Muppets Holding Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Muppets Holding Company, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company, formed in 2004 through the acquiring of The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House characters from The Jim Henson Company.

Since the mid-1980s, Jim Henson had been in talks with Disney CEO Michael Eisner to sell Disney the Muppets. He and other Muppet performers had secretly filmed tutorials for Disney animators, entertainers and Imagineers on the matter of how to properly operate a Muppet, and many Muppet producers were already preparing for the transfer. On August 28, 1989, the two announced a deal for Disney to buy Henson Associates and all of its characters, excluding those featured on "Sesame Street." The deal fell through several months after Jim Henson's untimely death in 1990, largely due to clashes between the Henson family and Disney attorneys. Following several legal battles, the theme park attraction, Jim Henson's MuppetVision 3D, opened at the Disney-MGM Studios in May 1991.

Disney CEO Michael Eisner remained interested in Henson for many years. It was only until 2003 that negotiations were finally re-opened after the Henson family bought The Jim Henson Company back from EM.TV, to whom they had sold the company in 2000. Michael Eisner officially announced the purchase of the Muppets characters from The Jim Henson Co. in February 2004, and the first Muppets movie under complete Disney control (several Muppets movies had been made before with the help of Walt Disney Pictures), The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, went into production immediately and aired on ABC in May 2005.

When Eisner stepped down and new Disney CEO Robert Iger succeeded him, one of the first things Iger did the day after becoming CEO was remove the head of the Muppets Holding Company and several senior staff, who Eisner had personally hand-picked himself when the Muppets became Disney property in April 2004, and who had travelled with the Muppets from Jim Henson to Walt Disney through the purchase. Many see this as a demonstration of Iger's power to the public and to Eisner. The Company has also been holding open auditions across North America for Muppet performers working in Disney theme parks, the Disney Cruise Line and television and motion picture projects. The Muppets Holding Company operates as a division of Disney Consumer Products.