Theories why Bear came to an end

[HeyButtahfly]

Thank you, NMac! I also miss Bear and when I remember the gentle and playful spirit about him, I smile.

 

[muppetperson]

Maybe Disney doesnt know what to do with Bear as he doesnt fit in with their "usual" style of films entertainment.It is a pre school learning show that Disney doesnt have much to do with.I think they should merge Bear into the Muppet troupe.

 

[dwmckim]

Something's very fishy about the whole thing. Disney has been so supportive of the Muppets and yet they've totally forgotten about and dropped Bear like a hot potato.

Bear was a huge hit for Disney and was a much needed jolt to childrens television in general providing that increasingly rare animal - a heartfelt show that effectively taught, entertained, and totally captivated kids and was also embraced by adults/parents with incredible characters, writing, and songs.

Breakfast with Bear seemed like a generic placeholder. Something to keep the brand active until "what came next". Not that it wasn't without its moments but it was largely a way to keep Bear visible. Not that that's a bad thing at all - that's certainly FAR more preferable than the nothingness of the last few years.

Maybe Bear got lost in the shuffle amid the three management changes within the Muppet department of Disney. By the time they got their current leadership, perhaps the fact they still had Bear somewhere within their properties got totally lost.

Yet wasn't there announecements that there would be quite a bit of stuff coming up with BITBBH's 10th anniversary? Maybe there was nothing official and it was all fan/fansite speculation but i could swear there was official announcements/press releases to that effect.

No airings of Bear but also the complete disappearance of dvds/cds? Unacceptable. This is not a show that should be so actively forgotten about or let go. It's solely been the word of mouth and actions of former Bear fans passing the show on to their kids, relatives, and friends that keep it alive and that's just wrong.

As a sidenote, there are lots of Whoopi haters out there so any rumors about her (voice only) guest appearance had anything to do with her are just those wackos imposing their agenda into something totally bizarre. Whoopi's numerous appearances with the Muppets and Sesame Street sure hasn't hurt them any, have they?

The only reason i can see for Bear not continuing would be the sad loss of the actress who provided Luna's voice. But that's by no means insurmountable and in face Disney WAS able to go on with the show in regards to recasting her for live shows.

Bear is desperately missed and needed. It filled a huge niche in childrens television which has only left all that much more bigger a hole since its departure. The show's been off the air for enough years to where all Disney would have to do is air the reruns/rerelease the dvds to a whole new group of kids and their appreciative fans. Given Disney Channel's early morning children programming, it wouldn't be out of place or not fit in. 2011 may be the Year of the Muppets but i think we fans should band together to make sure that what seems more like the "red-headed stepchild" doesn't get forgotten and ignored but rather revived.

 

[Drtooth]

There are just so many things you listed that actually answered themselves.

Bear was a much needed jolt, sure... but now people don't want jolt, they want (or are told to want) this anal retentive, highstrung stuff that treats the kids like they're all very slow and unintelligent, having characters wait around to answer their own questions while talking very slowly. I truly believe that Blue's Clues was one of the horsemen of the children's TV Apocalypse, and everyone who was everyone one was copying that format. EVEN Sesame Street (Journey to Ernie).

Disney's preschool line up consists of multiple shows EXACTLY like that. I'd hate to see them do a CGI Bear where he asks viewers where the red triangle is (right behind him) for 20 seconds when an artificial audience voice over shouts the answer, then congratulating the real audience for not doing anything. I've said it a million times, TV (at least as we know it in ways we know) is NOT an interactive medium. Shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, and even Bear treated the audience as just that. They'd talk to them and encourage them to participate in on screen activities, but only like they're friendly TV personalities talking directly to their audience.

As for DVD's... let's put it this way.

Disney is HORRIBLE at releasing things on DVD. Sure, when it comes to movies, they can do no wrong, but when it comes to TV shows, they have no bloody idea what they're doing at all ever ever in the history of ever. We've been lucky thus far with the Muppet Show releases (some rights hiccup is definitely at fault with the lateness of S4, so you can't even say they don't wanna do it), but they feel like they have to sell the same amount of TV DVD's as their movies. We have incomplete Disney Afternoon releases. That was the best they could do. Even with their high rated Phineas and Ferb, they can't release the show unless they cobble it into "movies." Seriously, compete season sets won't KILL you!

