TMS Seasons 4 and 5 Petition

[Muppet fan 123]

Well, I talked to the Marketing Director Europe from Disney (who used to be in my school) who is also responsible for DVD releases and he told me that for Europe no release for the next seasons of the Muppet Show have been planned for Europe. The only hope is that Disney is rather centralized, as he told me, and he is not sure what the plans for US are. They act independently. My impression is that they are currently NOT working on it, so there is not a hold up for rights, just nobody is working on it! I found the shows for Season 4 and 5 on the internet and downloaded them (which is legal in the Netherlands). It is not the best quality but watchable, and I am not going to hold my breath for Disney to actually deliver them...

Wait...what? The seasons are to be released in Europe before the U.S.? And there are no copyright issues?
I don't know whether to believe this or not, but if that's true...DISNEY!! YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Wait...what? The seasons are to be released in Europe before the U.S.? And there are no copyright issues?
I don't know whether to believe this or not, but if that's true...DISNEY!! YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY

I thought the post said there are no plans in Europe as well.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Oh, just an honest misreading.

As you were, folks..

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

Disney, if you are reading this:

WE WANT THIS SOON! You don't know how many people would buy this! What are you gaining if you wait? Certainly not money. Please release this! I can assure you 1,000s of people would buy this!!! Ok, done yelling now.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

I can yell louder.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, I talked to the Marketing Director Europe from Disney (who used to be in my school) who is also responsible for DVD releases and he told me that for Europe no release for the next seasons of the Muppet Show have been planned for Europe. The only hope is that Disney is rather centralized, as he told me, and he is not sure what the plans for US are. They act independently. My impression is that they are currently NOT working on it, so there is not a hold up for rights, just nobody is working on it! I found the shows for Season 4 and 5 on the internet and downloaded them (which is legal in the Netherlands). It is not the best quality but watchable, and I am not going to hold my breath for Disney to actually deliver them...

That's a huge black mark. Disney needs to get these out. To just abandon the box sets, especially since the movie did well enough, is absolute bullcrap. perfectly in character to a company that hates box sets, but still bull crap. The first 3 seasons are still selling quite well. There's no rights hiccup, the sets sell, the characters are back and we're having another movie... they have no excuses.

 

[Hubert]

I wonder if Disney could be thinking about getting season four out to go along with the next movie...it could be the reason for the wait, that they would like to get it out now, but feel it makes sense to wait?

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Disney, if you are reading this:

WE WANT THIS SOON! You don't know how many people would buy this! What are you gaining if you wait? Certainly not money. Please release this! I can assure you 1,000s of people would buy this!!! Ok, done yelling now.

Oh yes! I'm sure that will definitely get Disney's attention now.

 

[Convincing John]

.






And thanks again for the M.U.S.C.L.E.S.

Oh no problem If I find more, I'll definitely give 'em to you.

 

[Convincing John]

But it has to be celebrity estate or musical rights if that's the hold up. The John Denver estate is sitting on the Muppet specials (he/his estate owns the rights), and I hear that music Michael Jackson partially owned had to be renegotiated in a couple instances of something else, though I'd hate for this to be the case here.

John Denver's estate...man, how ironic is that? Denver loved working with Jim and the Muppets! This scene with him and Piggy? Priceless!!! Denver was literally cracking up and they kept the take anyway.

If he were still around, I'd bet money we'd have seen him return to be in future Muppet productions.

Haven't heard about the Michael Jackson estate issue, but it kind of makes sense. They did use quite a few Beatles songs in the later seasons...the Beatles catalog issue is a little tricky. Paul (maybe Ringo) might have some say in it now that MJ is gone, but then again, we don't know. Again, more red tape. Maybe Disney read about the "Letter B" incident on Sesame Street from way back and wants to avoid that kind of situation. It might be different since that was a parody vs. the Muppets singing the songs outright.

I wonder if they really have to go through each episode, play it for whoever and say "Is this an OK rendition of your song?" For instance, those bugs in the Dudley Moore episode sing 'She Loves You'. They'd have to ask Paul, Ringo, people at John's and George's estates, the people at MJ's estate and maybe Yoko. Then they gotta do it all again with all the other songs.

Blerrrgh. What a mess.

I kind of wonder why The Muppets at Walt Disney World has never seen a DVD release. Yeah, it's an older special, but we'd buy it. I could see it as a park exclusive even, like how Don't Eat the Pictures is available at MOMA.