A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
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Um, wow, thank you all, I'm humbled. I really could not have done it without the constant support I got from all of you. There's an old saying that if you see a turtle standing on a fencepost, be assured that he didn't get there by himself. Thanks for all the suggestions and corrections and hints and likes. Thank you all for slogging through my self-therapy this last year. And thanks, of course, to Mrs. Khan and my kid for supporting my crazy Muppets thing.
Congratulations on the Turtledove! @Geekhis Khan
This story really has been a blast to follow through and I never would've imagined such a scenario and timeline this beautiful was possible.
Here's to many more years of amazing Disney magic with Jim Henson and the rest of the gang!
This story really has been a blast to follow through and I never would've imagined such a scenario and timeline this beautiful was possible.
Here's to many more years of amazing Disney magic with Jim Henson and the rest of the gang!
Not gonna lie, that certainly was a bit embarrassing, but I think it could be butterflied in favor of a more Muppet-induced showcase.
Timeline Summary: Summer 1983 to 1988
All, thank you again for the support and the Turtledove win for Best pop Culture Timeline. I'm humbled and thankful. I hope Year 2 can keep up the momentum.
I wish I had something more exciting than a "previously on" for you all!
Timeline Summary: 1983 to 1988
By reader request, here is another quick summary of the Timeline events so far, or “Previously, on A Hippie in the House of Mouse”:
As 1984 dawned, Jim Henson had begun turning around the struggling Disney studios even as he struggled with the creative limitations and risk aversion of the conservative faction of Disney executives, in particular Chairman and CEO Emeritus E. Cardon “Card” Walker. With Card’s retirement and replacement with Walt Disney son-in-law Ron Miller as CEO and board member Ray Watson as Chairman, Jim gained some creative freedom, but still grappled with Card, who remained on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
Meanwhile, Roy E. Disney, working with his aggressive business manager Stanley Gold, increased his stake in Disney and demanded more board representation. Almost immediately tensions with the Walt side of the family flared. And in the midst of this inner-Disney drama, Associated Communications Corporation (ACC) head Robert Holmes-à-Court initiated a hostile takeover attempt of Disney, whose stock price was undervalued. Holmes-à-Court was soon joined by a coalition of other companies and individuals including Bally/Six Flags and the Tracinda Group. They organized themselves into a shell company called Kingdom Acquisitions, LLC. They planed nothing less than the breakup of Disney, each planning to claim a share of the assets and sell off the rest to pay down the short-term debt incurred in the buy.
This initiated a panic within Disney as Ray Watson attempted to fight off the takeover. In an attempt to dilute Kingdom Acquisitions’ shares (and against Roy Disney’s wishes) Disney initiated an all-stock takeover of Henson Associates (not including the Sesame Street Muppets or Kermit), making Jim Henson the majority shareholder. By this point arbitrageurs had begun taking stakes hoping to turn a quick profit. One of these was Ivan “Piggy” Boesky, whom Frank Oz antagonized in a phone call using his Miss Piggy voice.
But the dilution scheme failed, as the chance to snag the Muppets only further whetted the appetite of Holmes-à-Court. The Disney board then followed Stanley Gold’s plan and organized a White Knight campaign featuring Bass Brothers, Marriott, Apple Computer, Amblin Entertainment, and Lucasfilm, among others, which became known as the Round Table Group. The fight raged for weeks, the stock price soaring as the KA group and RT each bid higher and higher as they tried to scoop up as much stock as possible, each trying to reach the unbreakable 51% that would assure ownership. Stress levers were reaching a breaking point.
The battle came down to the shares held by Boesky, who ultimately sold to Disney as they tendered the higher offer. Miss Piggy and the rest of the Muppet pigs attended his son’s bar mitzva in thanks.
