Jim Henson was a media creator.
Ernie is a Muppet character on the long-running PBS children 's television show , Sesame Street . Jim Henson . While he was a freshman at the University of Maryland , College Park , he created Sam and Friends , a five-minute sketch-comedy puppet show that appeared on television . Henson became famous in the 1960s when he joined the children 's educational television program Sesame Street , and there helped develop characters for the series . He also had frequent roles in Muppets films such as The Muppet Movie , The Great Muppet Caper , and The Muppets Take Manhattan , and created advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock , The Dark Crystal , and Labyrinth . The Muppet Show is a family-oriented comedy-variety television series that was produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and features The Muppets .