Muppet Show Season 4 coming in 2013

[minor muppetz]

Today Tough Pigs posted the second "Ask Tough Pigs" video, and in the video they say they asked The Jim Henson Company and were told that season 4 most likely won't come out until 2010. Of course they said they asked Henson, not Disney, so I don't know if that was a slip of the tongue or if Henson actually knows Disney's plans for the Muppets.

 

[Honbrifcl]

...and were told that season 4 most likely won't come out until 2010.

Well, everyone could make that statement wit 100% accuracy as we are already in 2010! Or did you mean a different year?

I must say that I am losing confidence in it ever getting released and getting the series complete before I have to depart from this world.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, everyone could make that statement wit 100% accuracy as we are already in 2010! Or did you mean a different year?

Oops! I meant they said it most likely won't come out until after 2010.

 

[Drtooth]

That's just freaking perfect! Now we have to wait ANOTHER YEAR? ! This is not only ridiculous, this is putting the sales of this series in jeopardy. A 3 year wait between ANY DVD release is beyond insane and inane. And the worst part is they SPECIFICALLY said that it WOULD be released in 2010. So they're starting to welch on their promises, and that's a dangerously big step in the WRONG direction. And they were doing well so far. The comic books, the slow stream of merchandise. Heck, Muppet Pook-A-Looz sell out while even the Nightmare Before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland ones sit on the shelves.

If they're waiting for the movie, well, I can't and WON"T accept that as an excuse. They HAVE season 5 and all of MT, and they can rerelease any and all Muppet movies in super special editions (like NO other movie that came out in the past 5 years didn't have 10 editions between the first and second movies). if it's a rights issue, TELL us who's holding out. Which greedy shark of an estate manager is withholding who's likeness? Which bloated businessman who buys back song catalogs is sitting on what songs? There is NO other excuse or explaination. I want this out BEFORE the medium goes under.

I'm THIS close to trying to pirate the entire thing in spite. hurry the heck up already or at LEAST give us the decency of telling us why you're holding onto this season so long.

 

[minor muppetz]

They HAVE season 5 and all of MT, and they can rerelease any and all Muppet movies in super special editions (like NO other movie that came out in the past 5 years didn't have 10 editions between the first and second movies).

Of course even if season 4 was released this year and Disney wanted to release season 5 to coincide with the new movie, it's always possible that the wait between seasons 4 and 5 could be as long if not longer than past waiting periods.

 

[Dr. Bombay]

I was wondering about this recently. How sad that it likely won't be this year I just want the entire series now! And my nephew, who just turned four, is probably going to grow out of his Muppet phase at this rate....

 

[Drtooth]

Of course even if season 4 was released this year and Disney wanted to release season 5 to coincide with the new movie, it's always possible that the wait between seasons 4 and 5 could be as long if not longer than past waiting periods.

For me, all I want them to do is release the last 2 seasons as soon as possible and get to MT. If I could at least find season 4 somewhere on Youtube, I wouldn't complain at all.

But a three year wait is NOT the way to go, especially after Disney finally built up our trust after the horrible 2005-2008 period of nothingness. If these were released every year, we would have had the whole series last year. Withholding this season is doing nothing but putting season 5 and any MT releases in jeopardy. Now, i know the market's getting overloaded with junk releases of shows that just came out and don't even see a second season, but Muppet show releases have sold solidly. Even the first edited chopped up season sold while copies of MupOz were pushing each other off the shelves. And we have quite ENOUGH stuff to hype the movie with. We want the prehype stage.

And even though I have faith that Disney IS going to give us this movie, witholding merchandise for a movie is a dangerous tactic. That's why we got the rushed Fraggle Complete series. That's why we DIDN'T get the Fraggle Rock blind box figure assortment. Even though it's slated to come out next Christmas, something can very easily happen in production making it come out later. If it were to come out 2012, we're looking at a 4 year wait for season 4. And that's NO GOOD at ALL!

We're gonna have to start a letter writing campaign to get Disney either to release this season this year, or at LEAST explain why holding onto season 4 indefinitely is part of their plan.

 

[MelissaY1]

It's unfortunate it may not come out this year, but on the other hand, they may legally not be able to explain WHY there is the hold up. It could be a number of reasons. Things just don't happen overnight unfortunately. I work in the DVD industry myself, and projects I worked on for clients about 3, 4 years ago are JUST coming out now. Likewise I'm already doing work for projects that aren't even out yet.

