Your Thoughts: Lady Gaga and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular on ABC

[liberty]

It's Not Easy Being Greenscreened

I'm really bothered by the stiffness of everything I saw, and especially by the realization that all of the interactions with Muppets looked like they were greenscreened. Even when Pepe rubs Gaga's leg, there's no shadows, and the hands don't line up right. I turned off Gypsy because it looked like the producers couldn't even put Kermit and Gaga in the same room for a duet. How can we expect Gaga to have anything else but stiff interactions if she's presumably on another coast when she delivers her lines? How can we expect the Muppeteers to respond to her naturally if one or the other has been prerecorded?

I'm not saying it was awful, but it was the first time I've ever not watched a Muppet special all the way through. Halfway through Gypsy, I turned it off an put on the Gilda Radnor episode of TMS. I hope that when I watch the rest of it on DVR, I will see glimpses of Muppet brilliance that will save this special, in the way that Fozzy's escape from the Crocodile Hunter saved another stiffly scripted holiday special. The bubble wrap came close, but didn't have enough sustainable mayhem to suit me.
I'm going to watch everyone slip on the ice at Fozzy's mom's house and get back my holiday spirit.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm really bothered by the stiffness of everything I saw, and especially by the realization that all of the interactions with Muppets looked like they were greenscreened. Even when Pepe rubs Gaga's leg, there's no shadows, and the hands don't line up right. I turned off Gypsy because it looked like the producers couldn't even put Kermit and Gaga in the same room for a duet. How can we expect Gaga to have anything else but stiff interactions if she's presumably on another coast when she delivers her lines? How can we expect the Muppeteers to respond to her naturally if one or the other has been prerecorded?

You clearly didn't see the bloopers at the end of the special. Pepe was there. Kermit was also there during the musical number. But the Muppets were very obviously green screened in post during one number.

 

[theSHE124]

Surprise surprise... everyone hated it.

That's not true, Drtooth: I just read all the pages so far & there are actually few who liked it, including me!

Besides, my family postponed the Thanksgiving feast this year, so this was the best part of yesterday for me. Therefore, Got 2 see it! I wonder if my aunt got to see it, too...She likes any moment with Pepe for some reason...

Anyway, great opener there! Electric Mayhem totally rocked with GaGa! (though I wish Zoot would play his sax. He was given that opportunity back at AFV) Great to see Lips again, too! No surprise he was quiet, considering how difficult it was for the band to answer Christmas questions, poor guys! Little carol ditties from the trio of were also cute shorts. Don't forget, were there heckling as well.

As for the more human segments, great to see Sir Elton John in this! (Wait, Sir? Since when was he knighted??) Nice to hear a slight change to the lyrics of 'GaGa' and the Jets. After all, I was up and running for that Secret 7"s Invite for a 'Bennie and the Jets' cover. I always like it when Kermit gets to sing for a human, this time, the Lady GaGa. The 'It's Cold Outside' segment surely brings about an old timey touch. The Red and Green Christmas is the only Muppet Christmas CD I have, so it was sweet (& silly) to hear Ms. Piggy doing 'Santa Baby' in her imagination. Piggy was so Piggy in that one! Are you guys afraid that the 'diva' trait is becoming a stiff, stock character trait these days? Wait, is 'diva' a stiff trait??

Most hilarious moments for me? Gonzo! I can't stop laughing about the Hypnotic Stare thing!

[HYPNOTIC STARE]

So here's my verdict, 4 's. And this judging moreso for Muppet 'Appearance', this is what the thread is about. Not sure how to critique Lady GaGa since this seems to be the first I've heard of any song from her. & I don't wanna point out anymore hints of downside, not after what happened last time on a previous thread...I just have to look at the bright side. That way, you won't be kicked out! Not that I'm worried, is just that--am I the only one that thinks Muppets will never be disappointing no matter how terrible the outlook is?

 

[muppet maniac]

All I can say is... I really don't know. I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it either.

The things I liked about it:
* I liked that they were doing this to remind people that the Classic Muppets weren't just for kids.

* Good mix of original and post-Jim era characters.

* The scene with Animal and the bubble wrap dress. Reminds me of when I was a kid, every time I saw bubble wrap nearby I'd pop it just like Animal.

Things I didn't like, or could care less about:
* The non-Muppet portions of the show. I don't keep up with pop-culture these days, so I don't know who half of the guest stars in this were (aside from Elton John and Gaga, who I'm not a fan of).

Overall, not the greatest thing the Muppets did, but far from the worst. At least it wasn't Studio DC!

 

[Drtooth]

I agree more to the school of thought that the special was alright with it's moments. I did like the Muppet segments, as segregated as they were. And frankly, it wasn't as bad as sitting through terrible country musicians all singing about sex in front of kids in teddy bear costumes to see the Sesame Street and Ninja Turtles floats and a couple of the balloons on that parade. I wish I had DVR so I could have skipped through most of it.

