EM.TV to Sell Muppets to Jim Henson's Children for $89 Million

[BlueFrackle]

Guys,

I would bet lots of money that there is still Sprocket, Matt and Gobo Puppets around and useable.

Those three were made for the US, UK, France and Germany.
I should think two Puppets were built for each, Maybe more !


I think they could rebuild the other Four Fraggles and have all Six Fraggles and maybe even Sprocket and Doc make some new footage for DVD's.

Its crazy, The main Seven people of the cast are all still alive.
They will probably wait another 20 years and then decide to do it, When all those people wont be around.

GRrrroar!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I'm just surprised there's no new Fraggle Rock movie. They could do a whole new story and film about something that "happened" during the series which we never knew about, or follow up to what's gone on after the series ended.

 

[plucky]

>It would conflict with the Columbia Tristar/Time Life deal.

Yes, that is true, and very unfortunate. Is there any possibility of releasing the complete series THROUGH Columbia Tristar/Time Life? This would at least remove the conflict of interest in having a 3rd party.

With Fraggle Rock, hopefully they will leave the door open for such possibilities whenever they go and make a "best of" deal.


>Unfortunately complete seasons of TMS and Fraggle are very specialist (not many people gonna drop down $300)

Yes, but not many people would probably drop $300 for the Complete Monty Pythons Flying Circus, and thats out there. Look at the amazing number of Anime box sets available. Even selling "By Season" would be a good idea. This is something that has been done for many other shows now (Buffy, Simpsons, Star Trek: TNG just to name 3 that I'm aware of). I don't know how well these have done sales wise, but the fact that stores are populated by many of these shows there must be SOME interest.

Another idea might be a limited release of boxed sets. I can think of a couple off the top of my head, "Lain" comes to mind first. It was a short series, but the concept could go over to a longer series like TMS as well. Do a short run release of the boxed set, just to see how well it sells. If it actually sells out quickly, then that justifies being followed up with a longer production run. If it doesn't sell out quickly, then nix the idea, and those people who really wanted it (like me ) at least have a chance to own it.

>and it's hard for them to find a distributor (although good work has been done in France)

OK, I won't pretend to know anything about this side of things

>As for Storyteller - it's out on DVD in the UK. Just get multi-region your DVD player and order it from there.

ARGH! I have a multi-region DVD player, and my girlfriend was just in London a month ago! DOH!




Are any of these questions worth posing to THC just now, or are they things that should wait until "the deal" is finalized? I know most usually don't get an answer back (worry, we can't answer that question at this time), but it's always good to put that bug in their ear early!

plucky

 

[beaker]

Anybody else find it laughable there is only 2/3 episodes per dvd? C'mon, anyone who knows dvd specs knows they can fit a lot more than that on there, heh. Just look at the complete Simpsons/Futurama season 1 boxsets...aint no spacin out the episodes on like 20 dvds there.

Also unrelated to JHC themselves, is the age old question of when Sesame Workshop is going to start making colletibles for the crowds older than 18 months...since noone in the US knows any ways or means of importing those nifty Japeanese Sesame collectibles from Japan, I guess we'll have to wait for the 50th Sesame annv.

 

[Zack the Dog]

Yes I agree Warrick,if they would like to do a new Fraggle thing it should be as soon as they can, nobody is getting any younger.

I know it's got to cost a lot of money to remake some Fraggle puppets, but i don't see why they couldn't? Rather then wasting money on potato face nameless Muppets or pirates only used once bring back these loved Muppet characters instead. Such as if they make a new show, I don't want to see potato faced Muppets in the background, use Mildred instead!

I know they always want to put the Muppets in a new direction everytime they do a new Muppet show but they should not drop everything and make it all new, we already have newer charcters that still need introduction to the public more Pepe (though he's going very far now Jonny, Sal, Phil Bobo, even Cifford still needs to be introduced more if they are still going to use him? So we don't need a whole new slue of Muppet's for the show, sure a few new ones or one time walk on characters maybe one or two new Muppet faces to join the family but keep the Rowlf's Fozzie's and Robin's please!


Zack)Rowlf the, Skeeter for an adult muppet!Dog.

 

[Luke]

They wouldn't remake the Fraggle puppets just for Muppetfest or DVD footage. It just wouldn't bring in enough money for them to do it. It'd have to be a new show or something like that. I think the best we can hope for in the current situation is if they restore Gobo, Matt and Sprocket if they had any of those in a near to useable condition. Fraggle was quite an expensive show to make in todays terms so i think if they were to remake or relaunch it it'd have to be a major deal - but it would be good, after all it's the same kinda educational thing as Hoobs and could be produced in the same way. I don't think you'd be likely to get all the same old people and voices working on it though which might spoil the original show.

I really think if you were to campaign for something 'Fraggle' for Muppetfest you'd be better off asking for a brief appearance from whatever puppets they do have, a script reading or something, and then a Q&A. That wouldn't really cost them anything besides getting the people there.

 

[BlueFrackle]

Luke,

I think they could just rebuild the Fraggles, When the Workshop people have nothing to do they just rebuild old Puppets.

Or just make new ones, They rebuilt LOTS for Mopatop's Shop.

And ill say it again, There were Muppets in Mopatop's Shop from The Muppet Show which hadnt been rebuilt, So i do not believe that all the main Fraggles have gone to dust.

I refuse to believe it.

I also refuse to believe it costs something like 5,000 to make on Fraggle.



To that i say, Gorgs butter!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Wonder where Terry Angus is during this conversation? He could give us insight on Fraggle building etc.

 

[Luke]

Re: Luke,

Originally posted by Warrick
And ill say it again, There were Muppets in Mopatop's Shop from The Muppet Show which hadnt been rebuilt, So i do not believe that all the main Fraggles have gone to dust.

I refuse to believe it.

I also refuse to believe it costs something like 5,000 to make on Fraggle.!

Most of the puppets rebuilt for Moppatops were very basic ones weren't they ? However yes, you got me on that. I'm just going by what Terry said, he was at the reunion and saw the actual puppets himself in very bad condition, and knew what the cost was to rebuild. I guess some mishap happened with the Fraggles over time - maybe they didn't get put away in the right kind of storage or something ?

As for the costs for Fraggles, i too am puzzled by the high cost - they didn't have any animatronics in did they ? I could understand Gorgs being Mega expensive because of all the complex stuff - i bet the animatronics just got ripped out of those suits but they might have saved the rest if they could.

We really need Karen or Terry to comment on this who have actually seen and know about this stuff.

 

[JamieDenny]

I know I'm v late on this one but I've had net probs so please bear with me.
Firstly congratulations to the Henson kids, secondly if any of them are reading this, I apologise if anything I said may have offended you, it was mereley my frustration at the way the Muppest were being treated at the time.
Eisner, to quote Lukes favourite singing artist "Oops You Did It Again"
I guess you're going to have to live with "ghosts" for a while, tough luck, you had the passion to want to close the deal but not to understand the Muppets.
More to follow
Jamie