The Muppets on Netflix? Hulu? Amazon?

[beaker]

I still don't get (I won't name em) how certain unfunny one joke stereotype shows keep getting renewed on ABC but the Muppets get cancelled after (a weirdly truncated) 16 episodes. Why did they change management and fix/retool the show over half way thru only to get it canned?

It *could* be on Netflix or Hulu or wherever...sadly Im not sure Muppet fans are vocally active compared to every other fandom. If passionate Doctor Who, Game of Thrones and Walking Dead fans and fandom is at a fever pitched 100...and lets say, NBC Hannibal fans are at a 60...passion and amounts of Muppet fans are hovering around a 5.

I thought the Muppet series started off kind of cynical and awkward (didn't like how every episode had to have a Fozzie solo b story), but grew into something really special. I could see it getting cancelled if the vibe had remained like the first two episodes.

 

[Drtooth]

It *could* be on Netflix or Hulu or wherever...sadly Im not sure Muppet fans are vocally active compared to every other fandom. If passionate Doctor Who, Game of Thrones and Walking Dead fans and fandom is at a fever pitched 100...and lets say, NBC Hannibal fans are at a 60...passion and amounts of Muppet fans are hovering around a 5.

What we've both been saying for years. It's...strange. People seem to like the Muppets enough, but somehow only on T-shirts and Family Guy cutscenes, and Christmas special appearances. I mean, sure, I get the whole "this isn't exactly what I saw when I was a kid at my grandma's house on an old VHS of Great Muppet Caper" bit. Like a franchise isn't allowed to try anything different, yet if they do the same thing they get crap for it anyway. I understand their Friday night crap is cheap and somehow a certain show stands as a mouthpiece for Middle America so it keeps getting renewed. I'm very disappointed in Dr. Ken, but at least I'm happy that between that and Fresh off the Boat, Asian Americans get representation.

Maybe the show didn't fit in with the sassy family of losers shows they keep pumping out. But on the plus side, Disney had every right to junk the franchise after MMW failed to beat a now failing itself tweenpocalypse movie series. They have every right to throw them in storage behind Disney Afternoon shows and the shows Saban didn't want to buy the rights back to because they weren't Power Rangers. Yet, they haven't. Not just yet. And they pretty much slammed the door shut on former cash cow, Pooh, after his last movie.

 

[beaker]

One step forward, 10 steps back. The last 5 years have been weirdly frustrating with Disney. We've had two theatrical movies(one which got insane rave reviews) and a new (single season) tv show. We now have a new action figure line. An expansion of the Muppets at Walt Disney World. But... I can't help but feel the Muppets as a franchise are back to square one.

Compared to the fandom around Doctor Who, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead...heck even Jim Hensons Labyrinth...it feels like the Muppets are as forgotten as ever.

 

[Muppet Master]

It's been really frusturating from MMW and The Muppets tv show fllopping, it just seems like Disney could easily give up on the muppets. I still blame the reboot for the show's cancellation. It was hovering around a 1.1 and 1.2 demo which is barely passable for a renewal, when it returned it was down to a 0.8 and 0.9 demo, which will usually get you cancelled, if they had just ended the show in January or something, the ratings could have been decent enough for a renewal.

 

[D'Snowth]

I still blame the reboot for the show's cancellation.

I still blame Disney. Although I give Jason Segel and Nick Stoller credit for delivering a decent and respectful first script for the 2011 movie (and Stoller did good with MMW), but otherwise, Disney clearly won't bring in actual Muppet writers or producers to work on these things. Yeah, yeah, Bill Prady used to write for the Muppets, but that was looong ago, and he's gone on to other things since then, such as a mainstream sitcom like THE BIG DANG THEORY. I still say that was the problem: they were bringing in writers and producers from other mainstream sitcoms to try to give THE MUPPETS (2015) a mainstream feel in an attempt for it to achieve mainstream success, and therein lies the problem - rather than a new show with the Muppets, we ended up with something like THE BIG MODERN MUPPET BANG OFFICE FAMILY THEORY. It was the same problem that VMX and MOZ had: they brought in Simpsons writers for those, and the Simpsons and the Muppets have completely different styles of humor, and you can't really expect one style of humor to try to work for another body of work (in this case, trying to instill Simpsons-esque humor in the Muppets). That'd be like if they tried to reboot MUPPET BABIES and bringing in FAMILY GUY writers to handle it.