I'm not too upset because I have yet to finish watching Season 3. I've also been collecting Family Ties on DVD, Season 5 the most "recent" one they put out was 2008. Um, that was quite some time ago already. The Osbournes, Miramax never bothered to put out seasons 3 and 4 and stopped after 2. Why? Who knows....but I'll take what I can get. I will only be upset if Henson/Disney just stops producing the Muppet Show discs in the middle of the series. I hate having half a collection of a T.V. series.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm not too upset because I have yet to finish watching Season 3. I've also been collecting Family Ties on DVD, Season 5 the most "recent" one they put out was 2008. Um, that was quite some time ago already. The Osbournes, Miramax never bothered to put out seasons 3 and 4 and stopped after 2. Why? Who knows....but I'll take what I can get. I will only be upset if Henson/Disney just stops producing the Muppet Show discs in the middle of the series. I hate having half a collection of a T.V. series.

That's what I'm afraid of. The fact that season 4 is being constantly delayed (and if it's for the movie, I'll really scream) puts season 5 and any prospects of MT in trouble. I'd be really steamed if TMS got the same treatment as the Disney Afternoon lineup, unfinished with no plans ever to carry them out. Some with only a few episodes to go. Not to mention the fact that they announced it almost YEAR ago that it would be coming out this year sometime. I'm sorry, but that gives them MORE than enough time to figure out how they want to release things, unless they were outright lying about getting all the music and celebrity rights together.

This is why I'm sick of DVD's. Firstly, the medium has a good 2 years tops before everything goes completely blu-ray or more likely completely online. Secondly, I've had it with shoddy treatments of "at least it's something" releases. The dreaded Cartoon Catchphrase collection to try to appease fans, only to annoy them with overpriced 10 episode collections instead of a season. The horrid, "Let's stop releasing full sets that people actually buy and release 5 episode 1999 type DVD's at 3 dollars less than a full 13-26 episodes." and my favorite, "The fact that it's on DVD is special feature ENOUGH!" something cheapy cheapskate companies are doing more and more. YEt.... we have hours of bonus features of shows that barely last a full season that were announced as season sets before the show premired... which is roughly 2 weeks before they cancel it (Accidentally on Purpose. They'll sell 5)

 

[MelissaY1]

That's what I'm afraid of. The fact that season 4 is being constantly delayed (and if it's for the movie, I'll really scream) puts season 5 and any prospects of MT in trouble. I'd be really steamed if TMS got the same treatment as the Disney Afternoon lineup, unfinished with no plans ever to carry them out. Some with only a few episodes to go. Not to mention the fact that they announced it almost YEAR ago that it would be coming out this year sometime. I'm sorry, but that gives them MORE than enough time to figure out how they want to release things, unless they were outright lying about getting all the music and celebrity rights together.

This is why I'm sick of DVD's. Firstly, the medium has a good 2 years tops before everything goes completely blu-ray or more likely completely online. Secondly, I've had it with shoddy treatments of "at least it's something" releases. The dreaded Cartoon Catchphrase collection to try to appease fans, only to annoy them with overpriced 10 episode collections instead of a season. The horrid, "Let's stop releasing full sets that people actually buy and release 5 episode 1999 type DVD's at 3 dollars less than a full 13-26 episodes." and my favorite, "The fact that it's on DVD is special feature ENOUGH!" something cheapy cheapskate companies are doing more and more. YEt.... we have hours of bonus features of shows that barely last a full season that were announced as season sets before the show premired... which is roughly 2 weeks before they cancel it (Accidentally on Purpose. They'll sell 5)

I understand some of what you're saying, Dr. Tooth. You're right, many of the studios are just going to start doing the online thing. Amazon already has a deal with Sony and Universal where they're putting movies on their site for downloads OR are producing movies on demand and printing DVDs as they are ordered of more rare titles. Warner Bros. is doing this very successfully with their Warner Archives Collection.

The other side though is that people will buy anything. I don't get why certain crappy T.V. shows are out on DVD while like you said other more famous series have either never been finished being released in season sets, or just have these dreaded "best of" or "fan favorite" collections out there. But the sad truth is people will buy it. I guess I'm as much to blame for that too: in my other post I said I've been buying Family Ties on DVD...they are the syndicated versions with some cuts to them. Some of the episodes I haven't seen in years or never at all, so I didn't notice the cuts. But in this case, it was one of my favorite shows of all time so I'll "take what I can get" (shrug)