The Muppet Show

[dbolack]

Funny how shortly after these two mention the show (producers?) being broke, there's a quick reminder that Disney and ABC are behind it.

Being borderline broke is a constant running throughline with the muppets..

 

[Umbran]

Being borderline broke is a constant running throughline with the muppets..

Yep.

we got that with the "I like a good kink" line from Sabrina

So, I think I want to return with what I actually said - was that in their attempt to make them more adult, they also made them mean spirited.

It wasn't the adultness that was the problem, in and of itself. As you and others have noted, there's always been some adult elements - it was expected that parents were watching with their children in a prime-time show. It was what form of adultness they chose - as someone noted: "crass and confrontational", cynicism and interpersonal meanness - that didn't work.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I'd like to ask someone who watched the one-off -- is it appropriate for a 2-year-old? My daughter loves Muppet Babies, but I'm concerned that the actual Muppet Show is too adult. But I'm in my late 50s and my memories of the Muppet Show are dim, beyond a general memory of being vastly entertained. Oh, and some Statler and Waldorf lines.

 

[Umbran]

I'd like to ask someone who watched the one-off -- is it appropriate for a 2-year-old? My daughter loves Muppet Babies, but I'm concerned that the actual Muppet Show is too adult.

Well, that depends on what aspects of "adult" you are concerned with.

In her first song, Sabrina Carpenter cartoonishly clears a barroom of disruptive monsters.

The language is tame, but the vocabulary is not targetting kids not yet even in grade school.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I'd like to ask someone who watched the one-off -- is it appropriate for a 2-year-old? My daughter loves Muppet Babies, but I'm concerned that the actual Muppet Show is too adult. But I'm in my late 50s and my memories of the Muppet Show are dim, beyond a general memory of being vastly entertained. Oh, and some Statler and Waldorf lines.

A 2 year old is going to enjoy all the Muppets muppeting about. There is nothing in the dialog that is risque (aside from that kink line, and there is no way any 2 year old has the life experiences or understanding of the English language to be damaged by that in any way!). I think you're good. Source: me, father of two grown daughters.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

They're back, baby!

 

[dbolack]

My favorite thing today is how filled with Joy people have been aside from the few odd confused people who seem to think they were never graded for adults and weirder that Janice is coded MAHA.

Fer Sure...

 

[Morrus]

Watched. Much better than expected! I hope they get a series out of it.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Watched. Much better than expected! I hope they get a series out of it.

A lot of work went into preserving the faithfulness to the original series. Miss Piggy was amazing. The typical jealousy of the star of the week from the original series, check. But how it was handled... chef's kiss. Bear with me here, this is going to sound cartoonishly poncy.

The star was actually a power in her day. Insecurity has drawn her into a pattern of childishly petty reactions and retributions when she feels her former stardom is challenged. This leads to the brittle 'I am a veteran of this harsh world of show business, capitulate because of my rep' attempt to break the young star, innocently and seemingly accidentally rebuffed. But this could be interpreted as the star playing along, delivering a powerful, perhaps even unnoticed, riposte.

But even with that premise laid out, every interaction between Miss Piggy and Sabrina Carpenter felt wholesome. Miss Piggy was the villain... but we didn't feel she was a villain. Her behaviour was pathetic... but we didn't feel it was pathetic.

To me, that was absolutely genius writing.

 

[Leatherhead]

It was a fun show. The only part I didn't really like were the extra humans in the audience.

And I really don't understand the people who think the Muppets didn't have an adult angle back in the day.

Like, consider this entire skit: It's a song about a burlesque show.



But then again, they also had skits about how to sneak stuff past the censors.


So maybe they were just doing too good of a job obfuscation.