How many times can you reboot or reimagine an intellectual property until the general public eventually refuses to watch the next adaptation?
Disney executives want you to tune in for newest version of The Muppets, hoping you’ve already forgotten its original source material. This time around, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and 16 other producers (which includes 12 total executive producers) have brought back The Muppet Show. But this ain’t your father’s variety show.
Within seconds of the revival, Statler and Waldorf immediately respond to the opening of the show: “I can’t believe they’re doing the old show again.”
Neither can I.
This reboot, considered a one-time TV special and not a series, celebrates the franchise’s 50th anniversary and feels like something released by Corporate — fans of The Office should instantly understand. With Disney Plus fighting hard for its subscribers — more like justifying its recent price increase, if you ask me — will this revival pull in big enough numbers to demand a new season? Depends on the public reaction.
My thoughts?
I’m definitely not the intended target audience for Sabrina Carpenter’s music, so I won’t waste any time discussing that (she appears as the special human guest, bad lip-syncer and executive producer of this special). No longer catering to the preschool crowd, there are adult themes here (including a scene held inside a bar, where beer bottles are being consumed), along with its familiar laugh track.
Kermit still sounds weird, some of the characters’ mouthing don’t line up with their dialogue and the extended end credits lasted so long listing multiple languages that it could have been another sketch.
“We’re still working out a few kinks…”
What have you done to The Muppets, Seth Rogen? Photo Courtesy: Disney/Mitch Haaseth.
Only three human guests are credited, along with 19 listed Muppet characters (many more appear in the background), but Statler and Waldorf are the best thing going for the show. Those cantankerous hecklers simply struck a nerve with me, constantly making fun of the lineup, to which I fully agreed.
Should Jim Henson be rolling in his grave with this new incarnation? Well, I won’t go that far, but I wouldn’t say he’d be too thrilled with the outcome, either. While the current voice actors work hard to make you forget about their original counterparts, there is a twinge of nostalgia in the air as it plays out. But it doesn’t quite feel like Henson’s original intended spirit, either. That’s where Seth Rogen enters the picture.
Fresh off winning multiple Emmy Awards for The Studio, the filmmaker flexes his comedic chops a bit with this backdoor pilot, showcasing a newly found cleaner range. While truly enjoying his earlier efforts (This is the End, The Night Before, Sausage Party, Neighbors), I’ve been totally disappointed by others (Preacher, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem). I guess I’m saying I like Rogen’s comedic nature and style (at times). As a life-long fan of The Muppets, though, this just feels like another attempt at remembering a better time.
This Child of the ’80s grew up with less-politicized Sesame Street, first watched The Muppet Movie on VHS and was awed by The Great Muppet Caper in movie theaters. I enjoyed watching The Muppet Show (1976) on television but truly appreciated it when the complete series was released on DVD many years later. Since then, the last successful version of the gang was led by Jason Segel in 2011, which was followed by mostly forgettable, underperforming releases. How many times will Disney keep striking out?
“Whoo. That was painful.”
Admittedly, Henson oversaw those earlier releases and The Walt Disney Company runs the show now after purchasing all assets of The Jim Henson Company back in 2004 for $89 million, but each modern-day release (excluding Segel’s entry) feels like it’s going out of its way to be a little bit different from Jim’s original vision, and that breaks my heart a little bit with each outing. While I wasn’t thrilled with Rogen’s Muppet Show, it didn’t register immediate revulsion like ABC’s 2015 disaster.
Will Walt Disney ever fully appreciate The Muppets?
For 22 years, I’ve been vehemently negative about the franchise, as the corporate overlord’s tentacles have led it astray. Only time will tell the official fate of the show. While I’m somewhat encouraged that the higher-ups have finally realized there’s a HUGE audience craving nostalgia and more zany adventures with these familiar puppets, I’d rather each new outing, at the very least, used new, individual titles (PLEASE: NO MORE ENTRIES LISTED AS “The Muppets!”). Thank you for your attention to this matter.
“The show’s not half bad… it’s all bad!”