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Direct-to-Video?

Is this really a direct-to-video movie? The film premiered on the Starz Channel on August 18 2002 first, and then it was released on video and DVD on September 3, 2002. How is this different than what happened with say "The Muppets Wizard of Oz" or "Its a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" (a TV premier followed shortly by a DVD/VHS)? "Kermit's Swamp Years" was not direct to video, it went to TV first. -- BradFraggle 06:29, 16 Jan 2006 (UTC)

The difference is that MWOz and VMC were created as TV movies to be broadcast on network television, with the video being released months later (11 months for VMC, 2 1/2 for MWOz). KSY was created as a direct-to-video movie, which a cable movie channel decided to show a couple of weeks before the video release. Ebrowne 00:09, 17 Jan 2006 (UTC)

There have been some "TV specials" that were actually created as TV Shows, and there have been other Henson films/movies/specials that have been reduced in status during/after production. Are we categorizing based on what they were produced as, or what they ended up actually being? -- BradFraggle 00:13, 17 Jan 2006 (UTC)

I think a better analogy was the Muppets' Wizard of Oz "world premiere" at the Tribeca Film Festival. It aired on a movie screen before it was on TV, but I'd still categorize it as a TV-Movie, and not as a feature film. The Starz Channel's airing of Swamp Years was billed in the same way, as a world premiere. I agree with Erik; it's a direct-to-video release that happened to have a special TV preview. If there are other examples of status changes, then obviously, we'd discuss those case by case. -- Danny Toughpigs 00:23, 17 Jan 2006 (UTC)