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) 29, 2015. In early November 2015, it was announced that Kushell was leaving the series, with Kristen Newman in talks to replace him. The move was reportedly part of a creative overhaul of the series, which saw the final six episodes of the first season act as a relaunch of the show. Newman began work during production of the tenth episode, which involved her rewriting the Miss Piggy-Kermit scenes to "bring [their] connection back... that was being walked away from completely" in the early episodes. Newman also hoped to introduce more serialized elements to the series. However, ABC cancelled "The