With Disney safe, the repercussions set in. Ron Miller nearly lost his position as CEO. Sid Bass sent Charles Cobb of Arvida to represent his interests and Bill Marriott sent Al Checchi to represent him. Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas took ad hoc, non-voting “associate director” positions. In the horse trading after the fact, Card Walker and his faction retired completely from the board and Gold’s friend Frank Wells took over as President and COO of Disney. Ron Miller retained his position as CEO only thanks to the support of Jim Henson.
Frank Wells brought financial discipline to the company that, along with Henson’s creative energy, turned Disney into a powerhouse. The highly profitable Fantasia Films releases of Ghostbusters and Back to the Future combined with the soaring park and hotel profits thanks to Wells’ leadership and helped pay down the short-term White Knight debt, and soon Disney stock was soaring. Disney bought up Marvel, Inc., in 1985 and bought up the name and theme park rights to MGM and a 20% stake in the film library in 1986. Disney soon broke ground on new hotels like the Grand Floridian and Villa Romana and, biggest of all, broke ground on Disneyland Valencia in Pego, Spain.
Meanwhile, the butterflies were reaching other studios. Lisa Henson, Jim's oldest daughter, had interned at Lucasfilm and then gone to work at Amblin, helping lead to Star Wars Episode VI: Legacy of the Jedi and Mask of the Monkey King: An Indiana Jones Adventure. Her boyfriend Sam Raimi redefined horror by introducing the Smart Slasher in his take on Friday the 13th Part 5. He then directed The Running Man and was chosen by Warner Brothers to direct Batman. Gulf+Western bought 20th Century Fox and sold off its industrial assets, rebranding as Triad Entertainment. Michael Eisner, considered for Disney but ultimately passed over in favor of Wells, went to ABC and launched the highly successful Hollywood Pictures with Jeffrey Katzenberg. Their “formula” of “lower budget, undervalued actor, ‘high concept’ film” appears to be working like a charm.
But the biggest changes came to Ted Turner, who partnered with ACC to take over CBS. He then bought up MGM in whole from Tracinda, but it was a bite more than he could chew, facilitating the breakup and sales, including selling the MGM name, theme park rights, and a 20% share of his 51% stake in the film library to Disney as mentioned. ACC, meanwhile, grabbed MGM's 33% stake in Tri-Star and began expanding into the US. ACC and Turner then grabbed up the assets of Coca-Cola’s breakup of Columbia Pictures, Turner taking the Columbia name and studios and ACC claiming their 33% stake in Tri-Star, giving him a commanding 66% and rebranding as Atlantic Communications Corporation.
Technology is changing too. Butterflies from his EPCOT sponsorship led to Jack Tramiel maintaining control of Commodore, Richard Branson buying up Atari and creating Virgin Computers, and the recently-kicked-out-of-Apple Steve Jobs joining the Disney Imagineering “I-Works” board. There, Jobs helped launch Imagine, Inc., leading to such advances in computer graphics systems as the Disney Imagination Station (DIS) and the Cray-2 based CHERNABOG compiler, leading to a near-revolution in computer vector graphics and animation, particularly once paired with the “Pixar machines” of the Disney Digital Division (3D). “Hybrid” hand-drawn and computer animation has found a cost effective “sweet spot” between the two traditions. The Disney “Creatureworks”, formerly Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, has meanwhile revolutionized practical puppetry and animatronic effects with new, organic and lifelike techniques.
Finally, Disney’s smashing success in TV animation and feature animation (Where the Wild Things Are (1986) was a blockbuster success) and hybrid live-action and animation (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), aided by 3D’s advances, inspires other studios to get back into the animation game, with Turner/CBS buying Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers buying Rankin-Bass, ABC/Hollywood buying DIC, and Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi partnering as Bakshi-Kricfalusi Productions, known to all as “Bat Shit Productions” for its adult themes and surreal animation. After partnering with Richard Williams to create the visually stunning but financially unsuccessful The Thief and the Cobbler, Don Bluth is starting to look for new opportunities to take a bite out of the Mouse. All look to finally put the resurgent Disney back in its place.
