Mickey Courts the Muppets

[Luke]

Originally posted by BoyRaisin2
Where do you think Charles Rivkin would be in all this?

Also, IF "Farscape" actually were to continue, as well as the other "Farscape" projects, could Jim Henson Television/Pictures still be able to produce them? And if they could, could the Creature Shop still be involved?

With Rivkin it depends who buys them and what exactly is bought. If the whole company is bought and they intend to let Henson stay an independent company he probably stands a good chance of being 'general manager' and there being a new chairman and board over him. If it's just 'The Muppets' that get sold he might get a job with the new owners or he might get the push along with the rest.

If Farscape were to continue there'd be no problem with the Creature Shop working on it so long as whoever owned it at the time (be it EMTV or a film company) allowed them to take on freelance work. Also there'd be no problem with JHC producing new Farscape stuff as long as they still owned the show. If say just 'The Muppets' were sold then it brings into question whether JHC would actually continue in business or whether EMTV would incorporate into their own company or sell off all the other assets that Henson have too.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

So, how could I ask this, IF The Walt Disney Company were to buy the Muppets and the Jim Henson library, could THEY still create new Farscape projects or would they have to get control of Jim Henson Television to do that?

I mean, supposedly, if Disney buys the library, they'll be able to market and produce what they want with the Muppets AND all the other franchises in the Henson library, correct?

 

[Luke]

Nope not at all - owning the rights to the library of shows does not mean you can actually produce new episodes of that show, just distribute the existing ones. In this scenario it could one of many ways - firstly if Disney (or whoever) were to buy the character rights to 'The Muppets', it would give them the rights to make new MUPPET shows - not Fraggle, Hoobs, Farscape etc etc. Those would all still be retained by whoever owned the actual JHC or it's assets at the time. If Disney (or whoever) were to also buy the Muppet tape library (probaby TMS, MT and the Movies) again they wouldn't have any rights to any other Henson shows. However it's fairly likely (especially if you think about Disney with their own channels) that if the deal was not for the whole Henson Company - it might be for the rights to 'The Muppets' characters and the entire 'Jim Henson Company' tape library in which case they'd be able to show or distribute anything that Henson have made over the years (Muppets, Fraggle, Farscape, Hoobs etc) but only make new Muppet shows. The rest would kind of be in limbo but then they aren't shows in production anyway so they would just be left dead in the past unless EMTV sold those character rights in which case you could have a scenario where Disney owned the distribution rights for the past series of Farscape and another TV company could be making new episodes or movies and own the rights to them at the same time.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Well, these articles are referring to Disney trying to buy the Muppets characters, and I believe they are referring to all of Henson's characters--Classic Muppets, Fraggles, Hoobs, Little Muppet Monsters, and all--so, though unlikely, could make new shows or some sort of with these characters they own, right? Or, if not that scenario, Disney would own ALL the Muppets characters and the library. Meaning Disney would not just own the rights to the "Fraggle Rock" TV show, but to the Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs themselves. It seems unlikely (to me at least) that Disney would (TRY to) just own the Classic Muppets and the whole Henson library, while EM.TV would hang on to The Jim Henson Co. and the non-Classic Muppet characters themselves.

Unless this is what you meant the whole time and I completely misunderstood. Then