The Muppets are a group of comedic puppet characters originally created by Jim Henson who have appeared in multiple television series and films since the 1950s. The majority of the characters listed here originated on The Muppet Show, a television series that aired from 1976 to 1981. Since then, several more characters have been introduced in other television series, as well as theatrical films. These characters have been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 2004, when Disney acquired them from The Jim Henson Company, and formed a division called The Muppets Studio to manage the franchise.