For anyone who adores Kermit the Frog and the rest of Jim Henson’s Muppets ensemble, having a Disney+ subscription is the felt-covered holy grail, considering the service boasts most of the Muppet-related projects out there, from the near-complete Muppet Show lineup to the canceled-too-soon Muppets Mayhem. One glaring exception is Muppet Babies, the beloved 1980s Saturday morning cartoon that has never been fully available to either own or watch on demand. So why isn’t Muppet Babies on streaming, or even Blu-ray or DVD?
The answer is a frustrating one, especially when told through the candidly pragmatic perspective of Guy Gilchrist, the highly accomplished cartoonist who brought the O.G. Muppets comic strip to life on top of crafting Muppet Babies’ character designs. Gilchrist gave a rather definitive answer to the streaming mystery in an Instagram interview with Dennis Pastorizo, which basically proves how special and unique Jim Henson was in the profit-minded world of entertainment. Here’s the first part of his answer:
Well, the reason is this: besides using the stuff that was in the public domain, like the silent stuff that we use in the dream sequences and everything – remember the editing on that was incredibly wonderful – we used a lot of film clips from a lot of different things. Including Raiders, Star Wars and all of that. You see, Jim was very, very good friends with George Lucas.
At this point, Gilchrist discussed how Jim Henson and George Lucas’ collaboration on Labyrinth was prefaced by their behind-the-scenes Star Wars work together on The Empire Strikes Back, which was filming “across the street” from The Muppet Show at the time at Elstree Studios in England. The cartoonist addressed Henson helping “fix Yoda” alongside fellow puppeteering legends Kathy Mullen and Frank Oz, and said a similar fixing on the set of E.T. stemmed from Henson’s friendship with Steven Spielberg.
Because everyone was so friendly, and because Jim Henson had influential powers like no other, Muppet Babies was allowed to bring Kermit into Raiders of the Lost Ark without any copyright tap dancing or legal wrangling. The same goes for the animated series 1984 episode “Gonzo’s Video Show,” which is entirely about the nursery gang remaking A New Hope in an hour’s time.
That would be a massive headache for any modern-day series to tackle, given Star Wars wouldn’t even release its own Detours spoof series from Seth Green. So even though Disney technically owns both the Lucasfilm property and The Muppets as a brand, that episode alone would keep lawyers busy for who knows how long, which doesn’t take into account the myriad other specific pop culture references made on the show, including classic Universal monsters.
Guy Gilchrist continued, pointing to everyone’s love of Jim Henson as the reason why Muppet Babies is the pop culture gem that it is, which in turn has led to its absence from streaming services and DVD shelves. In his words:
Okay, so all 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, of course, things are owned by Disney, Universal, etc, etc, and there’s not the camaraderie at a creative level that we had in the ’80s. 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.
While there have been occasional glimpses of corporate synergy that led to shocking movie and TV crossovers, such as What We Do in the Shadows‘ smorgas-bat of vampire cameos, Muppet Babies‘ streaming rights don’t seem like they’ll be the catalyst to Hollywood homogeny in 2024 and beyond. It sucks, and Gilchrist knows it sucks, saying:
You know, 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 unfortunately.
One would think if there’s a shade of a wisp of a glimmer of a hope that Muppet Babies could get a remastered release, Guy Gilchrist would be one of the first to get fans pumped with optimism. But if he’s making it sound like a lost cause, I’m no longer holding onto any dreams about it happening. Not even endless viewings of The Muppet Movie‘s “Rainbow Connection” scene can help. Okay, yeah, that actually does help. I’m not a monster.
Of course, Disney did reboot Muppet Babies for Disney Junior in 2018, and the show featured plenty of pop culture references of its own, albeit without the use of licensed footage, as it went with this Ferris Bueller’s Day Off nod, and with many being references to the Muppets franchise itself. That series, which wrapped its run with a big Muppet Show finale also sparked a lawsuit from the ’80s show writer Jeffrey Scott.