Could The Muppets Have Called Universal Home? (Ep. 38)

The Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of The Epic Universal Podcast, Jim Hill and Eric Hersey dive into the fascinating history of The Muppets and their surprising connection to Universal Studios. Plus, they cover the latest Universal news and updates. Highlights include: The Muppets & Universal: How The Great Muppet Caper and The Dark Crystal were distributed by Universal, raising the question—did Universal almost have the theme park rights to the Muppets? Jim Henson’s Battle for Prime Time: How Henson pitched The Muppet Show to major networks before finding unexpected success overseas. Saturday Night Live’s Muppet Experiment: The surprising (and disastrous) attempt to integrate Muppets into early SNL sketches. FanFest at Universal Hollywood: Jim prepares for his upcoming trip to the new fan event, featuring Back to the Future and One Piece meet & greets. Halloween Horror Nights 2024: Universal announces event dates for both Hollywood and Orlando—will M3GAN return for another creepy flash mob? Lou Wasserman Statue Returns: The legendary Universal executive’s statue is back—Jim shares why Wasserman was a key figure in shaping Universal Studios. This episode blends theme park history, pop culture deep dives, and the latest Universal Studios news. If you're a fan of The Muppets, Universal Studios, or theme park what-ifs, this one’s for you! Support Our Sponsor: Be Our Guest Vacations Planning your next Universal vacation? Be Our Guest Vacations is a Platinum-level Earmarked travel agency with concierge-level service to make every trip magical. Their team of expert agents plans vacations across the globe, from Disney and Universal to cruises and adventures, ensuring you have the best possible experience without the stress. Book Now Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.2	Welcome back to the Epic Universal Podcast.
0:33.4	I'm entertainment writer Jim Hill, and this is the podcast where we cover the latest universal news, rumors, and history.
0:41.9	And as always, I'm joined by Eric Hersey, who at this point, you really regret that you didn't invest in Kleenex stock, right?
0:51.9	Right. Yeah. Yeah, I'm also full of chocolates, right, being Valentine's Day.
0:57.1	I'm sure the kids will get a ton of chocolate and I'll be stealing all of it.
1:01.4	Well, okay, that's good to hear.
1:03.9	What's interesting is I did.
1:05.5	I've got, Valentine's Day is kind of complicated for me because I have a daughter that
1:10.5	lives in California and a wife who lives here in New Hampshire and a sister who was actually born on Valentine's Day.
1:17.5	So honoring these three key females in my life and coordinating things.
1:22.7	So they all arrive at the same time.
1:24.7	That's a little challenging.
1:26.2	Yeah.
1:26.6	Valentine's Day is always a day you kind of live in
1:29.5	fear a little bit. Did you get enough? Did you send it to the right people? There we go.
1:33.6	Now we go. What's the death of a salesman thing? Attention must be paid. This applies to Valentine's Day as well.
1:41.4	Right. Well, Jim, I'm excited because as the countdown comes, we are 97 days away from the opening of Epic Universe.
	...

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