My friend, this is going to be the closest shave you've ever had!

Today, I'm going to try something a little bit different. These commercials were made and aired long before my time, but I want to share them with the world anyway.

Back before the days of The Muppet Show, or even Sesame Street, Jim Henson was a busy man. In 1957, he was asked to produce some commercials for Wilkins Coffee. From 1957 until 1961, he produced close to two hundred commercials. Because of on-air time constraints at the time, each commercial was only eight to ten seconds long.



The two characters you see here are Wilkins and Wontkins. Wilkins, who I can only assume was a prototype for Kermit the Frog, is the guy who loves Wilkins Brand Instant Coffee. Wontkins is the blob-like guy who doesn't. Do the voices sound familiar? They're the same voices used for Kermit and Rowlf!

Henson's use of casual violence was pretty groundbreaking, considering the era when these spots used to air. I've always imagined that television in the 1950's and 60's was pretty vanilla, save for the occasional detective drama after dark. But these two creatures, fighting their coffee-related holy war, shamelessly go at it.

Indeed, the muppets have come a long way since then. It was these Wilkins commercials which really got his career going, and which ultimately landed him his job on Sesame Street. Jim Henson later went on to do work for, among other things, Star Wars, The Muppet Show, Labyrinth, and Dinosaurs. It's really amazing to see how far his muppets have come since 1957.