“Sesame Street” Loses Its “Happytime” Lawsuit
Last week came the news that the company that produces long-running kids educational series “Sesame Street” filed a lawsuit against STXFilms’ upcoming adult comedy “The Happytime Murders”.
The film features puppets engaging in adult and explicit activity, and the film’s first trailer was sold on the tag line “No Sesame. All Street”. The ‘Sesame’ team took umbrage with that and filed a suit.
Today, US District Judge Vernon Broderick of New York ruled that the Sesame Workshop had not demonstrated that moviegoers were confused or that sponsors or parents were complaining about the potential linkage of the two film.
Broderick heard oral arguments from both sides before making his ruling that STX, which is releasing the film, could keep using the tagline. STX’s representative, a puppet named Fred Esq., released the following statement via
Twitter:
“We fluffing love Sesame Street and we’re obviously very pleased that the ruling reinforced what STX’s intention was from the very beginning — to honor the heritage of The Jim Henson Company’s previous award-winning creations… while drawing a clear distinction between any Muppets or Sesame Street characters and the new world Brian Henson and team created. We believe we accomplished that with the very straightforward NO SESAME, ALL STREET tagline… We look forward to continued happytimes as we prepare to release Happytime Murders this summer.” – Fred, Esq. on behalf of STX Entertainment
In the film two clashing detectives with a shared secret, one human (Melissa McCarthy) and one puppet, are forced to work together again to solve the brutal murders of the former cast of a beloved classic puppet television show.
Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale and Elizabeth Banks co-star while Brian Henson directs from a screenplay by Todd Berger. Henson, Jeff Hayes, McCarthy, and Ben Falcone are the producers on the film which opens August 17th.