childhood | USPS Stamp of Approval

On this day in 2009, Disney•Pixar’s 10th feature film, Up, opened, and introduced Carl Fredricksen, a curmudgeonly former balloon salesman, to the world. At age 78, Carl finally fulfills his lifelong dream by tying thousands of balloons to his house to fly away to the wilds of South America. But when he finds himself on his great adventure with an overly-enthusiastic eight-year-old named Russell, a talking dog named Dug, and a 13-foot-tall rare flightless bird, Carl discovers that life’s true adventure can be found not in travel or great accomplishments, but in small, everyday moments with family and friends.

The film garnered five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, winning for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score. Up was only the second animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture in the Academy’s history.

The Up (Forever®) stamp was part of the 2011 Send a Hello issuance, which also featured characters from Disney•Pixar films Cars, Ratatouille, Toy Story, and WALL•E. These fun, lovable stamps are still available for purchase!

Congratulations are in order for the Muppets, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today!

The Muppets were created by Jim Henson (1936-1990). In 1955, while Henson was a student at the University of Maryland, his own five-minute show, Sam and Friends, made its debut on WRC-TV, an NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. The show, which won a local Emmy Award in 1958 and ran until 1961, featured a large cast of characters that Henson dubbed “Muppets,” including a green puppet named Kermit who would later become the world-famous Kermit the Frog.

For several years, the Muppets built a following by appearing in a wide range of television commercials as well as several network programs, including Today and The Ed Sullivan Show. During the late 1960s, Henson was asked to create characters for the groundbreaking educational children’s television show Sesame Street, which debuted on public television in 1969. Many of the show’s Muppets—including Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch—soon became icons of American popular culture.

Believing that the Muppets could entertain an even wider family audience, Henson produced the television comedy hit The Muppet Show. Running for five seasons between 1976 and 1981, The Muppet Show was hosted by Kermit the Frog and featured a new cast of Muppet characters, including Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and The Great Gonzo, as well as an impressive array of celebrity guest stars. The Muppet Show was nominated for 21 Emmys and received four. Its success led to a slew of feature films: The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), all three of which were nominated for Academy Awards, as well as The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Muppets from Space (1999), It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002), The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz (2005), and The Muppets (2011).

In 2004, The Walt Disney Company acquired the Muppet characters and the Muppet film and television library from the Jim Henson Company. The Jim Henson stamp pane was issued in 1995.

USPS Stamp of Approval

Tag Archives: childhood

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Muppets Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame!

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