Muppet Babies Cartoonist Explains Why Series Isn’t on Streaming

During a recent experience at Los Angeles Comic Con, Jim Henson Studios animator and original Muppet Babies producer Guy Gilchrist answered the question he hears the most: why can’t you watch the original Muppet Babies legally on the internet? The answer, basically, is that the rights are a disaster…for a kind of heartwarming reason. While the more modern iteration of Muppet Babies was produced by Disney and featured the original obvious parody, Muppet Babies classic was a bit of a different beast. With significantly less money behind it, their parodies still managed to actually integrate footage, sound effects, and other elements from the movies they were referencing.

How’s that work? Well, basically, the answer is Jim Henson. He was so widely beloved in Hollywood that producers would just let him use their stuff, with a handshake agreement not to do anything irresponsible with it. Unfortunately, those kinds of agreements don’t carry over to a streaming release more than thirty years after Henson’s passing.

“Back in those days, everyone loved us,” Gilchrist told the LACC audience (via Deadline). “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, things are owned by Disney, Universal… and there’s not the camaraderie at the creative level that we had in the eighties.”

He added, “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. 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 and that sort of thing, unfortunately.”

Spinning out of a scene at the end of Muppets Take Manhattan, the original Muppet Babies show ran from 1984 until 1991, with 107 total episodes. It centers on toddler versions of popular Muppet characters, who engage in elaborate creative play. The series spawned a Marvel Comics series (which has since been collected in an omnibus), and was revived in 2018 on Disney Junior, for a new show that ran for three seasons and 71 episodes.

The original Muppet Babies had a few VHS releases, but those each had only a couple of episodes, accounting for a small portion of the overall show. The show has never been officially released on DVD or streaming, although it’s fairly easy to find fan-made DVDs on Etsy and other online marketplaces. The quality is pretty spotty, since it’s sourced from VHS recordings made off the TV.