Muppets Sold

Anonymous Coward writes, "Munich-based EM.TV and Merchandising AG has bought the Jim Henson Company for $680 million. They say that they won't mess with the Henson Co.'s "creative independence," thankfully. Now, if they'd just start running the old Muppet Shows again..."

Comments

Kermit The Frog?

[JustShootMe]

Hello, Kermit the Frog here, I've just been bought!!!!!

No more "tickle me elmo", now it's "Tickle me merger"...

More demented ramblings from an Oregon geek.

If you can't figure out how to mail me, don't.

Re:Kermit The Frog?

[dattaway]

No more "tickle me elmo", now it's "Tickle me merger"...

Elmo. I saw some Elmo muppet movie last night (kids had control of the remote) and wondered if that same doofus that destroyed my memories of Inspector Gadget with that bomb of a movie made this Elmo movie too. It was just plain mean spirited and supposed to be funny. I remember when the muppets were just plain weird and one never knew what to expect. It was exciting. Now, we get to watched stuffed animals beat up on eachother.

I guess times have changed and now we have things like the shoot-me-up-Elmo doll cartoon to reflect the crap we get from the movie studios.

Re:Kermit The Frog?

[Falcula]

Naw, that's "Hi-Ho, Kermit the Frog, here"

Re:Kermit The Frog?

[Anonymous Coward]

kermit was a muppet?

Re:Kermit The Frog?

[Anonymous Coward]

i thought a transmission protocall.

Re:Kermit The Frog?

[Anonymous Coward]

i thought a transmission protocall.

Kermit sz frog here! 169000000 viewers entertained. More (y/n)?

Re:Kermit The Frog?

[RAruler]

Elmo != Muppet
Kermit != Seaseme Street

$680 million...?

[WhiskeyJack]

$680 million...?

Cue Kermit singing "It Ain't Easy Being (in the) Green".

-- WhiskeyJack

Creative independence?

[Evangelion]

So are EM.TV and Merchandising AG execs going to be appearing on The Muppet Show with excessively high karma?

Muppets...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here, to tell you about the amazing new..."

Aahhh! The Muppets sold out! :)

(Wait 70 seconds to post? That's way too slow!)

Re:Muppets...

[gonzocanuck]

They sold out long ago to Disney man!

Movies...?

[shaldannon]

Are they going to make movies that are better than the last one that came out? The last one had potential but went off on a tangent somewhere....


Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?

From the gallery...

[Chops-Frozen-Water]

"There's only one thing about this show I'd change."
"What's that?"
"The channel!"
"O-ho-ho-ho-ho!"
Man, I miss regular doses of Statler and Waldorf...
--

Re:Yeah First Post!

[Anonymous Coward]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-YAH!

Still can't forget kermit flying across the room.

buy a muppet!!

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, friends, you too can own your very own Muppet(tm)!! Do what you will with the muppet, he/she is yours, and exists only to please you!! Your Muppet(tm) will appear in syndicated television shows and movies, with YOUR name proudly displayed in the credits!! You have FULL rights to rename or modify your muppet as you see fit. Think Kermit should have ears? Then drop a bid down! Think Gonzo should be named gnarphlager? Then you're a sick fuck!! A world of Muppetlicious(tm) possibilites await! Be the first on your block to own your very own bit of television history!!

coming next week...

[hemos.]

coming next week, the new jon katz article, "muppets - the tragedy of mergers"

personally, i can't wait.

-hemos.

Re:coming next week...

[Accipiter]

Sorry Folks, that's not the real Hemos. Yet another attempt for the trolls to be lame here on Slashdot.

Ah, run for the woods.

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

Re:coming next week...

[Raindeer]

Couldn't there just be a list of nicks that are banned? Just like with servers in a network, you can't name your machine the same as the gateway. There is no reason here why somebody needs to be hemos or malda. Nobody will be limited if these nicks are banned from use.

Re:coming next week...

[Masem]

I'm hemos, aka Jeff Bates.. I help run this site, along with Rob Malda. I handle books, and generally posting stories.

I wAtCH tHe PlACe WhILe tHe MaSteR iS aWAy.

Re:coming next week...

[mikpos]

The imitator is named hemos., not hemos. And if you banned hemos., someone would crop up with heemos, |-|emos, Hem0s, hemos-, hemos,, _hemos, hemos_, ad infinitum. Eventually you'd end up with either a giant regex or a giant list of literal names. Either one would be about 10k long and would only "kind of" work. It would be a full-time job to keep up with the imitators, because, believe or not, the imitators have intelligence, whereas your giant regex does not.

It's a lot of trouble to go through to solve a problem that isn't even a problem. Personally, I find hemos. funny on occasion. Sometimes I wish he'd be the one posting the stories instead of the real Hemos :). If you ask me, we need more trolls and fewer whiners and karma whores. At least the trolls actually add something interesting to the discussion.

Reruns are on cable

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out the Odyssey Network (co-owned by Henson & Hallmark BTW)

Everyday at ~5 pm EST, they've old ones on.

