HA! name change

[OverUnderAround]

The Jim Henson Company use to be called HA! It stood for Henson Associates.

Jim also had other names copyrighted for his company. There were a bunch!
Some where:

HI! Henson International
HE! Henson Enterprises

...and more.

Anyway during the growth of cable TV, two rival comedy channels appeared. One was called "HA!" and the other "The Comedy Channel."

The "HA!" comedy channel apparently didn't have the legal right to use "HA!"
They entered into negociations with the Henson's. The result was that the "HA!" cable channel brought the rights to the name "HA!" and then the Henson's changed their company name from HA! to "The Jim Henson Company."

Not even a year after the "HA!" cable channel purchased the name rights from the Hensons. "HA!" merged with it's rival "The Comedy Channel" to become the cable channel known as "Comedy Central."

If anyone wants to add or amend anything to this, feel free.
That's how I remember the name change at the time.

 

[minor muppetz]

I know that the muppet morsels mention the various company names and intials in one episode on the first season DVD set (for The Muppet Show), but I can't remember which episode it was that had this morsel mentioend.

The "discussion" page in The Jim Henson Company section at the Muppet Wiki site has had some discussion about the name changes.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

They mentioned this in Jim Henson: The Works at the beginning of one of the chapters.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I think a full history of these abbreviated titles were either in Jim Henson the Works book, or on the www.henson.com website? I saw a breif, but full, history on this subject somewhere once. Interesting stuff.