Brian Henson comments indepth on the various company sales

dwmckim

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411mania has an interview with Brian Henson. The main focus is on Farscape and the Complete Series dvds but there's a lot of other great stuff covered including the most indepth comments he's made regarding the various company hopping the Muppets went through last decade.

The entire interview is at http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/127167/411mania-Interviews:--Brian-Henson.htm - it goes through a lot of territory but here's the interesting most important parts:

Jeffrey Harris: Some people have been very critical of you and the way you've run the Jim Henson Company. People have said about Brian Henson that for you, this is just a business and not your passion. But seeing the fantastic work you've done on things like Farscape, I don't know how people can say. Does that ever bother you?

Brian Henson: I think the biggest criticism of me is that I did sell the company to EMTV. That I did buy the company back and shrink it, and that I sold the Muppets . . . First was, I led the company to be sold in 2000 and I think that was shocking to people, why would the Henson family sell the Henson company? And they just don't understand the situation at that time. We were in an environment in the industry and in America where by television production was being done by the TV channels because the TV channels were now being allowed to own their programming. And if they were going to buy programming that they hadn't produced, it would be from only small companies that they would think are not very competitive. So we were literally in a market where we were shut out of the industry, shut out of television. And that was going to ruin the company. So at that point we needed to merge the Jim Henson company with a bigger entity that owned TV channels. That was the reason that I did that.

It's perfectly understandable that some of the public would go, what did he do? He sold the company. It never mattered to him in the first place. That's their feeling. It's not true at all. Everything I did was to try and assure the longterm success of the company. Then, when the company we sold to failed very quickly, EMTV, I led the initiative to buy the company back and I think at that point all the fans were saying, oh I guess wasn't the bad guy that we thought he was. I guess he is the same guy that kept the Muppets alive, made Muppet Christmas Carol, made Muppet Treasure Island, and gosh I got him wrong, thank goodness and we're all so excited that the Henson family has bought back the Jim Henson Company. Then, when I led to initiative to sell the controlling interest of the Muppets to Disney, everybody was shocked again and just said oh I guess he was the bad guy that I thought he was.

That's really the course of the negative feelings about me, and I totally understand people's feelings. People don't know the inner workings of a company and why decisions are made. My dad always wanted the Muppets to be in Disney World. He always thought that was the way the Muppets should live on. And so selling the Muppets was a way of ensuring the future success of the Muppets. Now I do think that Disney has gone a little slowly in the 5 years that they have had the Muppets. And I certainly appreciate people's concerns, well what's -- where's the Disney production engine making Muppets? And I do honestly believe they will come around. We will start seeing a lot more Muppet production and it will be good and Disney are careful about their characters. So I think when you hear people saying that I've been criticized as it's just a business, it's so not true. I mean on a deal by deal basis, I've always put creative first. I've always put quality first. And obviously, I commit 100% creatively to anything that I get involved with but some of those bigger business decisions are very complex, the reasons why they're done. And every decision was to ensure longevity for the Henson Company and the Henson name and to ensure the creative quality. And I think people look at the roller coaster the Muppets have been on: the Muppets went over to EMTV, then the Muppets came back to Henson, then the Muppets went over to Disney and they think that oh that's just a bunch of horrible corporate business moves. And they don't understand why we were doing what we were doing, but I promise you every move that we made was to ensure the careful handling of the future of the Muppets and to place them in the right place. And I could be wrong, fans could be right, but I still stand by what we did.

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On the new Muppet movie (note the last part i put in emphasis):

Jeffrey Harris: I remember reading that Jason Segel was writing a new Muppet movie for Disney. Is that still in the works?

Brian Henson: Well again now you're with Disney so you really do need to talk to Disney about that. As far as I know -- and I know about as much about it as everybody else -- but I do know that there is a re-energized effort to get the Muppets into the movie theatres with a movie. And I'm very glad because initially when the Muppets first moved over to Disney, there was a lot of talk where the should the Muppets go? What kind of production? Should they do a little web series? Should they do TV series? And I was always a firm believer that they should aim high and do a proper, great Disney movie with the big Disney marketing plan and do a great Muppet movie. So, I'm actually pleased that even though they've taken a long time, that clearly is -- they've now made the decision that that's what they want to do. ***They're developing I think more than one idea, and I think which ever develops the most and they like the best is the one that will get made and I don't know which one that will be.***

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On the future of Farscape beyond the comics:

Jeffrey Harris: I've been loving the comics for Farscape that take place after the Peacekeeper Wars. And there was also talk of continuing Farscape through mini-webisodes. And then there were some setbacks with the writer's strike and then the economy crashing. Do you think we could still see them at some point in the future?

Brian Henson: Yes. I want to say confidently yes. I pretty much never give up on something if I think it's a good idea. What we have is, we've got a very good, creative, solid concept of what the next chapter of Farscape is once Aeryn and Crichton's son gets a little older. So there really is a plan here. The comic books are in the gap and that's deliberate and we know exactly what we're doing. So the next things that we'll see on the big screen or the small screen, but on screen, will follow from what you are now reading in the comic books.
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(As an aside to those who haven't had a chance to check out Boom's Farscape comics, right now the story is immediately after PK Wars John/Aeryn's child is still a baby - so they have a plan for a story arc that would take place a couple years down the line - pretty smart considering the time it would take that to reach the screen and where the story being told in the comics would be by that time)
 

Drtooth

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And they just don't understand the situation at that time. We were in an environment in the industry and in America where by television production was being done by the TV channels because the TV channels were now being allowed to own their programming. And if they were going to buy programming that they hadn't produced, it would be from only small companies that they would think are not very competitive. So we were literally in a market where we were shut out of the industry, shut out of television. And that was going to ruin the company. So at that point we needed to merge the Jim Henson company with a bigger entity that owned TV channels. That was the reason that I did that.