And what could Warner Brothers possibly be doing with their recent purchase of Six Flags from Bally?
So, as 1988 dawns, will Disney be able to continue its upwards trajectory? Will WB and Turner/CBS or ABC/Hollywood be able to push them aside? Will Bluth finally have his revenge on Disney? Will Robert Holmes-à-Court complete his time machine and undue all that was done, making the White Knight campaign all for naught?
[cue dramatic organ music]
Tune in next time for yet more egregious episodes of A Hippie in the House of Mouse.
I wish I had something more exciting than a "previously on" for you all!
Timeline Summary: 1983 to 1988
By reader request, here is another quick summary of the Timeline events so far, or “Previously, on A Hippie in the House of Mouse”:
As 1984 dawned, Jim Henson had begun turning around the struggling Disney studios even as he struggled with the creative limitations and risk aversion of the conservative faction of Disney executives, in particular Chairman and CEO Emeritus E. Cardon “Card” Walker. With Card’s retirement and replacement with Walt Disney son-in-law Ron Miller as CEO and board member Ray Watson as Chairman, Jim gained some creative freedom, but still grappled with Card, who remained on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
Meanwhile, Roy E. Disney, working with his aggressive business manager Stanley Gold, increased his stake in Disney and demanded more board representation. Almost immediately tensions with the Walt side of the family flared. And in the midst of this inner-Disney drama, Associated Communications Corporation (ACC) head Robert Holmes-à-Court initiated a hostile takeover attempt of Disney, whose stock price was undervalued. Holmes-à-Court was soon joined by a coalition of other companies and individuals including Bally/Six Flags and the Tracinda Group. They organized themselves into a shell company called Kingdom Acquisitions, LLC. They planed nothing less than the breakup of Disney, each planning to claim a share of the assets and sell off the rest to pay down the short-term debt incurred in the buy.
This initiated a panic within Disney as Ray Watson attempted to fight off the takeover. In an attempt to dilute Kingdom Acquisitions’ shares (and against Roy Disney’s wishes) Disney initiated an all-stock takeover of Henson Associates (not including the Sesame Street Muppets or Kermit), making Jim Henson the majority shareholder. By this point arbitrageurs had begun taking stakes hoping to turn a quick profit. One of these was Ivan “Piggy” Boesky, whom Frank Oz antagonized in a phone call using his Miss Piggy voice.
But the dilution scheme failed, as the chance to snag the Muppets only further whetted the appetite of Holmes-à-Court. The Disney board then followed Stanley Gold’s plan and organized a White Knight campaign featuring Bass Brothers, Marriott, Apple Computer, Amblin Entertainment, and Lucasfilm, among others, which became known as the Round Table Group. The fight raged for weeks, the stock price soaring as the KA group and RT each bid higher and higher as they tried to scoop up as much stock as possible, each trying to reach the unbreakable 51% that would assure ownership. Stress levers were reaching a breaking point.
The battle came down to the shares held by Boesky, who ultimately sold to Disney as they tendered the higher offer. Miss Piggy and the rest of the Muppet pigs attended his son’s bar mitzva in thanks.
With Disney safe, the repercussions set in. Ron Miller nearly lost his position as CEO. Sid Bass sent Charles Cobb of Arvida to represent his interests and Bill Marriott sent Al Checchi to represent him. Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas took ad hoc, non-voting “associate director” positions. In the horse trading after the fact, Card Walker and his faction retired completely from the board and Gold’s friend Frank Wells took over as President and COO of Disney. Ron Miller retained his position as CEO only thanks to the support of Jim Henson.
Frank Wells brought financial discipline to the company that, along with Henson’s creative energy, turned Disney into a powerhouse. The highly profitable Fantasia Films releases of Ghostbusters and Back to the Future combined with the soaring park and hotel profits thanks to Wells’ leadership and helped pay down the short-term White Knight debt, and soon Disney stock was soaring. Disney bought up Marvel, Inc., in 1985 and bought up the name and theme park rights to MGM and a 20% stake in the film library in 1986. Disney soon broke ground on new hotels like the Grand Floridian and Villa Romana and, biggest of all, broke ground on Disneyland Valencia in Pego, Spain.
