Christmas special and Kermit's World Tour canceled

[Lynnette]

The biggest disappointment is the severe budget slash for Kermit's anniversary trip from 50 locations to a mere 3! (source TV Guide)

what tv guide issue

Yeah...what TV guide issue? Anyone know where I could read the info?

-Lynnette

 

[Fozzie Bear]

It was all over the 'net at both MC and TP when the news broke that MHC cut the trip down because they didn't "think fans would notice."

That was kind of insulting!! Apparently, they don't ALL read MC just yet.

 

[Beauregard]

I know! A quick glance here from time to time would see a seething nest of fans ready to bite their toes, throw muffins, or generally give Disney execs a wedgie.

 

[muppetperson]

It's not about them cancelling just the Xmas show. It goes deeper than that - it's about them cancelling more or less everything because the new management see's the Muppet franchise differently, and the style of the people they now have in place. Them now being in charge, what they've done immediately and just the fact the Muppets were put under Disney Consumer Products kinda gives us a few clues as to why Disney have bought the Muppets and what the new management want out of them. Sure new projects are cancelled all the time, but this has a lot more significance.

It's not all doom and gloom - streamlining things and just milking one project and really hyping it may be just whats needed if something like "Next Muppet" is successful but i think it will probably mean the Muppets really have to "work" for Disney straight off - wheras the old management and also Henson seemed much keener to try lots of things. I think Wizard Of Oz kinda raised alarm bells at Disney and it's probably partly why they aren't keen to splash their cash on loads of other Muppet things that might not work either.

Wasnt "Muppets Wizard of Oz" a success, winning the time slot and Disney had plans to do repeat screenings?

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

The tour was poorly advertised and publizaized

 

[Fozzie Bear]

MWoO did win its time slot, although many reviews were bad. The DVD is TONS better!

 

[mummytomb]

I live in hollywood and the saying is: "If you want something to die, put it on friday night."
It won in it's time slot because it was the only thing with a solid fan base. that doesn't mean it did well over -all.
I'm sure it didn't.

 

[Luke]

I live in hollywood and the saying is: "If you want something to die, put it on friday night."
It won in it's time slot because it was the only thing with a solid fan base. that doesn't mean it did well over -all.
I'm sure it didn't.

Yeah exactly, it was a poor project that Disney were commited to before they even bought the Muppets. It had all kinds of casting and scripting problems that made the end result truly awful. Sure some hardcore fans will dig anything "Muppet" but we aren't the only target audience and the general industry consensus was that it was viewed as a very poor quality production compared to other Muppet stuff. Disney knew this, knew that the promotion they had done wasn't going down well (and scaled that back) and i guess expected it to do badly. That would be why they moved it to a slot where nothing much else was on that would have much impact on the ratings or steal potential viewers away from it. That's why as the previous poster said it won its time slot, but i'm sure they would have liked lots more viewers considering the money spent on it and it being the Muppets return project - which obviously they needed to make "look" like a success or it would have been a big PR disaster for them but overall it was a pretty crappy movie and i would say not even in the quality bracket of MFS or VMX. It wasn't the right direction for the Muppets to take - the thought to go back and do a "story" type MTI/MCC thing was ok but they just went way off track with the script and the casting/direction. Way too wacky and non-Muppety for most people - if Diz thought it was that good they would be going ahead with follow up's which they aren't. They seem to be going back to the idea of doing nostalgia stuff - specials, TMS revival and possibly trying the reality thing but they are said to be unsure about that. I think the reason they would do it is because its guaranteed to get publicity being a spoof of the idol shows.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I have MWoO on DVD, and it's really very good. The television version of it STUNK to high heaven, though.

I feel like they could be doing a LOT more good things with the Muppets. I don't think they necessarily need to do another "The Muppet Show," but I did love that the VMX film was using the Theater as a central location for the story.

 

[oznowicz]

Hopefully Disney will revitalize the franchise and not just pillage the library like EMTV tried to do