Speculation: CW interested in Muppets?

[Drtooth]

Are you kidding right now? Its actually in quite good condition, and besides, don't tv-channels often air old movies and the like (Its a Wonderful Life, for example!) For me, you simply cannot beat the pure JOY of the opening number from that movie.

But I think airing it would be too confusing with all the different properties involved.

That's because those things have always been in circulation and constantly have little facelifts done for them from time to time. Watch Frosty the Snowman sometime. You can't NOT see the redubbed version that robs us of every instance of June Foray's voice. Those are all old stand bys that have been aired every year since their debut. If they stopped airing those old stand by specials, someone's going to complain, even though they're easily available on DVD. While we have a digital version of the EDITED MFS (who knows if the cut sequences have been kept in the same format), something tells me they need to get an even higher-def version too make it look shiny and new. Heck, I hadn't seen any out of the blue old Christmas Specials pop up on regular television since UPN aired The Fat Albert Christmas Special last decade. Then NBC aired it once the following year. They mercilessly stick to stand by stuff, and I haven't seen a Garfield special on TV in years. So, Muppets or not, why something from 20+ years ago that hasn't been in TV since JHC lost their stake in Odyssey?

But I'd rather Disney try and release it on DVD themselves, and find a way to renew negotiations to get those songs that were missing so we can have an uncut version. Much better than a TV version that would be mercilessly edited.

In the case of It's a Wonderful Life, only reason they even reran that on every channel was because it was public domain for years, and TV stations needed filler. NBC owns the broadcast rights now.

Also... a movie doesn't really count, as they tend to rerelease those in every format, each in higher def than the one before it.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

For me unless it's a new special or MFC I won't be tuning in at all. As I never cared much for the other ones. And I can spare myself the commercials and watch them on DVD. Well except for MCC as I don't own it.

 

[Mo Frackle]

To me, the unlikelihood of MFC on TV anytime soon would have to do with clearing rights rather than the special's age. Personally, I do think that this special is still timeless, no matter how few times it was shown on TV. But there's the fact that Disney owns the Muppet Show characters, while the Sesame characters are own by Sesame Workshop and the Fraggles by the Henson Company. Some sort of agreement would have to be made in order to at least see the already edited version on TV again. Disney could probably clear up the music rights (hey, if they were able to do it with almost every season 2 and 3 episode of TMS and most of season 1, then a few songs on a special can't be that hard).

 

[Pinkflower7783]

What if the president of CW is just pulling our strings on the whole thing?

 

[Muppetboy09]

Yeah, maybe we're the puppets now!

*Everyone Booing*

 

[Drtooth]

To me, the unlikelihood of MFC on TV anytime soon would have to do with clearing rights rather than the special's age. Personally, I do think that this special is still timeless, no matter how few times it was shown on TV. But there's the fact that Disney owns the Muppet Show characters, while the Sesame characters are own by Sesame Workshop and the Fraggles by the Henson Company. Some sort of agreement would have to be made in order to at least see the already edited version on TV again. Disney could probably clear up the music rights (hey, if they were able to do it with almost every season 2 and 3 episode of TMS and most of season 1, then a few songs on a special can't be that hard).

Supposedly, Disney owns the rights lock, stock, and barrel to the special, and supposedly wouldn't need JHC or SW's permission... but I'm sure they'd have to deal with them somehow so as not to sour any relationships. I don't fully buy that, someone said it a while back (I forget who), and I'm sure they'd need JHC and SW to sign off on a few things. Plus, do we want to see this special with the huge amount of edits from the VHS and DVD versions with the plausible addition of other edits to make room for more commercials (thanks, jerks with Tivo!)?

Either rerunning an NBC reference free edit of VMX or MCC would seem the only thing that they could air (unless they go Sesame) unless they get a new one made.

 

[Mo Frackle]

And they could re-air LTS.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Well my chances of tuning into CW are looking slim each time. Lol!

 

[Drtooth]

And they could re-air LTS.

But technically, that's not "more." They probably would reair that anyway.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

I think the whole network is bluffing.