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A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
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With Spielberg and Amblin now having Disney shares, what would Disney have thought about some of Amblin's other projects in this timeline? In particular, I'm interested to see what Henson would have made of Jurassic Park.
If Henson lives longer here than he did in OTL (fingers crossed) and stays with Disney into the 90s', I can see him being at least half-way interested in Jurassic Park. Given Henson's interest in further pioneering visual effects, as shown in The Dark Crystal and TRON, I can see him being supportive of the idea of making the dinosaurs with the CGI and animatronics used in both of those films.
Furthermore, Henson had his own dinosaur film in development, The Natural History Project. It eventually became Dinosaurs IOTL - however, if Henson gets it made (possibly as an animated film) at Disney, I'd be interested to see what the knock-on effects would be.
You see, the concept art for the film depicts feathered raptors.... in a time where feathered dinosaurs of any kind were almost unheard of. If Henson gets it made with the feathered raptors, I wonder how dinosaur depictions might change.
If Henson lives longer here than he did in OTL (fingers crossed) and stays with Disney into the 90s', I can see him being at least half-way interested in Jurassic Park. Given Henson's interest in further pioneering visual effects, as shown in The Dark Crystal and TRON, I can see him being supportive of the idea of making the dinosaurs with the CGI and animatronics used in both of those films.
Furthermore, Henson had his own dinosaur film in development, The Natural History Project. It eventually became Dinosaurs IOTL - however, if Henson gets it made (possibly as an animated film) at Disney, I'd be interested to see what the knock-on effects would be.
You see, the concept art for the film depicts feathered raptors.... in a time where feathered dinosaurs of any kind were almost unheard of. If Henson gets it made with the feathered raptors, I wonder how dinosaur depictions might change.
Leave it to Henson to be ahead of the curve with Raptor Feathers. The Natural History Project will come up. JP is a decade out, but may escape butterflies. Michael Chrichton's MO of modernizing Frankenstein undoubtedly leads eventually to cloned dinosaurs.
I don't see Jurassic Park changing in this timeline, but seeing it alongside Disney's Dinosaur! (obviously renamed from the working title NHP) would be an amazing one-two punch for dinosaur fans.
Alternately, what if Natural History Project was reimagined as a documentary series like the later BBC production Walking with Dinosaurs? Perhaps if Jurassic Park releases before the NHP is past preproduction Disney chooses to scrap the movie so they don't look like they're playing copycat. All the research and assets made for the movie would still be good and could be used as a foundation to a series of 'docu-fiction' television episodes broadcast on Disney Channel. Used to illustrate the accelerating changes in how we imagine the lives of prehistoric life, the Natural History Project could become a new Fantasia for Disney, periodically updated with new episodes, featuring new eras and environments (and in a bold move, explicitly pointing out where previous episodes got it wrong).
I wonder if they'd go with a traditional documentary style or if Disney would do something like Chased by Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Park and have human "time travelers" serve as guides for the audience and interact directly with the dinosaurs/mammoths/freakyfish/etc.
Alternately, what if Natural History Project was reimagined as a documentary series like the later BBC production Walking with Dinosaurs? Perhaps if Jurassic Park releases before the NHP is past preproduction Disney chooses to scrap the movie so they don't look like they're playing copycat. All the research and assets made for the movie would still be good and could be used as a foundation to a series of 'docu-fiction' television episodes broadcast on Disney Channel. Used to illustrate the accelerating changes in how we imagine the lives of prehistoric life, the Natural History Project could become a new Fantasia for Disney, periodically updated with new episodes, featuring new eras and environments (and in a bold move, explicitly pointing out where previous episodes got it wrong).
I wonder if they'd go with a traditional documentary style or if Disney would do something like Chased by Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Park and have human "time travelers" serve as guides for the audience and interact directly with the dinosaurs/mammoths/freakyfish/etc.
