Who owns Gorch?

[SesameKermie]

Forgive me if this has already been answered, but who owns the SNL Gorch sketches? Perhaps if they aren't owned by NBC the owners could put out a DVD with all the sketches. I for one would really like to see them. I've only caught a few glimpses of them on certain retrospectives.

 

[GelflingWaldo]

Perhaps if they aren't owned by NBC the owners could put out a DVD with all the sketches.

They are owned by NBC. But nothing is stopping them from putting out a DVD with the Gorch skits - except for the fact that they are fairly unknown and weren't that popular. Still a "Saturday Night Live: The Best of Gorch" DVD would be totally awesome (in my opinion).

 

[Vic Romano]

I was so totally surprised when they weren't even mentioned on the 25th Anniversary show.

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

They are owned by NBC. But nothing is stopping them from putting out a DVD with the Gorch skits - except for the fact that they are fairly unknown and weren't that popular. Still a "Saturday Night Live: The Best of Gorch" DVD would be totally awesome (in my opinion).

i would love to ad that to my collection

 

[That Announcer]

NBC's even released retrospectives for people that are not technically cast members (Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken), and have put out two discs for Will Ferrell. A Gorch disc is long overdue.

 

[lowercasegods]

SNL has had a beef with the Muppets from day one, so it's no surprise that they're keeping the Gorch sketches buried. I've always loved the original SNL cast, but it bugged me to no end how they and the writers all dumped on the Muppets, spoke badly to the press of having to work with them, and treated them like a nuisance. I mean, you never heard them gripe like that about Mr. Bill, for Pete's sake. And he was inanimate! Jeez!

 

[minor muppetz]

Henson

I think that the Jim Henson company still owns the rights to the characters. I don't know if NBC would need permission from Henson to release a collection. It would be weird to release these segments on video without calling the collection The best of the Muppets on SNL (the muppet name could help sell the video), unless NBC was actually willing to get permission from Disney just to use the name (Hit won't try to get permission just to keep kermits small scenes in Emmit Otters Jug-band Christmas, Although NBC is probably a bigger company, but also competition with ABC, which is owned by Disney).... or if they decided to include the muppets recent appearance on the show, justifying use of the Muppets name (and causing them to have to get permission from both henson and Disney). Of course, they could attempt to put Kermit, Fozzie, Pepe, Gonzo, and Animal on the cover as the selliing point.

Yes, most of the original cast and crew hated the Muppets, but that doesn't mean that the current staff dislikes them (especially since the muppets recently made a guest appearance in 2004). I wonder if the attitutes of the original cast or writers regarding the muppets have changed since 1976. Just because they didn't like the muppets back then doesn't mean that they don't like them now.

If the gorch segments were released, I think they should at least include every regular sketch (the ones that took place on the set), and the best ones that took place backstage.

Oddly enough, Saturday Night Live has only released a few "best of sketch" videos. There have been some Mr. Bill videos, but not much else. There was a best of coneheads video, but that is only three episodes of The best Of saturday night live with one coneheads sketch each. There was also a Best of waynes World video done in a similar way (I think), and there was a Toonches The cat video, but I am not sure if that is all Toonches skits or if other segments are there as well.

 

[MrsPepper]

Hmm, that would be interesting if they would have to get permission from both Henson and Disney. If so, I don't see that happening at all.

Which is unfortunate, because I would totally buy it.

But who besides hardcore SNL fans and hardcore muppets fans would buy it? I don't exactly think its a selling point.

 

[SesameKermie]

Hmm, that would be interesting if they would have to get permission from both Henson and Disney. If so, I don't see that happening at all.

Which is unfortunate, because I would totally buy it.

But who besides hardcore SNL fans and hardcore muppets fans would buy it? I don't exactly think its a selling point.

True, but with today's "milk a show for all its worth" mentality, I don't think it would be that big a stretch licensing wise. They make DVD's of shows even before they're off the air now. It also might help them gain some audience share by introducing these sketches on video. Just because the Gorch sketches weren't popular back then, doesn't mean they wouldn't be now. Perhaps they were too edgy for the times.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Just because the Gorch sketches weren't popular back then, doesn't mean they wouldn't be now. Perhaps they were too edgy for the times.

I would be inclined to disagree with that. In a book about the history of SNL, the muppets are mentioned and it does give some insight into why they were so hated. Apparently, the major reason the writers disliked writing their material is that Henson was very protective about the way their characters were portrayed. The writers would bring drafts of the scripts over to Henson for their approval and constantly had to make changes based on things he didn't like. If the SNL writers had more autonomy, the skits would have been much more raunchy and edgy than they were. No wonder the writers didn't like them. And that's why they were ultimately discontinued. That plus the fact that The Muppet Show was about to go into production of its first season in England at the time.