Brian Henson is doing a good job

[dwayne1115]

I would like to take some time out and talk about Brian Henson. He is doing a wonderfull job with the muppets. Not only as a leader or co- leader but as a preformer.

He has started doing some major roles of former muppeter Richrad Hunt and some from his late father Jim. I know it must be a awsom task every time he picks on of them up and does them, the thought that may go thourgh his mind.
Now i know some of you may say well why should we thank Brian he sold the muppets to EM TV and to Disny, I think he was trying to have the best interest of JHC in mind when doing all his dission making. As a Directer he has done a wonderfull job and i hope to see more come form him as a director.

So what do you all think has Brian done a good job or not? ;)

[BoyRaisin2]

The EM.TV decision was stupid, but I guess he had no way of knowing.

But I hope he (and Lisa) will do a good job running JHC and I hope he still has time to perform his characters.

[Fozzie Bear]

Performance wise, yes. He's done a great job and I hope he has time to continue performing his Muppets characters in the future. Muppets won't be right without Sal anymore!

Corporate wise, I think it's all a bad deal. I said when news first hit of the EM.TV sale it was a mistake, and it was; I dreaded the possibility of Disney buying the Muppets, but that was under the rule of Eisner--now that he's been "stepped down," I'm neutral on the whole Disney deal (of course, The Henson 5 {not just Brian} could have had prior information relating to the Eisner ousting, so that could have been why they went ahead and sold to Dizzy).

Financially, it might have been a good idea; however, the Muppets are synonymous with JHC--they are the characters that created the company after all--and to get rid of the very item that made a company famous isn't good thinking in my opinion and deserves a harsh thwacking on the back of the head with a rubber chicken.

I have stated that I foresee probably 5 years (once it starts) of Disney pulling out all the stops with the Muppets, and then we'll begin to see less and less of them--just the same way Disney does with ALL their other properties.

BTW: Who IS Mickey Mouse? An actor in the cartoon world or a corporate symbol? He's more of the latter these days. *sigh*

Poor Kermit...

[Beebers]

I've always been crazy about Brian Henson as a performer, and crazy about his personality, and I've always gotten the impression that his heart is in the right place.

The business stuff, who other than the family can truly know and understand the reasons behind their decisions? They've always been the first to admit they were not yet ready to helm the thing alone in 1990.

I have a feeling, in the years to come, that we may see some fairly amazing stuff out of Brian once he has the chance to breathe on his own.

I'm as dismayed by the Disney deal as anyone. *sigh*
But I feel lucky that I have decades of Henson work to forever enjoy and be inspired by, and, extant of Disney, I suspect a whole new Henson is going to give us much more in the years to come. THAT I look forward to.

*accentuate the positive . . . *

:sing: :sing: :sing:

[Super Scooter]

Of course, you can't exclusively blame Brian on the whole Disney deal. Jim had plans of selling the Muppets to them too, remember? It was so weird reading that article about animated Muppets.

[Fozzie Bear]

Jim also wanted to BUY Disney once, remember...

[Super Scooter]

That would have been the best thing for everyone.

Why didn't Brian think of that??? :p hehe. juuuuuuuust kidding.

[Cap Backfire]

Seriously, Jim wanted to BUY Disney??? I guess all geniuses are a LITTLE crazy... I can't think of a point where Jim mighta been big enough to even THINK about that, let alone pull it off... HAHAHAHA!!!

Brian might indeed be pulling off the Kermit voice and mannerisms (since Muppets from Space anyway) but business-wise he's an idiot. If we're now only able to see the Muppets in Pizza Hut commercials, then I need some change for my Muppet life.

I have to go with whoever said they were happy to have had decades of great Muppet material to think of, if nothing else. (sorry, I'm horrible with names, even when I jsut read them!!!)

Anyway, talk to yas later.

josh.

[Aaron]

brian dose not do kermit

[Whatever]

brian dose not do kermit
Right, Steve Whitmire does Kermit. Brian does Sal Manilla.

[dwayne1115]

he is also doing Scooter and Janice and the Newsman which i think is so so cool.

[McFraggle]

How come he or somebody doesn't try to do Rowlf or Dr. Teeth? Those are two of the best older characters that are seldom used.

[AndyWan Kenobi]

I didn't know anyone was performing the Newsman--where was this?

