We’re all thinking it. We’re all saying it. And now I’m writing about it. It’s nuts that we haven’t heard peep from Disney about the future of The Muppet Show yet.
For the life of me, I can’t figure it out. The ratings for The Muppet Show special were terrific. It was a hit on both Disney+ and ABC, a rare double-whammy for streaming and broadcast TV. It was a critical hit, earning an incredible 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. (And whoever’s responsible for that 2% worth of negative reviews… I know where you live.) And most importantly, the fans rallied behind the special, ecstatic for the return of The Muppet Show and for a new (old) direction for the franchise we all love so much.
With statistics like those, any show would be a given for a renewal. So what’s the hold-up?
How about the financial investment already sunk into the show? The Muppet Theater was painstakingly recreated. Puppets were built and refurbished. They filmed a new version of The Muppet Show intro, which can be reused for future specials. By not producing more Muppet Show, they’re leaving money on the table.
That’s not the only investment – there’s also a creative one. Audiences were reintroduced to the Muppet Show format, complete with backstage plots and recurring segments like Muppet Labs. The fact that we were denied mainstays like Pigs in Space, The Swedish Chef, and a number by The Electric Mayhem felt like an unspoken promise that they were being held off for when The Muppet Show returns. The show may not be a serialized story, but a single episode is also a promise of a season’s worth of sketches.
The Muppets have been stuck in an unfortunate pattern over the last couple decades. They come out with a big project, they get a lot of attention, they have a big gap before their next project, audiences forget all about the Muppets, and they start all over again. As a fan, it’s excruciating. These long waits between productions – especially nowadays with short attention spans and shorter news cycles – are terribly unhealthy for the brand, and it makes it impossible for them to get any traction and grow their audience. We end up with the repetitive narrative that “the Muppets are back,” which is a constant reminder that they’ve gone away. Again and again.
If Disney is at all interested in avoiding the need to reintroduce the world to the Muppets again, they need to strike while the iron’s hot.
And of course, there’s the consistent (and consistently exhausting) elephant in the room: Kermit the Frog. The Muppet Show special was Matt Vogel’s first long-form spotlight as Kermit the Frog (not counting the live Muppet shows in LA and London), and he did a terrific job. So great, he managed to sway many of the people out there who weren’t sold on Kermit’s new voice. In fact, I saw far more apologies to Matt online than I did nitpicks about the voice. Greenlighting more Muppet Show is a sure way to get audiences used to Kermit’s current performer and to help focus the public’s reaction on the Muppets and not the drama below the frame.
I’ll preface this next part by confirming that I have no inside information, only speculation. From what I understand, the team at The Muppets Studio is itching to do more Muppet Show. But the decision doesn’t lie in their hands – it’s up to the Disney+ team (or, perhaps, ABC Television?). I get that the inner workings of a ludicrously massive company like Disney is anything but simple. But someone in a seat of importance has the fate of The Muppet Show in their hands, and they’re currently letting it just sit in limbo. Whoever this stakeholder is, I hope they come to their senses and give the people what they want.
The Muppets, and by proxy The Muppet Show, have so much potential to be a tentpole franchise for Disney. Okay, so it’d be a high bar to expect them to achieve the popularity of a Pixar or Princess, but money’s money, and the Muppets can earn more than their fair share. Not only that, but the popularity of The Muppet Show should be able to cross-promote to the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster or merch at The Disney Store or whatever random ABC show the Muppets decide to pop up on. After the new special, they weren’t just the silly frog and pig and bear we remember from our childhoods, but the stars from that terrific hour of television that we couldn’t get enough of.
All of this boils down to this: The Muppet Show’s return was a big hit, with successful ratings and reviews. The fanbase was overwhelmingly vocal about how much they loved it. This is an opportunity for the Muppets to not only build their own brand, but the brand of The Muppet Show. Greenlighting more Muppet Show specials or (dare to dream) a full season pickup would be the smartest move Disney could make. The only thing that could’ve been smarter is if they’d done it two months ago.
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by Joe Hennes – [email protected]
