The Muppets to be a vital component of its increasing popularity, providing an "effective and pleasurable viewing" method of presentation for the series' educational curriculum. In the early 1970s, the Muppets continued their presence in television, primarily appearing in "The Land of Gorch" segments during the first season of "Saturday Night Live". As his involvement with "Sesame Street" continued, Henson mused about the possibility of creating a network television series featuring the Muppets; as opposed to "Sesame Street", however, this proposed series would be aimed at a more adult audience and focus largely on sketch comedy. Two pilot specials, "The Muppets Valentine
The Muppets Muppets appeared in television and print ads for the campaign and were featured prominently on the campaign's website. Disney has released numerous collector pins featuring the Muppets since 2004. These include Limited Edition pins, Hidden Mickey pin collections, mystery pin sets, 2008 pin sets promoting "The Muppets", cast lanyard pins, and assorted individual rack pins. Over 100 pins displaying the characters have been released overall. Since the late 1970s, numerous Muppet-related comic books have been released over the years. The first comic strips based on the Muppets appeared on September 21, 1981, in over 500 daily newspapers, just months after