Meanwhile, the butterflies were reaching other studios. Lisa Henson, Jim's oldest daughter, had interned at Lucasfilm and then gone to work at Amblin, helping lead to Star Wars Episode VI: Legacy of the Jedi and Mask of the Monkey King: An Indiana Jones Adventure. Her boyfriend Sam Raimi redefined horror by introducing the Smart Slasher in his take on Friday the 13th Part 5. He then directed The Running Man and was chosen by Warner Brothers to direct Batman. Gulf+Western bought 20th Century Fox and sold off its industrial assets, rebranding as Triad Entertainment. Michael Eisner, considered for Disney but ultimately passed over in favor of Wells, went to ABC and launched the highly successful Hollywood Pictures with Jeffrey Katzenberg. Their “formula” of “lower budget, undervalued actor, ‘high concept’ film” appears to be working like a charm.
But the biggest changes came to Ted Turner, who partnered with ACC to take over CBS. He then bought up MGM in whole from Tracinda, but it was a bite more than he could chew, facilitating the breakup and sales, including selling the MGM name, theme park rights, and a 20% share of his 51% stake in the film library to Disney as mentioned. ACC, meanwhile, grabbed MGM's 33% stake in Tri-Star and began expanding into the US. ACC and Turner then grabbed up the assets of Coca-Cola’s breakup of Columbia Pictures, Turner taking the Columbia name and studios and ACC claiming their 33% stake in Tri-Star, giving him a commanding 66% and rebranding as Atlantic Communications Corporation.
Technology is changing too. Butterflies from his EPCOT sponsorship led to Jack Tramiel maintaining control of Commodore, Richard Branson buying up Atari and creating Virgin Computers, and the recently-kicked-out-of-Apple Steve Jobs joining the Disney Imagineering “I-Works” board. There, Jobs helped launch Imagine, Inc., leading to such advances in computer graphics systems as the Disney Imagination Station (DIS) and the Cray-2 based CHERNABOG compiler, leading to a near-revolution in computer vector graphics and animation, particularly once paired with the “Pixar machines” of the Disney Digital Division (3D). “Hybrid” hand-drawn and computer animation has found a cost effective “sweet spot” between the two traditions. The Disney “Creatureworks”, formerly Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, has meanwhile revolutionized practical puppetry and animatronic effects with new, organic and lifelike techniques.
Finally, Disney’s smashing success in TV animation and feature animation (Where the Wild Things Are (1986) was a blockbuster success) and hybrid live-action and animation (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), aided by 3D’s advances, inspires other studios to get back into the animation game, with Turner/CBS buying Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers buying Rankin-Bass, ABC/Hollywood buying DIC, and Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi partnering as Bakshi-Kricfalusi Productions, known to all as “Bat Shit Productions” for its adult themes and surreal animation. After partnering with Richard Williams to create the visually stunning but financially unsuccessful The Thief and the Cobbler, Don Bluth is starting to look for new opportunities to take a bite out of the Mouse. All look to finally put the resurgent Disney back in its place.
And what could Warner Brothers possibly be doing with their recent purchase of Six Flags from Bally?
So, as 1988 dawns, will Disney be able to continue its upwards trajectory? Will WB and Turner/CBS or ABC/Hollywood be able to push them aside? Will Bluth finally have his revenge on Disney? Will Robert Holmes-à-Court complete his time machine and undue all that was done, making the White Knight campaign all for naught?
[cue dramatic organ music]
Tune in next time for yet more egregious episodes of A Hippie in the House of Mouse.
A well deserved nomination on your part too, @Pyro. I'd have happily saw the award go to you.
