Top Muppet DVD's Disney Needs To Release

[beaker]

*Full series release of Little Muppet Monsters (included unaired episodes.)

YES! Ive only seen one of these

*Full series release of The Jim Henson Hour. I'd love to have this series released as it was aired- with MuppetTelevision packaged together with the Storyteller episodes and other fantasy specials and so forth as originally aired.

Well least the Muppet portions, they already did a Storyteller dvd release.

*Full series release of Muppets Tonight. Seeing as how the First Season aired on ABC, which is now owned by Disney and the Second Season aired on The Disney Channel, this really seems like another no-brainer.

*The Muppets at Walt Disney World- again, another no-brainer.

I'd pretty order these the second it was announced! I mean Muppets Tonight was a freaking Disney production!(ABC/Disney Channel) As was Muppets @ WDW. No rights issues whatsoever.

*The Muppets Go Hollywood

*The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years

*The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
(and maybe even footage of Jim Henson's memorial service could be included with this as a bonus, though that would be something that should and would have to be up to the discretion of the Henson family.)

Yeah I just got a 3rd gen vhs dub of these.

early Jim Henson commercials (Wilkins and Wontkins coffee, La Choy dragon, etc.), Muppet meeting films, Rowlf's appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show, and any other early and classic appearances on various talk shows or late night shows or news shows, game shows, etc. that Disney can get its hands on. Also a complete collection of appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

*Complete series releases of Mopatop's Shop and The Ghost of Faffner Hall and The Secret Life of Toys and Dog City and Animal Jam and The Animal Show, etc.

Oh yeah, Im all for rare commercials/50's-70's rarely seen work.

And darnit, I would love to see a US release of Mopatop(a gillion episodes it looks like) especially since so many muppet and fraggle cameos appear. Eh, Id love to see Hoobs too.

I guess JHC thought American kids wouldnt like British accents.

 

[Drtooth]

And darnit, I would love to see a US release of Mopatop(a gillion episodes it looks like) especially since so many muppet and fraggle cameos appear. Eh, Id love to see Hoobs too.

I guess JHC thought American kids wouldnt like British accents.

I guess that American TV execs wouldn't want a British TV show that didn't insult a kid's intelligence. I ask you, how fair is it we got garbage like Teletubbies and Boobah (whatever that crap was) but no one wanted to ship Mopatop over here.

And yeah, the unused unaired Little Muppet Monsters cartoons DO need to be released somewhere. DVD, leaked online...

 

[dwmckim]

Regarding the second halves of JHH, some of those non-Storyteller episodes are still owned by Henson, not Disney such as Lighthouse Island, Living With Dinosaurs, and Monster Maker.

I actually think Disney and JHC can work together to collaborate on releasing uncut JHC's. Since the majority of JHC episodes had stuff now owned by Disney, this is a bit different than Disney's refusal to share Kermit with an Emmet Otter or Christmas Toy dvd where he's a small part. This time Disney holds most of the cards. Also, Disney has recently started to collaborate with JHC again - even though it's with something as dismal and embarrassing as The Possibility Shop, it's still a return to the two companies working together.

I talked about this in another thread but all this stuff we're talking about here aren't pipe dreams. Disney bought all of these when they bought the Muppets and they aren't going to just sit on moneymakers - especially when all the work is done...these productions are made, they just need to put them out and enjoy the cashflow coming in. Unlike past dvd deals, the Muppet material is no longer a temporary contract with a distributor that has an expiration date - these are owned by Disney now and forever (unless Disney sells them to someone else and that's not going to happen.) Therefore the question is not will all this past Muppet stuff be released, but rather when.

Again, as i've talked about elsewhere, Disney is actually being careful. They're taking their time and doing releases when the time is right. They've been investing enormous time, money, and refreshingly care into building the Muppets' value and profile. What we're seeing now is just the beginning. When they're super-hot and ubiquitous, we'll see the floodgates open. But mind you, there will still be stuff held back for later - Disney has all the time in the world plus they won't want to oversaturate either. But rest assured much of this will happen - we just need to be patient.

Regarding the Babies, rights clearances were touched on in this thread but it also comes down to something i've also discussed elsewhere. Disney has to be REAL careful how they handle the Babies. The Babies did a lot of damage the first go-round as per making the general public associate the Classic Muppet characters as kiddiefare. A whole generation grew up with the Babies being the most frequent and visable output from the Classic Muppet cast. Disney has invested too much into erasing those myths and getting people familiar with the Muppets as a property that crosses age barriers; and that Jim always envisioned them as being for adults (but kids will love them too due to being puppets). Rolling out any Muppet Babies products too soon will just destroy all the careful work Disney's done. They need to wait until AFTER their the seeds they've planted have fully harvested and the Muppets are on top of the world again - then and ONLY then can they bring out the Babies - so they seem more like just an extra part of the Muppetverse as opposed to the defining element. The next movie definately will be before any Babies rollout.

