Muppet High

[HPDJ]

What do you think about an idea to do a series on the Muppets in high-school. I think it would be great!!!

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

Well, it sounds like an interesting idea (they did an easy-reader book series about the Muppets as kids in elementary school to teach values to kids). But this isn't the right forum for it. This would fit better in the Fan Art and Fiction Forum.

-Kim

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

http://www.cracked.com/article_19049_6-insane-versions-famous-cartoons-they-almost-made_p2.html

The Jim Henson Co. had one exceptional breakout hit, and you better believe they milked it for all it was worth. But for some reason, one of the company's greatest successes came after it took the actual Muppets out of the picture and forayed into animation. Muppet Babies was a surprise phenomenon, so much so that Henson soon started to think about how many stories he could squeeze out of the intermediate years between Muppet Babies and, well, regular Muppets.

The words "Muppet" and "High" go together like peanut butter and lint. But Muppet High, the developed-but-never-completed TV series featuring everyone's favorite non-pornographic puppets, was not the Cheech-and-Chong inspired take on the franchise we've all been waiting for, but rather a series recasting the Muppets as high school students in the 1950s. Muppet High would have recast Kermit as a motorcycle-riding, leather-jacket-wearing, Fonzie-style greaser; Fozzie Bear as a soda jerk; Gonzo as a nerd; and Rowlf as a varsity football player. Because that all makes sense.


Unlike Gotham High, which had Batmanability on its side, it's questionable how seamlessly the Muppets could temper their genuine zaniness to accommodate for realistic teenage problems. Then again, the Muppet Babies didn't ever confront real "baby issues," focusing instead on however much stock footage from old movies they could cram into 30 minutes.


Also, why the 1950s? Would the series have been a nostalgia-infused look at a simpler time, or taken more of a Mad Men-style approach, viewing the underlying hypocrisies of the era through the prism of floppy animal puppets?


Unfortunately, we may never know how Kermit would have reacted to Sputnik, or Gonzo's take on rock 'n' roll. When Jim Henson died, Muppet High died with him, but the Henson company still managed to squeeze some money out of it in the form of merchandising, proving that no matter how nonsensical children's toys may appear, kids will buy whatever Kermit the Frog tells them to.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_1904...rtoons-they-almost-made_p2.html#ixzz1GVoZXHjm

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Funny- thanks for the link.

 

[JJandJanice]

As mention, yes indeed this idea was already thought of, in fact here are the PVC figures of the Muppets in the sterotypical high school roles...

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_High_PVC_figures

Not to mention of course the plush dolls...

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_High_plush

 

[Katzi428]

Can you picture The Swedish Chef working in the cafeteria in a Muppet High School? snickering Kind of funny if you think about it!

 

[GonzoLeaper]

"Muppet High" looks like it could have worked- too bad it never went into production.

 

[Drtooth]

Was this intended to be a live action regular Muppet series or an animated spinoff of Muppet Babies? Either way, I like the idea of having them stuck in the 1950's, instead of randomly being teenagers in current times... it probably would have been a neat movie or something. Though... I don't know if it would have lasted all that long as a regular TV series...

 

[JJandJanice]

Was this intended to be a live action regular Muppet series or an animated spinoff of Muppet Babies? ...

Considering the success of Muppet Babies, my guess is that it would of been an animated spinoff of sorts. Plus during the 80s Jim Henson and Frank Oz were fairly busy with other projects, so I'm thinking Frank Welker would of done the voice of Kermit.

 

[bingboingcutie]

Can you picture The Swedish Chef working in the cafeteria in a Muppet High School? snickering Kind of funny if you think about it!

Ha! That would be so funny.

I've just recently heard about this. Sounds like a pretty neat idea. A lot of great things could have happened if only Jim lived a little bit longer.