Muppet Babies Reboot: Jeffrey Scott accuses House of Mouse Disney

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3 years ago

Muppet Babies Reboot: Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, Baby Fozzie, Baby Gonzo, Baby Animal, and Miss Nanny now becomes new copyright infringement and fraud suit rather than witnesses as Jeffrey Scott, Veteran small screen scribe filed a four-claim complaint in federal court yesterday against the House of Mouse ‘Disney’ on 22 October 2020.

The complaint claimed that the new and old ideas for the Disney Junior and Disney channel reboot that launched in 2018 were adapted from Scott’s work.

In the burdensome document, Scott and his advocates state that the original Muppet Babies production bible was created by Super Friends, Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Dragon Tales alum, and he owns the registered copyright in the early 1980s.

They also stated that he had a long verbal deal with Jim Henson Company and previous rights holder Marvel Productions Ltd. The Emmy Scout winner also claimed that Disney does not own the agreed deals of the past for the ‘Muppet Babies’.

The October 22 complaint says “In 2015, Disney began the early stages of developing the new Muppet Babies show,” It continues with “In early 2016, Disney executives met with Scott at their request, and he presented detailed ideas for the show’s updated structure, look and characters, and for new episodes, with the understanding on both sides that, if Disney used Scott’s ideas and produced new episodes, it would pay for Scott’s ideas and honor the commitments that Disney’s predecessor, Marvel, and Jim Henson, made to him, A Disney executive then emailed Scott asking him to send Disney his ideas in writing, which Scott did.”

Muppet Babies Reboot: Jeffrey Scott Complaint

Image Source: Hollywood Reporter

Scott’s complaint added some names with the strange brew, like Disney General Manager & SVP of Original Programming, Disney Junior Joe D’Ambrosia and Disney TV SVP, Original Programming Alyssa Cooper Sapire .

The trial seeking filing by jury states “Scott is informed and believes that, when Disney executives D’Ambrosia and Sapire solicited Scott’s ideas for a Muppet Babies reboot, they and their superiors at Disney knew, and concealed from Scott, that Disney had assembled or was assembling a production team for the reboot, and that they and their superiors had no intention of offering Scott an opportunity to work on the reboot or to pay him for his ideas, which they intended to use without complying with their obligations under the parties’ implied agreement,”

Though Disney chose to remain quiet when asked to comment about the complaint but it’s surely a red-faced situation for them with someone of Scott’s stature, no matter how much they try to ignore it.

Via his lawyers Howard King and Stephen Rothchild, Scott is seeking a variety of monetary damages, a look at the Muppet Babies books for profit, and a “Developed for Television by” credit on the two seasons and counting digitally animated show.