Or even bolder, Spielberg and Henson interacting on their dinosaur ideas, and spielberg taking more to the feathered dinos as a result of this interaction.
it would change the view of the movie
Dis War VIIc: The Immediate Aftermath
Chapter 9: An Alliance of Swine
Excerpt from Kingdom Under Siege: The Wall Street War over Disney, by Taylor Johnson
Ultimately, Jon Boesky would get his bar mitzvah[1]. In addition to an appearance by Miss Piggy, who famously posed with Ivan Boesky in an image that made the cover of Vanity Fair and became iconic of the mid-eighties[2], the Henson team brought several of the Muppets, in particular their many Muppet pigs, to the event. Jim Henson reprised his role as the dim-witted Link Hogthrob, Jerry Nelson played the bizarre Dr. Strangepork, and Louise Gold returned from London, and the set of Spitting Image, to play the ingénue Annie Sue. They performed several custom sketches, with Link bringing down the house with the line “Being mostly pork myself I didn’t expect to be this welcome at a bar mitzvah.”
In addition to the appearance, the Muppets team made custom Muppets of the entire Boesky family and gave Ivan one of the Miss Piggy Muppets they’d used in the event. Boesky displayed both the Piggy Muppet and the him-Muppet at his corporate headquarters. Both would be lost, along with a considerable portion of his fortune, to the Federal Government when he was arrested and imprisoned on insider trading charges two years later[3]. The two Muppets are now displayed in the lobby of the Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, DC, and make occasional appearances in temporary exhibits at the Smithsonian.
Needless to say, the story of Frank Oz and Ivan Boesky made its way into the media. The “Piggy & Piggy” story spread like wildfire through the press. For the next two years a humorous false-rumor began circling the Hollywood gossip columns that Ivan Boesky and Miss Piggy were having an affair, something that made both Boesky and Oz laugh. Disney “officially” denied the rumors, though Stanley Gold “broke ranks” and told a reporter how “ashamed” he was of Boesky for the “affair”, crudely stating, “as a practicing Jew [Boesky] should know better than to eat pork.” This was typically changed to “be seen with pork” when printed. The rumored affair was a running gag that Henson and Oz had a lot of fun playing with, with Piggy coyly, and unconvincingly, denying everything while a flustered Kermit pretended not to care. Ultimately, they dropped the schtick when young fans started to write worried letters, afraid that Kermit and Piggy were going to break up. Kermit and Piggy even held an ersatz press conference to “dispel the many rumors” surrounding their relationship, said relationship being portrayed in the bizarre, dysfunctional, and ambiguous way it always had been.
And the world moved on. Disney would continue on under a new hybrid management arrangement, the old guard now forced to come to terms with the new reality of outside corporate interests on the board. Holmes à Court would cut his losses and move on, the whole affair being more opportunistic in the end than personal. ACC would even go on to negotiate production and distribution deals with Disney as if nothing had happened.
In the end, the story of Boesky’s “change of heart” has been interpreted as more of a calculated business move on his part than a sign of any real love for the company or an “alliance of swine,” as Tom Brokaw would put it. Simply put, he sold his shares for a substantial profit. Some have called it “greenmail”, though the offer at the time, $97-per-share against a going rate of $92.7-per-share, was not too excessive or even unusual under the circumstances. Disney and the Round Table simply outbid Holmes à Court.
For Boesky, of course, the celebrations would be short lived. Within 2 years he’d be arrested, turn state’s evidence, and serve prison time for his role in a complex insider trading scheme.
As a strange epilogue, while imprisoned in Lompoc Federal Prison Camp, Ivan Boesky got a visit from Frank Oz, with Miss Piggy in tow. The two shared what both would later describe as a funny, heartfelt discussion. Alas, no accounts or recording of this conversation have been released.
For years afterwards Boesky and Oz remained on friendly terms, occasionally meeting for meals or drinks or raising funds together for charitable causes such as the National Holocaust Museum.
An alliance of swine indeed.
Robert Holmes à Court, meanwhile, licked his wounds and began rethinking his long-term strategy. He was interrupted by his receptionist. There was an important call for him.
Holmes à Court picked up the receiver. An American voice, tinted with a Southern drawl, spoke to him. “Hello, Mr. Holmes à Court, my name is Ted Turner, and I have a proposition for you.”