Re:Reruns are on cable

[Mickey Jameson]

Yeah, TW in our area finally picked it up. But alas, it seems like the ONLY thing to watch on Odyssey (one of 3 whopping 'new' channels) is The Muppet Show.
Best one I saw in a long time was when the Swedish Chef was 'teaching' how to boil a lobster. After a bunch of rambling on, 2 or 3 muppet lobsters busted in on the Chef, wearing masks and holding guns. They started shooting up the place, rescued the to-be-boiled lobster, and left the Chef in his classic befuddled "Duhee?!" look. Truly classic. Gangster muppet lobsters.
And go figure I appreciate The Muppet Show tons more now than I did when I was a kid.

Re:Reruns are on cable

[sphoonk]

BAH! Right before the Muppet Show is ALF (4:30 my time.) How can you say that isn't good TV?! Kids these days... ;)

Re:Reruns are on cable

[generic]

I saw this one too, my wife and I laughed so hard. I think the chef skits are my favorite.

Old Muppets Rerun

[stick]

In my area (Raleigh, NC), the Oddessy Network shows the original muppet show every night around 6 or 7 pm. That's Time Warner Basic cable that I see it through but I'm pretty sure the Oddessy is a national channel.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIII YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
-Ms. Piggy

Jim

[Signal 11]

Didn't Jim Henderson die a year or so ago? If so, I'm pretty sure the "new" muppets would not have the same quality.

Re:Jim

[Anonymous Coward]

You Moron... read the article before you post.

Re:Jim

[mcc]

::beats sig_11 over the head mercilessly::.. for God's sake, think before you post!!

Jim Henson died in 1990 of pnemonia, right about the time Jim Henson Productions became 0wned by disney. And yes, the "new" muppets (i.e. pretty much everything since) has not had quite the same quality. his son has taken over the voice pretty well, the people around him have tried to carry on his style, but still there's a certain life to the muppets that died with Jim Henson. There was a level of depth to the "old" muppets that the people in charge now have trouble capturing. Which is why everything sense has had an extreme hit-or-miss quality, and why all the muppets stuff in the last ten years has stayed rather static-- they can try to emulate Jim's old style, but they can't change style the way Jim could. This is why you've seen _nothing_ from the muppet group in the last ten years coming close to the breathtaking innovation/novelty/creativity/what's-the-word-i'm- looking-for of, say, Labyrinth.

"a year or so ago.." bleaugh.

Re:Jim

[Anonymous Coward]

IIRC he got a superbug variant of the flu.

Re:Jim

[Anonymous Coward]

Ph33r!

Signal 11, the Slashdot muppet, speaks!

Wingnut

Re:Jim

[Myddrin]

Wow! Are you out of it. :)

Jim died in the early 90's (I don't remember the date, but I remember what I was doing when I found out.) of some kind of lung infection. (Varying stories have been aired, however the most common is an advanced strep infection in the lungs). This was right during the aborted Disney/Henson merger. In the end it became a strategic alliance that has produced some pretty cool shows (Bear in The Big Blue House.).

The following is my opinion:
While the Muppets are not at the same level that they were when Jim was alive, they have put out some very good movies in the last few years ("Muppet Treasure Island", "Muppet Christmas Carol" and most recently "Muppets From Space" (my fav. one since Jim died).).

While it was a very sad day for muppets fans, Jim did want the muppets to go one after him. Citing their father's memory, his family pulled out of the merger deal (Disney refused to give them creative control if I remember right, I'm sure someone will correct me). And the muppets have been Jim-less for nearly a decade. But just like Disney with out Walt, or any organization with a dreamer at it's core it is very hard for the organization to carry on with the wild-eyed enthusasism(sp?) the dreamer brings.

(And doing a pretty good job too! Again, just my opinion)

Sorry my thinking is so disorganized, it's been a rough day!
RobK
"Someday we'll find it...."

Re:Jim

[Spasemunki]

Jim Henson (not Henderson) died well more than a year ago. The last project that he worked on was the Muppets go to Universal Studios, I believe, which was in production around 1989. I think that he died the next year. Every Muppets production since then has been done without him, with his son doing the voice of Kermit the Frog (for anyone who ever saw Henson in person, you may recall that he actually talked basically like Kermit; he changed very little to do the voice) Why do I know this? I was there in '89 watching the Indiana Jones action spectacular when Henson was filming. My uncle's nose is prominantly featured in a shot of Snow White sitting in the audience.

Re:Jim

[Myddrin]

Not to nit-pick, but the Henson family pulled out of the merger talks before the merger was complete. Until now they have been a completely independent (but strategically allied) company.

Re:Jim

[The Cheez-Czar]

Your off by 9 years.

From the Dead People Server:
Jim Henson (puppeteer) -- Dead. Bacterial pneumonia. Died May 16, 1990. Born Sep 24, 1936. (Father of the Muppets, voice of Kermit and Ernie.)

