General opinion of Muppets Tonight

[Malachy]

I recently attained the entire series of Muppets Tonight via torrents. I must say it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. I enjoyed 99% of the material, and I plan on rewatching the episodes over and over. But somebody out there must hate it, what with it barely having a 2 season run. So...what's your opinion of Muppets Tonight?

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

I think its quite good, its very different to the muppet show though. Can I ask you about the episodes you have, do they have any logo at the bottom, top or side of the screen? I have some episodes here but they have the disney channel logo on the bottom corner which is fine really.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

I think the problem with Muppets Tonight was several things.

1.) The show wasn't hosted by Kermit but by Clifford. If you didn't watch The Jim Henson Hour, like me, then you were out of the loop on who Clifford was.

2.) A lot of the original characters were missing. you didn't see Scooter, Rowlf was there a few times and mumbled a little bit playing the piano in the Garth Brooks episode and that's all. The only Electric Mayhem member that was featured sometimes was Animal. I don't think I saw Dr. Teeth in there at all and Janice made one appearance. Floyd and Zoot were there a few times but had no lines. Other characters like Lew Zealand, Beau, Link, Strangepork, Crazy Harry, etc. either showed up a few times or didn't show up at all. I'm sure people were stunned when there was a new Pigs in Space but Link and Strangepork weren't there.

3.) Connecting with #2, there were to many new characters people didn't know about and didn't care for because they were more interested in seeing older characters they were familiar with. Now people are familiar with Johnny and Sal, Pepe, and Bobo. Zippity Zap even appears in every new muppet production. I saw him in the Poppy Club scene.

4.) Some characters were just per dumb when they were concieved or others got lost. Andy and Randy weren't peoples favorites, nor were Bill the Bubble Guy, Mr. Poddlepants, or others. Seymore was the only interesting character that got lost from this misfit bunch and now Pepe is doing his own thing and has forgotten about his one time friend.

5.) ABC had this show on friday nights. Nobody stays home anymore to watch television shows on friday nights. Even networks who put all kinds of shows on friday nights don't have faith in those shows.

Just giving my opinion on why this show tanked.

ryan

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I agree with Ryan.

But, I love this show. It was great, and when you get to the heart of Johnny and Sal in the episode where Johnny and his Ma are fighting, and the trouble poor Sal goes through to bring them back together...THAT! Is what classic Muppets are all about! Heart! It was also the point when i really fell in love with those two characters.

I have the entire series on video, too, and I think the other problem with it that Ryan didn't mention is that there weren't enough shows. ABC makes HORRIBLE decisions about placing movies and shows. I mean: Running Muppets' Oz the same weekend as Star Wars opening? C'mon! That's just dumb!

 

[Drtooth]

Actually, I was more concerned about Oz being run against the Daytime Emmys, myself.

Well, as I can remember, when MT wasn't performing as well as the... ehem... "quality" programming they had before, they moved it to sunday nights for a few weeks, which was even more of a bad choice. If I can recal, at the same time, Pinky and the Brain was struggling in the same time slot against 60 Minutes and got creamed. They even parodied that fact in one episode of Animaniacs (Yakko's exact line was they'd get creamed, which is why I used it) and on one episode of Pinky and the Brain.

The new characters I did like... well... Johnny, Sal, Pepe, Bobo, and VanNeuter (who I liked better in MFS), but the new Pigs in space and Bay of Pigs watch didn't work too well. They were funny once, but after a while, they seem to be better as one time use only skits.

But the reason I feel it just didn't have the same feel isn't because Jim was dead (though it was a big factor) but because Frank wasn't really in the show, being a director and all.

But all and all, I did enjoy it, and I missed only one episode that actually aired on ABC. It was fun, it was good, but no TMS. But I did like JHH much better.

 

[Malachy]

I think its quite good, its very different to the muppet show though. Can I ask you about the episodes you have, do they have any logo at the bottom, top or side of the screen? I have some episodes here but they have the disney channel logo on the bottom corner which is fine really.

