In
1988, Croonchy Stars became the first
Muppet food product to be licensed in the U.S.
Jim Henson "always liked cereals, and I found the boxes boring. I wanted to do something where the whole thing is lots of fun." He helped with the marketing, incuding performing as
the Swedish Chef in the commericals. I'm not sure if he was the head
and the hands, but he was the voice, which is the good part.
In the commercial, something falls on the Chef's head, and he sees stars, which he beats at with a big wooden spoon, then grabs them out of the air and makes them into cereal. "bork bork bork ooooo the cinamonamonamon!" (http://members.nbci.com/TVBreak/)
Oh, how I loved this cereal. Mostly for the box, which was covered in games and puzzles - and not dumb ones, either. One was a contest to see how many times you could find the word "rutabaga" hidden on the box, and also tell how many times it was spelled correctly. But I think the copy couldn't agree with itself as to proper spelling, or something - and "if we spell it right in the contest rules, then you'll automatically KNOW how to spell it right" - ok, look, it was funny at the time, to me, in 1988.
Though it was decribed as "a cinnamonnamony new cereal with 10 essential vitamins and minerals, no artificial coloring, and no doorknobs," it wasn't really very good. Like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but less so. This is why they made it for about 2 weeks.
Best part: General Foods agreed to many of Henson's creative suggestions, but rejected his original idea for the cereal's name - Støøpid Flakes.
See also;
http://www.muppetcentral.com/collectibles/muppets/food.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/3278/cereal-post.html
Scroomptious!