Re:Jim

[Signal 11]

Sorry, I don't track TV stuff or who died when that much. I just vaguely remember that he died and I also noted that the "later" muppets stuff sucked (ie: same old same old). Don't drill on me too hard - this is a pretty relaxed forum...

Re:Jim

[Anonymous Coward]

You can at least make sure to read the article before posting. That kind of behavior and the flooding of the forums with clueless and numerous posts is exactly why a lot of people seem to be truly annoyed by you.

If you don't follow something, you can at least refrain from posting. Frankly, you deserved what you got.

Re:Jim

[David_R]

And not to get really picky or anything, but Steve Whitmire has performed Kermit since Jim Henson's death, not Brian Henson. http://us.imdb.com/Name?Whitmire,+Steve

Re:Jim

[ralphclark]

Muppets from Space had me in stitches. It had the genuine vintage muppet feel about it. It was great to see Fozzie again but I particularly loved the Hispanic-sounding prawn.

As for Bear in the Big Blue House...well it's strictly for toddlers. But it has such a cozy feel to it that I can't help watching if one of the kids has it on. The bear is somehow friendly and invitingly cuddly - yet without being cloying like "Barney" which by contrast always makes me want to puke. More than that, it makes me want to kill something. Something big and purple.

For the record, I'm also a fan of "Blue's Clues" ;o) although the UK version here has a different actor than the US version, he's a very intense-looking chap with a Scouse accent called Kevin Buala, IIRC.

Did you want to know all that? No, I think not. Sorry, too tired for anything more intellectual tonight. Hard day at work and all that.

Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction

Re:Jim

[anthony_baxter]

"his son has taken over the voice pretty well" - well, if you're talking about the Muppet voices, this isn't correct. Steve Whitmire now does Kermit's voice, Jerry Nelson is doing Statler, and I don't think Rolf's had an outing since then...

Personally, I really dislike Whitmire's version of Kermit's voice - it's lacking a certain singsong sortof charm to it.

Re:Jim

[nutsy]

Getting tired of your inflated karma so you're trying to drag it back down, eh?

Re:Jim

[Paranoiac]

If Jim were alive, I'm sure he'd be heartened that people are seeing Labyrinth as the labor of love that it was. Jim took it badly when it performed in a very average manner in the box office after putting so much of himself into it. Labyrinth is _the_ best fantasy movie out there, imnsho.

Farscape?

[DdJ]

Heck, what I want to know is the impact this is going to have on "Farscape".

Re:Farscape?

[sckeener]

That was my first and primary concern...what about Farscape? Farscape isn't in a bubble. This has to have some impact on the show. I hope it's for the best, but mergers/buyouts have a shake down effect....something is going to get knocked off... Farscape rocks. Prepare to starburst...

Re:Farscape?

[Keith Russell]

Probably not much. Hallmark is the main production company, along with SciFi and Nine Network. They contract out to Henson's Creature Shop for makeup and muppets like Rygel and Pilot, IIRC.

Slightly offtopic, but does anyone else here think Rygel looks like a hideously failed attempt to cross-breed Yoda and Beaker? :-)

Keith Russell
OS != Religion

Re:Farscape?

[WombatControl]

Don't worry - Farscape is indeed safe. The owners, Hallmark Entertainment and Channel Nine Networks Australia are extremely pleased with the performance of the show and the loyal fan base it has attracted.

They liked it so much that when Star Wars: Episode II came in and took over the Fox Studios Australia lots where Farscape was filmed, all the Farscape sets where moved, at considerable expense to a new studio for the second season. That's how well the series has done. (It's also the highest rated show on the Sci-Fi network, which is also good news.)

Re:Farscape?

[Chops-Frozen-Water]

Slightly offtopic, but does anyone else here think Rygel looks like a hideously failed attempt to cross-breed Yoda and Beaker? :-)

I'd never thought of him that way, but now that you mention it... :)
--

Re:Farscape?

[Life Blood]

I recently got the Sci-Fi channel and I'll be damned if Farscape hasn't significantly improved since the last time I saw some episodes over the summer.

Finally a show with aliens that don't all look like people in rubber suits. Finally a show with some fresh ideas unlike recent Star Trek series. Granted its not as cool as Crusade was, but its still damn cool.

Re-runs

[Luyseyal]

Not just re-running the Muppet Show, but giving it a decent time slot. i don't care WHAT channel it's on, but it can't be in the middle of the day or i can't watch it. grrr.

-l

Re:Re-runs

[TPFH]

Why not tape it?
If it was on my cabel provider (TCI^h^h^hAT&T Cable in PDX) then I would tape it and then edit out the commercials and archive it :)

Although it would be nice if they had Muppet Show DVDs.

Muppets kick Ass!
(Especially Ms. Piggy)

Re:Re-runs

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, there's some new technology that might help you out.. it's called a Video Casette Recorder.