As for Rowlf, I believe Bill Barretta performs him from time to time. I remember that Dr. Teeth was featured on the MTI CD-ROM game, but I can't remember who performed him. Hasn't Bill also done him, like in MFS?

"Shalom!" :D

[dwayne1115]

The Newsman was used in the latest muppet Video Game and was Done By Brian. A man by the name of John Kennedy is doing Dr. Theeth and Bill is doing a great Job with rowlf. But Brians Newsman sound a bit younger which is kind of cool. Most people today would not even know what he really sounds like anyway unless they would watch the old stuff pre 1990.

[Fozzie Bear]

Brian performed the Newsman at MuppetFest and was great with the personality and all that; his voice just seems to be a little higher pitched than the original performers' voices were, but he does a great job in performance! I WOULD love to see him doing more with Scooter and Newsman!

BTW, did he also perform Janice in VMX?

[AndyWan Kenobi]

Yes, he did also perform Janice. :flirt: It was so good to have her back!

I'm really thrilled to hear that he was performing the Newsman--maybe I'd heard that before, but I forgot. I'd love to see him in action more.

[Whatever]

I heard he didn't do a very good job on the Newsman. :sympathy:

[dwayne1115]

more then likely so becaues he does Janice in the game altogh i hae not heard Her yet. I find it kind of funny that he is doing more wiht Richrards muppets then with his fathers. and i think that when he get older his voice might sound older and lower as well. i have seen that happen. and i think if im not misstaken Brian also did luck hopfrog on the Game as well. ut dont quote me on that i
If that was the case i say give the muppets a virity show and put everyones fav pigs in space.

[Super Scooter]

BTW, did he also perform Janice in VMX?
Yup that was Brian. And I know alot of people didn't like his Janice, but I thought it was near perfect.

[Whatever]

i think if im not misstaken Brian also did luck hopfrog on the Game as well. ut dont quote me on that i
If that was the case i say give the muppets a virity show and put everyones fav pigs in space.
You mean Link Heartthrob?

[froggiegirl18]

Having to fill such large shoes as his dad, I agree that he is doing a wonderful job. I miss sal so much though. Muppets Tonight was my favorite show and watched it every time it was on. I can not wait to see what the team has up their sleeves for upcoming tv shows or movies. His Janice was pretty good. It was really nice to hear the character once again. True it is not the same but people can not be replaced and so the performers that are performing our beloved characters that we have missed, they are doing the best they can and I say hooray for them! :)

[AndyWan Kenobi]

You mean Link Heartthrob?

Or even Link Hogthrob? ;) :) :D

[Whatever]

Or even Link Hogthrob? ;) :) :D
bleh bleh bleh. nitpick nitpick nitpick. :p

:D

[AndyWan Kenobi]

bleh bleh bleh. nitpick nitpick nitpick. :p

:D

Sorry. I just liked that we went from Luck Hopfrog to Link Heartthrob. It's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon... :p

[dwayne1115]

ok ok i know i got his name wrong no one is perfect. besidses he want my fav anyway. I still think Crazy harry will be my fav sorry. but i also want to say about Brian. i read an old interviw from IGN on him and Frank Oz.

Frank had alot of Fowl laguage but Brian dint have any i thought that was neat and i wonder if he was raised not to say those kind of words. i wonder.

[ravagefrackle]

;) Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahhhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhah ahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahah,

I M Sorry That Post Almost Made Me Pee In My Pants , Hahahahahahahhaha

[Whatever]

Frank had alot of Fowl laguage but Brian dint have any i thought that was neat and i wonder if he was raised not to say those kind of words. i wonder.
Well, you see Frank used to perform the chickens, but Brian has never dealt with any of the birds except for a penguin he built once... :zany: ;)

[dwayne1115]

haha very funny you know what i mean Frank had alot of swearing.

Brian dint have any did he?

[ravagefrackle]

actualy i was responding to the original post

the idea that brian henson was doing a good job,

Frank can swear all he wants he has earned that right.

[dwayne1115]

sorry i dint mean to make you sad . yea i think Brian is a great perfomer.

Im shoked though that no one has broght up his directing and his prducing though. he did a wonderfull job at both MCC and MTI. At frist i hated both fimles when they came out . but then i wachted them here recently, and love them.
He also helped produce dinoesors if im not mistaken . but what do you all think i hope he would ethier direct or produce the next muppets thing.