Thank you for the round up there @Geekhis Khan - I remember the drama of the takeover bid, waiting for posts to drop was torture!
A well deserved win for a fantastic timeline in a field of very strong contenders.
A well deserved win for a fantastic timeline in a field of very strong contenders.
That recap was so cool! Although, I do have a few things to say.
1: If WB owns Rankin-Bass and has a partnership with Six Flags, might I suggest a 2D-animated Rudolph animated series for Cartoon TV and a Frosty the Snowman treat similar to the Mickey Caramel Apples at Disneyland for a Six Flags addition?
2: With Turner buying HB earlier on, thus causing an earlier Cartoon Network, albeit under the more generic name of Cartoon TV, on top of owning CBS, does this mean that the Eyeball will be able to air the Cartoon Cartoons during the 90's? Or at least, an equivalent to the Cartoon Cartoons?
3: We've seen what Hollywood Animation is capable of with Gummi Bears and Miximals, but has the studio made anything other than that prior to greenlighting those programs? For that matter, does HA have any potential cartoons that they could make later on?
1: If WB owns Rankin-Bass and has a partnership with Six Flags, might I suggest a 2D-animated Rudolph animated series for Cartoon TV and a Frosty the Snowman treat similar to the Mickey Caramel Apples at Disneyland for a Six Flags addition?
2: With Turner buying HB earlier on, thus causing an earlier Cartoon Network, albeit under the more generic name of Cartoon TV, on top of owning CBS, does this mean that the Eyeball will be able to air the Cartoon Cartoons during the 90's? Or at least, an equivalent to the Cartoon Cartoons?
3: We've seen what Hollywood Animation is capable of with Gummi Bears and Miximals, but has the studio made anything other than that prior to greenlighting those programs? For that matter, does HA have any potential cartoons that they could make later on?
Could Hollywood Animation become the Dreamworks of our timeline, but under a Eisner-Katzenberg leadership? I'd like to see them attempt early DW films like Sinbad and the Prince of Egypt at some point. Maybe even Shrek once that comes out, assuming that doesn't fall under Disney's eye (Hopefully not, as even Henson, being the cultural Galactus that he is, can miss some good hits).
The butterflies are probably going to be a nightmare, though.
Well, Steven Spielberg puchased the film rights to Shrek in 1991 IOTL, and the film rights found it's way toward DreamWorks where it became a real HUGE franchise, But with Spielberg owning shares in Disney ITTL...
Once @Geekhis Khan finishes this timeline, an interesting follow-up project would be "Bulldozing the House of Mouse" where ACC's hostile takeover bid actually succeeds and the Disney divisions and holdings are broken up and sold off to the highest bidder, to interesting results. I daren't try it myself.
Good lord....
To think that Disney could have Shrek in this timeline....... It's perfect Fantasyland material, though, so can't really complain about it one bit!
Speaking of potential works....
Tin Toy - Wikipedia
How will Pixar form in this timeline? I suppose that without Steve Jobs being the main financier, it would be Henson and the Disney company that will prop up the fledgling 3D animation studio in Lucasfilm for Tin Toy, the prototype for Toy Story. Maybe Pixar will become a subdivision of Walt Disney Animation Studios as a result?
Also I have another idea for a new land idea or theme park gate: Super Nintendo World.
It could be a possibility since Henson established a relationship between Disney and Nintendo for the Dark Crystal games. Who knows where that'll lead....
Disney bought out Lucasfilm's Graphics Group and merged it with their in house computer division forming Disney Digital Division or 3D. ITTL the Pixar name belongs to their in house advance rendering engine.
A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
If not with sentai then with an anime of some kind. Dragon Ball perhaps? Actually, I think that letting Studio Ghibli be with Disney earlier than 1996 would be a good way for both Jim to introduce anime to the States, and for Disney to be far ahead of the pack when it comes to the otaku boom of...
www.alternatehistory.com
And Chris Farley was the original voice actor for Shrek, possible reason to save him maybe?
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