It allows you to take a television signal, and put it onto a tape (similar to those newfangled computer tapes), so you can watch it at a later time. Most newer models of VCR's allow you to predefine a time and channel, so you can record something while you're away from the house.

{cue sci-fi SFX as Luyseyal strides boldly into the 1980's}

Of course, just wait for the MPAA to file a lawsuit against you saying that owning a VCR allows you to effectively bypass technological access control (the time/date encoding) and therefore is illegal under the DMCA.

The Muppets are in re-runs

[jesse.k]

The old Muppets show, The Jim Henson Hour (I think that's what it's called) and the newer Muppets Tonight! is on the cable channel "Oddysey", check your local listings for it.

It used to be a religious channel, but got bought out by Hallmark and Henson productions and now shows uplifting movies, Muppets, Alf re-runs and other family friendly fare.

-Jesse K.

sweedish chef?

[EnderWiggnz]

i wonder if he'll be turned into a german chef now? (Da und Da Schniztel Bork Bork Bork)

anywho....

disney really didnt understand what to do with that franchise... The muppets were adult entertainment that masqueraded as children entertainment...

Maybe the new groupl will be able to recapture the old magic...

Of course... Since Henson is dead, Kermit will never sound the same...

Re:sweedish chef?

[Quarters]

The Muppet Show was definately adult entertainment.

Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Oscar The Grouch, Big Bird, Snufflufagus, etc... are children's entertainment through and through.

The Muppet Show is on Cable in US

[inysgloi]

The Muppet Show is shown several nights a week on the Odyssey cable network, which is jointly owned by Henson and Hallmark (Yes the card company). I know that AT&T Cable ( Formerly TCI) carries it around here.

Alice Cooper on Muppet Show..

[SethJohnson]

Does anyone remember when they had Alice Cooper on the Muppet Show? Who was pushing for this? Do you think Jim Henson was telling the producers, "Really. This is to keep the adults / parents watching. Your demograph will widen and you'll be able to sell more commercials to the breweries." Or do you think it was the producers forcing Henson to feature Cooper as a musical act, "He'll be performing with his boa constrictor. Kids love reptiles!"

Re:Alice Cooper on Muppet Show..

[Crispin Glover]

Are you kidding? That episode was great! They got all the big man-sized monster muppets out for a song with Alice and he acted all scared and intimidated. It was perfect!

My favorite skit was always the couple who could never get through a song without something bad happening to them. ...either that or the episode where Rita Moreno beat the shit out of some sort of sailor mime muppet. That was funny.

Re:Alice Cooper on Muppet Show..

[emerson]

I imagine Alice Cooper was pushing for this.

In an interview with Henson that I saw some many years ago, he alleged that just about every personality of consequence was lining up at the door to get a shot at being a guest star, so much so that they were having to turn away some pretty big lights for entire seasons.

The Alice Cooper one was a good one, truly very very strange, but the show that most sticks out in my mind was the Star Wars 'crossover' with Luke, C3PO, R2D2, and if I recall correctly, Mark Hammill also appearing as himself. Angus McGonnagle the Argyle Gargoyle -- THAT was good humor, folks.


--

Re:Alice Cooper on Muppet Show..

[bludstone]

I found an mp3 of this on napster a while back.. but the download cut off midway.
Arg.
Do a search for muppet on napster, you get some mighty interesting results.

Re:Alice Cooper on Muppet Show..

[tdrury]

Of all the Muppet Show episodes I saw (and I'm sure I saw darn near all of them), the Alice Cooper episode sticks out in my mind the most.

It was great! All the "monster" muppets were fawning all over him like he was a god. They followed him everywhere he went and he always acted a little uncomfortable (intimidated?) around them.

God I miss Jim Henson.

-tim

Merger

[cbustapeck]

At least it is not AOL-TimeWarner-EMI buying the Muppets. Don't know much about EM-TV, but it should be interesting to see what happens.

Well actually they do....

[jdwilso2]

The Muppet Show is on every night on the Oddessey channel

Re:The Muppets!

[Anonymous Coward]

HA!
You are an imposter!!! Kermit doesn't even wear pants!!!

Therefore he just dumps the grits on his NAKED legs!!!!

I thought the Disney Channel was making new shows?

[Thats_Zena_with_a_Z]

I thought I saw a new show on the Disney channel - it had Amy Grant - I could be wrong?

Moderate this UP!

[Brain00666]

This is one of the most useful and informative pieces of information I've ever gleaned from Slashdot.

G, B, M, C.

[Evil Poot Cat]

"By acquiring The Jim Henson Company, we gain some of the most powerful and enduring kids' and family brands worldwide and get access to the world's biggest and most important media market," said Thomas Haffa, chief executive of EM.TV.

Meaning...new episodes of Sesame Street will contain post-production digital billboards painted onto buildings, the street, and Oscar's trash can. Access to a market is nothing to a media company if it isn't exploited.

Re:G, B, M, C.

[Rombuu]

Do you think they might actually start making, gasp, products with the muppets on them? No say it isn't so.... I always thought JHP was a charity...

