Henson of course was the creator of Sesame Street, The Muppets, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and a load of other well-known works, before his unfortunate, early passing. The older I get, however, the more I realise what a wunderkind, famed creator he was *well* before Sesame Street.
Time Piece was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1966, so it certainly got some eyes on it at the time, even if it isn't very well-remembered by posterity. If pressed, I'd say it's a surreal, refreshing exploration of how a curious, creative person experiences time, and vice-versa. Or something like that.
It's only 9min if you feel like giving it a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJhcDhHAH1k
Just in general, I'm relentlessly amazed by how vastly more creative Henson was than I even imagined as a kid, and that was already after falling in love with all his iconic stuff.
(this post dedicated to my man @PugJesus@piefed.social)
If you’re interested in other non-Muppets Henson work, check out the graphic novel Tale of Sand. Henson and his writing partner Jerry Juhl wrote this screenplay in the 50s and 60s, but were never able to produce it because its scope was too large for any budget they could’ve ever gotten at the time. In the mid aughts, the Henson Company hired comic book artist Ramón Pérez to adapt the screenplay into a graphic novel. It’s extremely surreal, but a great read, with great art.
As a matter of fact, I just read that the other day. As a dedicated comics reviewer / sharer, I thought Tale of Sand was above average. Great art agreed, altho panel flow could have been better, and I don't think the reader really needed to see partial glimpses of the back-script. And then, cool story premise, altho the process kind of gave itself away too early for my taste. By comparison, I preferred how the movie "The Game" with Michael Douglas didn't give the process away until the very end. But! I always have quibbles, and it was indeed pretty fun. I also understand that someone did make a movie out of it, I believe after Jim's passing.