We lost our position as funny, popular entertainment in the prime-time arena, so I'm trying to get back there. To do that and be innovative, we have to really establish a new voice.

Because of Sesame Street people thought of [Jim Henson] as a children's performer. It was sort of odd for him because he was until then an adult performer.

We didn’t set out to do risqué adult-exclusive content. What we did set out to do is to forget all the rules of the 8 p.m. sensibility, what puppets do that aren't in preschool, and instead let's just do what we as puppeteers think is the funniest thing we can do in the moment.

In terms of the Jim Henson Company, my dad [Jim Henson] first started with adult-minded comedies very early on. He also worked in an era where most of the airwaves were highly censored. But he was always a very naughty, irreverent performer and this show basically captures that same level of naughtiness and irreverence, but in a contemporary setting. Having said all of that, I think it's very important that everybody always knows that this show is for adults only. This is our opportunity to let our hair down and get crazy every now and then, even though generally we are very safe with the material we do.

[We are] also starting to develop more comedy that's a little rough around the edges, kind of like Muppets in the early days but with a modern sensibility.

You can come out and say some pretty outrageous things and it's forgiven because it's a puppet... People are so used to presuming that puppets are for children they get blown away by seeing them placed in adult situations.

"Henson Alternative" is a title that lets our audience know that what they're watching is not intended for our youngest viewers. Most people know the Henson Company for their successful work with The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, but we have a number of shows that are geared towards older audience members.

A lot of people don’t realize that Jim [Henson]'s very very earliest. works were not intended for children, and that's also sort of what we're dealing with in a lot of our subject matter in the productions for Henson Alternative. So in a lot of ways we look at that as a continuation of the work Jim started in the very early parts of his career.

If you look at the original Muppet comedy, the Muppet comedy came from vaudeville, and then vaudeville became television variety shows, and The Muppet Show was borrowing heavily from that tradition of vaudeville and then variety comedy. Presently, what I was trying to do was to look for what’s in contemporary, funny, comedic voice and tone and energy for puppets that wasn’t sort of borrowing from modern sitcoms, which never felt right.

My dad [Jim Henson] was a very, very irreverent guy, and when he started in the late 1950s it was in adult comedy. He had a very naughty streak to him.

I think he [Jim Henson] would have loved it because of how outrageous I get. My Dad really believed in community and sweetness but the other side of him was incredibly naughty. He always said the only reason we did this was those moments where it is like laughing in church. It becomes so infectious you cannot stop laughing.