Sam and Friends Script Book Press Release

For Immediate Release:
September 3, 2025

Muppets Creator Jim Henson's Early Scripts
Published in The Sam and Friends Script Book

NEW YORK, NY - Author and Jim Henson Legacy president Craig Shemin has once again plumbed the Jim Henson Company archives to compile 60 of the earliest Muppet scripts into The Sam and Friends Script Book, to be published on Jim Henson's birthday, September 24, 2025 (exactly three years after Shemin's first book about Henson's early local Washington D.C broadcast, Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show).
This new volume, created with the cooperation of the Henson family, The Jim Henson Company and The Walt Disney Company, assembles 60 Sam and Friends scripts from The Jim Henson Company Archives, augmented with historical annotations and deleted passages. "There are some period pop cultural references in the scripts and understanding them is key to appreciating what Jim was creating. I thought I could save the reader some research and do it for them," said Shemin of his marginal notes.
Dave Goelz, who has performed Gonzo the Great and many other Muppet and Henson characters for more than 50 years, contributed the foreword for the book, looking back on his personal experience working with Henson, and praising Shemin's work. "Though he is too modest to claim credit, he is the world's leading Muppet historian," wrote Goelz in his foreword.

Shemin included five Sam and Friends scripts in his earlier book and learned that readers enjoyed them. "There are only 15 episodes of Sam and Friends known to exist, so the scripts are a great way for fans to understand what this lost show was like," Shemin said. "I approached
Karen Falk, the Director of Archives for The Jim Henson Company, with the idea of doing a book of the scripts and she was incredibly supportive, supplying scans of every surviving script."
Not every script made the cut for the book. Shemin selected only material that didn't rely
too much on visual elements or music. "I wanted to pick scripts that could be enjoyed for their written content. Jim didn't put a lot of screen directions in his writing because he was the primary performer, so with some of scripts, we can only guess what was going on visually," Shemin said. "For the book, I went with scripts that conveyed the humor through dialogue."
Though most of the material in the book is credited to Henson, two scripts were written by longtime Muppet writer Jerry Juhl, whom Shemin worked with at the beginning of his career. "Jerry was a mentor of mine," said Shemin. "I like to think he would have gotten a kick out his early Muppet scripts finding their way out of an old manilla file folder and into a book."
The Sam and Friends Script Book features many scans of Jim Henson's original script pages, as well as more than 50 photos. The book is available at www.bearmanormedia.com.
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JIM HENSON'S WRITERS ON THE SAM AND FRIENDS SCRIPT BOOK:
"Jim Henson would look at a script, cut away the not-too-funny, tweak the this-might-work and then, with the Muppet performers, transform words into hilarious I-wish-I'd-written-it-that-funny foolishness. It's obvious from this miraculous trove of Sam & Friends scripts that Jim honed these skills early on. Here, along with the incomparable Jerry Juhl, Jim conjured up the spirit of all that followed: silly, exploding, devouring, unpredictable, kind-but-crazy character-driven Muppet funny. This is where it started. These scripts truly are the Rosetta Stone of Muppet comedy."
- Jim Lewis (Miss Piggy's Hollywood, Muppets Tonight, Muppets Haunted Mansion)

"Everything I learned about writing character, I learned from Jim Henson and everything Jim Henson learned, he learned from Jim Henson. These first Muppet scripts, written for a short local television show, allow us to see the bones of Jim's comedic structure laid bare. They are a master class in the absolute basics of storytelling - protagonist, goal and obstacle - reduced to its essence. Put these scripts and a copy of Aristotle's Poetics on your shelf and you have everything you need to write comedy. Or anything."
- Bill Prady (The Jim Henson Hour, Muppet*Vision 3D, The Big Bang Theory)

"After creating shows and writing movies with both Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl, it is so delightful to read the early beginnings of their joyous humor and irreverent silliness! Craig has done us all a service by curating and saving these scripts and gags! A wonderful read for any fan of The Muppets, Comedy or Puppetry!"
- Kirk Thatcher (Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets Tonight, Muppets Haunted Mansion)

PRESS CONTACT:
Craig Shemin
samandfriendsbook@gmail.com
www.samandfriendsbook.com

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