[Fozzie Bear]

Produce rather than direct; I'd rather he performed rather than direct. I would LOVE for Frank Oz to come in and do some directing; at least he wouldn't have to perform any.

[Luke]

Seriously, Jim wanted to BUY Disney??? I guess all geniuses are a LITTLE crazy... I can't think of a point where Jim mighta been big enough to even THINK about that, let alone pull it off... HAHAHAHA!!!

Ummm sometime between 1980 and 1985 actually when Henson was hot coming off the back of TMS and Disney was going through a poor period financially. This was pre-Eisner.

[Luke]

The EM.TV decision was stupid, but I guess he had no way of knowing.

The EM.TV decision was brilliant, a stroke of genius. They sold a company for over 600 million dollars with all sorts of clauses and restrictions in the contract meaning the new owner couldn't do very much without their permission. Then they sat and watched as the company realised how they had over-paid and were so tightly bound to the contract they could never really do anything about it but sell. Then they were in the right place at the right time to buy it back for a fraction of what they were paid for it. I'd hasten a guess that in the back of their mind they knew EM.TV would find it hard to get a buyer and companies like Disney and Viacom wouldn't follow through a deal like that with a company in trouble. It was probably always their plan to try and sell to Disney themselves. Yeah it was a decision that stunk for the fans (although the Europeans did alright) and was a big risk for the Muppets future legacy though.

..... and Foz, the Henson kids like Eisner. Brian Henson had some problems with him at one time but overall the Henson family (including Jim) have been very tight with Eisner. I doubt very much they had inside information he was being demoted and decided to sell based on that. If anything they probably want to deal with him more than anyone.

[BoyRaisin2]

>>Then they were in the right place at the right time to buy it back for a fraction of what they were paid for it.<<

THAT was a stroke a genius. I'll always remember that morning.

>>Brian Henson had some problems with him at one time<<

BOOOY, did he.

>>If anything they probably want to deal with him more than anyone.<<

So despite recent gossip by Jim Hill of buyer's and seller's remorse, this deal will go through, if it hasn't already?

[Luke]

So despite recent gossip by Jim Hill of buyer's and seller's remorse, this deal will go through, if it hasn't already?

If the media "gossip" is to be believed it does seem there is stuff going on between Disney and Henson. I think Hill exagerated things a lot though. With these kind of things you can always expect some last minute hesitation, especially with Disney but i expect it will probably be pushed through regardless. I'm sure there are people in the wider management of both Disney and Henson who don't like the deal but i've not heard anything to say Eisner, Brian or Lisa are against it. Henson being a private company that's all that matters, it's one heck of a good business deal despite the obvious doubts about what this will mean for the Muppets legacy. Has that ever bothered the Henson kids yet though? :o It is a binding contract but i'm not sure whether Eisner has to get final board approval and that might be the snafu. Perhaps if he sensed resistance he wouldn't risk a high profile defeat but if a Henson/Disney deal goes down for a second time it's going to be one heck of an embarrassing story for them anyway.

I think ultimately it's a better deal for Henson than Disney. All the Henson deals of late all tie in nicely together. They'd have Disney funding the Muppets and taking all the risks yet the characters will still remain in their "stable" and they have that production and consulting deal. The hope would also be that Disney also started distributing the JHC "fantasy" brand including new films. Then they'd have HIT Entertainment (who are a fantastic company) distributing and licensing all of Henson's "family" catalogue off the back of the Muppets renewed popularity at Disney and also have a big and powerful partner in them to produce all those pre-school ideas they had which were succesful in the UK before they had to close down production there. It's getting back to exactly what Jim Henson wanted - all of the admin and business side of JHC being moved elsewhere and turning into a streamlined busy production house with the Muppet characters specifically being handled and backed by a major player to give them that recognition as evergreen classics for future generations in the way Disney characters are rather than just being seen and used as a piece of pop culture that fades in and out as trends dictate. Not that i think that could have been avoided though or that there won't always be an element of it.

[dwayne1115]

Well thank you luke, i was also kind of thinking the sell to EMT was not really a smart move,but with all that you said you made it much much clearer. So he is a bteter person then i thought wow and HA HA you folks out ther who where like me where wrong which for Brian is a good thing.