Now, we know that Kirk Thatcher has revealed he's in the process of working on a new series with the Muppets - perhaps this work out for the better? Who knows? Time will tell. But the fact that Kirk is working on a Muppet project seems more like a step in the right direction. Jim Lewis is still around, Kevin Clash and Joey Mazzarino are no longer with SST, so I've said before, let's bring in some people with actual experience in writing and performing with the Muppets, and let's have a new project with actual Muppet spirit. After all, when they brought in the new showrunner for the 2015 series, what were they saying the series was lacking prior to the new showrunner? Humor and heart. What are the Muppets known for? Humor and heart. Hard to give a series something when you're trying to rely on what other shows lack.

 

[Muppy]

I love how you have a such a strong opinion of a show you've never seen.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't think audiences would have loved a Muppet insider headed clone of the original show either. It may have got the conservative values crowds in for a bit, but after a while it would be all "they did this better in the 70's" and they'd just rewatch the three released box sets. Audiences are fickle morons that think they're smarter than they are. They whine about how every such and such is the same, yet when something truly original manages to pop up, they avoid it at all costs and spend the money to see the very same movies they claim to be sick of only to whine about how awful they are. That's why a movie everyone claims to hate so darn much had 3 solid weekends at number one, and a beautiful looking stop motion piece gets lost in the shuffle.

At this point the only thing I'm ticked off about is that Disney's sitting on web videos they produced a year ago. The Muppet web videos were mostly huge hits and won awards. Why screw with the one thing that was already a bonafide hit with casual audiences?

 

[dwayne1115]

I would also like to point out yet again that the co creator of the new show did in fact cut his theeth working for Jim Henson on the Jim Henson Hour. That being said I think the show lacked a lot of key elements to help make it work.it was not really one big thing like the style of the show. It was just little things that kept turning the avrage watcher off.

 

[CensoredAlso]

yet if they do the same thing they get crap for it anyway.

You say this a lot and I keep meaning to ask -- where do you see this going on? And do you mean when the Muppets do the same thing or just TV/movies in general?

 

[Drtooth]

It's obvious that a certain percentage of casual Muppet fans just want The Muppet Show, but even if we got that exactly, it'd be all like "Ew! I don't like such and such celebrity! Why can't they work with such and such who's either incredibly old or probably dead that I like much better?" or the more obvious "they did it better back in the 80's, just sayin.'"

There's a direct difference between those who are willing to see older characters take risks to remain relevant, and those that just want to see a greatest hits. The show asked a little much of classic fans, I'll agree. Those who stayed with the show were rewarded with some of the risks paying off. After all, it was the first season, and there was always room to change things naturally. Had it got that second season, who knows? They might have finally struck a cord of feeling like a current sitcom and having enough song and dance numbers to work. But no one watches ESPN, so someone that isn't ESPN had to take the fall.

What I'm saying is *&^% ESPN. You no longer have to sit through idiotic sports commentary when you can look up scores and replays on your phone.

Though, you do only have one chance to make a first impression. Most first episodes of things are essentially weak, but not everyone's going to say "I'll give it a couple more weeks." Not like the first couple episodes of The Muppet Show were as good as a meh Season 2. No Beaker, no Pigs in Space, that ehhh round table skit, inconsistent Miss Piggy performer. I'm sure that would have been the hit it was despite that, but you have to admit, there was strong improvement as soon as halfway through the first season. Too bad this show started to improve before the plug got pulled.