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for a while, he seriously considered “taking them [the Muppets] on an archeological adventure to discover their roots”—while
But Jerry Juhl had recently handed in a movie treatment that Jim loved—and which had been inspired, in part, by a private conversation in which Oz had groused to Jim and Juhl about the growing costs of projects at Henson Associates.
“It’s going to be the kind of movie the audience wants the Muppets to do,” he told Jim. “Just a little crazy and a whole lot of fun.” As it was written, The Cheapest Muppet
television was still his artistic and creative oasis.
gone were the days when a series like The Muppet Show could be given breathing room to find its way—he was certain there was still a place
“Jim had so many ideas … so many things he wanted to do. He was given the opportunity of doing this show and he wasn’t content with doing one show. He wanted to do more than one television series.”
“Variety is not easy to do and no one is doing it successfully right now—and we may not either. But variety is a very difficult thing to get a handle on and make it work.”
While everyone still loved The Storyteller, most agreed that the rest of The Jim Henson Hour was a disaster. “Fixing what’s wrong … would be simple as microwave pie,”
for the first time, the critics were disappointed in the Muppets themselves.
On TV that is.
Very few shows are given that luxury.”
new technology—the visual effects, the virtual backgrounds, the CGI Muppets—had gotten in the way of storytelling or character development.
“He was in love with technology and future-thinking stuff,” said Henson Associates producer and creative consultant Alex Rockwell, “and so, when he revisited the Muppets on The Jim Henson Hour, he wanted to bring that sense of futuristic techno-hipness into the show [and] the marriage of those technological visuals and CGI with the Muppets didn’t work that well.”
the heart of it, however, the real problem with The Jim Henson Hour was that it had a massive identity crisis. “It was like the show didn’t know what it wanted to be,”
He had talked with Brillstein and Lazer, he told Rockwell, and they both agreed with his decision. Now he was going to make a phone call to put the plan into motion. He was going to sell his company to Disney.
While Jim was working in the spring of 1989 to put his company in the hands of Disney, five years earlier things had very nearly gone the other way.
they’d be getting Jim Henson. And Disney could use him. As Jim and Eisner casually chatted that spring, Disney, despite its new administrative stability, was still feeling its way creatively.
Jim felt he could be Walt Disney.”
For Eisner, there was never any doubt that Jim Henson was exactly what the Walt Disney Company needed. “It’s special because you get a guy like Jim, who brings a new creative vitality to the company,” said Eisner. “That’s really the reason for the whole deal—plus you get the Muppets.”
The
failure of the Muppet sequences in The Jim Henson Hour had spooked him—and if he couldn’t always tend to their well-being, he wanted to ensure they were with someone else who would.
“Looking way back down the road to when I stop sitting in my rocking chair and working Kermit the Frog, I really like the idea of characters living on in the Disney parks,” said Jim. “It’s a wonderful future for these characters. It’...
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Cooney, “Jim
had been adamant that Disney could not have the Sesame Street Muppets.”
Jim would sell all of his copyrights to the Walt Disney Company, including all of the Muppets (with the exception of those from Sesame Street), Fraggle Rock, all three Muppet films, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. Once in Disney’s hands, the company could freely use the characters in merchandising, videos, theme parks, publishing, or in any of the countless other media under the Disney imprint. Additionally, Jim himself would be attached exclusively to Disney for fifteen
years (Eisner had joked that he hoped it would be “for life”), but would still have the opportunity to pursue his own projects through his own independent production company, with offices in New York, London, and Los Angeles (in fact, Jim already had producer Martin Baker scouting for office space in California). It was a corporate structure, said one confidential Henson Associates memo, that should ideally “[give] Jim the maximum operating flexibility with the minimum financial risk.”
wanted quality things out there.” And then there was Kermit the Frog. While Jim was prepared to hand over all of the Muppets to Disney, he didn’t intend for Kermit to go with them unconditionally. He was too important. “Kermit should be treated in the negotiations as a separate issue,” recommended a confidential Henson Associates memo. “Since Kermit the Frog is so closely associated with Jim Henson, Jim must have control over the use of Kermit.” For Disney, however, getting the Muppets without the free use of Kermit was like getting the cast of Peanuts without Snoopy. For the moment, Kermit
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Now, however, he was being given a corner of the fledgling Disney-MGM Studios in which to develop Muppet-themed rides, attractions, and restaurants, with Disney’s wildly creative and innovative Imagineers at his full disposal. This was a playground far more fun to play in than even his Creature Shop. “The idea of working our characters into the Disney parks!” Jim gushed. “I can’t wait! This is going to be such fun.”
Finally, in February 2004, the Muppets were sold to Disney. While The Jim Henson Company would hold on to the Creature Shop, the Fraggles, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal, the Muppets were finally with Disney—just where Jim had wanted them. “We are honored that the Henson family has agreed to pass on to us the stewardship of these cherished assets,” said Michael Eisner.
