Head of MHC fired by new Disney CEO!!

[FAZ]

Tangible enough for you?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/business/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001221095

 

[OverUnderAround]

I wonder if Martin G. Baker is one of those that will be gone since I read here on MC that he was hired as a MHC consultant a few months back?

One sentence in the Hollywood Reporter article; "the Muppets would be more formally integrated into the consumer products division..." makes it sound as if Disney's new CEO Bob Iger's main interest is only to market the existing Muppet library of titles.

There is a bit of difference when Jim Hill Media says they were fired and the Hollywood Reporter says they will be laid off in the coming weeks. But still the end result will be the same.

Chris Curtin deserves a round of applause for the good work he's done.

So, would it be fair to speculate what will happen next?​

Will CEO Iger want to control the whole Muppet empire himself?

Will Iger install one of his former buddies from ABC/Capital to head the Muppets?

Will Iger appoint George Mitchell (part of the Disney board) to oversee the Muppets?

Will Roy Disney be inserted to head the Muppets?

Will Kevin Clash try a power move to take the reins to run the Muppets for Disney?

Will Martin G. Baker be offered a key role at running the Muppets?​

Oooooh... the mystery has just begun.



.

 

[minor muppetz]

One sentence in the Hollywood Reporter article; "the Muppets would be more formally integrated into the consumer products division..." makes it sound as if Disney's new CEO Bob Iger's main interest is only to market the existing Muppet library of titles.

I wouldn't complain about Bob Iger wanting to get the existing muppet library of titles released soon. So far Disney hasn't really marketed much existing muppet titles on DVD or television, and the stuff that Disney has made available are stuff that I would have expected to be released. I would like it if Disney would release soem stuff that wouldn't be as expected as a season of The Muppet Show or special editions of the movies. Stuff like The Muppets Go Hollywood, The Muppets At Walt Disney World, or Little Muppet Monsters.

I doubt that a lot of the previously-announced projects are canceled. I'd be surprised if production of Kermits Christmas Capers hasn't been started on yet (it's only a few months before christmas), and I would have thought that production on Americas Next Muppet had started.

It is true, however, that there has been a lot of muppet things that were announced but never made. There are many movies that were announced that haven't been made (although Muppet Haunted House is the only one to consistantly be announced from time to time). Palisades Toys has announced a lot of action figures that weren't sculpted (and some that were sculpted but never released). Whebn EM.TV bought the jim henson company it was reported that there would be a new muppet show, with at least 24 episodes planned, and then a few years later it was announced that Fox was interested in broadcasting a new muppet show (whether this was supposed to be the same as the previously-announced show I don't know). It was once announced that there were plans for Jim Henson Video to release The Storyteller on video in 1996, but episodes of The Storyteller were never released on video untill 1999. According to the muppet central collectables section four Muppet Show videos were planned to be released by Jim Henson Video but only one was released.

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

Tangible enough for you?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/business/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001221095

thanks just watch the way you talk to me

 

[FAZ]

Also, if you believe that this was "planned" as Disney says then i've got some land in New Orleans to sell you.

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

ok i'll take that land

 

[OverUnderAround]

Here's another Chris Curtin story:
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/med...rtainment/A.Sad.Day.For.Muppets-1009321.shtml

It doesn't really add anything new. It almost reads (at least to me) as if this college reporter got his facts from reading MC and Jim Hill Media. I wonder where he got his Eisner/Disney quotes from for the article? Probably old quotes. This 'Daily Texan Online' seems to be an internet newspaper serving "The University of Texas at Austin."

Also at the bottom of his article, he states that Jerry Juhl died of Cancer. I haven't seen any body mention till now what he died of. (Unless I missed it in some other post.) Seems a little tacky how he starts his story on Jerry.

 

[FAZ]

Jerry did pass away from cancer. It was sudden and is a very sad story.

 

[Luke]

It is true, and might i suggest that not everything on his site is B.S., as you so quaintly put it,

True, just everything on Jim Hill's site that is either his opinion, or that is a question that he doesn't have the answer to, or is something going on that he doesn't have any actual news on, or sources for ........ he makes all that stuff up!!! Only decent things on there is stuff coming from other people, like articles or actual factual bits of news he gets from the rare time to time. Jim Hill is a weinerhead of the 1st degree, i do not consider him a professional in the industry or even a professional writer - at least not anymore. The guy burned too many bridges in his time and it's come back on him, he gets bitter and i've seen the way he speaks to people who disagree with him. This is the guy who swore blind that Hilary Duff had signed the contract for Dorothy in MWOZ when the next morning Aliyah was announced.

As for Gelfings comments, it's speculation but IMO perhaps Curtin was considered too "Henson" for Disney. Yeah they needed someone like that for the transition period but now that Igers in and the Muppets do seem to be intergrating with the Disney brand they probably feel it's time for someone who is very much focused into making the Muppets an integral part of Disney rather than running MHC like a Disney owned Jim Henson Company. Although personally i don't see that as a bad thing but I guess Disney might because obviously their interest is the actual Disney "brand", not just the Muppets. I don't see any reason for any of the planned projects to stop and i don't think there were any signs that Disney were that unhappy with what the Muppets have been doing and are planning to do, infact the feedback has been pretty good from what i hear. Things like "Next Muppet" and the Christmas Show will be too far ahead in production for them to just cancel, they'd only ever do something like that if something was majorly drastically wrong because of all the money they'd sunk into them already. They've even sold the Christmas Show internationally now so they'd have all those distribution commitments - that one's pretty much a given for sure. My guess would be the firing would be more about the management of the company itself rather than about the direction of the Muppets.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

This is the news sources I trust for Muppet Info:
MC, TP, and http://muppetnewsflash.blogspot.com/

Jim Hill? He has some inside sources, but 99.9% of the stuff on his sites is editorial only. Kinda like when we post here and follow it up with "IMO." Of course, that statement's "in my opinion"... HA HA HA...

He does have some folks on there, though, who do good reports on things they are experiencing in their lives. At any rate, if you read what is being said on his site (and I normally don't read HIS stuff, but other folks' stuff) you should be able to discern what is fact from editorial or suggestion.