Forty-years ago this summer, a man and a frog made their dreams come true.
The release of The Muppet Movie in the summer of 1979, starring Kermit the Frog, was the culmination of puppeteer/writer/filmmaker Jim Henson’s ambition to translate the small screen success of his feel-good felt from Sesame Street and The Muppet Show over to the big screen where they could make “millions of people happy.”
However, despite Emmy-award wins and global recognition for The Muppet Show, obtaining funding for a theatrical film with The Muppets interacting in the real world wasn’t an easy sell. As Henson, Frank Oz and their Muppet team shot The Muppet Show in London, they had to spend time shooting proof of concept camera tests that eventually attracted the foreign investment of Lord Lew Grade’s British Independent Television Corporation (ITC).
Source: IGN.com The Muppet Movie: An Oral History