovery "that the revision of the child labor law permitting children to appear on stage here applies to [theater] and not television. Three of the program's participants were under fourteen and consequently could not get work permits." Henson was paid $5 per episode.