</sarcasm>

I want my Muppet Muppet

[Duxup]

Maybe I can now actually get myself a Muppet Puppet! When I'm at my desk sitting in a cube farm can get pretty boring and often I wish I had a Muppet Puppet or two to entertain myself with. *duck porographic flames* Unfortunately I've been unable to find any to purchase. Perhaps this will change that.
I wonder if anyone else have had such thoughts and managed to find any.

Re:I want my Muppet Muppet

[arthurs_sidekick]

sure, an outfit by the name of Applause in the US has been selling at least Kermit puppets for a number of years.

Disney and the muppets?

[nakhla]

Personally, I'm a HUGE fan of the Muppets. In fact, my girlfriend just bought me a calendar with the Muppets in all these classic paintings and all. (Gonzo's mother instead of Whistler's Mother, etc.) It rocks.

Anyhoo, my question is, what happens to the Muppet's 3-D Adventure in MGM Studios at Walt Disney World? Do we think EM is going to ask Disney to close it? Personally, I think they should expand the Muppet section of MGM. Don't you think a log-flume ride themed after Muppet Treasure Island would rock?????

Muppets _is_ on TV!

[Myrrh]

The Muppets is on every afternoon on Odyssey, at 4 pm. At least, it is here in NM. We just recently found this out. Harry Belafonte was on it just the other day. Awesome. =)

Alice Cooper + Muppet Show = Warped Childhood

[ScoobieKW]

School's Out and Welcome to my Nightmare, what a shock to my 4th grade mind. It warped me for all time.

Thanks Jim!!!

if only

[mcc]

y'know, they _did_ try to ressurect the muppet "show" in a way about four, five years ago.. i can't remember the name, but i watched a couple episodes (the show was tragically put on at the same time as either the x-files or sliders, i forget which. Either way it was a very difficult choice as to which to watch, and i only chose the new muppets a couple times..) it had some really clever bits in it.. the first episode basically came down to the muppets in some kind of meeting, looking over the ABC fall scedule, and then suddenly realizing the time slot that begins in three minutes didn't have anything in it. and then basically trying to throw together a letterman-style talk show in four minutes. It really did feel a lot like the old-school muppet show, but wasn't as wasn't nearly as consistent. It was kind of hit-or-miss, and about half of the material was kind of dull, but when it hit it was really funny. The stock Mrs. Piggy/Kermit characters weren't technically part of the show being produced itself, but they kept wandering in and out backstage and interfering with things, seeming like a bunch of old people who think they know everything. which was kind of funny to watch. I can't really remember it well enough to pass judgement on it though, really..

The show really wasn't very developed enough though. They were just going out and experimenting, trying to see if they could hit anything that worked. You could tell they were trying really hard, but they didn't always pull the show off the way it should have been. And ABC didn't give them a chance to experiment until they got it right; they pulled the show after about a half a season, and it never got developed to the point where it fufilled its potential. I dunno. There was some kind of rumor floating around that a second season was made but only shown in Hawaii or something wierd like that, but i never found out what was going on with that..

It would be nice if they could somehow recapture the spirit that made everything Jim Henson did so wonderful-- the kind of creative, almost-edgy, almost-dangerous feel to everything he did that what he was doing had never been done before. Whatever else you may have to say about the Muppet Show or early Sesame Street or any of his movies, the fact is you were never quite sure what was about to happen.

As opposed to, say, Muppets in Space, where you could tell _exactly_ what was going to happen, and nothing was unpredictable. That was just sad. Muppet Treasure Island/Christmas Carol was more or less ok, as if the people working on it were violently trying to honor Jim's memory with something wierd, but Muppets In Space felt more like they were burying Jim.. the whole movie just seemed hollow, empty, on autopilot. LIke the soul and the mind of the Muppets were dead but the body was still moving. The hamster was gone but the wheel was still spinning.

i want to see them go back to unpredictability.. i'd like to see something truly different from the muppet franchise again. I'd like to see something as mold-breaking as Labyrinth or Dark Crystal was come out of JH Productions again.. i doubt i ever will.

Really they ought to hire the people who did Sifl and Olly.. -_- That was probably the coolest, most funny thing i've ever seen on a television. And they definately have Jim's wierdness down.. -_-

"cindy crawford's taking off her robe..!!!" <---if you can identify where this came from, give yourself a cookie.

-mcc-baka
Five to one, baby, one in five.. no one here gets out alive, now

Re:if only

[Anonymous Coward]

It was called Muppets Tonight. It got moved to the Disney Channel, and I don't know what happened to it since.

Re:if only

[Greener]

The show was Muppets Tonight .It only lasted one season on ABC and part of a second season was filmed. I have seen both seasons aired as recently as a couple months ago on Family Channel here in Canada and it probably appears occasionally on the Disney Channel or whatever they have in the US.

Re:if only

[ramparte]

> "cindy crawford's taking off her robe..!!!" ---if you can identify where this came from, give yourself a cookie.