[1] I honestly have no idea if Jon Boesky had a bar mitzvah in our timeline, but I assume he did. He would have been turning 13 in late ’84 to early ’85 (I don’t know his birthday, just his rough age), so presumably he would have had one. Ivan Boesky became more devout and observant in his later years, but I have no idea of his faith before 1986’s imprisonment and reckoning. Still, traditions are important even to the secular.
[2] In this timeline 1987’s Wall Street references and satirizes this famous moment when Gordon Gekko is shown being photographed with a puppet gecko.
[3] As happened in our timeline.
Excerpt from Kingdom Under Siege: The Wall Street War over Disney, by Taylor Johnson
Ultimately, Jon Boesky would get his bar mitzvah[1]. In addition to an appearance by Miss Piggy, who famously posed with Ivan Boesky in an image that made the cover of Vanity Fair and became iconic of the mid-eighties[2], the Henson team brought several of the Muppets, in particular their many Muppet pigs, to the event. Jim Henson reprised his role as the dim-witted Link Hogthrob, Jerry Nelson played the bizarre Dr. Strangepork, and Louise Gold returned from London, and the set of Spitting Image, to play the ingénue Annie Sue. They performed several custom sketches, with Link bringing down the house with the line “Being mostly pork myself I didn’t expect to be this welcome at a bar mitzvah.”
In addition to the appearance, the Muppets team made custom Muppets of the entire Boesky family and gave Ivan one of the Miss Piggy Muppets they’d used in the event. Boesky displayed both the Piggy Muppet and the him-Muppet at his corporate headquarters. Both would be lost, along with a considerable portion of his fortune, to the Federal Government when he was arrested and imprisoned on insider trading charges two years later[3]. The two Muppets are now displayed in the lobby of the Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, DC, and make occasional appearances in temporary exhibits at the Smithsonian.
Needless to say, the story of Frank Oz and Ivan Boesky made its way into the media. The “Piggy & Piggy” story spread like wildfire through the press. For the next two years a humorous false-rumor began circling the Hollywood gossip columns that Ivan Boesky and Miss Piggy were having an affair, something that made both Boesky and Oz laugh. Disney “officially” denied the rumors, though Stanley Gold “broke ranks” and told a reporter how “ashamed” he was of Boesky for the “affair”, crudely stating, “as a practicing Jew [Boesky] should know better than to eat pork.” This was typically changed to “be seen with pork” when printed. The rumored affair was a running gag that Henson and Oz had a lot of fun playing with, with Piggy coyly, and unconvincingly, denying everything while a flustered Kermit pretended not to care. Ultimately, they dropped the schtick when young fans started to write worried letters, afraid that Kermit and Piggy were going to break up. Kermit and Piggy even held an ersatz press conference to “dispel the many rumors” surrounding their relationship, said relationship being portrayed in the bizarre, dysfunctional, and ambiguous way it always had been.
And the world moved on. Disney would continue on under a new hybrid management arrangement, the old guard now forced to come to terms with the new reality of outside corporate interests on the board. Holmes à Court would cut his losses and move on, the whole affair being more opportunistic in the end than personal. ACC would even go on to negotiate production and distribution deals with Disney as if nothing had happened.
In the end, the story of Boesky’s “change of heart” has been interpreted as more of a calculated business move on his part than a sign of any real love for the company or an “alliance of swine,” as Tom Brokaw would put it. Simply put, he sold his shares for a substantial profit. Some have called it “greenmail”, though the offer at the time, $97-per-share against a going rate of $92.7-per-share, was not too excessive or even unusual under the circumstances. Disney and the Round Table simply outbid Holmes à Court.
For Boesky, of course, the celebrations would be short lived. Within 2 years he’d be arrested, turn state’s evidence, and serve prison time for his role in a complex insider trading scheme.
As a strange epilogue, while imprisoned in Lompoc Federal Prison Camp, Ivan Boesky got a visit from Frank Oz, with Miss Piggy in tow. The two shared what both would later describe as a funny, heartfelt discussion. Alas, no accounts or recording of this conversation have been released.