Think of it this way. You'd think that as Popular as Winnie the Pooh is, we would have seen better New Adventures of Winne the Pooh releases. We got like 2 3 episode singles and that was it.

Now, I'm not expecting complete series sets of Bear with a milliondy trillion special features... a series of single disk releases, even subcontracted, may just get interest in the property again. Or reruns, but as they're set in their ways with preschool programming (which is like preprepreschool now), it's not such an easy task.

I'm not saying we need new episodes (though that would be great) but just releasing what you have will go far enough.

 

[beaker]

Bear is desperately missed and needed. It filled a huge niche in childrens television which has only left all that much more bigger a hole since its departure. The show's been off the air for enough years to where all Disney would have to do is air the reruns/rerelease the dvds to a whole new group of kids and their appreciative fans. Given Disney Channel's early morning children programming, it wouldn't be out of place or not fit in. 2011 may be the Year of the Muppets but i think we fans should band together to make sure that what seems more like the "red-headed stepchild" doesn't get forgotten and ignored but rather revived.

I couldn't have said it better! Disney owns all the rights now, heck it was a Disney/JHC venture to begin with, and had always had Disney Channel television rights....such is why their refusal to air it on any of their channels makes no sense.

I think some sort of internal politics or *something* we're not privy too is the reason. Barney is still on the air, and I would never ever let my kid watch that insult of a show.
I'm grateful I at least have some of the dvds.

I agree...I think Muppet fans should petition Disney for two things: 1) Bring back Bear and 2) Have an official Muppet gathering/weekend at their parks!

There are just so many things you listed that actually answered themselves.

Bear was a much needed jolt, sure... but now people don't want jolt, they want (or are told to want) this anal retentive, highstrung stuff that treats the kids like they're all very slow and unintelligent, having characters wait around to answer their own questions while talking very slowly. I truly believe that Blue's Clues was one of the horsemen of the children's TV Apocalypse, and everyone who was everyone one was copying that format. EVEN Sesame Street (Journey to Ernie).

Disney's preschool line up consists of multiple shows EXACTLY like that. I'd hate to see them do a CGI Bear where he asks viewers where the red triangle is (right behind him) for 20 seconds when an artificial audience voice over shouts the answer, then congratulating the real audience for not doing anything. I've said it a million times, TV (at least as we know it in ways we know) is NOT an interactive medium. Shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, and even Bear treated the audience as just that. They'd talk to them and encourage them to participate in on screen activities, but only like they're friendly TV personalities talking directly to their audience.

As for DVD's... let's put it this way.

Disney is HORRIBLE at releasing things on DVD. Sure, when it comes to movies, they can do no wrong, but when it comes to TV shows, they have no bloody idea what they're doing at all ever ever in the history of ever. We've been lucky thus far with the Muppet Show releases (some rights hiccup is definitely at fault with the lateness of S4, so you can't even say they don't wanna do it), but they feel like they have to sell the same amount of TV DVD's as their movies. We have incomplete Disney Afternoon releases. That was the best they could do. Even with their high rated Phineas and Ferb, they can't release the show unless they cobble it into "movies." Seriously, compete season sets won't KILL you!

Think of it this way. You'd think that as Popular as Winnie the Pooh is, we would have seen better New Adventures of Winne the Pooh releases. We got like 2 3 episode singles and that was it.

Now, I'm not expecting complete series sets of Bear with a milliondy trillion special features... a series of single disk releases, even subcontracted, may just get interest in the property again. Or reruns, but as they're set in their ways with preschool programming (which is like preprepreschool now), it's not such an easy task.

I'm not saying we need new episodes (though that would be great) but just releasing what you have will go far enough.

I say fans should just take to downloading. Seriously, I know thats "taboo" to say, but honestly...waiting 15-35 years for the home release of shows is baloney. Yes, downloading is what killed the anime dvd industry in America...but these companies have to learn that they can't toy with fans like that.

