"If I ran the Muppets" thread. Post YOUR good ideas HERE!

[spcglider]

Check out my idea for a new Muppet feature posted above.

They should avoid TV movies (which I also explain why above) though theatrical shorts are a great idea.

I think they should also avoid a new TV show-Muppets Tonight didn't fare well, so that may not be the most effective way to getting them back out there full-force.

Yup...read it. Good stuff. Just fishing for more folks to post their ideas.

As for Muppets Tonight, I think it had a fair shot... except that it was anchored to Aliens In The Family, which may go down as one of the worst Henson offerings ever. AITF dragged Muppets Tonight into the ratings toilet.

-G

 

[spcglider]

One of the ideas (of the many good ones listed here) that is still resonating with me is Gordon's idea of Rizzo and Gonzo opening up a laundromat together.

In a similar vein, what about shorts that show the Electric Mayhem during their day jobs in/between gigs? You could have a number of hilarious situations with these characters. Imagine, Animal and Floyd as car mechanics... (Floyd would have to rein him in A LOT), Janice as the crunchy aerobics instructor (or maybe yoga instructor), Dr. Teeth selling insurance, Zoot selling ice-cream in the mall. You could even weave these bits in together with footage of the band's performances in a kind of mockumentary style, maybe. I love all the muppets, but I do think the EM would be one excellent starting point.

There you go! Excellent! Good thinking! You see how the idea can stretch across ALL the characters? That's good stuff!

Now lets hope the Muppet folks steal our ideas!

-G

 

[spcglider]

i have had this iead for a Muppet Sit-com that would have the muppets come and stay with one of Kermit's real man friends. The man would be a single guy who is always trying to find miss right but the Muppets get in the way and cause the dates to go anything but smoth. Plus get them out doing real jobs, like Piggy becoming a Nerse at a real hospital and seeing that people besides herself are in need of attion. ya know. somthing like that would be cool.

This is a very good concept too. Good "everyman" quality to it. This concept would make a good movie too. You could make it with somebody like Owen Wilson or something. Or if you wanted to, you could swap it from a man to a woman and get somebody like Sandra Bullock. Could be a GREAT romantic comedy.

-G

 

[spcglider]

I would try to bring back a lot of the obscure characters who we haven't seen in new productiosn in years. If the puppets don't exist anymore, then I'd at least have them rebuild Lips, Digit, Seymour, Uncle Deadley, Thog, Doglion, Fletcherbird, and Leon.

Hmmm.... I see a pattern emerging in your posts!

Fond of the obscure Muppets, eh? Guess I should have known from the screen name!!

Well, THAT could be a whole shtick in itself! What do the OTHER Muppets do while the mains are (like Piggy) hogging the spotlight? Do they hang together? Like on the "Tick" do they have a "sidekick's lounge"? And what about characters like Fozzie? What if he didn't realize he WAS a main Muppet character and tried to hang out with them? What's the comedy quotient of that?

-Gordon

 

[dabauckham]

Gordon,

I just wanted to say that I really do appreciate all of your positive feedback and encouragement. You really take the time to read and respond to others, and that is a big part of what a forum should be about. You also have a lot of excellent ideas. Thanks for sharing them. Thanks to everyone else for all your great ideas as well.

 

[spcglider]

You are most welcome dabauckham! Now you're just swelling my head!

-Gordon

P.S. Enough mutual admiration! Get to work! THINK MORE!!!

 

[christyb]

First off I think re-introducing the Muppets to kids would be a great idea. Disney has a line-up of cheesy and not so great shows they play every Saturday morning on ABC. Put The Muppet Show in there at a decent time. I.e. not 6am, but around 9am or so. They already are showing and reshowing the same old That's so Raven and Hannah Montana reruns. This'll put something great in the line up and get more kids to watch it. Another idea is that once upon a blue moon ABC will run "The Wonderful World of Disney" and play a movie on some odd night of the week. Start showing Muppet Movies during those times. Get the Muppets back out there in people's minds.

Secondly, Disney needs to follow up on already promised items...like er...hmmm..TMS box sets! Alos, get quality items out there. Even if it's just a t-shirt in Wal-Mart.

I love the idea of shorts starring the Muppets. This would fit perfectly in Disney Channel's lineup.