[Whatever]

The EMTV sale did however result in the sale of Sesame Street characters to the CTW, splitting up the Muppets. :(

[ravagefrackle]

personally i think he should leave the buieness all togother , his work is sub par and doesnt do a thing for me, :attitude:

[dwayne1115]

Well seperating SS with the muppets was not good at all. to see aperences from SS muppetrs in "classic" muppet things is trulu trulu missed. but still the money aspect of it sound preety good to me. but then agine i maybe wrong.

It would also seem to me that Brian would hold dear SS becaues he helped his father work on some of the cartoon shorts or sothing like that. i hope one day the SS and classic muppets will one day be back together.

[Stryder Wolfe]

yeah, but haveing the SS muppets owned BY ss ensures that they are safe and will always be okay to use on the street, which may not have been possible otherwise...so while it seems strange, it's probably for the best

[Sylinde Bren]

I have stated that I foresee probably 5 years (once it starts) of Disney pulling out all the stops with the Muppets, and then we'll begin to see less and less of them--just the same way Disney does with ALL their other properties.

I'm not savvy with any of this business talk really, with all the buying and selling and rights and whatnot but I would like to address this...

If Disney does do as you foresee, don't you think that Brian or one of the other Henson children would step in? Jim Henson wouldn't want the Muppets to vanish from the eyes of the public and become a rare appearance every now and then, would he?

I just don't understand any of this business talk. I don't understand why after Jim Henson's death the Muppets began to trek downhill. I don't understand any of it at all really and I find it beyond frustrating. Perhaps I need a 'The Muppets & The Jim Henson Company: For Dummies' manual. Anyone have one of those to share?

[dwayne1115]

well ok how can i explan this in simple terms i think we all can understand. Jim was the leader so to speak of the muppets which befor his death inculed the SS and everything else that JHC did. he was the one who said what they did and how they did it, and he clearly knew what he wanted them to do.
When he died though other people like Brian Henson Disney and the folks at EM.Tv thought they all had a better way for the muppets to go. Thats where the problems started to many hands in the job that one man had had alot of contorl over. So what the muppets need now is someone strong and knows the muppets for who they really are and then get busy with them. Not a compony a person thats why it makes me sad to see the muppets go to disny i would have thought if anyone could save the muppets it would have been the Hensons. becaues they would have known more about Jim and his wishes better then anyone.

[Sylinde Bren]

well ok how can i explan this in simple terms i think we all can understand. Jim was the leader so to speak of the muppets which befor his death inculed the SS and everything else that JHC did. he was the one who said what they did and how they did it, and he clearly knew what he wanted them to do.
When he died though other people like Brian Henson Disney and the folks at EM.Tv thought they all had a better way for the muppets to go. Thats where the problems started to many hands in the job that one man had had alot of contorl over. So what the muppets need now is someone strong and knows the muppets for who they really are and then get busy with them. Not a compony a person thats why it makes me sad to see the muppets go to disny i would have thought if anyone could save the muppets it would have been the Hensons. becaues they would have known more about Jim and his wishes better then anyone.

Ah, okay... Thanks for clearing that up, Dwayne. :) After straggling behind in a muddle on all this for so long, it's nice to finally understand the gist.

My next statement/suggestion... Wouldn't it have been a better idea if when the Henson children bought back the company, that they would fund it and run it in a sort of collective way with - who better? - the Muppeteers? I don't necessarily mean the greener ones; I mean the ones who have been around since practically the beginning such as Steve Whitmire, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, etc.

I mean, what does EM.TV and Disney know of the Henson/Muppet dream? The dream and legacy of Jim Henson survives through his children and the Muppeteers that helped make the Muppets what they are today to millions. Who better to run the company?

[dwayne1115]

hey your welcome glad i could help, It has been very confusing for me as well so glad i can clear that up for you.

I really think that thought you have is a good one in fact i have probly thought the same thiing a time or two. I personaly believe that if the five Henson children Frank Oz and Jerry Julle would take hold of the muppets that things would be a whole lot better. But that is just a wishfull dream now and it will mre then likely never happen becaues of disney. Now it will be interesting to see if they use one person Brian Henson and use him to his fullest as producer and or Director. We shall have to see what takes place in the months to come it a exiting yet scary time for us as muppet fans. :)