A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)

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HonestAbe1809

Maybe Henson would encourage Disney to hire British talent both in front of and behind the camera to keep the franchise authentic to its roots. So it'd be more like a better version of pre-cancellation Doctor Who with more American characters but not an American Doctor or Master. It might be easier to make a reboot of the franchise. Go back to brass tacks for the new Disney-BBC collaboration.

And if the BBC decides to make Doctor Who properly again the Disney-produced version can always be retconned as an alternate universe.
 
GrahamB

GrahamB

For a second there I though The Godfather Part 3 was going to be an unexpected butterfly, but alas, it still sees production.
This little teaser got me interested though:
Geekhis Khan said:
The partnership also proved fortuitous for Coppola’s daughter Sophia, an aspiring director herself at the time, who met and was impressed by producers Lisa Henson and Diana Birkenfield while assisting on set, but that’s a tale for another day.
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Has there been a Hollywood movie or television series with an all-female senior production staff? It'd be a neat addition to the timeline if they manage to make the first.
 

El Pip

nick_crenshaw82 said:
While I doubt it'll affect the success of the film but with Rebecca Schaeffer surviving ITTL she may get the role of Mary Corps one.
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I think it might actually. Sofia Coppola's performance was pretty bad and Mary was a central role in the movie, at least in terms of the emotional arc. A more experience actress, one who had time to get prepared properly rather than being thrown in at the last minute, could do a lot more with the material and lift the scenes Mary was in. Wouldn't fix everything, but it would remove one of the largest weak points.

Of course the important fix is just paying Robert Duvall what he deserves so he comes back at Tom Hagen, but Coppola probably still is not in a strong enough position to force that through.

HonestAbe1809 said:
Go back to brass tacks for the new Disney-BBC collaboration.

And if the BBC decides to make Doctor Who properly again the Disney-produced version can always be retconned as an alternate universe.
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Terrible Flashbacks to the Universal-BBC TV Movie.

In any event Disney wont touch 80s Dr Who for the reasons the BBC dropped it - audience figures were going through the floor and had been for years. It's one thing to import a successful show for a US adaption, quite another to go after a failing overseas show. Maybe when the timeline gets to the mid-90s when the OTL TV movie was made it might be time to think again about it, but I remain hopeful the Tardis can steer clear of the House of Mouse and all it's US brethren.
 

Unknown

El Pip said:
I think it might actually. Sofia Coppola's performance was pretty bad and Mary was a central role in the movie, at least in terms of the emotional arc. A more experience actress, one who had time to get prepared properly rather than being thrown in at the last minute, could do a lot more with the material and lift the scenes Mary was in. Wouldn't fix everything, but it would remove one of the largest weak points.
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This wasn't entirely Sofia Coppola's fault, to be fair--Winona Ryder was going to play Mary Corleone (and would have been better, IMO), but she fell ill at the last minute and Sofia Coppola was the only available replacement...

Sofia became a much better director, though...
 
nick_crenshaw82

nick_crenshaw82

One consideration with Henson and British television is that he may not want to endanger his relationship with Lew Grade & ATV by doing a co-production with the BBC.
 
nick_crenshaw82

nick_crenshaw82

Unknown said:
This wasn't entirely Sofia Coppola's fault, to be fair--Winona Ryder was going to play Mary Corleone (and would have been better, IMO), but she fell ill at the last minute and Sofia Coppola was the only available replacement...
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Rebecca Schaefer was also consider so Winona Ryder may not even have to worry.
 

Unknown

And, since Rebecca Schaefer is still alive ITTL, Winona Ryder might do Mermaids in TTL without having to worry about doing Godfather Part III...
 
Denliner

Denliner

El Pip said:
In any event Disney wont touch 80s Dr Who for the reasons the BBC dropped it - audience figures were going through the floor and had been for years. It's one thing to import a successful show for a US adaption, quite another to go after a failing overseas show. Maybe when the timeline gets to the mid-90s when the OTL TV movie was made it might be time to think again about it, but I remain hopeful the Tardis can steer clear of the House of Mouse and all it's US brethren.
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Eh I'm morbidly curious to see what a Disney Doctor Who could look like under Henson, and that might be a reality through the 90s TV Movie which could serve as a reboot that can be non-canon when the BBC does revive the show. The least he could do is probably stick a TARDIS plus some Doctor Who merch in the UK Pavilion after doing a deal with the BBC, to be honest.

Still, probably best to leave Doctor Who in the British Isles out of respect for the franchise and for the butterflies. Henson isn't completely greedy and the Disney execs might think of it as an unknown. It's not like Disney is completely starved of IPs in this timeline too.
 
Denliner

Denliner

nick_crenshaw82 said:
Disney could also pick up JMS's 1989 "Babylon 5" pilot as the Hyperion Channels answer to PFNs Star Trek: TNG.
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Honestly it would be a really cool idea for Disney/Hyperion to acquire Babylon 5. With a bigger budget, different actors, and the help of Disney's Softworks as the "I" for CGI and/or the Creatureworks for special effects/animatronics, it could end up being an entirely different show visually and even thematically.

It could seriously affect DS9 though in terms of butterflies, but we can always assume that Star Trek had similar ideas of a station-centered show for Paramount-Fox.

Would they be a part of the theme parks though? Maybe not, but it'll be intriguing to see Babylon 5 side by side with Star Wars in EPCOT or Tomorrowland in the future.
 
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wietze

Denliner said:
Honestly it would be a really cool idea for Disney/Hyperion to acquire Babylon 5. With a bigger budget, different actors, and the help of Disney's Softworks as the "I" for CGI and/or the Creatureworks for special effects/animatronics, it could end up being an entirely different show visually and even thematically.
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yikes no, i like it as is
yes a bigger budget would improve things
maybe instead don´t have contract blunders, like the contract with Claudia Christian, which saw her replaced after season 4 (Idiotic!)
and from the start implement it as a 5 season show (as JMS had thought it out)
 
Denliner

Denliner

wietze said:
yikes no, i like it as is
yes a bigger budget would improve things
maybe instead don´t have contract blunders, like the contract with Claudia Christian, which saw her replaced after season 4 (Idiotic!)
and from the start implement it as a 5 season show (as JMS had thought it out)
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It was going smoothly but network shenanigans prevented that from happening as planned (iirc PTEN was becoming defunct and JMS didn't know if B5 was going to be saved until TNT picked it up). Under Disney/Hyperion, it should theoretically be a lot more stable and profitable for JMS, while Claudia Christian can be saved for B5 ITTL.

marathag said:
Boo
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I generally think the casting is perfect as well, but this is Disney we're talking about, who might heavily meddle with JMS's production and casting choices.
However, if Hyperion Network is relatively hands-off with JMS (probably at a lower initial budget in exchange) and Henson believes in his vision for TV, it's possible we can get most or all of the OG cast for ITTL.
 
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Denliner

Denliner

nick_crenshaw82 said:
I should note that my ITTL version of B5 would be coming out about four years earlier than OTL.
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Really? JMS would've presented the pilot scripts to Paramount-Fox in 89 like in OTL and then it might get picked up by Hyperion a year or two later. That's enough time for either a pilot in 92-94 or an early test film like The Gathering was.
 
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