Who owns the rights to...

[GelflingWaldo]

After Henson spilt things up between Disney, HIT!, and the Jim Henson Company; I have some questions on who owns what now. Below is a list of some shows & specials I have questions about. Please let me know who got what. If their would be a DVD/VHS release, or re-airing of these who would have to make the call? If anyone knows please post. Thanks

Sam & Friends
Secret Life of Toys
The Christmas Toy
Dinosaurs
Fraggle Rock (animated)
Tales of Tinkerdee
Jim Henson Hour
The Storyteller
Muppet Musicians of Bremen
The Frog Prince
Hey Cinderella
Tales of Tinkerdee

 

[McFraggle]

After Henson spilt things up between Disney, HIT!, and the Jim Henson Company; I have some questions on who owns what now. Below is a list of some shows & specials I have questions about. Please let me know who got what. If their would be a DVD/VHS release, or re-airing of these who would have to make the call? If anyone knows please post. Thanks

Sam & Friends
Secret Life of Toys
The Christmas Toy
Dinosaurs
Fraggle Rock (animated)
Tales of Tinkerdee
Jim Henson Hour
The Storyteller
Muppet Musicians of Bremen
The Frog Prince
Hey Cinderella
Tales of Tinkerdee

Sam & Friends- ?
Secret Life of Toys- I would assume Henson.
The Christmas Toy- Henson
Dinosaurs- Disney?
Fraggle Rock (animated)- Henson.
Tales of Tinkerdee- ?
Jim Henson Hour - Muppet-related parts-Disney, other-Henson.
The Storyteller- Henson.
Muppet Musicians of Bremen- Disney.
The Frog Prince- Disney.
Hey Cinderella- Disney.
Tales of Tinkerdee- ?.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Sounds about right. I'm pretty sure Henson owns the early stuff like "Sam" and "Tinkerdee." If NOT, wow.

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

I think Disney now owns all the muppet movies, TV Shows and specials aswell as bear in the big blue house, Dinosaurs etc. I think Henson owns everything else except sesame street.
I hope I didnt make a mistake there.

 

[Rowlf's Roadie]

Wouldn't anything with Kermit be owned by Disney?

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Not necessarily. Basically, anything with Kermit and THE Muppets in starring roles are owned by Disney. Specials like Emmet Otter and Christmas Toy, while they feature Kermit in the narrating role in the beginning and the end, are still owned by Henson. Probably because they focus on characters outside the "Muppet" orbit.

I bet you that "The Tale of the Bunny Picnic" would still be owned by Henson today if Bean Bunny was not adopted into the Classic Muppet troupe through JHH, MV3D, and Muppet Babies.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

Not necessarily. Basically, anything with Kermit and THE Muppets in starring roles are owned by Disney. Specials like Emmet Otter and Christmas Toy, while they feature Kermit in the narrating role in the beginning and the end, are still owned by Henson. Probably because they focus on characters outside the "Muppet" orbit.

I bet you that "The Tale of the Bunny Picnic" would still be owned by Henson today if Bean Bunny was not adopted into the Classic Muppet troupe through JHH, MV3D, and Muppet Babies.

I thought Disney got Bunny Picnic?

 

[BoyRaisin2]

That's what I said. I bet that "Bunny Picnic" would still be owned by Henson today if Bean Bunny did not become one of the "Classic Muppets."

 

[WOCKA2416]

The specials that only feature Kermit in a narrating role are still owned by henson. They are going to just have to cut his part out of it.

 

[GelflingWaldo]

They are going to just have to cut his part out of it.

I don't know if that is true. Just like how Sesame Workshop owns Big Bird and Oscar but they appear in the Muppet Movie and Muppet Caper uncut. Or Kermit apperiances in VH1's I love the 70s can reair without him being cut out even though Disney does not own them. I think Kermit's small roles in these specials will be considered like guest stars/cameos. I think Disney would allow him to still be apart of them. Kermit is not the "selling point" or "money making" part of the special, so Disney has nothing to loose allowing the Kermit image to say in the specials they did not get that have small Kermit roles (if anything it's free publicity of their character) .