The Muppets Take Manhattan Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and Animal), who previously co-directed "The Dark Crystal" with Henson. The film introduced the Muppet Babies, as toddler versions of the Muppet characters in a fantasy sequence. The eponymous animated television series premiered on CBS in September 1984, airing until 1991. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and the rest of the Muppets have graduated from Danhurst College by entertaining their fellow graduates with their theatrical production of "Manhattan Melodies". Upon the suggestion of taking the show to Broadway, the Muppets proceed with the idea, certain they will become stars instantly. Arriving in Manhattan, the group meet producer
The Muppets Studio under Senior Vice President and General Manager R. Russell Hampton, Jr. ABC, in October 2005, commissioned "America's Next Muppet", a script and five script outlines, but ABC was reluctant to green light "America's Next Muppet", and it never got out of the planning stage. Muppet Holding's new general manager instead licensed the Muppets out to TF1, a French television network, to produce "Muppet TV" in September 2006. In 2006, the Muppets Holding Company was transferred from the Disney Consumer Products unit to The Walt Disney Studios; with studio executives passing on oversight, the unit was placed in the special events