That's not to say the special didn't have flaws. But all the flaws were of the lost opportunity and rushed out variety. If they took more time and care to this thing, it would have been much better. What would have made this special great would have been:

• More interactions with the celebrity guests and the Muppets. I actually liked the bits with Kristen Bell. Her bit with Bobo reminded me of the Cindy Crawford Muppets Tonight. Elton John really should have had a reunion with the Muppet characters, and Joseph Gordon Levitt should have had some interactions as well. Look for his Word of the Day on Sesame Street.
• While I get this was a special to showcase Gaga's new Album, the Gaga highlight was singing a Gender-swapped version of "Baby it's Cold Outside." Now, I hate that song. Already explained that on 2 threads... but Gaga sings these old pop/jazz standards like a pro, and is frankly better suited to that than Pop. With her last special 2 years ago, there actually was more of that, and they used almost exclusively Holiday songs. That's what Gaga's section needed.
• More duets with Gaga and the Muppets. The Mayhem should have backed her up on something, Piggy should have had a duet with her. I really wish the Santa Baby number was a battling duet, like the end of the Raquel Welsh episode.
• The commercial breaks were relentless! Even moreso than Letters to Santa. I bet the runtime is like 30 minutes if you watch it without commercials. It detracted from the flow.
• The Puppets joke was an aborted running gag. It would have been great for them to run with it.
• Some storyline besides "we need a closing number" would have been great. Speaking of closing number...
• The earlier performance of "Applause" should have been cut for more focus on the finale. Shades of the ending of The Muppets where they rushed the end over the credits.
• and above all, this special really should have been written longer in advance.

Other than that, the fact we had a large choice of characters, and the Disney XD style short segments were pretty good. Too bad the rest of the special wasn't like that. Other than not singing with Gaga, they appeared in it more than I was expecting. It's definitely worth a watch once. I never expected this to be a long traditional holiday classic so much as a concert special. The Muppets have quite enough Christmas specials and projects that are. Besides, this is nothing more than a stop on the publicity train to the big movie. It wet my appetite for the film even more than watching the trailers daily, and it served that purpose.

But next year, maybe a Muppet Christmas special more traditional.

 

[charlietheowl]

I thought it was all right, though the special seemed fairly disjointed to me, like they were trying to cram in a lot of different things in the 90 minutes. You had all the musical numbers, Kristen Bell hanging around, the Muppet interludes, "Baby It's Cold Outside", it just seemed like there was too much going on. I would have liked more sketches and less of the songs, but it was Lady Gaga's special. That being said, I think the special got the word out about the new movie, which is probably the most important part, and it's nice to the see the Muppets on prime-time TV again.

As for her music (which I will profess I have not heard a lot of), I think that her arrangements were just too busy. I think if she stripped off some of the electronics from her songs and just used a full band, they would come off better. I definitely got some David Bowie vibes from her vocals, and I think that would go better with different arrangements.

 

[Scooterforever]

I haven't watched the special yet, I DVR'd it last night, but I don't know if I'm going to watch it anyway. I'm not a Gaga fan at all, and since this is her special, I don't know if I can watch it, even for the Muppets. If Joseph Gordon Levitt (one of my fav actors) was the headliner, I'd be all over it, but it sounds like he just had a cameo. Also, from what people have said, it sounds kinda like John Denver and the Muppets Christmas Special; there was waaayyyy too many Muppet-less moments in that one, a lot of numbers where it was just John Denver performing, as opposed to his camping special, where most every number featured one or more Muppets. I can't watch a 90 min special if the Muppets are only in parts of it. I feel like they should have gone with Katie Perry instead of Gaga; she seems a little more down-to-earth, with less of an ego, and it would kinda make up for her Sesame Street snub. Oh well, there's always next year.

 

[mr3urious]

I found this special enjoyable, even though it clearly felt rushed. But this was definitely a nice way to hold us over until the next Muppet movie, and wasn't the worst thing to be associated with the Muppets.

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

What I had said on Facebook:

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First off, yes, it was heavily Gaga oriented. But I got the feeling from the beginning of its publicity that it was HER show featuring the Muppets. So I have no problem with all her screen time.

The Muppet segments were hilarious. Before we all start complaining about the lack of certain characters or the amount of screen time, lets just remember that MO FRACKLE, BIG MEAN CARL, LIPS, and BOBO were featured in it! How awesome is that?! I loved how Statler and Waldorf made fun of it the whole time.
Very entertaining, but my only gripe was the fact that the Kermit/Gaga segments were a little awkward.​

 

[vermontcathy]

Anybody know of a place/way to view this online? I didn't get to see it yesterday.