Your dream 2011 Muppet Promotions

[beaker]

Regarding that Muppet video game plot somebody else mentioned, in which Walter or a fan-created whatnot locates the Muppets, it would be a real fan dream if the player were to locate Kermit at Sesame Street. I doubt Sesame Workshop would license the characters for a Muppet video game, but if character licensing wasn't an issue, the level/world could invovle Walter searching the streets of New York, asking passer-bys if they can tell him how to get to Sesame Street, fighting off dangerous city people and obstacles, before finally making it to Sesame Street and finding Kermit.

Of course it would be more logical for Kermit to return to the swamp, but it would be a real dream to include Sesame Street characters in a non-Sesame Street game (have there ever been any video games based on a francise that included appearances by characters from another franchise owned by a different company altogether?).

Someone on the last page mused about the possibility of Muppet show characters ever cameo'ing on modern day Sesame. I do recall Kermit being on Elmo's World a few years ago. Also I think a painting of Dr Teeth is present in some super old Sesame skit. There's a lot of oddball cameos of Muppets on there over the years. And of course the Sesame characters routinely showed up on the Muppet show in the early days(including the pilot and valentines special) The Muppets and Sesame were inseperable from the 70's til late 80's.

I don't think it's been since 2002. I believe the halloween special was first announced in 2009. As far as I know it's still being planned, though Disney is currently focusing on the movie now.

I have an april 2002 JHC Muppet flyer that definitely mentions the "coming Halloween special", and thus where the interest in it generated from.

 

[beaker]

Actually, none of those are owned by Henson, except maybe Sam and Friends (I've read that Universal owns the distribution rights to S&F through it's ownership of NBC). The Ed Sullivan Show appearances would be owned by SOFA Entertainment (or whoever owns The Ed Sullivan Show). The commercials would be owned by whatever companies the commercials were for (though Disney was able to include the Purina commercials in the season 3 set). John Denver's production company owns the distribution rights to the John Denver and the Muppets specials.

Oh, and I don't think I saw TMS season 4 listed. Shameful...

There's already been a "Best of The Muppets on Ed Sullivan" dvd, released in 2003. Truly amazing and must have release
http://www.amazon.com/Ed-Sullivan-Muppets-Magic/dp/B0000AGQ2P

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Also, if anybody at Disney or MHC is reading this, license Muppet Babies to somebody.... ANYBODY. License it out to Shout Factory. They do great work with shows that require superhuman amounts of legal footwork (Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, The Larry Sanders Show, SCTV, Mystery Science Theater 3000)

Yes! Not just with MB per se, but I would love Shout! Factory to take on the rights to the Henson library. They would be incredible with it. Not that Lionsgate hasn't done well, but Shout! would take it to the next level of comprehensiveness. Can you imagine a release of Emmet Otter from them? If I were in charge of a production company and looking for a home video company to distribute my shows, I'd go to Shout!

 

[Beauregard]

I think maybe the reason that Muppet Babies is being kept off the radar at the moment is because it would add further confusion as to the target audience of the Muppets. We as fans know that the Muppets and the Muppet Babies are two very different things, but I think a release at this stage would actually be more likely to damage the image they are trying to create than add to their value.

In time I have no doubt that the Muppet Babies (or more likely Muppets Babies from this bizarre naming studio) will return!

 

[Drtooth]

Yes! Not just with MB per se, but I would love Shout! Factory to take on the rights to the Henson library. They would be incredible with it. Not that Lionsgate hasn't done well, but Shout! would take it to the next level of comprehensiveness. Can you imagine a release of Emmet Otter from them? If I were in charge of a production company and looking for a home video company to distribute my shows, I'd go to Shout!

Let's not forget, Shout DIDN'T complete Inspector Gadget OR Heathcliff.

But Disney will release these things in time if they ever get those rights re-cleared with Michael Jackson's estate (as he owned some of the music used on the show), provided that's the reason for the hold up.

Muppet Babies is an improbability since, well, someone said it... reintroducing that brand is confusing since they're trying to get the REAL Muppets out there to get this movie out of the way. If it's a hit, I'm sure in time we'll see something. Secondly, unless rights hurdles are cleared (MB was made during a semi-partnership between Columbia and Henson... keep that in mind), it's not an impossibility... but we wouldn't see the episodes we WANT to see. We'd see the last season episodes that didn't use any footage that wasn't public domain, and most of those episodes aren't that much fun to watch.

 

[JEANYLASER]

That would be neat. They could do a "Mater's Tall Tales" short with them.

yeah! Christy and I think about it last night!

 

[Quesal]

To see just a little bit of Lips playing the trumpet in this movie or promos for it would do my heart good

 

[Duke Remington]

We've been mostly devoid of Muppets, well, for the majority of the time since Jim died, with new productions coming out sporadically, but even moreso (surprisingly) since Disney bought the crew. I thought the whole point was to use their power and resources to push them back into the limelight and revitalize them in a major way.

They already have been doing so. Disney has been pushing the Muppets back into the limelight in full force already and has been continuing to do so the 2004 acquisition.

For examples, just watch the Muppets.com and YouTube viral videos, for starters. And don't forget that the Muppets were the official "spokes-things" for this year's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" campaign.

The Muppets have been getting more and more work, marketing pushes, etc. than ever under the Disney ownership, thanks in large part to the greater financial resources that Disney has compared to the Jim Henson Company (who really did under-deliver overall).

 

[Drtooth]

They already have been doing so. Disney has been pushing the Muppets back into the limelight in full force already and has been continuing to do so the 2004 acquisition.

For examples, just watch the Muppets.com and YouTube viral videos, for starters. And don't forget that the Muppets were the official "spokes-things" for this year's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" campaign.

Exactly. It's very difficult in this climate to make hundreds of little Muppet projects here and there. A TV show is an impossibility, given the climate of television. A New Muppet Show, even if one did manage to pop up would last a few episodes if any, and most of them will be broadcast together on the same night to get rid of them, while they make a cheap exploitative reality game show or Japanese game show knockoff. Disney and ABC family COULD have been ideal places for such a project, but Disney is too steeped in their tween demographic, ABCFamily is too busy with their older teens. They made a TV show about a 10+ year old movie that wasn't even popular.

The Halloween project went through some unfortunate problems... it wasn't produced in 2009 because there wasn't enough time from when the project was announced to when Halloween specials could be aired... and they passed it this year because that's around the time they were initially going to start filming. Specials are basically all they can really do until they see how a film will go. But the Virals and comics showed a massive sign they wanted this to happen... they're just doing it uber carefully.

 

[SpinneyBigBird1]

All of these ideas sound awesome, but there are two things that are ABSOLUTELY a necessity! And those are:

- AN UNCUT DVD VERSION OF A MUPPET FAMILY CHRISTMAS
please Disney? Sesame Workshop? Anybody? I spent the entire year scowering the web and thrift shops for a decently priced copy of this movie. My 6 and 3 year old siblings love the Muppets, Fraggles, and Sesame, and to see them all together (with NOTHING CUT!) would just be surreal for them and me as well. This is a fantastic movie, and I love everything about it, so please! An uncut version please!

- MUPPETS TONIGHT ON DVD
I actually just got into Muppets Tonight this summer by watching the episodes on YouTube, and I was shocked when I found out there was never a DVD release of this wonderful show! It's such a modern, and awesome version on TMS

Please please please! If nothing else, get these two done. PLEASE