IT SUCKS when great shows are on the platforms of fuckass companies, but here we are.
The Muppet Show reboot was a direct hit of nostalgia, dopamine, and earnest joy that I needed and I was more and more charmed the longer I watched.
I’m old enough (ahem) to remember the original Muppet Show, and this reboot is faithful to the format while updating with jokes, references, and the presence of Sabrina Carpenter, whose resemblance to Miss Piggy is played perfectly, and who is somewhat of a Muppet herself.
Some folks just have Muppet energy. Carpenter has Muppet energy. Off the top of my head, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson, the late Catherine O’Hara – they have Muppet energy. Eugene Levy pretty much is a Muppet, per my husband – that tracks. (Honestly this show might have been engineered in a lab for Adam. There is nothing, he says, that he has loved longer than the Muppets.) John Leguizamo, Bowen Yang, Biz Markie…Tim Curry has Big Muppet Energy, which is why he rocked so hard in Muppet Treasure Island.
These are performers who don’t take themselves too seriously, and who are seriously talented. (The “performers with Muppet energy” game is going to be playing nonstop in my house today.)
Carpenter was a perfect first guest and I liked pretty much every sketch she was in.
I don’t know whose idea it was to have her sing “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers but this was a God tier decision for a Muppet Show sketch. It plays off Carpenter and Miss Piggy’s similar aesthetic to Dolly Parton, for one thing.
And it was vintage (1983) but still lovely to listen to, and there is plenty of room for visual comedy because the song is replete with cheese and earnestness.
I think it’s in Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs due to the lyric, “I set out to get you with a fine toothed comb.” What the hell does that even mean?
While the Kermit voice is quite different, nothing else felt disconnected to the original – there were even Muppet characters I hadn’t seen in years, like Rolf and Beauregard. It’s a 30 minute sketch show with on stage and offstage plotlines, and it has the sharpness of SNL in its most impressive years, but trades skewering humor with bite for more wholesome and cheerful optimism, mixed with slightly bewildered theatre kid perseverance.
I hope it gets picked up, and I hope the same attention to tone and the relentless embrace of nutritious fromage remain.
So, yeah, if you’re looking for something nostalgic, charming, silly, and wholesome to watch tonight, you might really, really like The Muppet Show reboot. This is especially true if you grew up with the Muppets in one of their many showcases, and most especially for those of us who have enduring fondness for the original.
I was thinking earlier that just when I decided to never give Disney money again, they do the _one_ thing that could make my resolve waver: they reboot The Muppet Show. As in: not a sitcom version, not another feature film.. the ACTUAL Muppet Show. Oh, resisting this is going to be so hard.
IT SUCKS when great shows are on the platforms of fuckass companies, but here we are.
And THIS is how I know I belong here. Thank you, SB Sarah. Smoke ’em if you got ’em, call ’em as you seem ’em. Well done.
Loved it.
Other attempts to reboot it were mediocre because they tried to update it to something like “burned out middle-aged performers- where are they now?” This had that crazy, sweet energy of the original: “hardworking and sincere but not particularly talented people do their very best to put on a show.” Are they good at what they do? Well… No. But they do their best and become family along the way.
I loved it so much, and so did my 12-year-old!
I have never looked forward to a reboot the way I have this. You did miss a couple muppet people, though. No one, besides Tim Curry, has embraced their inner muppet like the late John Denver. And if Brett Goldstein doesn’t get a host slot when this gets picked up (how could it not?) that will be criminal.
Personal favorite from the original run? Christopher Reeve and the super rats.
Brett Goldstein, yes! Actually, it just occurred to me that most of the cast of Ted Lasso has Muppet energy, which may explain my love for it. Daveed Diggs would be incredible, as would Jeremy Jordan. This is such a fun game! Thanks, SB Sarah and family for coming up with it.
The chickens are my favorite muppets, so you can imagine how much fun I had!
It was great!
“I set out to get you with a fine toothed comb.”
‘Because you have so many hair lice I can trap you by sticking a lice comb in your hair’? was always where my mind went with that lyric. So very, very, very nasty.
Steffi I hear you!
I watched the original series manymanymany times when my daughter was little and we loved it SO MUCH. Our favourite hosts :
#1 Harry Belafonte #2 John Denver #3 AliceCooper!
So thrilled for the reboot!
The best time I’ve had watching anything in years.
I agree wholeheartedly that this new iteration of The Muppet Show was quite good! I am already a fan of Sabrina Carpenter and was so happy to see her flourish here. My favorite part was Islands in the Stream which is actually a fabulous song. It was a combination of moving and hilarious.
“IT SUCKS when great shows are on the platforms of fuckass companies, but here we are.”
I was really puzzled by the opening of this review. I’m no Disney shill but they bought the rights to the Muppets. The only reason this exists is because of decision making at that company. If it makes you happy, then, well, credit to Disney. I also am wondering which streaming platform isn’t a “fuckass company”. Surely, we know by now that every American streaming platform has done bad things. And come on now, Paramount has to be the worst on the list. I guess my point is we live in a reality where most large companies we interact with today are problematic. I think it’s good to reflect on this from time to time, but I don’t get its relevance to The Muppets. After all, HBO Max is by every definition a “fuckass” company but I did not see too many people mind when it chose to distribute the Canadian Heated Rivalry.
Oh, the nostalgia! My husband and I were remembering the old Muppet Show the other day with great fondness. As long as Disney sticks to the original format and spirit and just has fun without trying to push messages or agenda, it should be a lot of fun.
I watched it while I’m here in the hospital. It was what my inner child needed. I especially loved the Pigs In Wigs segment. (I know Dolly has some health issues, but I would love for her and Sabrina to release their own version of Islands In The Stream.)
What I loved is that unlike the last Muppet series and the other programs the Henson Company have done since Henson’s death, is that it didn’t feel forced. They knew what beats to hit and they did it.
The only number that didn’t land for me was the last one, but I admit I wasn’t paying that much attention to it.