News

Exclusive: Halle Stanford, The Jim Henson Company’s longtime President of Television, is relaunching her company, 7 Crow Stories, as she embarks on a new chapter in her career as an independent producer and writer. As part of this new venture, the Emmy winner has signed a first-look producing deal with The Jim Henson Company, where she has worked as a producer and executive for the past 30 years.

Under her 7 Crow Stories banner, Stanford will develop a variety of live-action and animated projects for The Jim Henson Company for preschool, family, and primetime audiences, continuing to prioritize entertaining, impactful, and imaginative content across a wide range of genres. Previously announced projects include the primetime fantasy series Goblins with Norman Reedus, the primetime animated series Lore Olympus, based on Webtoon’s digital comic series, and the older kids’ animated series Adrenaline Lemmings. Currently, Stanford is also attached to develop a future production of Fraggle Rock.

Apple doesn’t make it easy to understand its TV-related offerings. You can buy an Apple TV, but you can also buy a subscription to Apple TV+. We’ll explain the differences and the pros and cons of each. Just follow along.

The Quick Answer

What Can You Watch on an Apple TV?

What Can You Watch on Apple TV+?

Do You Need an Apple TV to Watch Apple TV+?

Do You Need a Subscription to Use an Apple TV?

Apple TV vs. Apple TV+: The Breakdown

Summary

The Quick Answer

An Apple TV is a physical device you can use to watch hundreds of different streaming services. It’s a small black box that plugs into your TV with an Hdmi cable. After you buy the device, there is no further purchase required.

Apple TV+ is a streaming service, kind of like Max or Netflix. When you sign up,...

Exclusive: The Jim Henson Company has inked a worldwide distribution deal with Shout! Factory, which will bring thirteen of Henson’s beloved series and specials to streaming, broadcast and home entertainment platforms across all territories, with Henson’s award-winning Farscape making its global AVOD premiere.

In addition to the Emmy-nominated sci-fi drama Farscape and its follow-up miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, the multi-year distribution deal provides Shout! Factory and its streaming service Shout! Factory TV with all worldwide rights — across broadcast, streaming, on-demand, home entertainment, and non-theatrical arenas — to Henson’s Emmy-winning fantasy anthology The Storyteller and subsequent miniseries The Storyteller: Greek Myths, as well as such classics as Jim Henson’s World of Puppetry, Monster Maker, Lighthouse Island, Living with Dinosaurs, Dog City and Ghost of Faffner Hall, along with later productions like The Fearing Mind, Mopatop’s Shop and Brats of the Lost Nebula.

In collaboration with The Jim Henson Company,...

Foo Fighters go from sold-out arenas to the realm of Fraggle Rock in this clip for the Apple TV+ series Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, out now on the streaming service.

Dave Grohl and company join Jim Henson’s beloved puppets to form an unlikely supergroup to perform the series’ Grohl-penned theme song “Fraggle Rock Rock“; the series itself is a spinoff of the 2020 film Fraggle Rock: Rock On! and marks the first time in 35 years that the Fraggles have been back on television.

The show follows its puppet protagonists “on hilarious,...

Jim Henson’s fun-loving, musical Fraggles are back! Join Gobo, Red, Wembley, Mokey, Boober, and new Fraggle friends on hilarious, epic adventures about the magic that happens when we celebrate and care for our interconnected world. “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” is executive produced by The Jim Henson Company’s Lisa Henson and Halle Stanford, and longtime Henson collaborator John Tartaglia. Matt Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson, who serve as showrunners, also executive produce as well as New Regency’s Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer. Co-executive producers are Dave Goelz and Karen Prell, and executive music producer is Harvey Mason Jr. The series is produced by Ritamarie Peruggi. Apple TV+ today unearthed the teaser trailer for the highly anticipated reboot of the beloved classic series “Fraggle Rock,” titled “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.” Debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday January 21, 2022, the new 13-episode Apple Original series from The Jim Henson Company...

Dance your cares away (clap clap), Fraggle fans, the lively and fantastical Fraggles are back thanks to Apple TV+. After the highly successful series of shorts on Apple TV+ called "Fraggle Rock: Rock On!" in April 2020, a reboot of "Fraggle Rock" was ordered by the streaming service. Now, we've got our first look at the teaser trailer for "Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock."

As Muppet master Jim Henson himself described them in the book "Jim Henson The Works: The Art, The Magic, The Imagination," the show is "a high-energy, raucous musical romp. It's a lot of...

The post Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Teaser: Apple TV+ Revives the Fraggles for a New Generation appeared first on /Film.

Looks like Apple got the hint after that “It’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” backlash, because the tech giant revealed Wednesday it’s bringing “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” back to broadcast TV this holiday season — just not back on ABC.

Per Apple, in addition to the holiday specials based on Charles M. Schulz’ “Peanuts” cartoon streaming on their new home Apple TV+, Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving and Christmas classics will air ad-free on PBS and PBS Kids on Nov. 22 and Dec. 13, respectively, at 7:30/6:30c.

Apple picked up the overall rights to the “Peanuts” specials in early October in an expanded deal with WildBrain which will allow them to make new specials, too. As a result of that pact, “It’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” — and its fellow “Peanuts” classics — became an Apple TV+ exclusive and did not air on broadcast TV...