Also i'm going to call it now. Being that the Muppets are a huge part of the Disney Parks promotion this next year, i'm predicting 2010 WILL see The Muppets at Walt Disney World released on dvd.

 

[ZeppoAndFriends]

The Frog Prince movie Disney's got out now is called Princess & The Frog. But you're right, that IS kinda surprising.

My guess is (but don't quote me) that Disney, knowing now that the Muppets are back with a vengeance, will put Frog Prince on the Princess & The Frog DVD (and possibly Blu-Ray) as an extra little bonus, and they'll probably do the same with Hey Cinderella when they release Cinderella on DVD again.

I quote you anyway!

I think it woud be better if they released The Frog Prince and Hey, Cinderella as seperate DVD's and NOT as bonus features on another movie's DVD.

 

[ploobis]

Have you picked up the Ed Sullivan's Best of the Muppets dvd?
It's a must for fans of rare super old Muppet sketches.

I'd love to see a dvd with Sam and Friends/old black and white Muppet business meeting films and commercials.

Also, tho in pretty poor quality, to those who don't know...Muppets @ WDW is on youtube, as is the rarely seen intro and 8 minutes of outtakes/deleted scenes/bloopers.

Yes, I do have the Muppets Magic on The Ed Sullivan Show DVD and I love it! I got it for Christmas of 2003 and it was the best gift I got that year!

I agree that Sam and Friends would make a great DVD release too. I love Jim Henson's early work!

 

[beaker]

I guess that American TV execs wouldn't want a British TV show that didn't insult a kid's intelligence. I ask you, how fair is it we got garbage like Teletubbies and Boobah (whatever that crap was) but no one wanted to ship Mopatop over here.

And yeah, the unused unaired Little Muppet Monsters cartoons DO need to be released somewhere. DVD, leaked online...

Yeah I was sad Mopatop never got to air on any of the kids cable outlets or tv. I've seen a few episodes(and there are a TON they made oddly enough) and thought how amazing it was that they had so many cameos from Muppets/Fraggle/etc; but also the characters...most loveable since Bear in the Big Blue House. I got a couple plushes from the Mopatop series, but I wish they had come out with figures and other merch. Just love that series.

Hoobs...eh...hard for me to get into, but I know at one point they were trying to bring it to the US.

Ooof...and you remember the monstrosity that was Animal Jam right? No kid wants to see a Howdy Doody/UHF/Greg the Bunny/Death To Smoochy styled 60's kid show setup like that, no matter how irreverent or hip the characters are. AWESOME puppets tho, and Im glad theyre getting a second life as part of Puppet Up.

 

[beaker]

Again, as i've talked about elsewhere, Disney is actually being careful. They're taking their time and doing releases when the time is right. They've been investing enormous time, money, and refreshingly care into building the Muppets' value and profile. What we're seeing now is just the beginning. When they're super-hot and ubiquitous, we'll see the floodgates open. But mind you, there will still be stuff held back for later - Disney has all the time in the world plus they won't want to oversaturate either. But rest assured much of this will happen - we just need to be patient.

Well...so far Disney has not released, nor announced the release of anything outside of the recent specials, the original series and
of course the movies. Meaning the more obscure stuff...last time we had that was the Ed Sullivan Muppet dvd by a third party company.

But I hold out hope...maybe not something as obscure as Muppet Television from 1989, but certainly Muppets Tonight boxset and Muppets @ WDW seems like it might eventually be released.

Meanwhile, who woulda thought we'd get a complete Fraggle Rock *and* Fraggle Rock animated boxset?(sadly they never did film that new Red Fraggle short film)

Regarding the Babies, rights clearances were touched on in this thread but it also comes down to something i've also discussed elsewhere. Disney has to be REAL careful how they handle the Babies. The Babies did a lot of damage the first go-round as per making the general public associate the Classic Muppet characters as kiddiefare. A whole generation grew up with the Babies being the most frequent and visable output from the Classic Muppet cast. Disney has invested too much into erasing those myths and getting people familiar with the Muppets as a property that crosses age barriers; and that Jim always envisioned them as being for adults (but kids will love them too due to being puppets). Rolling out any Muppet Babies products too soon will just destroy all the careful work Disney's done. They need to wait until AFTER their the seeds they've planted have fully harvested and the Muppets are on top of the world again - then and ONLY then can they bring out the Babies - so they seem more like just an extra part of the Muppetverse as opposed to the defining element. The next movie definately will be before any Babies rollout.