Yes, most of them have the Disney logo at the bottom. You probably got the ones from #TheMuppetArchive, which rips all theirs from the syndicated versions on the Disney channel.

 

[That Announcer]

I always thought that MT! was an under-rated show. My only complaints about it are Clifford and the way that many stories tried to make 'personal connections' between the guest star and a Muppet. (The Jason Alexander springs to mind.) However, there were some very funny new characters in it (mainly through Brian, and Bill to a degree) and less Piggy than usual which I find wonderful!

 

[Harvey Towers]

I think the show took a nessecary step foreward - but left a bit to much behind.

Some of the new characters seemed to be a result of whim and were a tad unnessecary as many of the existing characters could have been used. They weren't developed enough to warrant their existance either.

It was almost as if the deaths of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt had rendered the entire Muppet Show cast out of bounds as some Muppeteers were given new characters who were poor shadows of the older charactes.

Dave Golez was bogged down with Randy Pig where Beauregard might have been used more, Jerry Nelson's Pops, Floyd Pepper, Robin the Frog and Crazy Harry were all overlooked while Bean Bunny could have occupied Steve Whitmire's time rather than Andy Pig and Mr. Poodlepants.

Don't get me wrong - I love Clifford, Johnny, Sal, Bobo and Zippity Zap - but a few of the old favourites hanging around backstage (or off-set) would perhaps have made it all more acceptable to many.

In saying all of this - I am of the age where I was one of the new veiwers this show was trying to attract and (quite frankly) it worked. It is only now looking back and comparing this show to the Muppet Show that lets me see some of the mistakes and missed chances.

 

[MWoO]

I liked MT when I watched it. It's easy to go back and pick it apart though. I did notice a lack of characters I knew. At the time i had not familiarized myself with any of the performers except for Frank Oz and Jim Henson. I knew Jim Henson had died, but I had no idea about any of the other performers lives.

I was actually upset that a lot of Richard's characters wre not used. I had not known Richard died at the time. I assumed they had fired "the guy who did Scooter".

Looking back knowing what I know, they did a rather good job. I mean, Jim Henson ahd died, Richard had died, Frank was part time, and they had all these new performers. They went in a direction that I think was a good idea at the time. They decided to give new performers their own characters. The problem came when they gave older performers new characters.

Jonny, Pepe, and Bobo were perfect fits. They were new characters for a new performer. Andy and Randy were an awful fit. There was no reason to add two stupid pigs to the cast. As was said, their screen time could have been meant for Bean or Beau or any of Jerry's characters. They tried to rehash old skits, but changed them just enough to ruin them. They also had a habbit of cutting away in the middle of a sketch and never finishing.

So the idea for the show was good. if it had gone into more ep[isodes I think the kinks would have been worked out. They seemed to get rid of Andy and Randy in later epsiodes and they started finishing their sketches and songs more. Sadly the show just was not given a chance.

Still, a new show NEEDS Kermit as a host and NEEDS Fozzie and Kermit's friendship and NEEDS Piggy and Kermit to interact. On MT Piggy and Kermit and Piggy never interacted. Not even once I think.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

5.) ABC had this show on friday nights. Nobody stays home anymore to watch television shows on friday nights. Even networks who put all kinds of shows on friday nights don't have faith in those shows.
ryan

Actually, that's not true. I always stayed home to watch ABC TGIF and even when their show's moved to different networks (Ex. "Family Matters" and "Step by Step" to CBS, "Sabrina" to the WB) I would still watch them. (Of course that might have to do with the fact that I'm a loser who can't get a date on Friday night)
Anyway, I really had no problem with MT. Sure it was different from the original "Muppet Show." Then again, I hadn't watched TMS at the time MT was on, so I really can't complain. What got me was when they moved the show to Disney. I don't have access to that channel, so I wasn't able to see the later eps.

Another thing to remember about this show is that it's where Pepe the King Prawn got his start!