Sunday, July 26, 2026
Technology

The Cube is Jim Henson’s little-known proto-Black Mirror masterpiece

I'm sure we're all familiar with Dark Crystal, so we know that Jim Henson can be weird and tackle slightly more mature subject matter. But there is little in his oeuvre that is quite as mind-bending as the Muppetless The Cube. This 1969 teleplay was produced for an NBC anthology series called Experi...

The Cube is Jim Henson’s little-known proto-Black Mirror masterpiece
Image: The Verge
That sure is a man in a cube, alright. | Image: NBC / Jim Henson Company

I'm sure we're all familiar with Dark Crystal, so we know that Jim Henson can be weird and tackle slightly more mature subject matter. But there is little in his oeuvre that is quite as mind-bending as the Muppetless The Cube. This 1969 teleplay was produced for an NBC anthology series called Experiment in Television, which featured, appropriately enough, various experimental films, plays, and documentaries. One episode even featured Marshall McLuhan explaining his oft-cited theory that "the medium is the message."

Even among all these oddities, however, Jim Henson's The Cube stands out. It's a 53-minute bottle film - taking place almost e …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Originally published at The Verge

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