Earlier this week, The Guardian, a UK-based newspaper, published an interesting article that went relatively unnoticed. Titled "The Muppets Could return to TV after movie success" one would think that it would easily capture the wandering eyes of Muppet fans... but somehow it was only tweeted by our friends at ToughPigs. Anyway... the article contains some very interesting quotes from Disney big-wigs talking about the idea of bringing The Muppet Show back to television. We've pulled out the Muppet-related quotes that contain information for you below:A senior Disney executive said the company was considering all options for the show, which originally ran between 1976 and 1981. "I am looking at that as we speak, it's a really fun one to work on," said marketing chief and channels manager for Disney in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Tricia Wilber.
Wilber said there was a "strong affinity and passion and connection" to the Muppets in the UK. "The
investment in the film was obviously significant ... we did want to see
where and how it performed. We are looking at what this means for us
and how we could take that further. Obviously the success here [in the
UK] is a key driver in that," she told a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch
on Tuesday."What we'd do is ask what's the right opportunity for the franchise," she added. "If you went down the television series route it could play on the Disney Channel but it could also play in primetime on a free-to-air network. We would look at a variety of different models." Wilber said it also might return in other formats such as an app, which she said could be turned around much faster than a new TV show.
Disney's
senior vice president, original programming in Europe, the Middle East
and Africa, Marc Buhaj, said there was "no shortage of excitement with
various creative folk in the world how we could work with the Muppets."Nothing is solidified, nothing is even planned, really, but the fact that Disney is even talking about bringing the Muppets back in a television series is huge. The word primetime was mentioned... which is incredibly telling (I think) of Disney's motives with the property. They're moving forward with it and already looking beyond the next film... something they have never done since owning the Muppets.
Again, nothing is set in stone, but based on this article, it seems that Disney is finally working on returning the Muppets to television. Now if only they'd work on releasing Seasons 4 and 5 of The Muppet Show on DVD...
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com
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