Melissa McCarthy Movie Wins a Round in Sesame Street Lawsuit

The creators of a raunchy, R-rated comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and a cast of puppets can continue marketing the movie by playing off the “Sesame Street” name in a tagline for now, a judge ruled this week.

The makers of “Sesame Street” sued STX Entertainment last month over the movie, “The Happytime Murders,” which is being advertised with the phrase “No Sesame. All Street” ahead of its Aug. 17 release.

The movie is directed by Brian Henson, a son of Jim Henson, who helped develop “Sesame Street” characters before creating “The Muppet Show.” (Jim Henson died in 1990 at 53.)

While the moviemakers were quick to claim victory, legal arguments are continuing. In his Wednsday ruling, Judge Vernon Broderick of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, ruled only that the movie could keep using the tagline while the case proceeds, The Associated Press reported.

Nevertheless, in a statement attributed to a puppet named Fred, STX said it was happy with the ruling.

“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,” it said. “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.”

McCarthy plays a police officer teamed with a new partner, who is a puppet, to solve “the brutal murders of the former cast of a beloved classic puppet television show.”

The trailer alone features violence, prostitution, drug use, and sexually graphic scenes. But none of that was the focus of the suit filed last week by Sesame Workshop, the educational nonprofit that produces “Sesame Street.” The organization was mainly concerned with the tagline.

“We take no issue with the creative freedom of the filmmakers and their right to make and promote this movie, rather this is about how our name is being misused to market a film with which we have no association,” Sesame Workshop said in a statement when it filed the lawsuit. A spokesman referred back to that statement and declined to comment further.