Second, it is absolutely terrible just how far down the evolutionary scale children's morning programming has fallen.
I thought it was bad with Blue's Clues, Barney and Telletubbies...but the "pause" stuff is just ridiculous.
Not to mention, wayyyyy too many shoddy cgi series. The cgi is so bad, that it would have been laughed out of a room back in 1984. Reboot had better cg in 1994 than this stuff(like that Mickey Mouse one)

Bear treated kids with respect while celebrating the senses, imagination and discovering fun and warmth. I was 19 when the show debuted, and it "jolted" me as you'd say for just how darn magical and infectious it was. I'm glad the Hub is showing Fraggle Rock, as its about time FR was shown on cable...but Bear, why Disney would abandon the franchise is beyond me.

 

[Drtooth]

I think some sort of internal politics or *something* we're not privy too is the reason. Barney is still on the air, and I would never ever let my kid watch that insult of a show.
I'm grateful I at least have some of the dvds.

It's a PBS thing. They have shows that last for god knows how long and then they slowly ease them out. heck, the flop bomb failure of Boohbah was on for at least 3 years of deep discount clearance toys and merchandise no one wanted before they got rid of it. It is the same longevity that kept Sesame Street on for 40 + years (as well as Mr. Rogers for 30 something), and unfortunately it kept a lot of flash in the pan garbage like Barney long after anyone even cared. Teletubbies was on for 10 years about. It was an annoying fad, and that's it.

I say fans should just take to downloading. Seriously, I know thats "taboo" to say, but honestly...waiting 15-35 years for the home release of shows is baloney. Yes, downloading is what killed the anime dvd industry in America...but these companies have to learn that they can't toy with fans like that.

Well, it partially did... the Japanese animation studios give us such annoying red tape when it comes to licensing it to another company, and they're completely fumble thumbs when they license it themselves. They also push the new, similar, and frankly uninteresting stuff (mostly lame moe garbage) and we never get the great classics that shaped the tropes of all the dumb kiddy toy commercials that they still show. Not to mention the idiotic cultural gaps that keep us from getting GOOD kid's shows like Doraemon. So basically the downloaders have a hand in it, but its also their own dang fault (people who bought just as illegally taped off TV stuff from Korean grocers in the 80's were the same thing anyway, but they brought interest into it when no one else cared).

Second, it is absolutely terrible just how far down the evolutionary scale children's morning programming has fallen.
I thought it was bad with Blue's Clues, Barney and Telletubbies...but the "pause" stuff is just ridiculous.
Not to mention, wayyyyy too many shoddy cgi series. The cgi is so bad, that it would have been laughed out of a room back in 1984. Reboot had better cg in 1994 than this stuff(like that Mickey Mouse one)

Exactly. It's all about how cheap and ugly and loud they can make these things. They're all really disposable (unfortunately not Dora which has been around WAAAAY longer than it should have) and replaceable with similar looking and sounding junk. I wish more shows took the Wubzy and Mr. Men show route and actually made a SHOW first and put educational stuff intermittently into it, instead of making the entire show about pausing and looking for stuff like it's a cheap computer game.

Bear just doesn't fit into that. He's not a cheap CGI character that sits around asking questions an imaginary audience answers. Sesame Street even bowed down to that bad model to some extent (they shook it off for the most part). All the shows Disney wants to air are exactly the same as everything else. Sure, I'm glad they got Pete and Ludwig VonDrake in that show, but all the taken for granted Disney characters in the world can't make MMCH interesting for kids over the age of too young to have an imprint.

 

[beaker]

I feel Sesame Street is quality. I know some(including those in a somewhat unofficial Sesame Workshop capacity) feel annoyed by Murray Monster's sudden rise to Sesame fame(yet there's zero merchandise or anything for him as of yet), but it's nowhere like Elmo proportions.(I've made my piece about the Elmo takeover, and realize part of Sesame Workshop's ability to even survive is due to Elmo merchandising power and viability...plus "Being Elmo" the doc about Kevin Clash's life with Sesame Street is having major film industry buzz right now)

Since the early 80's as a Muppet fan I've rarely seen a character like Noel's Bear capture a sense of warmth, inclusion, and fun.
I couldn't get into Big Bag. I definitely could not get into Animal Jam(as much as I like the puppet designs) And maybe it's a cultural thing, but I had a hard time getting into The Hoobs(tho I do have a softspot for Mopatop)
However I strongly feel Bear In the Big Blue House is the rightful heir to being a strong third franchise, and it is truly the best franchise in Muppetdom since Fraggle Rock ended. One of the intentions of a Henson product is to both entertain but comfort and bring out a sense of wonder. CGI is too sterile to do that, as much as I know JHC has worked hard on Sid and Dinosaur Train.

