We all know that Jim Henson was planning to sell his company to Disney in 1989-1990, only for negotiations to fall apart when he died. OR WAS IT? Turns out, negotiations dragged on for a really long time because Eisner wanted the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets, and Henson wanted to sell them back to the Childrens' Television Workshop. So there's a big chance that even if Henson lived, the Disney deal wouldn't have gone through. But Henson still wanted out of running a company. So who would he sell it to?
A friend on mine suggested Ted Turner. The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock aired on TNT for its first few years, and Jim even made a few PSAs for Turner's short-lived Better World Foundation. Plus, it could complement Hanna-Barbera well. Here are my own ideas:
- The Cartoon Network still happens, but the Muppets are just as big a staple as the HB and MGM library toons (because you'd have to be an idiot to own the Muppets in 1992 and NOT have them headline your new family channel). But the Muppets are live-action, right? Well, technically, they're puppets. Teletoon, in its launch in 1997, aired Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL-5. And Sci-Fi Channel's Cartoon Quest, which began the same year as CN (1992, with the rest of the Sci-Fi Channel), had fellow Gerry Anderson series Stingray and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons at launch. But for those still not convinced, a big part of CN's early Muppet marketing would center around a debate on whether puppets count as cartoons.
- On a similar toon route, with the Muppet crew still being fresh and funny (though with limited success in Henson's later years) and H-B being in its flop era when Turner buys it, Turner puts some corporate synergy to work and has some of the Muppet crew shared with Hanna-Barbera and vice versa, essentially being part of a combined family-ish unit.
- Turner would agree not to buy the Sesame Muppets, which would go back to CTW... but would instead donate to CTW regularly. This would begin a relationship with CTW and Turner that could result in them airing Sesame Street reruns as early as the late 90s, or a Noggin equivalent being made with Turner/TimeWarner instead of Nick. (And hopefully, stuff like Destroy Build Destroy and Dude What Would Happen air there instead.)
- The Muppets could still go to Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, being a big part of it- especially considering that many of the "MGM" properties represented in the park were owned by Turner at the time. The Muppet Studios land would even be formed as planned, though the planned Muppetland takeover of Disneyland would be scrapped.
- Several projects Henson was planning, such as the Muppet event "Pig of the Nineties" (where Miss Piggy officially breaks up with Kermit) go through.
- Future Henson projects would go to Turner networks, such as TNT or the Cartoon Network.
- I'm thinking of potentially combining this POD with an earlier POD of Turner not selling his company to TimeWarner.