Muppet Babies: Copyrights, lack of studio cooperation keeping it off streaming
The Muppet Babies say they’ll make our dreams come true but do they mean it? How long has it been that you’ve seen an episode of Muppet Babies? For some of us maybe since it went off the air in 1991 while the rest of us probably most recently caught it during its reruns not long after. And unless we’re talking bootlegs or VHS rips, that will probably be the last time we see the animated show. So what gives? Where are the diaper-clad versions of Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, and the rest of the gang?
According to Guy Gilchrist, who worked under Jim Henson (albeit not on Muppet Babies), the reason we will never have the show has to do with rights. If you remember, the show would frequently incorporate clips of classic movies, TV shows and more as part of the Muppets’ fantasies, putting them in the action of works like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars and, uh, Weird Al’s “Eat It” video. “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.” He added, “That’s why, I’m sorry to say, you will not see the original Muppet Babies. And it’s the question I get asked the most. I had a lot to do with the Babies. I know how much you guys love the Babies and would love to have them back. But I don’t really know a way that that will ever happen. It’s copyrights and trademarks and that sort of thing, unfortunately.”
While one might figure that rights could easily be cleared now that Disney owns works like Star Wars, there is still plenty that the studio doesn’t have its grip on, thus sealing Muppet Babies’ fate of ever being available on streaming or home video (through legitimate sources, at least). This is a shame since it’s a childhood favorite of many, myself included. But nothing has budged since DVD emerged; heck, I even wrote about the Muppet Babies debacle more than a decade ago and just about everything from that column holds.
Outside of the original show – which ran for over 100 episodes after having been birthed from a sequence in The Muppets Take Manhattan – Disney gave the premise another go five years ago.
Were you a fan of Muppet Babies growing up? Let us know below!
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