Exclusive: Hägar the Horrible is set to make a raid on the small screen with an animated family sitcom series in development.

Fresh Off the Boat writer and producer Eric Ziobrowski is writing the adaptation, which comes from King Features, the Hearst-owned division behind the comic strip and The Jim Henson Company.

The series will follow the hardworking Viking family led by a larger than life hero, Hägar, who can’t quite understand how the society he once understood is changing around him.

Hägar, who was created by Dik Browne, has been running in newspapers since 1973 and found himself at the center of U.S. politics earlier this year after a framed Hägar strip was seen on President Elect Joe Biden’s desk in the video call where he choose Kamala Harris to be his Vice President.

The series will be made using Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a proprietary animation...

Apple TV+ has renewed “Snoopy in Space” for Season 2 and, just in time for the holidays, is set to become the home of iconic Peanuts specials and create new ones celebrating Mother’s Day, Earth Day, New Year’s Eve and “Back to School” season, the streaming service said Monday.

Apple’s streaming service, which launched the first season of “Snoopy in Space” in November 2019, has expanded its partnership with WildBrain, Peanuts Worldwide and Lee Mendelson Film Productions to create new shows and specials based on Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang. While you wait for those fresh installments, you can check out old favorites “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” as they begin to roll out over the coming months.

Additionally, Apple and WildBrain’s animation studio are partnering on a Peanuts 70th anniversary documentary film from Imagine Documentaries.

Get your magnifying glasses and spy notebooks ready because “Harriet the Spy” is back. Apple TV+ has greenlit a new animated series based on the tween spy created in 1964 by author Louise Fitzhugh. “Booksmart” star Beanie Feldstein will be the fiercely independent Harriet, while Jane Lynch will provide the voice for her stalwart nanny ‘Ole Golly.’

Like the original book series, the new animated feature will be set in 1960s New York and follow Harriet M. Welsch as she pursues her dreams of being a writer by documenting everything she sees. Along the way she’ll butt heads with her school’s mean girl, the snobby Marion Hawthorne (voiced by Lacey Chabert).

The series itself is a dream for ’90s kids especially, as it will be written and executive produced by Will McRobb, who co-created the inaugural Nickelodeon series “The Adventures of Pete and Pete.” “Harriet the Spy” was originally...

The Good Place vet Manny Jacinto will be spending some quality time with Nicole Kidman in Hulu’s forthcoming limited series Nine Perfect Strangers.

Per our sister site Deadline, Jacinto has joined the star-studded cast, which also includes Melissa McCarthy. The drama, based on Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty’s book, is set at a boutique health-and-wellness resort, where nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Jacinto will play Yao, a man-kid with a hipster vibe who has a life-and-death encounter with the resort’s director, Masha (Kidman), after which he becomes her right-hand man.

A TV show with one of the catchiest theme songs of all-time is making a return! After already been given a new life on Apple TV+, with their produced-in-quarantine series of shorts titled Fraggle Rock: Rock On!, the service is now going all-in on a full-length, rebooted series. Apple didn't give away any plot or episode specifics about the reboot but they promised…...

Fraggle Rock, that delightful Jim Henson show starring a bunch of caveman-esque Muppets (with one of the catchiest theme songs ever), has already been given a new life on Apple TV+, with their produced-in-quarantine series of shorts titled Fraggle Rock: Rock On! But now that Apple TV+ has had a slice of the Fraggles, they want the whole dang pie. Fraggle Rock is officially coming to Apple TV+ as a full-length, rebooted series. [caption id="attachment_898947" align="alignright" width="350"] Image via Apple TV+/caption] The original series, airing from 1983-1987, featured a litany of …...

A new version of Emmy-winning Fraggle Rock is heading to Apple. The company has partnered the The Jim Henson Company to reboot the classic series, which will be part of Apple Originals’ lineup for kids and families. It will join Fraggle Rock: Rock On! shorts, which recently debuted on Apple TV+, Parents Choice Award-winning Helpsters from Sesame Workshop and Annie Award-winning Snoopy in Space from Peanuts.

Produced by The Jim Henson Company in association with New Regency, the new Fraggle Rock series will reunite the original stars – Gobo, Red, Boober, Mokey, Wembley, and Uncle Travelling Matt – for new songs and adventures, with the same spirit as the classic, according to Apple.

Lisa Henson and Halle Stanford will executive produce for The Jim Henson Company. Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer of New Regency and long-time Henson collaborator John Tartaglia are also executive producing. Showrunners...

John Tartaglia is the first to admit that he’s a big fan of “Fraggle Rock.”

Like a really big fan.

The puppeteer was getting ready to go leave his Jim Henson Co. office to start working from home due to the coronavirus outbreak when he called the company’s president of television Halle Stanford.

“I had been keeping the Fraggles in my office and I called her and said, ‘Should I take the Fraggles home with me?’” Tartaglia tells Variety. “I know this sounds silly, but I just felt we should bring them home because I couldn’t stand the thought of these incredibly loved characters sitting alone in the office for so long.”

Little did anyone know that two weeks later, as the Henson team was brainstorming new projects that could address the pandemic, Stanford would receive a call to reboot the series.

“[Apple’s children’s creative development head Tara Sorensen] said,...