You know, I agree...people conflate Muppets with Sesame Street and or embarassing kiddy stuff too many times. Though even as a rabid Muppet fan since the early 80's, I never really thought of Muppet Babies as canon. Or even side canon. Just it's own thing, like the animated Alf series. I remember absolutely loving the debut episode in 1984, and was a big fan of the first few seasons. You're right though, too many still think of Muppets=baby stuff.

Also i'm going to call it now. Being that the Muppets are a huge part of the Disney Parks promotion this next year, i'm predicting 2010 WILL see The Muppets at Walt Disney World released on dvd.

Well we know 2010 will be huge for Muppet fans...and it's amazing Disney is pushing the Muppets front and center for their main promotion(which is an amazing promotion to boot) so who knows! It's possible...I know I'd love something more than 4th gen vhs dubs!

 

[frogboy4]

The Henson Hour is a very tricky item to bring to market. It will have to be gutted. With the rights that Disney now owns this is what they'd have to do:

* Lose the entire opening titles that include the Henson name, Henson Co owned characters like Emmet Otter.

* Lose the Jim Henson introduction. This was one of the most special parts of the program, but the Henson Legacy owns Jim's likeness.

* Lose the Storyteller half hour, of course. Henson Co owns that.

* Also lose any cut-away remarks back to Jim or reference to the Storyteller segments.

* Lose the behind the scenes episode that contains cross-company owned items too blended together to divide.

* Retain the rights to the stars and music used in each episode.

This all would result in a Swiss cheese version of the program that would seem incongruent and unsatisfying in many portions. I'd still like to see this in any form. Heck, maybe if Disney played ball and restored the Emmet Otter and Christmas Toy edits the Henson Company would reciprocate, but Disney has enough unreleased Muppety goodness without such issues. I wouldn’t count on this.

 

[JJandJanice]

I quote you anyway!

I think it woud be better if they released The Frog Prince and Hey, Cinderella as seperate DVD's and NOT as bonus features on another movie's DVD.

I actually would like it more if they included those as bonus features rather it's own DVD. Why not? They weren't that long and probably won't get any bonus feature treatment if they were they own disc. Maybe that's easy for me to say, cause I would probably buy Princess and the Frog on DVD or Blu ray. But in the end I don't think it matters, cause I don't think it's going to happen either way.

I don't know if this has been mention yet, but I would also like to see "The Great Santa Clause Switch" get a DVD release of some sort.

 

[Drtooth]

Regarding the Babies, rights clearances were touched on in this thread but it also comes down to something i've also discussed elsewhere. Disney has to be REAL careful how they handle the Babies. The Babies did a lot of damage the first go-round as per making the general public associate the Classic Muppet characters as kiddiefare. A whole generation grew up with the Babies being the most frequent and visable output from the Classic Muppet cast. Disney has invested too much into erasing those myths and getting people familiar with the Muppets as a property that crosses age barriers; and that Jim always envisioned them as being for adults (but kids will love them too due to being puppets).

I feel that way too. The problem is they're stuck in between 2 problems with that part of the license... If they do it too soon, it could bring all that back on top of it the "kiddy nostalgia" of kids that grew up with it. But the second problem is also the nostalgic factor... if they don't get it out as soon as possible, there's no way it could be successful. Right now, all the kids who grew up with it have kids of their own, and that's a very big market. I say don't release the DVD's right away and slowly bring back the MB as series of baby notions and goods the way they did with Baby Mickey and Baby Pooh (which makes NO sense to me. Isn't Pooh supposed to be a sentient stuffed animal?) But still, be strategic with it. It's embarrassing that they have baby Pooh, Mickey, and Princesses (especially- only a handful were actually Princesses by birth) and they own the original Babification.

This all would result in a Swiss cheese version of the program that would seem incongruent and unsatisfying in many portions. I'd still like to see this in any form. Heck, maybe if Disney played ball and restored the Emmet Otter and Christmas Toy edits the Henson Company would reciprocate, but Disney has enough unreleased Muppety goodness without such issues. I wouldn’t count on this.

Absolutely. No matter what, we'd either not get a good version of it or we'd get nothing at all. It's one of those stupid little rights and licensing hiccups that prevents great stuff, some of it insanely in demand, from getting a release at all. Look at 1960's Batman. We'll never get that because Warners owns the character rights and Fox owns the show, and neither side wants to cooperate and just split everything fifty fifty... and the only ones who lose out are the fans.

Honestly, I wish JHC would still work with Disney for Muppet releases, at least hammering out a set of rights about what can be released, and how much of a residual/share of the profits the other side should have.