I believe there is a deep longing, even a sadness amongst parents who feel dismayed by not having Bear around. Who remember the great 1997-2002 run and are confused as to why the carpet was so suddenly yanked from the franchise. I can almost guarantee there are still parents who send emails to Disney or inquire to Disney stores as to why Bear is no more.
I just remember how 1999-2001 parents and kids alike just really lit up with joy when they happened upon Bear merchandise, or even Bear dvds. For Disney to have taken that away for no given reason seems pretty lousy.

I sometimes feel like the rabid Muppet fans into TMS and Fraggle Rock tend to shun from Bear, simply because it's post JH "children's programming". If more Muppet fans opened themselves to and took a BITBBH test drive, they'd see what a magical and engrossing show it is.

 

[Drtooth]

There is something very special about Fraggle Rock that I have to say I'm liking more than SS and TMS (and I love them both)... the multilayered co-existance of species going through similar problems, maybe? I dunno what it is, but it shines throughout.

Now, I didn't think much of Bear at first until I saw some clips and bits of episodes (and mostly Bear's appearance on Hollywood Squares where he got a question about shaving... his "And I know about that why?" totally won the character for me) I thought this was a clever little series that's too good to be stuck on cable while PBS farted out bad Thomas the Tank Engine knockoffs (ewww! Jay Jay the Airplane). I'm wondering, just like FR, would it have hit a bigger audience outside of cable. But then again, Disney was standard by then and most of everyone had cable by then.

I knew I should have bought some of the VHS when they were clearing them out...

As for Murray? Well, any character in the situation they put him in would have been scrutinized. Personally, I LOVE that they take a character out on the street and have him interact with others (much like Traveling Matt), but I don't like how they reuse so much footage, and I wish they'd refilm new tune ins with Ovejita by his side. Murray's great, but he's even better when he's palling around with the little lamb.

 

[Convincing John]

Bear was a much needed jolt, sure... but now people don't want jolt, they want (or are told to want) this anal retentive, highstrung stuff that treats the kids like they're all very slow and unintelligent, having characters wait around to answer their own questions while talking very slowly.

Super Why's gotta be the worst of all of that. (Why don't they cancel that garbage and put Mr. Rogers or Reading Rainbow back on the air in its place?) I wish PBS could air Bear episodes. Kids who didn't get the Disney Channel when Bear originally aired could get a chance to see him.

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

Super Why is utter trash. The CGI looks like an unlicensed Disney movie Knockoff (Ratatoing, The Littlest Cars, the Littlest Toy Story 3). But it supposedly makes money, and it must've been cheap to acquire, as it was produced for Canadian TV and they already got Canadian TV tax credit for it (Someone from Canada has to fill me in about that). I have the same problem with it I have with Barney... basically the whole "Kids like Superheroes" bit, so they wind up making a disturbingly repressive toned down babyfied version of them. Come on... they have Hulk and Spidey diapers now, and even toddlers know super heroes punch stuff. I still don't even GET the super hero angle of the program, actually. Seems they could have been anything. Among other things, I still find the tone of the show and shows like it BEYOND patronizing.

I swear, PBS was on a rush to get rid of Reading Rainbow, but it wasn't entirely their fault. One of the most depressing things I've seen was LeVarr Burton going up to get the Emmy for outstanding whatever that Reading Rainbow won and basically pleading for someone to fund them. Worst part is, I haven't even seen it on our PBS stations in years before that. PBS wants flashy junk reminiscent of cable to get in as many sponsors as possible because they don't have kid's pledge drives anymore, and everyone watches cable garbage anyway (BEar was not said cable garbage... it was too good to be stuck just on cable). Same reason why SS has to "dumb itself down." PBS is struggling, and it's mainly due to political nature, but mostly their will to be competitive with channels people actually watch.