Gulliver’s Travels: Ted Danson and the Jim Henson Company made an award-winning miniseries

That miniseries was Gulliver’s Travels, a co-production of The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment, which aired on Feb. 4 and 5 on both NBC in America and Channel 4 in England. In addition to the categories it received awards for, critics praised the story for its sheer ambition, in part because, while most adaptations of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satirical novel make significant abbreviations to the story, this version told all four of Gulliver’s adventures. Being a student of classic literature, this was something producer Duncan Kenworthy insisted on when he brought the idea to his boss Jim Henson in the late 1980s and remained committed to until the project was finally realized, six years after Henson’s death.