My Thoughts: Disney's Muppets

[Luke]

It's true, audiences are more separate now. The thing is, these younger demographic celebs will not endure. Heading towards the flavor of the moment just doesn't pay in the long term. The world has changed, but adapting to fit the change (especially when it's flawed in many ways) doesn't always end with success.

True, but in TV it's generally the way things are done now, right or wrong. It was all so simple back in the 70's, you just worried about ratings. Now you can't make a show without all the branding, merchandise, sponsorship, advertising. With them trying to specifically target kids again, its unlikely they'd go for anyone they can't associate with, and i doubt they'd be worrying too much about the long term either. They are going to be wanting strong guest stars who will draw in the audience they want, especially as the Muppets aren't going to pull in viewers at first as much as they did back in the TMS days so if anything, they'd be relying on the guests to introduce people back to the Muppets. As i said, they'd be working their behinds off to try find people who both young and classic audiences want to watch as a lot of their publicity angle would probably be about bringing back a "classic" for families but being Disney i do think they would go slightly heavy on the younger flavor of the month type guests.

Unfortunately a show made just for the purists would never work nowadays, and i don't see why the Muppets shouldn't update (slightly) as time goes on. What they need is something much tighter and fresh, while still well written and entertaining. I think "Next Muppet" would have probably been exactly that but i do also think that an updated version of classic TMS could work again. I don't mean re-themed like Muppets Tonight either, i think they should just go back and carry on TMS like in the Weezer video or VMX. They just need to be very clever and do it right with the right people involved, and somehow attract that younger audience while still appealing to the others. It just baffles me completely how you get 10-14 years olds watching Muppets, the tastes of that age group has changed completely since we were kids and they'd either see them as pre-school or something way dated mom and dad used to watch - they may have had the gimmick they needed with "Next Muppet" and missed their chance completely, especially as it then seemed to work with that kinda audience in "Americas Got Talent".

 

[Winslow Leach]

Oh I agree, and I was first introduced to many of the guest stars through the Muppets too. I'm just not as interested in who the Muppets might appear with now. Maybe it's because I'm such a purist and Old Schooler, lol.

Ah yes, I totally agree with you about current, flavor-of-the-month celebs appearing with the Muppets.

But as UncleMatt said, I think a Tom Hanks or a Robin Williams would be interesting.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't think the post-Jim projects measure up to the Jim projects. It's no one's fault, it's just hard to follow a classic. But again, art is very subjective, we all have our own points of view.

It is impossible for a franchise to stay on track when the leader, if not a major player passes on. I don't expect current Muppet Movies (or projects) to be the same level before Jim passed on. Of course, I don't expect them to be embarassing to watch.

Yeah, but they've been pretty slow at doing this. Season 2 of TMS is now available, but that's about 3 years after the release of Sesaon 1. Now compare that with what Sesame Workshop has done with Old School Sesame Street; The first set was released in November 2006, followed by the second set in October 2007. That's less than a year between the two. Plus, they also released two box sets of The Electric Company within roughly the same time span.

Now I know that when a DVD set is released, there's all kinds of formalities that have to be worked out like copyrights, royalties to actors, performers music composers and the like. But SW had just as many -- if not more -- of these things to work out and if a non-profit organization like SW with limited staff, money and resources can manage to do this so quickly, then I fail to see why a company like Disney with much more money and staff, can't do the same.

Well, that's the problem. A lot of the music rights changed hands, and a lot of them said "Sure, we'll let you use such and such a song, but only this once for this episode." So of course, they had troubles negotiating the music rights so the box set would be truely complete. I'm still working under the theory they would have released it cut a year after TMS 1, but they felt that fans would be displeased and not buy future volumes. As much as I disliked the 2 year waiting period, I like the fact they had a huge effort to make it uncut.

And well, with SW, they are a non-profit organization, so a lot of the song negotiations could fall into helping out a non-profit. Remember, TMS was a commercial TV venture. Not only that, but SW can negotiate with mostly everyone, but the two old ladies that own Happy Birthday refuse to budge.

I saw a lot of Care in both DVD sets that I don't see with the rest of the ownership.

I would have definitely gone with Portman - the film would have had a whole different feel with her. Only gotta look at Magorium to see she can work well in that style. I think if it was purely Henson and they had the budget they would have wanted her but it was probably Disney that opted to use one of their own "talent". Oz completely bores me, way too disneyfied. I'd love to see Henson's original script - i bet it changed a lot.

Not to mention that she had beautiful chemestry with the Sesame Street gang the episode she guested on (too bad she got sick, and could not finish up the rest of the episodes written for her). I mean, going in the African American angle isn't a bad thing. But Ashanti couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. I mean, Raven would have been very good in the role, and she did have a history with the Muppets. A history with the Muppets far outshines talent when it comes to celebs on the muppets.

As for celebs on a current muppet project.. well, we WILL have flavor of the month people. It's not a new concept. There are handfuls of TMS guest stars that will forever be timeless and classic, like The Star Wars cast, Paul Simon, Johnathan Winters, Steve Martin... etc. but they had quite a few people like Sheilds and Yarnell, Theresa Brewer, Blondie (though that was because Brian had a crush on her), etc. That were flavors of the month back then. Even the JHH wasn't safe. Bobby McFarin appeared there at the height of his popularity.

I just hope there's a delicate balance between at the moment and timeless people if there is a new series.