Lastly, there needs to be another muppet movie of some sorts. Well written (in fact since we're thinking outside the door of the room the box is in...) by one of our fab fan fic writers! (No not me. I said fab writers.)

A huge thing is get the name and get the Muppets out there and keep the quality. The rest is up to us fans. That and for Disney not to be money hungry. Don't expect POC returns..yet.

 

[spcglider]

OOF. Okay, I'm gonna apologize for the following even before I post it. I just re-read it and it is long and kinda grumpy. This isn't aimed at anybody (apart from creatively hobbled, money blinded suits who can't see past corporate media formulas), so PLEASE don't take any of it personally. It's just me venting. I do think it's valid, so I don't want to just delete it. Read and tell me your thoughts. K?

I guess I just have an issue with the idea of a "re-introduction". To me it implies that something has been forgotten. Believe me, the Muppets haven't been forgotten. And one must, logically, have known about something BEFORE they could forget it. That doesn't apply to kids. If they don't know the Muppets, why do we assume they won't experience the same joy and laughter that WE did when WE first viewed their antics? Kids aren't dumb... kids know funny. Kids also know quality.

I am still of the opinion that a "re-introduction" that includes anything other than creating quality material for people to see and enjoy is a questionable use of time. Do you REALLY need to WARN people that it's coming? Are we that fragile? Is they THAT shockingly different that we need to acclimate the viewing public?

The Muppet's material is so crazily universal... do they really need to take time to fumble through introductions? Aren't they simply self-evident? And if you don't know what a particular character is about, if the material is written well, you WILL know as soon as they open their mouth! Like THIS guy for example.

If the concern is that kids won't immediately latch on to these characters and return for more if they know more is coming, I think that a problem is being assigned where there is none.

Remember when Warner Studios did that toilet-bowl of a movie "Batman & Robin"? It tanked. No pun intended. After it failed miserably at the box office, all the "suits" at Warner Films threw their hands up in the air and declared that "The public just doesn't care about Batman movies any more!" (That's almost a direct quote... honestly) But their assumption couldn't have been further from the truth if they picked it up and pitched it out the window themselves.

What the public didn't care about was BAD Batman movies.

The failure of "Batman & Robin" COULDN'T have been because it was a poor film, could it? I mean they greenlit it, didn't they? If they actually ADMIT that it did poorly because it was BAD, that would reflect poorly on their judgement as powerful movie industry suits! Can't have that. Must be that the public just doesn't care about Batman movies. Yeah...that's it. Not their fault at all. Their pensions remain secure.

So, "Batman Begins" did VERY well at the boxoffice and even better in DVD release and overseas. Because it (and this is sheer conjecture if you ask one of those self-same myopic suits to qualify it) was a GOOD Batman movie. Imperical proof they were just covering their egotistical butts and trying to protect their overpriced salaries.

What's the point of this little allegory? Muppets Wizard Of Oz was a stinker. In effect, it bombed. And suddenly all the suits start closing up their notebooks and leaving the creative table. Why? Because its obvious that "the Muppets just aren't popular enough to carry the entertainment ball anymore".

Sound familiar?

Well, I'm not buying it.

The Muppets are as viable and vital a property TODAY as they were 18 years ago before Jim Henson left us. They're just not being handled well. And it's not like they flew off to the remains of the planet Krypton for seven years and passed from the collective conciousness of the world. (That's for all you folks who didn't like Superman Returns).

Surely, they aren't going to simply spring forth, unsupported, onto the media scene in full flower.

But they COULD. If they were given the fair shake they deserve. And tey wouldn't have to waste time on "re-introduction".

Okay, I gotta stop now. Please re-read the caveat at the top before cutting me off at the knees!

-Gordon

 

[spcglider]

"In Montana, they say I sound like a Southerner...
In Tennessee, I sound like a Yankee...
So what does that make me?"

Ummm... Canadian? LOL!

-Gordon

 

[Ilikemuppets]

All I have to say is that is the most enlightening and freash opinion I have heard about the muppets in a very long time. Of couse People Know who the Muppts and and they have not forgotten about then just because that have been "out of work' for such a long time now. They did not have the single biggest show in the history of telvision for nothing. It that in itself is not proof that quilty works, this what the
hey' is?