On Apr 27, 11:51 am, "Kevin M." <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 9:37 AM, Mark J. <[email protected]> wrote: > > But the Schulz family is still involved and seemingly still has a > > power of veto, as they did when Scripps/United Feature owned the > > characters (and when the artists took over ownership of their > > creations in the 90s, Schulz still let Scripps/UFS retain ownership of > > the characters). It's not like I'm expecting to see Candie's ads with > > Britney having sex with Linus. > > A fair point (and a disturbing visual). Remind me though, how many > years between Jim Henson's death and when Beaker flipped Scrooge the > middle finger in "A Muppet Christmas Carol," or when Miss Piggy > started shilling for Pizza Hut? As I recall, family had creative > control over those characters, too. > > <Insert Charlie Brown's rant about commercialization here>
The Muppet characters (excepting the "Sesame Street" characters) had been selling things for years. Henson's initial national impact, besides Ed Sullivan, was through a series of ads he did for Willets Coffee in Washington, DC and franchised to other beverage brands in other markets. The ads featured a character that could well be considered at the least a prototype Kermit. And I would swear that I had seen the "Muppet Show" characters in ads before Henson's death. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