 

[Krazedmuppet]

I agree with you Barry! (I also miss you! my computer has been on the fritz)
My opinion- I would like it if Disney would just stop. Stop using the Muppets (and the rest of there characters for that matter) just to make money. I have said that for years, I said that when they first bought the Muppets. Disney was distroying itself way before they even had the Muppets. So as to preserve what we remember, what we love, I wish they would just stop.

Is it true that they fired Golez and Whitmere? (thats probably not spelled right- but then again do you know how hard it is to type a responce on a Wii?)

 

[Barry Lee]

I'm so glad they didn't go with either of those choices. I believe they originally were going a different way with the production and courting Natalie Portman for the role. Now that would have made for an interesting Oz. Ashanti wasn't totally terrible, but she was bland and had little connection with the Muppets. They gave much more life-like performances.

She almost seemed like a babysitter too the muppets.

GEEEZ this is such an old thread being revived ha

Oh and Katie, i miss you too

 

[Drtooth]

I agree with you Barry! (I also miss you! my computer has been on the fritz)
My opinion- I would like it if Disney would just stop. Stop using the Muppets (and the rest of there characters for that matter) just to make money. I have said that for years, I said that when they first bought the Muppets. Disney was distroying itself way before they even had the Muppets. So as to preserve what we remember, what we love, I wish they would just stop. )

Stop? Honey, they haven't even started. All they gave us were a couple of old DVD's and a few disappointing pieces of Merchandise. They haven't even tried to do anything yet. If you ask me, they stopped as soon as the ratings for OZ came in. I'd rather, I dunno... have them actually try a couple more projects before I can say that.

And at the risk of being a skeptic, I'd like to see proof that both of them were fired. If it were true, we would have heard something on this site by now.

 

[babyPiggy]

Well, it would be great for Muppets to be seen with big named celebrities, but I think there sould defiantly be a happy medium between the popular celebrities of the day and true stars. However, the Muppets really need to get back into the public eye and perhaps the popular celebs may help in some reguard.

It's a little sad to me when people say that the Muppets are dead and that nothing good has come from the Muppets in recent years, because that isn't true, in my opinion. Then again, I mainly grew up on Muppet productions made after Jim's death, so maybe my opinion isn't justified so much.

I haven't seen The Muppets Wizard of Oz yet, but it doesn't bother me so much that it was made for TV (the rushedness is another story). First and foremost, The Muppets are television personalities. Though I will be the first to say that I ADORE the Muppet Movies to no end, The Muppet Show and even Muppets Tonight are where they seem the most comfortable in my opinion. Not that they don't work beautifully on the big screen... It's just good to see them in a variety show format. (.... Which really has nothing to do what I was just saying. GAH! Forgive me. must be tired.)

I think Disney really does need to focus on releasing the remaining seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD. I think that if people show strong support for the oldies, Disney will soon learn what the fans want.



... Somehow I think someone is going to beat me up over this post.

in my opinion you probably shouldent bother seeing the muppet wizard of oz. Whoever did the casting obveously forgot thea miss piggy is not the only female muppet.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

The Problem is that Miss Piggy is a well known muppet. Like if they used Janice, for example, kids not familiar with the muppets would be like WHos that? But most people, even if not familiar with the muppets know who miss piggy is. The main cast of muppets were all well known muppets in that movie.

 

[frogboy4]

in my opinion you probably shouldent bother seeing the muppet wizard of oz. Whoever did the casting obveously forgot thea miss piggy is not the only female muppet.

I liked the roles Miss Piggy played in Oz. That was one of the big crowd-pleasers about the project - the whole four witches/girl group thing.

I do think Janice is underutilized, but she really is the only other big-name female Muppet. I think she's considered a one-note character, but I'd like to see her role expanded. Maybe they should invent a grown-up Skeeter? The character was created for the Muppet Babies program because of the gang's lack of girl-power.

I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing Oz. It's not perfect, but there are some golden moments and it does follow the world of Oz better than most projects, including the MGM classic.

...My opinion- I would like it if Disney would just stop. Stop using the Muppets (and the rest of there characters for that matter) just to make money. I have said that for years, I said that when they first bought the Muppets. Disney was distroying itself way before they even had the Muppets. So as to preserve what we remember, what we love, I wish they would just stop...

Whatever Disney does with the Muppets they can never undo what came before. And don't forget the Jim Henson Company's dreadful D-movie "Swamp Years" came well before the Disney sale. Also Jim Henson's kid-vid use of the Muppet Show characters in the late 80s always bothered me.

Some projects I feel weakened the Muppet Show brand was the Muppet Show character kid vids produced under Jim Henson and the Muppet Babies program. They kept up the Muppet name, but diminished some of the appeal to mature audiences. When I say the word "Muppet" to much of the mid-twenties and under crowd they all too often sing a rif from Muppet Babies instead of the Muppet Show.

I still wonder what this new Muppet project (on hold due to the writers strike) is all about?

 

[dwayne1115]

insteed of just saying oh oz was bad no one should see it has anyone really looked at it and asked why? here look at this

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Muppets'_Wizard_of_Oz


Now when you look at this page look for two things that should be ponted out. Look at the Writers the only one that we know of is Tom Martan, the other writeers have as far as I can see not worked with the Muppets before.
The other thing look at how many studios had there hands in this at least four. Now when there are to many hands in the kichen there are bound to be problems. Studios will ethier really do good for the Muppets or do bad, Look at what happend with Muppets from Space. Brian henson has said that sony really messed up things with that movie, and there again there where problems with the writing staff of the movie. when those two things are messing up your movie will more then likely fail.