Is there an overrated/underrated Muppet production?

[Duke Remington]

Personally, I think the Muppets at WDW special was underrated. Yeah, some could write it off as an hour-long Disney World advertisement by showing off rides (Miss Piggy and Beauregard's storyline) and even that Indy spectacular (Only with Kermit as the fedora-wearing archaeologist himself), it did indeed have a plot, or series of plots (Piggy's ride fascination, the Electric Mayhem's world showcase tour, Beaker having a bucket stuck on his head, ect.) that tied into one main storyline or Kermit and Robin taking the rest of the Muppets to the swamp for an annual festival, but only to get sidetracked at Disney World.

As for overrated, though not by the Muppet fanbase, but rather the Muppet's current company, Disney, I thought it was Studio DC: Almost Live. It's the failed experiment of having classic Muppet humor mix with current flash in the pan teeny boppers. Though it was cute seeing Beaker sing alongside Selena Gomez, the rest fell flat on its face, making the Muppets brown-nose the very thing(s) that's killing Disney with an iron grip. I understand this is a way for the Muppets to come back in the public eye, aside from the viral Youtube videos, but this special was equal to receiving a pile of trash as a gift, but with Muppet wrapping paper covering it.

Heck, not even Statler and Waldorf could save this monstrosity. If they could rip the Muppet Show a new one, this could have been an easy target!

I'm going to have to disagree with you on the Studio DC programs, which, IMO, do not deserve all this flack on here and are actually kinda underrated, at least now. Those specials were necessary in an attempt to get the often-hard-to-reach tween demographic interested in the Muppets and make them want to see more of them and we should be more grateful for them. Plus, the fact that those tween stars ARE Muppet fans and enjoyed getting to work with them is all the more reason to be nicer to them.

I also think that Muppets from Space, IAVMMCM and Letters to Santa are all pretty underappreciated as well.

 

[Duke Remington]

Agreed. Seeing the Electric Mayhem as Miley Cyrus' back up band made me want to cry.

Why must you all make fun of kids? Now, THAT is something to cry about--adults making fun of kids, which is downright shameful.

 

[beatnikchick300]

Why must you all make fun of kids? Now, THAT is something to cry about--adults making fun of kids, which is downright shameful.

Miley Cyrus is only 5 years my junior (she'll be 18 this November). I sort of resent being treated like a bully who stole candy from a baby or kicked sand in a 6-year-old's face just because it annoys me to see my favorite Muppet band playing second fiddle to a person whom I consider to be just a "Flavor-of-the-Moment" pop star.

 

[Gelfling Girl]

By the way, just for the record, I'm a teen/tween, so if I ever make a negative comment on any of these modern pop stars, they're more than likely to be older than me.

Also, I think Studio DC had a pretty good idea (it worked on me, right?), but I would have preferred a show with much more variety rather than just Disney Channel stars...like TMS, but with more modern guest stars, like Daniel Radcliffe, Lady Gaga, etc.

 

[frogboy4]

Why must you all make fun of kids? Now, THAT is something to cry about--adults making fun of kids, which is downright shameful.

I think you're being overly sensitive. He said nothing about picking on Miley due to her age. We all have different tastes and yours happen to differ from his. Let's leave it at that. For some reason it seems you might be the member who created this same argument here, at ToughPigs and over at the Newsflash under different names. Forgive me if I'm wrong about that, but it appears there's a pre existing chip on your shoulder pertaining to criticism of these sorts of stars. I can assure you that nobody is being a bully here.

 

[Super Scooter]

Too regain a bit of dignity to this thread, I shall now honor Miley Cyrus with a song:

...


But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
I just don't think it'd understand
And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man
Ooo




... but, seriously...

UNDERRATED: Muppet Classic Theater. The song's are fun, the movie's funny, and the Muppets don't play second fiddle to humans. Sure, it's still a storybook movie, but I don't mind that at all. There are so many great lines. It's entirely quotable, and doesn't get nearly the kind of love it deserves.

"Whoa! A brick house!"
"Oh, yeah? Well, you're no junior petite yourself!"

"Take that, Mr. Ralph Lauren!"

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems to me that the hardest type of production to determine over/underrated status for Muppets are the specials. I think it's a safe bet that the best-known Muppet specials are the Christmas specials (and honestly, I don't think A Muppet Family Christmas would fall into either category.... If just plain "rated" is a term then that's what A Muppet Family Christmas is), and maybe to a lesser extent the "Tales from Muppetland" specials.

Case in point: In recent years we've been getting many boxed sets of Henson productions on DVD, and those seem to be the most successful Henson-related releases, whether it be complete season sets of TMS, FR, or Dinosaurs (maybe also Farscape, though I haven't paid attention to that). I don't know how successful the Sesame Street: Old School (or 40 Years of Sunny Days) sets have been selling, but I'd like to think that those have the same success and hype as the others.

But then most single-disc releases don't seem to have as much hype among fans (not even the anniversary releases of the movies, though I can see why...). In these past (and upcoming) months we've been getting the first-ever U.S. releases of a number of Henson specials. While the releases are a big deal to us, I don't think the majority of casual fans are aware of these releases.

