1960 Muppets are first introduced on talk shows, and then muscle in on the "business" of Sesame Street. Soon, the Street looks cleaner... but strangely, there are more "accidental" deaths of business vendors (like Mr. Hooper) who refuse to pay protection monies.

1976 The Muppet Show takes the airwaves, as this highly popular TV series makes great watercooler discussion the day after. Famous episodes include "Who shot Dr. Teeth?", "The One Where Kermit Says Miss Piggy's Name Accidentally At The Altar", and the final episode of M*A*S*H (redone with muppets instead of live actors).

1979 The Muppet Movie. Kermit raises a brutal gang of misfits to aquire the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question: Why are there so many songs about rainbows? Audiences were shocked to see so much torture and gore (including the infamous "Miss Piggy Explosion" sequence), but ate it up and came back for more.

1981 The Great Muppet Caper. Framed for election fraud, the gang rises to Fozzy's defense and travel to merry ol' England to investigate. A gripping climax ensues at Parliment, including a lobotomized Scooter, several tons of TNT, and a zombie chicken.

1982 The Dark Crystal shows the underbelly of muppet organized crime. Who controls the crystal controls the town, and some muppets will stop at nothing -- including drive-by shootings, garroting, and decapitated felt horse heads in beds -- to seize the power.

1983 Fraggle Rock takes a unique view into the lives of parasitic muppets, gnawing away at the structure of both a house and the very fabric of space and time itself. This show became most famous for its epileptic-inducing "Blinking Boogies".

1984 The Muppets Take Manhattan. Who knew that Gonzo was such a stock wiz? Take an exhilerating ride through the ups and downs of Muppet options and securities, including an unforgettable IRS audit!

Muppet Babies becomes a popular animated series, but raises far more questions then it ever answers, such as: Does Nanny have a body above her legs? Are the muppets the product of genetic testing? Did all of the muppet parents get killed by the plague?

1986 Labyrinth experiments with creating a full muppet clone of a human being -- in this case, David Bowie. Adults leaving the theaters remarked, "A fascinating study into the psyche of glam rock," while small children shrieked non-stop for five days.

1991 Muppet*vision 3-D is unleashed at the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, utilizing animatronics and motion picture effects to fully convey what it must be like to be a muppet and have someone's hand burrowing up your back.

1992 The Muppet Christmas Carol. "Ho! Ho! Ho!" are the only words that Rowlf, a glue-sniffing addict, mutters as this depressing Noel tale gets underway. Find out how homeless Muppets celebrate Christmas (hint: more frog legs, anyone?) in this retelling of a Charles Dickens horror story.

1996 Muppet Treasure Island. The "Die Hard" of the Muppet series, Muppet Treasure Island firmly re-establishes the gang with their tough, take-no-prisoners attitude toward terrorists who seek to plunder their 40-story tropical island. Rizzo the Rat's 4-letter vocabulary made this the first R-rated Muppet flick -- but not the last!

1999 Muppets From Space. The Clock Is Counting Down... To Oinking Hour. Or so the tagline says. Shunned for her shrill portrayal of female characteristics, Miss Piggy becomes an outcast from the muppet gang. Never one to take rejection well, she phones home to a massive fleet of interstellar warships -- manned by mysterious figures with snouty noses. This film made movie history as the only movie to feature the earth blowing up four times over two hours (later revealed as a continuity error).