IDEA- Great Muppet Road Trip TV Special

[frogboy4]

I posted about this in another thread, but I think this deserves serious thought. Many specials have been marred by budget or story not meeting quality expectations of a particular contrivance.

Well, why not let the Muppets go on a road trip and perform with stars they meet along the way? It wouldn't need to be expensive and the writing is freed up to allow the Muppets just to be Muppets! That's what they're good at.

Sets design really could be mostly simple soundstage work with a few location bits thrown in. Top stars would be more than willing to do this and Disney could get a great new Muppet soundtrack out of it! It's win-win!

Heck, the whole thing could even be aired in bits and pieces as bumpers on ABC or other Disney-owned channels and later stitched back together for a DVD release. This is money in the bank. This is what they need to be doing. A project like this could bring the Muppets back.

No Land of Oz, particular holiday celebration or contrived plot devices. Just the Muppets singing and dancing with singers and stars of every age and variety. Fun for fans and for the whole family. Muppety goodness. Have I sold this already? Disney, take this idea – please!

 

[theprawncracker]

Love it! If I was Disney I'd buy it now! But... I'm not, so I'll just sit back and hope they do.

Psst... Hey, Mickey, if ya want... I could write the script for ya.

 

[GonzoLover85]

This is a great idea.

I'm thinking you should get in contact with Robert Iger and pitch the idea. Seriously.
They could run these snippets during their primetime slots during the same show every week, almost as a commercial, except 5-10 minutes long. 24 episodes, you've got a feature length film, full of celebrity cameos and all around good-time family fun.

 

[frogboy4]

It's basically brining Muppets.com into primetime in snippets with stars and songs.

And when the star is singing his or her own song with Kermit or Fozzie it's simple to secure the rights. The Muppets have a place at the big table, but they keep getting wedged into awkward fits.

It was the YouTube coverage of the Muppets shooting the Disneyland commercial that made me think just how easy this would be to do. There's no great expensive set building, flying motorcycles, CG or animatronic talking snowmen. Just singing and dancing and making people happy.

Disney owns the Muppets, heck, use them for your pitchmen on ABC every now and then. Fox, CBS, CW and NBC don't have these icons - you do Disney!

 

[redBoobergurl]

I love this idea Jamie! It sounds exactly like what the Muppets SHOULD be doing! Disney, listen up!

 

[Nick22]

that would AWESOME. i'd love to see that, as long as it's done right.

 

[Beauregard]

Oh! OH! This would be fantastic! It would be amazing to see them on a tour bus. Imagine, Miss Piggy having to sit at the back with Floyd Pepper, to see Sweetums constantly trying to catch up (TMM anyone?), to see the normal, disfunctional Muppet family forced to spend time together. I'd LOVE to see this.

Disney, pay attention!

 

[Luke]

Such a great idea ... i love it. It would be a great theme, and i think the Muppets work really well without a really restrictive studio/movie set format so being out on the road on some kind of adventure would be fantastic. They oughta let the public come meet them at each stop too.

 

[Drtooth]

I posted about this in another thread, but I think this deserves serious thought. Many specials have been marred by budget or story not meeting quality expectations of a particular contrivance.

Well, why not let the Muppets go on a road trip and perform with stars they meet along the way? It wouldn't need to be expensive and the writing is freed up to allow the Muppets just to be Muppets! That's what they're good at.

Sets design really could be mostly simple soundstage work with a few location bits thrown in. Top stars would be more than willing to do this and Disney could get a great new Muppet soundtrack out of it! It's win-win!

Heck, the whole thing could even be aired in bits and pieces as bumpers on ABC or other Disney-owned channels and later stitched back together for a DVD release. This is money in the bank. This is what they need to be doing. A project like this could bring the Muppets back.

No Land of Oz, particular holiday celebration or contrived plot devices. Just the Muppets singing and dancing with singers and stars of every age and variety. Fun for fans and for the whole family. Muppety goodness. Have I sold this already? Disney, take this idea – please!

I would LOVE this idea. Honestly. No forced retellings of old movies, no holiday stuff... the Muppets actually doing Muppety things together in the vein of The Muppet Movie. The thing that's disappointing is that this would be conceived as one of those unsolicited fan ideas, and they'd probably give us something much less than this.

But this is JUST the idea that they need to get them back in the public eye the way they were intended to. Oz, let's face it, was rushed to get out to the stock holders to say "This is what we plan to do" and we haven't had anything for years until LTS. They got very bad footing on the franchise with that one. Something where the characters are themselves, don't have to play second to human celebrities, and have said human celebrities as the villains and cameos (again, like they were intended to). Something Oz didn't do at all, but LTS did.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder what kind of vechicles would be used. The Electric Mayhem bus? A different kind of tour bus? A tour van? A number of cars? Something that's a bit too cheap for stars to travel on?