I thought that was the Paula Abdul episode, not the Cindy Crawford one (Aoooga!)

The new series was really funny in parts, it is too bad they didn't give it a chance to thrive.

Re:if only

[ironheart]

It was Muppets Tonight, as everyone else mentioned.

I only saw it once -- just stumbled across it really. When I saw that Garth Brooks was the host, I almost turned the channel. Glad I didn't. Too much fun.

Garth was, naturally, used in musical numbers -- but not his usual sort. He did "It's Not Unusual," as Tom Jones, complete with panty-throwing Muppets. Kermit asked him if he could do something a little more country-style, so Garth said he'd do something set on a farm, with chickens, and some fiddles, and dancing, and...

Let's just say that it was from a musical, but not Oklahoma.

Great stuff. I have a solid respect for Mr. Brooks showmanship now. Unfortunately, Muppets Tonight was cancelled soon after.

(I'd been wondering who owned the muppets lately...)

Re:if only

[tm2b]

i want to see them go back to unpredictability.. i'd like to see something truly different from the muppet franchise again. I'd like to see something as mold-breaking as Labyrinth or Dark Crystal was come out of JH Productions again.. i doubt i ever will.


What about Farscape?

The website

[Duxup]

The website to check time and all:
http://www.odysseychannel.com/

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

What's next, Linus Torvalds' new hair style? Don't laugh, kiddie puppets are very interesting to computer nerds.

(OT) Ha! Another Trianglian!

[BNL Psycho]

Damn, I'm impressed by the littlest things...

Ya, that's what SHE said :)

Screw you guys, I'm going home.

Re:(OT) Ha! Another Trianglian!

[pb]

Dude, we're all over the place.

The Triangle: we just wish Cary wasn't there. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

New show thoughts

[RichMan]

Where would you take the muppets if you had control?

Muppets Theater 3000

Waldorf and Statler(?sp) do a MST2K/3K approach to modern entertainment shows.

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

No flamebait intended. Of what relevance is a kiddy puppet show to Slashdot?

Kermit says...

[bgarland]

Es ist nicht einfach, zu sein grün.

Re:Kermit says...

[uradu]

That's "Es ist nicht einfach, grün zu sein", or "It is not easy green to be".

Remember, to paraphrase Mark Twain, you dive into a German sentence and emerge with the verb in your mouth at the other end.

Uwe Wolfgang Radu

Re: Kermit says...

[bgarland]

I know, but it sounds better when you feed it through Babelfish the wrong way :)

Ben

Re: Kermit says...

[uradu]

Yeah, once in a while I get a kick from reading http://www.spiegel.de through Babelfish. The simplistic translation can be side splitting.

Uwe Wolfgang Radu

A really awesome muppets website

[sowalsky]

I'm pretty sure this site is official, but check out muppets.com. Does anyone know what the Swedish chef is actually saying?!

Re:A really awesome muppets website

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever he is saying, it makes no sense to Swedish ears... /trynis

Re:A really awesome muppets website

[Accipiter]

Yerr gore schmer dayooom, gadeesh gadoo........ye boorm da hurd dayam booo BORK BORK BORK!

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

BLASPHEMY!!!

[mcc]

FOOL!! do NOT take the muppets lightly!! we will destroy you!! :D this is VERY important to some of us; the Muppets take on religion-like importance for some of us. It's even as important to some of us as, say, linux. Perhaps ordinarily you could get away with slightly uninformed posts, but not this time!! THIS TIME YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR!! 4N1M4L \V1LL 0\VN J00 817C|-|!! PH33R!!! AAAUUUUUEGH

What do you mean "relaxed"?? Why were you expecting this to be relaxed? Weren't you paying attention a couple months ago during the "who's your favorite muppet" poll? that's the most heated, impassioned discussion i've seen on slashdot yet. : D There are _strong_ feelings around here on this subject; you best watch yo' step, homeboy

-mcc
"my belly button blew up!"

Re:The Muppets!

[Anonymous Coward]

congratualtions sir you have outwitted me. thank you.

News that matters eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dont get me wrong, i like the muppets. I just dont see how this relates to "News for Linux Nerds". I mean, Henson aint gonna open source Gonzo or Miss Piggy anytime soon.

Q

[Anonymous Coward]

What's long & green & smells like pork?

A

[Anonymous Coward]

Kermit the Frog's middle finger!

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Very relevant when you're a child molester cough* CmdrTaco *cough

"You got to get to them before the hair does" -- Rob Malda

They weren't SOLD... they were optioned in Germany

[AugstWest]

Cap City/ABC (read: DISNEY, plus almost every single newspaper in the US, even your little local town-based rag is most likely owned by them...) already has the US rights, it's right there in the article:

The Jim Henson Co. also has production agreements with the American cable company Odyssey Channel, Capital Cities/ABC and Sony's Columbia Tristar Home Video in the home video arena.