Back when Nickelodeon aired Muppet specials on a regular basis, it seemed like Nick wasn't really showing favoritism regarding how often certain specials were shown (I'd like to say that Odyssey was the same way, but I never had the channel). There were a number of Henson specials not shown on Nickelodeon, some because other companies had the distribution rights, others for unknown reasons. I can see why Nickelodeon wouldn't want to air The Muppets on Puppets (it's in black-and-white, though I'm sure Nick still aired B&W Lassie at the time, outside of Nick at Nite) or Sex and Violence (the title isn't appropriate for a kids channel), but it's a mystery to me why specials like The Muppets Go Hollywood, Henson's Place, Dog City (well, maybe the 40-minute legnth, though I think it was shown on Odyssey), and Song of the Cloud Forrest weren't shown on the channel.

Back when Disney distributed Muppet videos under the Jim Henson Video banner, Disney released a lot of Muppet productions on video, but not very many of the specials starring the established Muppet Show cast. JHV released Muppet Classic Theater, some of the specials that primarily featured original characters, and I believe all the Muppet Christmas specials Disney could release. Not sure if the lack of video releases of specials starring The Muppet Show universe of characters could have been because many had songs not written for the Muppets (or because the 30th anniversary special and Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson had many clips that weren't even owned by Henson) or what (as we all know some of the songs from MFC were cut on video).

Columbia was pretty much the same way, only less. During the time Columbia had the Henson license it seems Columbia was mainly interested in Bear in the Big Blue House, Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and creature shop property videos. Aside from the specials and movies (and eventually Muppet Show videos that were already released by Time-Life) we didn't get much in the way of the Muppets (I am surprised that John Denver and the Muppets: Rocky Mountain Holiday was released on DVD by Columbia).

 

[Drtooth]

Over: Personally, I never thought the Muppet Babies lived up to their hype or the quality usually associated with the Muppet brand. The program had its moments and great potential, but some of the shrill voices and poor animation quality caused me to lose interest during its second season. I know it's dear to the hearts of many fans, just not me. I kind of wish the Little Muppet Monsters segments could have been mixed in for good measure. There was enough actual Muppet Show character puppetry going on during that period.

Firstly, if you think the animation was bad in the second season (I thought it was quite good, but I wish somehow they got Tokyo Movie Shinsha to do the animation if they had to do outsourcing to Japan, but Marvel was in a major deal with Toei at the time) the final seasons had such sloppy garbage animation it would've made your head hurt. Kermit's eyes especially. They kept moving on his head.

As much as I love the show, I have to agree with a few of the points. A Puppet version of the show would have been a logistics nightmare, though. Why does Muppet Babies have 107 episodes while Sesame beginnings only had a handful of DVD's? The only problem I have with the show is the fact that it spawned so many downright terrible Baby shows. Sure, Pup Named Scooby-Doo was pretty good... but Yo Yogi... shudder shudder. And Baby Looney Tunes is an outright knockoff, a poor one at that. TTA is a next generation show, though slightly inspired by this movement, but I still don't count it.

Though, things considered, I wish more Preschool shows were akin to Muppet Babies than Dora. I mean, mild peril, sly humor, treating the children as a young audience, and not as a demographic that has to be overly regulated and over seen by staff child psychologists. Ugh. Really, watch a Muppet babies and a Super Why. Even if MB doesn't suit you, Super Why will make you question life.

I think you're being overly sensitive. He said nothing about picking on Miley due to her age. We all have different tastes and yours happen to differ from his. Let's leave it at that. For some reason it seems you might be the member who created this same argument here, at ToughPigs and over at the Newsflash under different names. Forgive me if I'm wrong about that, but it appears there's a pre existing chip on your shoulder pertaining to criticism of these sorts of stars. I can assure you that nobody is being a bully here.

He completely derailed conversation, and an intelligent one at that on another thread.

I too have problems with the special, considering it came out at a time Disney really had trouble finding an audience for anything BUT their Tweenage shows, but it seems Disney's on track now. Especially when it comes to the Muppets.

To me, Studio DC was a test to see if they can market the Muppets to different demographics... unfortunately most of the audience just wanted to watch the pop stars anyway.

But that stuff seems to be cooling off slightly, Miley wants to focus on a career after the show's over... and it doesn't matter what you think of her, NO ONE would want to be stuck as only the star of a sitcom their entire lives, especially a kid's sitcom. Even Stevens went on to play Indiana Jone's KID! The stars of Small Wonder... are they even there anymore?

 

[Skekayuk]

I've been thinking latley, are there any speciffic Muppet productions that fans see as either overrated or underrated? I'm not talking about individual segments, songs, characters, or episodes of shows, but actual productions like movies or specials or such.
.

Well, having actually watched all thirteen episodes. IMHO 'The Ghost Of Faffner Hall is an underatted gem of a TV series, which I think deserves to be much better known than it is.

Best Wishes
Emma

 

[Drtooth]

I think we're talking only about The Muppet Show type productions, but I feel Faffner must be completely underrated due in major part to the fact it's impossible to find anywhere and was only available on premium cable. Unlike Fraggle Rock, it didn't last too long either, so it was never broadcast anywhere else, nor was it available on home video 9at least to my knowledge).

I'm DYING to see Faffner myself.