Speculation: Any News on TMS Season 4's Release?

[LamangoNumber2]

Guys...Guys! Its gonna be Blue Frackle on the season 5 cover.
Anyways, are they gonna release the Jim Henson hour after the Muppet Show, then Muppets Tonight?

 

[Super Scooter]

I know when season one came out, Muppets Tonight was mentioned as a possible DVD release. I think that Jim Henson Hour would be just too difficult to release (and do it justice). The Henson Company likely owns half of it, while Disney owns the other half. It would be nice to see them come to some sort of agreement in releasing it, but from what we've seen with releases like Emmet Otter, it doesn't seem likely.

 

[frogboy4]

The Jim Henson Hour could be released, but this is what Disney would have to do to any avoid legal wrangling:

-Cut Jim Henson's appearance in the introduction.
-Cut the second half as most of that is owned by the Henson Co.
-Remove references in the first half about the second half.
-Possibly remove Jim Henson's name from the title and just name the show Muppet Central (the name of the home base of the first half and this website's namesake).

This all sounds silly, but it's a way to get the Muppet content of the show. Who knows what they'd have to do to the beautiful opening credit sequence or how the music rights in each portion would work. However, we already have most of the content in the second half hour as those were the Storyteller segments. I would like to see the live action Dog City portion released on a set for the animated series.

Both Disney and Henson appear to be distinguishing their brand names from one another. Muppets Tonight is a very likely easy release after the rest of the Muppet Show is out there. The Henson Hour is still just so iffy.

 

[Frogster]

When does Season 4 of TMS come out?

 

[Drtooth]

No one knows, and we're all getting annoyed waiting for them to stop dragging their feet and at LEAST giving us a rough estimate. So far, it's looking to be an over 2 year wait from TMS volume 3. Why the heck they're dragging their feet with this one is beyond me, especially since these are selling pretty well compared with other junk DVD box sets glutting up the market.

If The Muppet Show was a reality show on a cable network that shouldn't even have reality shows, they would have announced the DVD before the show even aired. It's these old shows people actually remembered in 5+ years that are the problem.

 

[zns]

I think we need to get someone like Greg James or Phil Chapman to contact Disney and figure out what is going on and why the release date is taking forever. They obviously have to deal with song copyrights, but it should have to be this difficult for trhem to work out.

 

[Drtooth]

They said they supposedly fixed all the song copyrights, and they got everything cleared by now. Unless that was a miscalculation, and they actually are having that problem, or over looked something, I guess we can't complain. If they're having (and this is PURE speculation and hypothetically speaking on my part) they're having trouble with John Denver's episode due to the imbecile that runs his estate (It was brought up earlier about why they haven't re-released any of those specials on DVD again) It'd be annoying, and as integral a guess he was, I'd rather have them skip that one than never release it at all.

But if all that's settled, they're clearly having one of 2 forseeable problems... 1, they're holding out the release to co-incide with the movie's development... which, frankly could have worked JUST as well with season 5. or Somehow the retailers are saying "Oh... an OLD show? Come on! Don't you have the license for one of Kirsty Alley's vanity shows where she justifies that she's fat because she's got a family and she's old? Wait a little while and we'll see." And chances are that thing'll be on blue ray so we get to see just how old she is in HD before we get this beloved show people actually care about.

Someone contacted them for the last release 2 years ago, and why it was taking a while to get it out. They had some weird issue with bonus features which is why the bonuses on TMS 3 were so thin. But someone HAS to contact them and ask what's the hold up. I mean, we can ONLY be so patient....

 

[hoopless]

I was thinking about this the other day and wondering why nothing more had been said. how long before release do they normally announce things? I only ask because if it's only a month or 2 before release they announce weren't the other 3 series brought out around September/October time? I know it shouldn't make a difference to this one though. Fingers crossed the only hold-up is that they're sorting out some awesome bonus stuff for us.

 

[dwayne1115]

I would also love to hear at least something on this or Studio DC Almost Live on dvd as well.

 

[matleo]

With the exception of Season 3 (which had a May release) the announcements for both Seasons 1&2 came in may for an August release. I'm guessing that's what's going to happen again. I'd give it another month or so. I'm willing to bet an announcement is coming in the next few weeks.

--Matt