News The Muppet Show 50th Anniversary Special

[The Nth Doctor]

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sabrina Carpenter and Seth Rogen are among the executive producers for an upcoming 50th anniversary special for The Muppet Show that will be released next year, with Carpenter as the special guest star. Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, David Rudman and Matt Vogel will be the main Muppet performers. The special could act as a backdoor pilot of a potential revival of the show.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this news. If this special has the same high quality of writing as The Muppets Mayhem (the only Muppets show or film that I've enjoyed since The Muppets Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island), then this might actually be good. On the other hand, I utterly despised The Muppets (the '10s series). So it could go either way.

 

[Marc]

50 years of the Muppet Show - that’s depressing to think about

My family used to sit down and watch it when broadcast in Australia on a Sunday Night.

Not sure about another go around as a tv series as none of them matched the original.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I don't really see it as depressing, rather I find it inspiring that it has endured. But as a potential revival, I agree. Just keep it as anniversary special as it would be more special then.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

We now have a teaser trailer:

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The brief glimpse looks promising so I remain cautiously optimistic.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

Cautiously optimistic x2

 

[the G-man]

The Muppets died with Jim Henson. Everything since has been MINO

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The Muppets died with Jim Henson. Everything since has been MINO

I mostly agree with the exception of The Muppets Christmas Carol and The Muppets Mayhem (and to a lesser degree, The Muppets Treasure Island). The rest I freely ignore.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Jim could have died the following year, ten years, twenty years later.

The Muppets still would have continued without him and Frank Oz at the helm.

The whole purpose of Jim's trip to Florida was to discuss selling The Muppet brand to Disney, as he wanted to move on to other projects.

It was all set to be done by the end of the year before his untimely passing.

As his death did was postpone the sale until his family and other members of the Jim Henson Workshop could come to a reasonable sale price.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The song "Man or Muppet" deserved its Academy Award and its other awards as well. That buries the premise that the Muppets died with Henson. For our continued enrichment, they live on. I'll certainly check out the special in February.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Muppets Tonight is criminally underrated, and that's a hill I'll happily die on.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The song "Man or Muppet" deserved its Academy Award and its other awards as well. That buries the premise that the Muppets died with Henson. For our continued enrichment, they live on. I'll certainly check out the special in February.

I hate that song and that film. Doesn't help that I despise Jason Segal's acting.

Muppets Tonight is criminally underrated, and that's a hill I'll happily die on.

That's true. I only caught a couple of episodes at the time but I did watch the whole thing awhile ago and largely enjoyed it. Alas.

 

[the G-man]

I mostly agree with the exception of The Muppets Christmas Carol and The Muppets Mayhem (and to a lesser degree, The Muppets Treasure Island). The rest I freely ignore.

MCC and MTI were largely carried on the backs of their human stars, IMO (Caine and Curry), however.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

MCC and MTI were largely carried on the backs of their human stars, IMO (Caine and Curry), however.

While I agree Caine's and Curry's performances were crucial to their films' creative successes, I disagree that they largely carried those films.

The Muppet performances in The Muppet Christmas Carol are fantastic, both the classic characters and the original creations (i.e. the three spirits). All of the main characters are well suited for their roles, but that's especially  true for Kermit, Robin, and Gonzo & Rizzo. The latter of whom do a lot of heavy work as narrator and Greek chorus and I cannot imagine the film working as well as it does without their sublime performances. On top of all of that, the film is a loyal adaptation of the novella and arguably one of best committed to film (and I know I'm not the only person who believes that).

It's been awhile since I've watched Muppet Treasure Island so I can't comment as strongly but my recollection is that its Muppet cast are all well suited for their respective roles, even if the adaptation isn't as loyal as The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Edited to add: I can't believe I forgot to mention the music. The soundtrack for The Muppet Christmas Carol is as excellent as The Muppet Movie and it's no coincidence Paul Williams was the composer for both. Additionally, composing the songs for The Muppet Christmas Carol was deeply personal for Williams because he just begun his recovery from substance abuse and the film was his one chance to get his life back on track. Music is often at its best when fueled by personal demons and that's greatly reflected in this soundtrack.