Darin McGowan pitches.

[Speed Tracer]

According to Muppet Wiki, there were three pitches by a guy named Darin McGowan, an animator, to the Hensons for animated series. You can read about them in some detail here.

I must say that I hate hate hate the idea of Muppets '75, for obvious reasons. Waiting for Kermit isn't a bad idea, but we already have Muppet Babies.

But I must say that I really love the sound of American Mayhem, and I really sorta wish it had happened. What say you?

 

[Luke]

I see the guy is quite accomplished and gotta applaud him for pitching to Henson. The plots just seem a little too far out there for me though, i don't think the casual Muppet fan is knowlegable enough to "get" them - especially not the kids the Muppets need to attract as well. They'd make great pop culture orientated webtoons though for the more adult fans, somewhere like Youtube, and probably get loads of attention. Just as broadcast stuff, officially done - i just can't comprehend that as ever having a chance of coming off, too wacky for me. He'd have had a better chance doing something quirky in that style suitable for a cartoon network/Nick type audience, just with an idea a bit more generally targetted so anyone could get into it. He seems quite wacky, and i like a lot of his non-Muppet ideas. Whatever planet he was on i'd like to visit it, lol!

 

[minor muppetz]

Maybe he should have just pitched all three as a potential series that features 5 minute short cartoons, similar to the What a Cartoon Show from Cartoon Network.

I am a bit mixed on The Electric Mayhem cartoon (actually, I have mixed feelings about all of them), but mainly just because Lips wasn't featured in the drawing/ still shown, and Scooter was. I wonder if he even knew about Lips.

I wonder if he was expecting the performers to perform the voices.

 

[Luke]

Maybe he should have just pitched all three as a potential series that features 5 minute short cartoons, similar to the What a Cartoon Show from Cartoon Network.

You know i think that would be a great format for a Muppet cartoon show, kinda a toon version of a Muppet sketch show. Just not with those three toons exactly as he proposed though, he kinda expected the average Muppet audience to know all that backstory stuff to make it work. Wrong! You could adapt them - a simpler version of a Muppet high school (Henson had proposed Kermits Frog School anyway back in the EMTV days), a toon about the EM Band touring, maybe a Pepe talk segment where he interviews crazy Muppets. It could work!

 

[Speed Tracer]

am a bit mixed on The Electric Mayhem cartoon (actually, I have mixed feelings about all of them), but mainly just because Lips wasn't featured in the drawing/ still shown, and Scooter was. I wonder if he even knew about Lips.

All of the ideas seem to be stemmed from The Muppet Movie, so that would explain it.

I actually had an idea kind of-sort of similar to this idea, but not as an animated series, honestly. It'd work similar to House of Mouse, where the Muppets shows both classic and new sketches to people. I dunno.

 

[minor muppetz]

Or maybe an animated series could be formatted like Anamaniacs or Rocky and Bullwinkle. There could be a format like this:

Cold Opening (usually an advertisement for a fictional product)
Theme Song (maybe there can be something different in each opening, like comments from Statler and Waldorf)
a special introduction by Kermit the Frog, talking about the show that's about to be on
a Muppet short, starring the main cast
a short cartoon based on a recurring segment (Pigs in Space, Muppet Labs, maybe even one of the ideas that Darren McGowan pitched)
a commercial for a ficticious product (in every other show)
a Muppet News Flash (in every other show)
another short cartoon starring the Muppets
a closing song, usually music video-style, often featuring The Electric Mayhem

Maybe there could also be special introductions to the commercials (Rocky and Bullwinkle had them), or following the commercials there could be comments from Statler and Waldorf, or the Mupets can be seen taking their breaks before and/ or after the commercials. Maybe Fozzie could also tell a quick joke, or Gonzo can do some sort of stunt.

The two shorts I mentioned starring the Muppets would be more story-length than the other segments I mentioned (though the middle short would also be story lenght).

 

[minor muppetz]

Here are two possible outlines for what my idea that I just mentioned would be like:

Cold Opening: Scooter tells the viewer that there are fifteen seconds until the theme song
Kermit welcomes the viewers to the show, describes plots of the main shorts, and mentions that there will be a Pigs in Space short
Muppet Short #1: The Muppets go on a picnic
Statler and Waldorf give their comments on that short, and mention that it's now time for their favorite part of the show... the commercials
Fozzie Bear tells a quick joke, and introduces the next cartoon
Pigs in Space: The Swinetrek gets trapped in the black hole
The Electric Mayhem takes a coffee break in the canteen, introducing the commercial break
Commercial: Crazy Harry's School of Explosions
Muppet Short #2: Robin goes to the see the doctor
Music Video: Scooter sings I Wanna Be a Producer

Here is another outline:

Cold Opening: commercial for Muppet Labs Hair-Growing Tonic
Kermit welcomes the viewer, and mentions that there will be a story about Miss Piggy's days in beauty pageants
Muppet Short #1: Seymour accidently locks Pepe in a safe
Statler and Waldorf talk about how terrible that last short was
Gonzo gets shot out of a cannon
a short about how Miss Piggy first entered a beauty pageant
Muppet News Flash: the president declares war agaisnt the news
Muppet Short #2: Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo start a window-cleaning buisness
Music Video: Rock the Boat with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

 

[minor muppetz]

I would like the opening and closing to be animated versions of the Mupet Show opening and closing. Hopefully, the title would have an "O" in it, so that Kermit can appear inside the "O" at the beginning, and I would want the openign to resemble the fifth season opening. I would want either a different Statler and Waldorf comment to appear each week, or a joke from Fozzie Bear, or maybe a stunt from Gonzo (something that didn't appear in the openings), or maybe this would alternate each week. I'd also want a sequence featuring the orchestra. Or maybe the orchestra sequence could alternate each week, featuring a solo from a different character (the first show could have a solo by Rowlf, the next week a solo by Janice, the next week a solo by Lips, etc). The ending would be a recreation of the archs ending, thougb with some characters who werne't on the Muppet Show (Pepe, Clifford, Leon, Digit, Bill the Bubble Guy, etc). If the title has an "O" in it, I'd want for the title to appear again and show Gonzo inside the "O" and blow his bugle.

I would also want the closing to feature the Electric Mayhem, though the network it airs on would probably just show a split screen closing with an advertisement in the other screen. If that is the case, then the closing should just be a still shot of a red curtain.