The Muppets film, "Muppets from Space", released by Columbia Pictures in 1999. In 2000, Henson was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $680 million. However, EM.TV was plagued with financial problems and the Henson family re-acquired the company in 2003, with the exception of the rights to the "Sesame Street" characters, which had been sold by EM.TV to Sesame Workshop. Fourteen years after initial negotiations began, Disney acquired the Muppets intellectual property from the Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. The acquisition consisted of the Muppets and "Bear in the Big Blue House" properties, as well as
The Muppets (TV series) dating a human woman. On the other hand, Dorothy Rabinowitz of "The Wall Street Journal" was more positive toward the series. She wrote, "As soon as you begin watching the new "Muppets" the question arises—how come no one thought of this before? So perfect is the idea of a late-night talk show called "Up Late with Miss Piggy" one has to wonder." The group One Million Moms, an offshoot of the American Family Association, began protesting "The Muppets", citing it as "unsuitable for family viewing", and calling for boycotts against it immediately after ABC picked it up, long before the