HBO

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HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television channel that specializes in showing movies, as well as original films and series. In May of 2020, the company launched the HBO Max streaming service with original and archive content available on-demand.
Among the Henson productions that originally aired on HBO are Fraggle Rock (1983-1987), The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986), and The Ghost of Faffner Hall (1989). Additionally, the Muppets appeared in the 1978 HBO special The Vent Event, and in December of the same year, the special Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (originally aired on the CBC) was rebroadcast on the channel.
In 1983, HBO held a Fraggle Rock Sweepstakes contest. The grand prize was a trip for a family of four to Fraggle Rock at Toronto's CBC Studios or New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a tour of The Muppet Workshop. Other prizes were a Fraggle Fun Pack which included a Fraggle Rock record and poster, and a year's subscription to HBO. A promo was filmed for this contest featuring Doc and Sprocket reading about the contest in a newspaper. Doc encouraged Sprocket to enter the contest so that they can figure out what a Fraggle is. Gobo Fraggle makes a silent appearance at the end as he overhears Doc's conversation. The contest ended on May 31, 1983.
In 1997, HBO aired The StoryTeller, both re-runs and "The Three Ravens," which had not aired in America, and The StoryTeller: Greek Myths, making its belated US debut. In November 2006, two performances of Puppet Up! were filmed as part of HBO and AEG LIVE's "The Comedy Festival" at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
On August 13, 2015, it was announced that Sesame Workshop entered a partnership with HBO to premiere new episodes of Sesame Street on the channel prior to airing on PBS, starting with season 46.Tough Pigs announcement Launching on January 16, 2016, modern and classic episodes were made available on the HBO Kids section of the HBO GO/Now services, and HBO Latino simulcasted the series in Spanish. 
The channel also premiered new Sesame Street specials, including Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas (2016), The Magical Wand Chase (2017), When You Wish Upon a Pickle (2018) and the 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019). Additionally, the Sesame characters appeared in various HBO promos. In October 2019, it was announced that new Sesame Street episodes, specials and spin-offs would instead premiere on HBO Max. Season 50 was the last season to run on the channel,Sesame Workshop: HBO Max and Sesame Workshop Announce New Content Partnership Cementing a Shared Commitment to Kids and Families, October 3, 2019 and the show remained in re-runs until November 2020.
On October 10, 2016, it was announced that Fraggle Rock would be returning to the network starting in December, digitally remastered in high definition.
Over the years, HBO, and its multiple channels, have aired The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Follow That Bird, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets from Space, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.
==References==
* Episode 4215 of Sesame Street features "True Mud", a parody of HBO's original series, True Blood. Oscar the Grouch introduces the sketch, stating the program is shown on the station GrouchBO.
* The Moopets sing a version of "Rainbow Connection" in The Muppets that features new lyrics that shills out for their casino. On the film's soundtrack, one of the new lyrics states that there's HBO in every room.
File:HBO Emmet Otter ad Orlando Sentinel Dec 10 1978.jpg|Newspaper ad for HBO's broadcast of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas in 1978
File:Miss Piggy HBO.jpg|HBO programming guide, December 1980
File:HBO Muppet Movie magazine ad.jpg|Magazine ad using The Muppet Movie to sell the service
File:HBO magazine Jan 1983-1.jpg|HBO programming guide, January 1983
File:HBO magazine Jan 1983-2.jpg
File:Congratulatory_ad.jpg|Ad congratulating HBO on their 20th Anniversary
File:SesameStreet-HBO-Poster.jpg|Teaser poster for Sesame Street's move to HBO
==External links==
*Official site
==Sources==
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Broadcasters
Category:TV References