I remember the big hoopla when Disney optioned them, and ran a "Muppets in Epcot: Epcot Becomes Almost Interesting" special.

This company has a major investment in Odyssey, which unfrotunately isn't on my cable network. I do, however, get Disney, and "Muppets Tonight" is a really good, high-quality, true-to-the-original show.

Kermit Buy Out

[Koensayr]

Yeah it would be great if everyone wanted to put the Muppet Show back on TV. The old one anyway, I know they had set on ABC for a while that ran a newer more "elite" version. Muppet Show version 2.0 of course it was only in an alpha stage and was canceled, right?

yet another example

[Anonymous Coward]

of how slashdot has crapped out over the past year... News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. yeah right. Nothing for Nerds, Crap that no one cares about.

the slashdot connection

[thelaw]

why are there so many
gripes about slashdot
and why are they always snide?

slashdot is funny
and sometimes just punny
but slashdot has nothing to hide.

trolling and flaming are part of the treasure,
though they're just moderated down.

someday we'll find it
the slashdot connection
andover, va linux, and me.....

I'll tell you why...

[Greyfox]

All the stuff you and I remember was LSD inspired. It's pretty obvious if you catch a re-run. These days it's all crack inspired. When you're competing with the Power Rangers, you gotta do the crack...

One more time, with feeling...

[Anonymous Coward]

[insert "why in the world is this /. news???" rant here]

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Linus is a much better looking man than Bill Gates, and his wife is a lot cuter too :-)

Re:wil they now have...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oscar the Grouch naked and petrified would really make me horny. (hint hint hint PBS!!!)

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Where did you learn that Rob is a child molester? Do you think that he's the one who had the Chile Molesta account?

pig out

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it true that Miss Piggy is being replaced by Natalie Porkman?

Jim Henson

[Anonymous Coward]

I grew up on the Muppets. I remember coming home from preschool and watchiing things like fragglerock and muppet babies. It's sad that Jim Henson died. I hope his son can keep up the good work. I hope that the Muppets will still be as good as they have been even though they were purchased. I got my nick from the muppets.

fozzytbear@yahoo.com, IRC: fozzman or fozzy

Re:Jim Henson

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember coming home from preschool and watchiing things like fragglerock and muppet babies

Fraggle Rock !!!!!!!!!!! Wow Im just having the greatest flashbacks... I completely forgot that show... thanks :)

Re:They weren't SOLD... they were optioned in Germ

[cbquist]

Wrong. They WERE sold. From the press release issued by The Jim Henson Company: " have signed a definitive agreement under which EM.TV will acquire 100% of Henson in a cash-and-stock transaction notionally valued at $680 million." Sure sounds like "sold" to me.

Complete press release is here.

Muppets and DVD ?

[Midnight Thunder]

Anyone know whether the muppets are available on DVD?

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Chile Molesta]

Hi! This Rob Malda and I want you guys to know that this is really me!!1 WERD!!!! Anyway I just made this account to have an excuse to increase moderation by vast amounts. (really) And I just want to say Christina Aguilera is one fine woman and with my millions I can have her!!!

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

No flamebait intended. Of what relevance is a kiddy puppet show to Slashdot?

If you have to ask this... perhaps you shouldnt be using Linux ?

Re:My favorite

[Anonymous Coward]

MuppetDK is my favorite.

Thank you.

Re:You have to be kidding! Muppets?!

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that this post has yet to be moderated down is proof that we need more moderation. A call to arms hereby put forth by me (Mr. AC) to go out and shoot as many trolls as we can find!!!!! YEAH!

An update for 2000

[SethJohnson]

Maybe we'll have a new episode where Marilyn Manson is the guest host and he'll do that "Beautiful People" song, but substitute "Piggy" for "People" and Miss Piggy will be all flattered and get her nose pierced.

Fake id's OFF-TOPIC

[Raindeer]

you're partially right... there is no use in building a large file with all possible permutations. But one that just prohibits such obvious ones as CmdrTaco and Hemos or Hemos., emmett, jamie, would be nice. The rest is easy to spot and therefore not a nuisance... A name is all we have here. Our words should do the talking, but some names I associate with intelligent talk, whereas others I don't. (Now Jeff, don't start assuming that you're in the intelligent group :-) But I can see your point here for sure.. and in the end it's the Slashdot guys their name. If they are not bugged then why should I be? Just watch out when something has a name on it and only judge the post

this was posted really late in the evening here

Re:Fake id's OFF-TOPIC

[hemos.]

well, i'm hoping that i'll be seen as the intelligent posting troll, and maybe people will start mistaking the real "hemos" for me, "hemos."

i gotta help out where i can.

-hemos.

Greetings from Munich...

[Lispy]

...and a hearty welcome to Kermit and the Gang!! The Muppets will do fine on the Oktoberfest, i bet! I watched them when I was a child and I still love em today! Its nice to see that german firms start buying something valuable! (n.o.m. Chrysler;-)

Nobody gives a shit

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why you guys suck, NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THE FUCKING MUPPETS

Re:Nobody gives a shit

[generic]

I beg to differ. You sound like you were born in the 80's am I correct?

