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Sam and Friends BookAt this point, I'm kinda more mad about the Marvel Shows, but at least that proves that they weren't even allowed to play favorites in the Disney line up. Galavant was pretty much mercy renewed and the writers knew that this was the fluke of flukes. The last episode had Weird Al basically sing about how lucky it was they were renewed, how they tied everything together so that too much isn't open ended if they did get cancelled, yet kept the door open if they're incredibly lucky. When you have Weird Al sing about the show's situation, you pretty much know it's not to be. Though, frankly, I don't see why a creative and original show like Galavant has to be the benchwarmer/understudy to a highly overrated Disney fan fic TV series. But frankly, Galavant's second season is benefit of the previous ABC exec. Pretty much proving that had there not been massive fluctuations in management, The Muppets would have got at least a Galavant/The Neighbors second chance. Still don't see why ABC was considered to be losing that much money. Aren't the Thursday Night shows considered highly successful? Grey's Anatomy won't survive the Apocalypse because there's no audience for it.Well, that was fun while it lasted**** ABC is cancelling everything between Muppets, Galavant, and more.
Which brings me to...
It's literally never not been like that. They're just slightly less patient and understanding because no one's watching TV anymore. Now the Nielsen system is even less accurate. The only way low rated shows survive is if some exec sees something special in it to keep giving it a shot until an audience somehow stumbles on to it. On the one hand, Seinfeld, which I haven't said a million times for a reason. Show almost didn't make it first or even second or third season to becoming something to the point of being considered highly overrated. On the other hand "Til Death" which no one liked and no one asked for that Fox somehow thought was great enough to keep forcing down the country's throats until it was finally cancelled at least 3 season later. While I'd highly be uncomfortable if that was the case with The Muppets, at least we would have seen more of it.
And on that note, Supergirl will probably only get a second season if they move production to Vancouver and move it to The CW with Arrow and The Flash. It might actually be a better fit for the show. And the show got better ratings than The Muppets did. Meanwhile CBS somehow thinks the new, awful Odd Couple deserved a second season, but thankfully it only got a season replacement for what I can only call 3/4th season. And it seems that they're just running out the show with 2 episodes a week (never a good sign). I'm happy Fox canned some of the shows they did. Boardertown, I didn't exactly dislike the show, but I couldn't see a future for it, especially considering how long it took the show to actually appear on the network. Have to admit, I laughed at the "Wario Lopez" joke last night (seeing as how Wario's one of my favorite Nintendo characters and he deserves every shout out he can get), but that's the funniest it's been. Cooper Barret did nothing but stop Bob's Burgers from getting the slot it deserved. And while I have to admit I would have watched The Grinder had it not been opposite things I'd rather see, I'm actually surprised John Stamos didn't plunk even more of his own money down to save it.
I believe Frank got a copy of the original draft of the script, and he was right about it. There was potential and it could have been a good movie, but it desperately needed guidance. I'm not sure to what extent Lewis and Thatcher had influence in it, but someone in charge of the Muppet brand on some level guided them through a rewrite and took out all the references to them being puppets and punched up some character traits so they wouldn't be too out of character. As for the "too cute and safe" comment about the finished project, I want to believe he meant that they didn't take any risks and make something far more experimental. But that wouldn't have worked. Of all the reports of "Cheapest Movie" being fast tracked, it's a high concept film that would have worked after MTM, sure. They were an established brand at that time and were playing with house money, even though MTM was a pretty low earning film. While we'd love to imagine that we'd get Frank Oz directing a lost Jerry Juhl/Jim Henson/himself script, the reality is it would have been updated sharply, and be full of pop culture references to the tune of VMX levels (as in Muppets doing a Christmas version of Scary Movie, which wasn't hated at the time). All with a concept that would lose its charm and cleverness by the half hour point. Heck, I'd say if there was one thing that probably sunk MMW, it could have been that it was more of the same. YET, the new show took risks and was chided for not being more of the same either. Funny how that works out.
And yes. I'd love to see a Frank Oz helmed Muppet project. As long as the script is sharp and not based on gimmick. But things will always be different 30 years later.
