MuppetZine : Muppet Might - Have - Beens There are many reasons why production ideas are discussed but never get produced . Sometimes scripts die in development , sometimes the producers ' focus moves to a different project , sometimes there are problems with financing or production . The Muppet / Henson projects listed here were discussed at one time in news articles and interviews , but weren ' t produced . . . or , at least , they haven ' t been produced so far . Snow White ( 1969 ) Planned as the first of the Tales from Muppetland specials , Snow White was written by Jon Stone and Tom Whedon as a one - hour Muppet fairy tale . Stone and Whedon shopped the special to CBS , but when the network rejected it , they brought it to ABC . ABC bought the special , but because CBS had already rejected Snow White , they asked for it to be changed to a different story . Stone and Whedon wrote a new script , which was shown in 1970 as Hey Cinderella . Stone later became the producer of Sesame Street . The Muppet Show , with special guest star Robin Williams ! ( 1979 ) In 1979 , the Muppet Show Fan Club Newsletter printed a proposed list of guest stars for the upcoming season of The Muppet Show . The list of Season 4 ' s guests included Robin Williams and Cher ! Ultimately , Robin and Cher ( and Señor Wences , who was on the 4th season list but appeared in Season 5 ) were replaced by Doug Henning , Alan Arkin , and Diana Ross . Puppetman ( 1987 ) Henson ' s first attempt to create a network situation comedy was Puppetman , vaguely based on Jim Henson ' s own early career . Fred Newman starred as Gary , the host of a television puppet show called Dragontime . Muppeteer Richard Hunt ( Scooter , Janice ) co - starred as Gary ' s fellow puppeteer , and Julie Payne played Dragontime ' s human star . The show wasn ' t picked up by a network , but it got a good reaction when it appeared on CBS Summer Playhouse ( a showcase of failed pilots ) in 1987 . Following the airing on Summer Playhouse , CBS ordered a new script and considered scheduling the series , but it was eventually dropped . The Primitives ( 1988 ) The New York Muppet Workshop created a set of " pre - characters " called The Primitives , interesting looking puppets based on African and Native American folk art . More than 300 sculptured heads were created , including animals , people , and gods . While the Primitives were connected early on with plans for The Jim Henson Hour , they were never cast as characters and are yet to appear on screen . Picture - Book Specials ( 1988 ) Henson Associates planned a series of a dozen " picture - book " specials , one - hour puppet stories that would be designed with a children ' s book illustrator , with the look of the production based on the illustrator ' s own style . Each story would be produced both as a TV special and a companion storybook . The first two specials in the series , The Tale of the Bunny Picnic and The Christmas Toy , were produced in 1986 . Henson had plans for ten more picture - book specials , including The Lizards and a canine Valentine ' s Day show , Puppy Love . The picture - book series never continued past the first two specials , possibly because they were aimed at ages too young to draw a prime - time audience . Muppet Voyager ( 1988 ) This series , planned in 1988 , continued Henson ' s interest in connecting all the people of the world . The show would have filmed in a different country every week . While it could have been a magical series , the travel costs and technical problems involved probably doomed this idea from the start . The Italian Film ( 1989 ) In 1989 , Henson became interested in diversifying his company ' s productions beyond their puppeteering pigeonhole . Duncan Ken - worthy , producer of Fraggle Rock and director of international production for Henson International Television , worked to develop a non - puppet feature film with the working title of The Italian Film . Television / Radio Age magazine described the film as " a love story about an Italian girl who witnesses a miracle , " and according to Kenworthy , it would " not have any puppets , animatronics , or anything else which would identify it with Jim Henson . . . If The Italian Film is as big a success as I think it will be , our potential to diversify may become unlimited . " The Island of Lost Muppets ( late 80 ' s ) Island of Lost Muppets was the very promising title of a proposed Muppet miniseries in the late 80 ' s , which would have introduced new characters called the Orangs . Other late - 80 ' s projects that never happened were MuppetMania , another mini - series , and a series called Muppet High . Miss Piggy Mystery Books ( 1990 ) During the negotiations over the planned Henson / Disney merger , the Muppet Press publishing arm of Henson Productions readied for expansion . Among the plans for new books was a new line of mystery novels featuring Miss Piggy as a detective ( probably along the lines of a funnier , feistier Nancy Drew ) . The chaos following Henson ' s death and the collapse of the Disney deal spelled the end for these plans . Environmental Show ( 1990 ) One of Henson ' s last plans for a show was a series he developed for the Disney Channel , created to educate children about animals and the environment . The show was set in a TV station run by animals , headed by Ponce D . Lion , an irreverent anchorlion , and Netty , his " streetwise " lizard co - host . Henson told People that " preteens love animals . . . You can turn that interest into an awareness of problems in the world today . " While this version of the show was shelved after Henson ' s death , the idea was revived in a slightly different form in 1994 as Jim Henson ' s Animal Show with Stinky and Jake . Muppet Halloween Special ( 1991 ) A year after Jim Henson ' s death , Brian Henson announced that the Muppets would slowly return to television . Henson told TV Guide that the company was " coordinating an over - all strategy " to put the Muppets " back on air and to do more with them . We ' ll start in a small way , primarily with holiday specials . " The planned Halloween special eventually got pushed back to a Christmas special , a Muppet TV version of Dickens ' A Christmas Carol . The special grew too big for TV , and was finally seen as the 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol . Pests ( 1992 ) Henson Productions planned a new animated series in 1992 about a crew of cockroaches living in a New York apartment for a prime - time network slot . Scripts were written , but the show ( which may have been too similar to the earlier , failed Capitol Critters ) never went on the air . Borgel ( 1992 ) Borgel was another possible series based on a Daniel Pinkwater book about a 110 - year - old Jewish time traveler and his talking dog on a quest to find the Great Popsicle . Plans were announced for the series around the time that Christmas Carol was produced , but nothing ' s been heard of it since . The Dinosaurs Movie ( 1993 ) Following the successful introduction of Dinosaurs and the early popularity of Baby Sinclair , Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Productions planned to create a feature film based on the ABC series . However , falling ratings and the show ' s cancellation meant that the Sinclair family went extinct in the last episode , and never survived to make a movie . Screaming Edith ( 1993 ) Brian Henson planned to break into MTV with Screaming Edith , a Muppet hard - rock band who would release an album on the new Jim Henson Records label . We haven ' t seen them yet , but there ' s no reason why we couldn ' t see a Screaming Edith video on 120 Minutes sometime in the future . Future Might - Have - Beens . . . There are some projects that have existed as Muppet rumors for quite a while , including a version of Stephen Sondheim ' s musical Into the Woods ( since 1992 ) and a science - fiction comedy series called Space Chase ( since ' 94 ) . While these projects seem less likely as time goes by , it should be remembered that The Muppet ' s Treasure Island was originally planned for re - lease in the spring of 1994 , and the Gulliver ' s Travels miniseries currently in production has been in development since 1989 ! There ' s always a chance that these Muppet Might - Have - Beens will show up in the future as new Muppet Classics !