For years afterwards Boesky and Oz remained on friendly terms, occasionally meeting for meals or drinks or raising funds together for charitable causes such as the National Holocaust Museum.
An alliance of swine indeed.
- - -
Robert Holmes à Court, meanwhile, licked his wounds and began rethinking his long-term strategy. He was interrupted by his receptionist. There was an important call for him.
Holmes à Court picked up the receiver. An American voice, tinted with a Southern drawl, spoke to him. “Hello, Mr. Holmes à Court, my name is Ted Turner, and I have a proposition for you.”
[1] I honestly have no idea if Jon Boesky had a bar mitzvah in our timeline, but I assume he did. He would have been turning 13 in late ’84 to early ’85 (I don’t know his birthday, just his rough age), so presumably he would have had one. Ivan Boesky became more devout and observant in his later years, but I have no idea of his faith before 1986’s imprisonment and reckoning. Still, traditions are important even to the secular.
[2] In this timeline 1987’s Wall Street references and satirizes this famous moment when Gordon Gekko is shown being photographed with a puppet gecko.
[3] As happened in our timeline.
So does Ted Turner make Robert Holmes a Court an offer he can't refuse? If they do make a deal, will it be trouble for Disney?
Thank you for the Fallout post there Boesky didn’t turn out to be the villain for Disney afterall, even if other sins caught up with him later.
I imagine the ‘piggy affair’ got dropped when Boesky went to jail? Like how Henson/Disney can use it for some years though to generate press.
Holmes a’ Court and Ted Turner? Wonder what that’s about!
I imagine the ‘piggy affair’ got dropped when Boesky went to jail? Like how Henson/Disney can use it for some years though to generate press.
Holmes a’ Court and Ted Turner? Wonder what that’s about!
A very poignant coda to the Hostile Takeover Run arc, GK.
His objective? As Orson Welles so succinctly put it, he wants to deface some movies with his crayons.
Turner wants financial backing to get his meathooks on MGM, presumably (which happened in August 1985 IOTL). Maybe he'll be able to hold onto the library and the studio with his help, as he infamously had to sell the studio back to Kerkorian after 99 days IOTL - though he really only wanted the library anyway.
His objective? As Orson Welles so succinctly put it, he wants to deface some movies with his crayons.
Well I nearly lost my iPad trying not to spit out Tea when I read that..!
Damn, did we expect any less a burn from the guy who made a certain classic?
I remember he turned the T. rex from King Kong bright pink for instance. Way to kill the menace, Teddy.
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I hope that Ted Turner isn't expecting any money to result from this call, because if he is I fear he will be disappointed. I reckon that little jaunt cost Holmes à Court at least $100million (assuming he sold his stock at the mid-point between the peak he brought at and the price it ended up at. And that is very generous as the price would have fallen off a cliff once Boesky sold, it could easily be up at $200million in a worst case scenario). And as noted he funded much of his stake with short term loans and stock borrow, so he has the cost of that to pay as well.
Sure he is an (Aussie dollar) billionaire, but that wealth is tied up in his share holding in Bell Group. I imagine most of his ready cash was burnt up by Kingdom Acquisitions and famously what killed Bell Group was that it owned many 'valuable' things but they didn't generate enough cash to cover the debts, once the share bubble popped that became obvious and the banks pulled the credit. I imagine he is currently fairly busy trying to stop that happening early and probably hasn't got much to offer right now. Except his controlling stake in the Bell Group, which is a proper 80s coal to newspapers conglomerate, but the only good bits are the Australian mining and oil bits, which are odd things to offer if you are trying to buy MGM.
That said, he may still have some bits of ACC that could be tarted up and made to look more valuable than they actually were (assuming they weren't sold off to fund the Kingdom Acquisition scheme) and they might be attractive to the right people. In any event I look forward to seeing what happens.
Thanks, all. Tomorrow you'll get some althist red meat before we return to the aftermath effects.
It'll be a bit of time before we get to what Turner is up to. As El Pip pointed out HAC has to get his financial ducks back in order before he makes any big deals.
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