Does the title Muppet Babies ring a bell for anyone? If it does, then you’re a lot older than I am. This show featuring animated versions of the Muppets first made its debut all the way back in September 15, 1984; after all. It then ended its run on November 2, 1991 with a grand total of 107 episodes over 8 seasons. Sadly, it’s very likely that most people these days will never see any of these episodes. Even despite critics at the time giving the show universal acclaim throughout its entire 7-year run. Why is that, you might ask? Well, mostly because no one is ever likely going to allow this show to stream.
Muppet Babies: The Streaming-less Details
Deadline has just released a very interesting report that includes a very interesting interview with Jim Henson cartoonist Guy Gilchrist. According to Gilchrist in that interview: Muppet Babies will almost certainly never head to streaming. At least, not anytime soon. Why? According to Gilchrist, the exact reason boils down to “copyrights and trademarks”. He goes into detail on that below:
Back in those days, everyone loved us. They loved Jim — would do anything for us. We didn’t fill out forms, requests, this or that. We basically did whatever we wanted to do with the blessing of all of the studios. These days, things are owned by Disney, Universal… and there’s not the camaraderie at the creative level that we had in the eighties.
So basically: back then, studios had people running them, and those people can get friendly enough with each other to allow these kinds of crossovers and references. Alas, nowadays, it’s all big corporations that own these franchises, and no one is friends with them. These big corporations are all greedy, and they really don’t like to share. At least, not without making someone pay through their nose for the privilege. And unfortunately, Muppet Babies just makes far too many references to other shows for Disney to be willing to pay for those privileges. It is what it is, I suppose.
Tune back in to THS to find out more Muppet Babies and other Muppets news when we hear about it.
Source: Deadline
