Sorry, it was the best recording I had available when I started the article. Pretend someone recorded it from the audience…though how they got some of those views would be beyond me.
So on Wednesday ABC aired the pilot for a new version of The Muppet Show, as well as streaming it on Disney+, and given how long it was since they had a movie about saving the theater (I need to watch that one but I’m assuming they did because happy ending) it’s about time they got things started again. Unfortunately, this show had a lot of things going against them when this aired:
- It would have been airing opposite The Masked Singer. Fate stepped in because Fox’s coverage of a NASCAR race ran an hour long, pushing the other fabric covered performers to an hour later. We watched part of it because my dad and I really enjoy The Masked Singer and I’m guessing the rain-covered speedway had something to do with it. I’ve seen longer driveways than the race track they were using. We ended up watching How It’s Made until the show finally came on. Called who was going home but not who the celebrity was.
- One of the executive producers was Seth Rogan, the same guy who screwed up The Green Hornet and gave us one of the cringiest Christmas specials possible.
- It’s produced by Disney, who bought the “performer” Muppets while Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children’s Television Workshop but now all they do is Sesame Street related stuff) bought the “street” Muppets. Disney’s history of ignoring what the previous owners did and wanted only to screw everything up has been chronicled from Lucasfilm to Marvel Studios, and they already fired Jim Henson’s chosen successor as Kermit because he dared to expect the character be done correctly. Meanwhile, Facebook has a story going around about how Frank Oz, Jim Henson’s friend and employee, called him out on a sketch that wasn’t authentic to the Muppets, and Jim agreed with him. Disney doesn’t not seem to follow that logic.
- Disney’s handling of the Muppets lately has been controversial. In addition to the successor firing, the Muppets showing at Disney parks hasn’t wowed anyone and they shut down an attraction Henson himself worked on. Meanwhile, the only major appearance they’ve done lately are ads for travel site Booking.Com.
- Also controversial is general Disney content. Their take on the Muppet Babies lacked the edge of the Saturday morning cartoon and put Gonzo in a dress, which is what Disney does these days. They play too safe in the wrong areas and push social engineering over their stories, and people are picking up on it that aren’t in the culture war discussion field.
So I was expecting not to like this new take, but I had to give it a fair chance anyway. How was it? Well, I’m not joining Statler & Waldorf, so they must have done something right.
I’m not going to gush over the show. It wasn’t perfect but there’s a reason this is the rare case of critics and normal people actually agreeing on it over on Rotten Tomatoes, having 97% from critics and 99% from audiences as of this writing. The show starts with Kermit bringing up the lights and getting ready for the show before slipping into routine with Scooter knocking on the door of the episode’s special guest star, Sabrina Carpenter. There’s a running gag about Sabrina being such a big Miss Piggy fan that she copied her look. Piggy is flattered…but their lawyers are still going to discuss copyright infringement. The central problem for the special is that they accidentally overbooked the acts for a half-hour show and Kermit has to figure out who to cut. This leads to a really good musical finale of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”. Carpenter also performs her own song “Manchild” in the opening act as a waitress who has to double as a bouncer. Since all of the rowdys are 1/3rd her side, it’s hardly a girlboss moment.
It was disappointing that some of the classics didn’t show up. No “Veterinarian’s Hospital”, no “Pigs In Space” and no number by Rolf beyond the opening or Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem Band, though they are part of the closing number. We did get “Muppet Labs”…so naturally that’s where my recording glitched. Thanks, Tablo and/or antenna. I watched this recorded off of ABC. We also got Gonzo going to do a death-defying stunt where he rollerskates through burning hoops and swinging blades while reciting all the Best Actress award winners, but of course that goes wrong and he’s spinning around all episode. Statler & Waldorf’s bits are a bit weak but still welcome. Plus the opening and closing are what you’d want to see for an episode of The Muppet Show.
Original sketches included “Pigs In Wigs”, which would have been a fun send-up of upper class romance dramas if Piggy’s secret lover performer hadn’t been replaced with Pepe the Prawn. Sorry, but I never liked that character. Carpenter and Kermit start doing a cover of “Islands In The Stream” until Piggy interrupts because her musical number was cut and not because she’s jealous of Kermit doing a love song with the guest star. Frankly, either is in keeping with her character but I guess the lore is still deciding they’re done as a couple because that’s how we do things today. We also got Rizzo and the rats doing a cover of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” though we see Beauregard the janitor by the electric box grooving with a drink in his hand and I was just waiting for the obvious ending. All great performances by Carpenter and the Muppets. Even Seth’s appearance where his bit was one of the ones cut was amusing…so I’m assuming he didn’t write it.
My only real complaint is that there were too many humans in the show. In the classic series only the special guest star was human. Everyone else was a Muppet, including the audience, even if they were human-looking Muppets like Scooter, Statler, and Waldorf. Seth Rogen decided to not only pepper the audience with humans among the Muppets, who looked really out of place in the group shots, but had a bit with Maya Rudolph where she gets injured in the aftermath of “Muppet Labs” after being courted by a monster in the seat next to her, leading to a Muppet News Flash where she’s dead. We aren’t that lucky, because the skit wasn’t funny. She ends up okay.
Thankfully, the stuff I was really expecting wasn’t there. Sam The Eagle, usually portrayed as someone who takes his patriotism way too seriously, wasn’t used to attack MAGA or the far right or Donald Trump (I have a sinking feeling a full series wouldn’t be so lucky given modern Hollywood). Nothing was especially “woke”. Even when Piggy takes over Kermit’s spot in “Islands In The Stream” the context of the song is changed from romance to two divas getting along mid-song. (The lawyers are still gonna chat, though.) The show maintains the timeless feeling of the original show rather than forcing some kind of California coffee shop modernity or sociopolitical message into it. It’s just The Muppet Show with today’s actors. Even the jokes were clean, that “kink” bit with Carpenter (who is also dating a man who apparently isn’t single) being the worst of it because Carpenter is still trying to get out of her teen Disney sitcom stigma.
There are also cameos I wasn’t expecting, though thankfully we’re spared a Wayne & Wanda song despite them being there. I was surprised to see Miss Mousey. I thought Miss Piggy “took care” of her years ago along with performing rival Annie Sue, but all kidding aside these are old characters that haven’t been part of the show Muppets since the end of The Muppet Show in 1981. Miss Mousey and Wayne & Wanda didn’t even make it to the end, with Miss Mousey dropping in the earliest seasons as a unknowing rival for Kermit’s affections. Not everybody had lines. Dr. Strangepork was there in costume but didn’t say anything and I don’t even remember seeing Link Hogthrob, but there were so many characters there, some of which had to be remade Muppets, that I couldn’t make them all out. The Muppet Wiki on the episode lists everyone there and I’m basically taking their word for it.
So overall this pilot for a new Muppet Show actually got it right, which surprises me given Disney’s recent output and who was involved. There were parts I wasn’t into but most of it worked okay and all of it felt like The Muppet Show. If I trusted a full series to get it as right I’d be all for it. Unfortunately, modern Hollywood in general and Disney specifically has burned away so much trust that it’s hard to believe a full series would stay that way. If it did I would love to see more of this show. Just put somewhere the kids can see it, too, and not up against Fox’s better offerings that kids also like. You got lucky on this one.
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