Muppets to appear in Disney Channel TV special

[Luke]

I agree with everything you said except about the "America's Next Muppet" thing. IMO it would have bombed big. Like it or not, most people think of the Muppets as being for children. And why shouldn't they? When they watched the Muppets for the first time, THEY were kids! A prime time kid's program would have a hard time making it today. Heck, even in my day. And I'm old.

I agree you couldn't just put a Muppet series on in primetime without a lot of groundwork but i thought there was something about "Next Muppet", not so much because it was a Muppet show but more because it would have been set like a reality TV talent show (hopefully with viewer voting) and they were so hot at the time, i think maybe it would have caught on, possibly enough for the audience to follow the new Muppet through to whatever new Muppet series came of it - of course they would have had to find a way to make people care but then the Muppet appearance on Americas Got Talent seemed well recieved. As i said, just an instinct.

I think the same can be said in a way about this new Muppet special, its like they are having these Muppets who the kids in the shows will never have heard of and just puttin them into what seems like a pretty wooden script. Sure it will be great if the kids watch the show and are exposed to Muppets, but its not gonna be great if the thing just doesnt make any sense and makes the Muppets look bad. The kids are the ones coming across wooden, they obviously haven't got experience of working with puppets and the lines just seem so false. Maybe if they would have run the planned interstitials first or run the Youtube stuff on the DC or something, but from what i've seen so far of the kid reaction they may be uploading the ads and planning to watch but its more comments like "cool miley is on, those muppets are stupid". Kids are smarter nowdays, they will see through this fakeness in 2 seconds. Maybe if there would have been the planned interstitials/shorts on DC it would have come over better but realistically there isn't much they can do, but i applaud them for trying. I think with the Youtubes being so popular they maybe ought to just keep them for occasions and focus on the classic element of Muppets and the adult retro audience like Henson did for a few years. I don't wish to see them just use Muppets in a weekly TMS to host their stars and promote the music, it wouldn't work today.

 

[Taco Wiz]

At first I thought it would just be a cameo, but it turns out that The Muppets are actually the stars of the special. I wonder if Mickey Mouse will ever get this kind of treatment.

 

[frogboy4]

Not So Hog Wild About The Pig

This comparison picture is an estimation of how I think Miss Piggy could be improved. It's a quick and crude mock-up, but this is a bit closer to how I'd like the pig to look. Thoughts?

 

[Erine81981]

This comparison picture is an estimation of how I think Miss Piggy could be improved. It's a quick and crude mock-up, but this is a bit closer to how I'd like the pig to look. Thoughts?

I agree with you too Jamie. That would be alot better then what they have shown us.

 

[frogboy4]

I just think Miss Piggy deserves to match her wonderful performance.

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Yeah, that second one does look better.

When my friend told me about an ad he saw for this, I was worried. But this actually looks pretty good! I don't like any of the Disney Channel shows, but this is a good idea for introducing a younger generation-- and they're actually putting in the Electric Mayhem and the Snowths! Awesome.

 

[Muppet Loverr]

A few more hours!

 

[armslength]

I'm really very optimistic about this. I think i'll enjoy the special itself despite the "singing" of the Disney kidz and that it's going to be all kinds of Muppety goodness.

The new Muppets.com is really just a channel in the Disney XD network which is otherwise mostly geered towards Disney Channel type stuff so i think SD:AL will be similar - an outreach, a cross-promotion but also not disappointing the old fans while bringing in the new..

I can see a lot of kids/tweens/teens seeing this special and then looking around the Disney XD Muppet site and really getting into them...will also be interesting to see if the next couple of weeks brings in a spike of Muppet dvd sales (box sets/movies)

 

[Drtooth]

I agree you couldn't just put a Muppet series on in primetime without a lot of groundwork but i thought there was something about "Next Muppet", not so much because it was a Muppet show but more because it would have been set like a reality TV talent show (hopefully with viewer voting) and they were so hot at the time, i think maybe it would have caught on, possibly enough for the audience to follow the new Muppet through to whatever new Muppet series came of it - of course they would have had to find a way to make people care but then the Muppet appearance on Americas Got Talent seemed well recieved. As i said, just an instinct.

Prime time is a joke now anyway. I mean, yes... we finally got some great stuff like Heroes, Pushing Daisies, the office and My Name is Earl. But we also got 3 CSI's, 3 ripoffs of CSI on the same network CSI airs on. And what the shell is this "Wipeout?" That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Makes all the celebrity dancing competitions look intellegent.

ANM may not have worked... but they could have at least tried it as a summer replacement, or on ABC's Friday night, "no one's gonna watch anyway" line up. People complain about how much crappy reality shows are on TV, but they still watch them. Hmmmm....

The one thing I will agree is that there's just no where to put them in a prime time line up for a network show. Why did the Muppet Show get where it was? Syndication. When syndication meant something. When they had programming that wasn't just sleazy unemployed couch potato fodder consisting of random fake or corrupted Judges (Maria Lopez was a corrupted judge from Boston), Maury Povich inexplicably making a career out of infidelity, and the occassional current sitcom rerunning from 6-8.

And Networks would rather come up with sleazy reality shows. And it doesn't matter if no one's watching... they cost pennies to produce. You don't even have to pay anyone. Throw a million dollars at one person as a prize. That's even cheaper than producing one episode of 2 and a Half Men.

TV specials are all they have. At least at the moment. They were hit pretty hard when whoever makes decisions decided on the horrible, unfinnished, rushed OZ script over the dozens of better ones that got passed down.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

WOW! just....wow! I CAN'T believe some MC members on here (not naming names...) just reply soooo harshly to the innocent posts here!...just WOW! the basting of Disney Channel stars and all...and who knows if Hannah Montana/Mileys opinion on the Muppets! do u REALLY know? did u talk to her on the phone and ask her or just walked in her house and stalk her belongings like here VHS and dvds to see if she owned a Muppet movie or toys or t shirt? And retro sayings like "bling"? OMG who cares, are you joking?...they say "groovy" from the 70's (the 70s are dead) I dont like that world but you dont see me going off on the MC boards! And some of the actors that where on The Muppet Show as guests wasnt my cup off tea but Im NOT posting saying "oh he/shes bad at acting!" and blah blah blah! like you guys bashing the DC stars! You guys say YOU WANT NEW Muppet stuff, and when disney throws something at us...YOU guys bash it! Like a couple of spoiled rotten kids who dont get something they dont like or want! Yes Jim or who ever prob wouldnt do it that way but guess what people.... as much as I miss jim as you do!....news flash! Sadly Jim is no longer with us! And the Disney Channel star bashing....just STOP! STOP! how old are you! there only kids/pre teens ya'll. I've been an MC member since the delpha form days (2001 is when I joined) and I swear, half these MC members get worse EVERYDAY with basing! And Steve & Eric are doing a kick A$ job in my eyes! If you dont like them muppeteering kermit & piggy...take yourself somewheres else I say! Or if you think you can do a better kermit or piggy voice or someone who can....by all means, call disney and let em know, just to hush you up!


sorry for the rant but I JUST want it all to stop! It just saddens me to see so called "hardcore" Muppet fans act this way!