I've said it once...

[Woodblock]

I'll say it again.

How is this News for Nerds, or Stuff that Matters.

Re:I've said it once...

[ErikZ]

huh?
Ok, go out into public and annouce your love for the Muppets.

If you arn't treated like a Nerd for that, let me know where you live. I want to move there.

Later
Erik Z

PS Could be worse, at least they're not annoucing new stamps or coins series.

EM-TV's story is amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

Their stock has risen over 2000% (or was it 20000%) since they went public on the "new german" market a few years back. I recently heard their CEO tell his success story. Beforce muppets, they hade over 22,000 hours of comics and childrens TV shows. Disney only has about 8000 hours. They are producing their own show in Australia, and elsewhere in Asia... They are one of the first "foreign" entertainment companies to be the market leader in the US, too. They still have incredible potential. Their stock keeps gowing up. I don't know if it is too late to get it on it. Anyways... they have an amazing story.

The problem with Muppets Tonight, and the MFS DVD

[SuperKendall]

The first problem was they tried to introduce Clifford as a leader - while he was a fine muppet as a background character, he was just way too bland to be intresting or even care about much (unlike Kermit who was very edgy and could just explode at any moment!).

The other problem was just what you said, it felt like they were trying a bunch of stuff to see what would work - often they had Saturday Night Live syndrome, where a sketch would go on WAY after it stopped being funny (and would have been really funny if they had just stopped).

A few good things did come out of it though - I really liked Sal the monkey, and the King Prawn (who also provided the few funny moments in Muppets From Space). As another poster said, the Garth Brooks episode was really great, as were a few others.

I also hated Muppets From Space, I felt the same way about it you do - plus they had almost no musical numbers in it at all. If you had the misfortune to have the DVD, you could see the single worst commentary track ever produced - it was Gonzo, the rat, and some other human guy I forget in MST3K format (shadowed characters at the bottom of the screen). That sounds like a good idea but they simply could not think of anything interesting or funny to say AT ALL. It was so painful to watch and listen to, I had to turn it off after a few minutes. They should bury every copy of that movie in the same desert landfill they used to unload all the old ET carts.

Here is why they bought in...

[Anonymous Coward]

EM.TV wants to have it's own TV stations :-) Haffa recently mentioned at meeting here in Munich... They are planning a European wide sattelite station just for kids.. "EM.TV says it wants to work with the Henson Company on investing more in the fast-growing Odyssey Channel, which is operated jointly with Hallmark Entertainment. Odyssey Channel is seen in nearly 30 million households in the United States, though officials hope to increase that number to 50 million within the next two years. "(http://www.msnbc.com/news/372762.asp?cp1=1)

The Odyssey Network

[NIVRAM]

It's interesting that you bring up running the old muppet shows again. There is a channel called Odyssey co-owned by Hallmark and the Hensen family. It specializes in 'family' entertainment and has such shows as The Muppet Show and Alf. It also has some of the 1980's and 1970's family type films. Not my favorite channel by far, but it does have alf. That is one thing that I haven't seen in a while. thoughts?

From the horses mouth
-J. Marvin

Re:The Odyssey Network

[generic]

I used to like alf when I was a kid. I cant stand the jokes anymore however. I can still sit down and watch the muppets though.

Muppet shows

[generic]

You can still see the muppets at 6:30 on the oddessy channel in the northeast. My wife and I watch them when we are home. Brings back memories of when life was simple.

EM.TV ain't German, kids.

[The Dodger]

Check out this article about the hoopla over the television rights to Formula One... It mentions that EM.TV "is really not German at all but part of a Dutch company called Wavery Productions BV which has vast holdings in the world of licensing, merchandising, television rights sales, syndication and so on. Among the brands which it markets in Europe are Popeye the Sailor Man, the Pink Panther, James Bond, Woody Woodpecker, Elvis Presley, Betty Boop and the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles."

D.

garth brooks the showman?

[karb]

I believe Garth Brooks hosted SNL two times. He was a riot.

"Products", as in 10 mil. tons of landfill...

[Evil Poot Cat]

...either molded into the shape of, or printed with the image of, an IntProp resource, and sold to the masses as a novelty (thereby making the "products" landfill). As opposed to a product that has some intrinsic value over substitute products, other than an image.

I know a muppet...

[linuxci]

The muppet is called Gareth and I don't think anyone would want to buy him.

--
Make use of your spare CPU time!

Marky is a Muppet

[linuxci]

Marky is a muppet.
--
Make use of your spare CPU time!

Chef Puppet?

[malice95]

Anyone know anyone selling the muppet puppets?
Not the original ones of course ..although that
would be really cool, but replicas? Like a chef
puppet or fozzie? I found a place that sells
kermit but I can't find any of the other characters:( It would be neat to have a couple
puppets in the office to keep the day lively.

Mike