Ah, so the big studios were the only ones who could get TV shows on the air were the companies that owned the networks themselves. Another fine example of post 1990's FCC deregulation. But I won't go into that.

Personally, I never really minded the EMTV ownership. They got a lot out of them at the time, and we got some great stuff out of it... if anything, we at LEAST got the Palisades action figure line and the first TMS DVD's. And VMX.

The only problems I had with the Disney ownership were very early on... broken promises of projects, everything leading off on a bad foot with Wizard of Oz.... but seems they've changed their ways lately, and they want to do us proud.

So, I really think it was GOOD that Henson sold the Muppets to Disney, and I can't say that was a mistake any longer.
 

Mupp

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So, I really think it was GOOD that Henson sold the Muppets to Disney
I agree with that.

Its been a rough road for sure, but I think that Disney has finally gotten a handle on the Muppets.

And I should add that generally speaking, I do like Disney (I LOVE Disneyland!) The company has gotten a lot better ever since Micheal Eisner left.

Baby steps, as they say.
 

Drtooth

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And I should add that generally speaking, I do like Disney (I LOVE Disneyland!) The company has gotten a lot better ever since Micheal Eisner left.
Seems the company is getting all sorts of better... though, as I said, they need some NON-TV/EI animated shows to really throw things back into the good old days. There's a whole Duck-a-verse they can work with... but that's a longer story. They just came off of the "We only care about tweens" thing. I hope that was just a clever rouse to get funding for better projects.

Henson doesn't seem to be doing as well on their own... their projects need funding, and the only thing they really get off the ground are CGI kid's shows and DTV CGI movies. Disney's Muppet section seems to be focused. personal appearances and one movie. Henson wants to do Henson Alternative, POTDC, The Fraggle Film, and various said kid's projects. if they just get that focus and focus on one major project, we'd be more likely to get that, instead of a bunch of unsold pilots and unrealized concepts.
 

Fozzie Bear

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I did my own jabbing of jokes in Brian's direction back in that time, but when it came to it and someone was the bad guys, it was the EMTV exec's in a role play game. I dig what he's done, but I do wish the JHC had some kind of dealings with the Muppets. I definitely hope he's still involved as a performer anyway.

I know that Jim didn't intend on Diz ever owning SS characters and figure (now) that they would have ended up where they are, which isn't a bad thing.

Maybe JHC and Diz should get together for the FR movie?
 

frogboy4

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I did my own jabbing of jokes in Brian's direction back in that time, but when it came to it and someone was the bad guys, it was the EMTV exec's in a role play game. I dig what he's done, but I do wish the JHC had some kind of dealings with the Muppets. I definitely hope he's still involved as a performer anyway.

I know that Jim didn't intend on Diz ever owning SS characters and figure (now) that they would have ended up where they are, which isn't a bad thing.

Maybe JHC and Diz should get together for the FR movie?
The funny thing I noticed when watching the new Jim Henson Company release of the Fraggle Rock Animated Series DVD is that they still had the Marvel Animation stamp at the end of the episodes. Now Disney owns Marvel, so there seem to be some dealings - however removed they are. :coy:
 

Drtooth

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The funny thing I noticed when watching the new Jim Henson Company release of the Fraggle Rock Animated Series DVD is that they still had the Marvel Animation stamp at the end of the episodes. Now Disney owns Marvel, so there seem to be some dealings - however removed they are. :coy:
That gets me to wondering, did Marvel ever own the series itself, or did Henson have complete ownership, and Marvel was just the production company. Dic let ownership of their shows go to the various properties that owned it when it came to DVD releases... ALF's animated shows were released by Lionsgate, who held the license to the ALF TV shows... The Real Ghostbusters went to Sony, who released it poorly until Time Life came allong.

I'm sure that if Disney has ANY ownership of Marvel animation shows, the deal for this DVD was pretty much far enough down the line that it was before Disney even considered buying Marvel. I mean, they were releasing FR TAS since the first FR single disk DVD's. Plus.... It would have been a thumb to the nose of the fanbase if they cut out the logo at the end of the episodes. Disney did that with the Tick season 1, cutting out the Fox Kids logo. So far Fox's poorly released Inspector Gadget DVD still has a DIC (as opposed to Cookie Jar, who bought them out) logo... though, it isn't the original 80's Gadget on Rollerskates ending.

And YES! Disney SHOULD get in on the FR movie. Someone has to, and they've got enough muscle to do it.
 

Luke

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As the person who wrote MC's articles on the original Henson sales - i'm glad i got it pretty much right and don't look that silly, lol. Think i even managed to predict the re-sale once Henson bought the company back in that Munich Memories article. *stops sweating*

It's nice to see Brian talking about stuff that happened and giving some proper insight. They may not have got everything right at times but i think the familys heart is in the right place.
 

frogboy4

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There still seems to be a lack of clear vision at Henson. The Muppets are settled under Disney and growing slowly. It appears that JHC is taking some cues in embracing the same sort of game plan with Facebook and YouTube. The real test is if they keep up with it. It all seems disorganized to me, but few people have what Jim had. I know Brian and Lisa knew him best and are doing what they think is right. Maybe they should hire another person with Jim's "magic touch" to can best see these great ideas to the finish line. They appear to be having the same trouble they had with the Muppets in the late 90s.
 
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