The Sam and Friends Script Book - A Collection of Sketches from Jim Henson's First Television Show

Jim Henson is known as media visionary, a producer, a director and a brilliant performer, but his work as a writer is often overlooked. The Sam and Friends Script Book compiles some of his earliest work from The Jim Henson Company Archives; 60 scripts from Jim’s first television show (including two early scripts by future Muppet head writer Jerry Juhl), and a foreword by longtime Muppet performer Dave Goelz. The scripts and the accompanying marginal annotations by Henson historian Craig Shemin allow readers to experience this lost TV show as never before.

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 and 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)