The Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company (also known at various times as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc.) is an American entertainment company, a leading producer of children's and family entertainment (despite some of the company's works containing mature content), and best known as the creators of the renowned Muppets characters.

Founded in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson and performing partner and wife Jane Henson. the company is independently owned and operated by the children of its founders. Henson has produced many successful television series, including The Muppet Show (later owned by Disney), Fraggle Rock, Dinosaurs, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Farscape and created the Muppet characters for the long-running PBS television series, Sesame Street.

The company has also produced many films, including The Muppet Movie (1979), The Dark Crystal (1982), and Labyrinth (1986). Henson also operates Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a puppet, animatronics, and visual effects workshop, which has created characters and effects for Henson productions, as well as outside producers In 1989, the company entered merger negotiations with The Walt Disney Company, but the deal fell through following Jim Henson's unexpected death in 1990.

Following Henson's death and the calling off of the Disney merger, the company was taken over by Henson's children, Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John, and Heather, with Brian at the helm. In 2000 Henson was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG, a German media company, but by the end of that year, EM.TV's stock collapsed, and the company was sold back to the Henson family in 2003. (EM.TV had in the interim sold the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets to Sesame Workshop in 2001

In 2004, Henson sold the rights to the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House to The Walt Disney Company, but retains the rights to the rest of its characters, program library, and assets. Brian, Lisa, Cheryl, and Heather Henson run the company (sibling and fellow co-owner John Henson died in February 2014).

Brian Henson serves as chairman, while Lisa Henson serves as CEO. Since 2000, The Jim Henson Company has been headquartered at the Jim Henson Company Lot, the historic former Charlie Chaplin Studios, in Hollywood, California.