Disney Set to Bid for Muppet Parent Henson--Sources

[murgatoad]

Originally posted by frogboy4
Is there anything you do like?

Since you ask, I liked much of the Muppet show, "The Muppet Movie", "The Great Muppet Caper", and "Muppet Family Christmas". Didn't care for "Muppet Christmas Carol", didn't go to see "Muppet Treasure Island", OR "Muppets From Space", and positively loathed "Muppets Tonight". As a kid I collected Muppet stuff and have a complete Muppet babies figure set from McDonalds, a Miss Piggy puppet circa 1979 (bought from a garage sale), a vintage Kermit doll circa 1979, the Miss Piggy Kermitage calendar, "The Muppet Movie" picture book, "The Art of the Muppets" book, and some other odds and ends. All this stuff is packed away in boxes, BTW, and who knows if they'll ever see the light of day again?

 

[Zack the Dog]

about the "bloated" staff at Henson. It's actually, as many of us know, down to the bare bones. Disney could be saying that many of the staffers are inefficient, unproductive, and *stupid* (with which opinion I heartily agree) and could be planning to fire them if it buys the company. Trouble is, how much of a staff would be left?

Bare bones? Bloated? Those two words don't even go together! Bloated mean's stuffed, full, fat, overloaded to capsity and then some...and then some more!!!

As you can tell, I'm just kidding around and am being Zack

Zack)Rowlf the, cause that's what Zachary's do best!Dog.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

there seems to be several good and bad signs for people if disney purchases the muppets.
a. people want disney to buy the muppets and hope that disney will help the muppets get back to where they were 15 or so years ago.
b. people like the idea of disney purchasing the muppets but don't want the muppets to go bad in the hands of disney.
c. people don't like the idea of disney purchasing the muppets and hope someone else will step in and buy them.
this whole debate about disney purchasing the muppets and the pros and cons of this deal have been going on for how many months or years now?.....
but i would fit in the part b area feeling as if muppets would benefit from the disney but don't want the muppets to change into something that disney molds into after they purchase them.

but who knows, maybe if disney purchases them they may turn to the henson people and say you guys know what you're doing, so we'll leave alone and you can notify us if you want to do something tv or movie wise with the muppets or we'll come to you with an idea or two.
ryan

 

[murgatoad]

but who knows, maybe if disney purchases them they may turn to the henson people and say you guys know what you're doing, so we'll leave alone and you can notify us if you want to do something tv or movie wise with the muppets or we'll come to you with an idea or two.
ryan [/B]

If Henson knew what it was doing, it wouldn't have to sell.

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by ryhoyarbie
but who knows, maybe if disney purchases them they may turn to the henson people and say you guys know what you're doing, so we'll leave alone and you can notify us if you want to do something tv or movie wise with the muppets or we'll come to you with an idea or two.

That'll be the day i become 'King Of The Penguins' and dance around the streets naked wearing a tiara.

Here's how i reckon it'll go IF Disney purchased Henson. They'd start off by issuing a press statement all nicey nicey saying that things won't change much and now two great forces in entertainment are combined blah blah. Things would start to carry on as normal with the shows and things (maybe not Fox, but maybe NBC and other commisions). They'd continue the streamlining that EMTV have been doing at JHC but at a slower pace and you'd gradually start to see the licenses going to 'Disney friendly' companies and the shows starting to turn up on Disney or 'Disney friendly' channels. Henson will use Disney facilities a lot more and the lease on the Chaplin studios won't be renewed, they'll likely just have management offices in NY and use Disney for all the other stuff. Although i'm sure there'll be plenty of merchandise visible and old shows being re-run on TV i'd guess after a while they'd enhance their visibility in the theme parks but i'd also think any new things 'Muppet' wise will be co-ordinated with Disney and be a lot fewer, further apart and in line with what Disney what the Muppet brand to be, almost certainly dropping the new 'edgy' angle and going back to targetting family audiences than nostalgic ones.

In other words, like a lot of the other properties Disney own they'll just end up dragging the Muppets out now and again for a movie, show or direct to video - complete with all the razmatazz (promotion, happy meals etc) but then putting them back in the closet for a year or so. I would think most of what Henson would be doing in the time between would be focusing heavily on producing pre-school kids shows similar to 'Hoobs', 'Bear' and 'Moppatop' but for wider distribution - they'd probably end up making a lot of shows for the Disney channel and some family orientated TV movies and films. So all in all, it'd be good for us as fans some of the time but a lot less of the time.

 

[beaker]

Originally posted by Luke
That'll be the day i become 'King Of The Penguins' and dance around the streets naked wearing a tiara.

Hey Luke! Reading your possible scenario ideas if a buyout went down was like reading about what would go down if the US invaded IRAQ on msnbc.com...both look to be happening
early next year. Only instead of trying to topple a mad dictator an dliberate a people, its about the survival and future of our heritage and lineage from a screwed up foreign company, and about liberating our beloved guys from said company.

The war is definately coming on all fronts...