I notice recently its become harder to remember certain things (though if you ask my wife she'll tell you this isn't new). I'm not sure if it because I am getting older, I have a lot going on in my life, some other underlying issue, or a combination of all the above. What ever the case maybe, some things are not coming to my mind as fast as they use to be or at all; names, places, what I was suppose to pick up at the grocery store, the list can go on.
As time goes on we all forget certain things, details, sounds, names, events, recipes. That's ok, it happens even to the best of us. It's also ok to get or give reminders to ourselves or other to help us over these moments. Now-a-days we have the internet to be able to look everything and almost anything up.
"What day did Walt Disney World open up?" Friday October 1st, 1971 (I only needed to look up the day of the week).
"Who sings Rainbow Connection?" Kermit the Frog.
The internet has helped us remember or revisit a lot of things from the past we may have forgotten. Something we all soon will be able to relive (or experience for the first time) is the original Muppet Show (1976-1981). With the help of many lawyers locked in offices over a long period of time, Disney was able to clear the streaming rights to this Disney Legend Jim Henson original show.
On Friday February 19th (after watching the latest episode of WandaVision) you will be able to access all 5 seasons of The Muppet Show (Nothing has been said about the specials yet). Seasons 1-3 were released on DVD several years ago, but the last two never were. There was even a time that the Odyssey Network (a collaboration of Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment, now it's just the Hallmark Channel) would run the Muppet Show. But that ended around the year 2000. This TV gem has not full been seen by many (too many) generations and as odd as it may seem, it's a big deal.
Why is it such a big deal?
It has yet to be determined if the shows will be edited in any for or fashion. This is not something new for the Muppets unfortunately. The VHS/DVD releases of many of their specials have had to been edited from this original form to omit certain scenes. This was done for legal reasons. The Henson company would acquire the necessary rights for songs or movie scenes to be used on broadcast television, but never worked out the rights to have these songs or scenes to be reproduced on VHS, DVD, Blue Ray, streaming services (VHS only came out that year and the rest didn't exist in 1976).
Disney was able to clear the rights for the first 3 seasons of the Muppet Show to be reproduced on DVD, but for some reason never cleared seasons 4 or 5. Now it has seemed they were able to do so for all 5 seasons to use on Disney+. This not only includes the use of songs, but the celebrity appearances as well (Excuse me Mr Hamill, could you please sign this paper saying it's ok for us to put another show on Disney+ with you in it).
I wondered for a while what Disney had planned for the Muppets, and if they were going to keep them around at all. To put that much effort into clearing all the issues and bringing all 5 season to Disney+ make me think Disney is keeping the Muppets around for a long time and have more things planned for them.
I loved watching The Muppet Show on TV back in the 80s, and now I will sit with my family and enjoy it again.
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