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

[Mr Sweetums]

I really admire what they were going for here, I imagine in ten years if a six year old kid watched this special it would stand out to them as TMS episodes did to me, the only difference being that TMS was actually good. Had the voice announcer been replaced by Kermit it would have felt even more like a long extended Muppet Show episode.

I went into this as a Muppet Fan who was on the fence about Gaga but rather than becoming a bigger Muppet Fan watching this I was actually more entertained by Gaga. Her songs are awesome and the fact that she did not just invite the Muppets to her special to share screen time with but to also allow them the chance to perform their own skits. You wouldn't get many celebrities these days giving so much screen time to just the Muppets on their special.

Speaking about the Muppets, I think they were one of the things that dragged the show a little. I mean come on the Electric Mayhem have not spoken in years, finally they have found their voice, they were all together, they had screen time and all they could do was matter "ooh ooh" etc... what a wasted opportunity. Muppet Chickens are meant to be funny and entertaining not dull and boring, they've just become a bunch of clucking Chickens, why not use them to play the piano in the background for one of Lady Gagas songs? so many good missed opportunities. Beaker, Swedish Chef and Animal should have been fantastic but it just didn't feel very special. Norman? Glad he appeared but what a terrible joke, Sam: I am an American, that is all (seriously?) And Kermit please stop talking so much about the Swamp when you were living in a giant mansion only two years ago.

I'm so glad Kristen Bell cast her vote I know what they were going for, seemed a little cheesy but you know what although her chemistry with the Muppets was awkward it wasn't like other celebrities who just don' care, she was actually as excited as us and I loved how hard she tried. I applaud Gaga for this special, I don't think they achieved exactly what they were going for but they were on the right track.

 

[LouisTheOtter]

I mean come on the Electric Mayhem have not spoken in years, finally they have found their voice, they were all together, they had screen time and all they could do was matter "ooh ooh" etc... what a wasted opportunity. Muppet Chickens are meant to be funny and entertaining not dull and boring, they've just become a bunch of clucking Chickens, why not use them to play the piano in the background for one of Lady Gagas songs?

I'm with you on the Mayhem, although they did get off a couple of funny lines, especially Zoot talking about his spit valve. I'm on the fence about whether he said he's been using the same "wreath" or "reed" since 1962. It's funny either way.

Strangely, I liked that the chickens kept showing up and attempting to answer the questions in cluck-speak. It had the same appeal to me as the Despicable Me Minions, in that it's not necessary to understand what they said for me to find it funny, as long as it's delivered with some gusto.

 

[JonnyBMuppetMan]

I, for one, did not see this coming, but here's an interestingly positive ToughPigs review from Ryan Roe.

I should say I blew off quite a bit of steam in my last post, and despite that it probably sounded like I hated it, I can't really say I do or think it's the worst Muppet thing ever. I agree with Ryan in that at it's core, it didn't need that much to prove it's worth.

In some ways, I still think it could've been stronger; Again, I would've preferred to have seen Muppet interactions with the other guest stars (the fact that Elton John was on the Muppet Show was completely overlooked, save for singing "Benny and the Jets"), and who else thought Piggy was underused in this? But hey, from a Muppet standpoint, we got to see some long unused characters (Lips, Rizzo, Big Mean Carl), and some good moments (including bloopers, which I didn't see initially). In fact, some of the special's better more Muppety parts didn't occur until near the end (Santa Baby, Jingle Bells, etc.).

Like I said before, I'm not really big on Gaga. I admit she has a solid singing voice, and it shows in most of the musical numbers, but her acting was kind of flat. Yeah, I apologize for saying that and it's not the worst offender, but her chemistry with Kermit was particularly awkward. To an extent, I also agree that the special was a thinly-veiled commercial for the ArtPop album; (and as someone else pointed out) not helped by the fact that they had "Professor Utonium" plugging the album for every song. But I guess that seems to be the way of the world now.

So yeah, still mediocre in my opinion, but at least it's "memorably" mediocre in that it's getting more attention (and was most likely better) than that other music-filled puppet show that aired earlier. (Seriously, I could not care less for Glee )

 

[SweetMayhem]

I liked the Muppet portions. I expected Gaga to sing some new songs, but I thought she'd sing more than ONE holiday song. Why even bother to bill it as a "Holiday Spectacular," as others have stated. I think that's what had me the most disappointed. The Muppets were the only ones really doing anything Christmassy. I wish they would've just cut the holiday aspect of out of it completely and made it a regular special.

To those complaining that her performances weren't family-friendly, just count your blessings that she didn't perform her new song "Do What U Want" featuring R. Kelly...

 

[JonnyBMuppetMan]

I kinda would've preferred to see "Pepe's Holiday-on-Shaved-Ice Television Spectacular" over this.

 

[MelissaY1]

I finally had the chance to sit and watch this special on my DVR last and I was honestly very disappointed. Let me start off by saying, I consider myself more an old school Muppet fan, but I do try to support the new material and give it a shot, but this was just very lackluster. While I'm not a big fan of Lady Gaga's, I generally enjoy her, and I think she's very talented, but the special was one big commercial for her new album, she didn't have a great onscreen rapport with the Muppets, and honestly, the highlight of the show for me? Her duets with Elton John.

I always say when the Muppets stop making me laugh, it will be a sad day, and this special came CLOSE, because I only chuckled TWICE during the whole thing. Once when Miss Piggy was mocking Gaga and Kristen Bell under her breath, and the blooper at the end Pepe and Gaga. I really hate what Disney as a corporate entity has done to the Muppets. Everything about the writing seemed forced, even the lines with Statler and Waldorf which are usually good for a few jokes, even though they may be hacky/corny. But I don't know, I was just really bummed by the whole thing. Like others here have said, it had potential to be fun, but just fell very flat. I'd rather watch Muppet Family Christmas for the millionth time.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I'm really glad someone put the Muppet portions together on Vimeo- that I might watch. I certainly don't care about the other parts....and I have to say- even if this does come to DVD, it's one that I would skip getting........ I know the Muppets work with the modern celebrities of pop culture, but I'm just not a fan of Lady Gaga and I really don't care to see her working with The Muppets...... (but it's not the first time the Muppets have worked with controversial musicians- they did a song with Ozzy Osbourne back in the day...)
In any case- I'm much more excited to see the new Muppets movie than this.
(By the way- I'm not really that worked up about it as the smilies might indicate- I just wanted to use a bunch of these smilies that I haven't used much in a while.)

 

[muppet maniac]

My YTP based on the special:

 

[antsamthompson9]

On Friday, the special is on LOGO at 9 PM. Hopefully, it'll get better ratings this time.

 

[Oscarfan]

Probably not. ABC is network television, LOGO is a niche cable channel.