Miss Piggy on UK TV

[Mistersuperstar]

The interview featured more stupid dumping on the pig by the frog. Sucked. Wasn't worth my time. You know, stuff like that IMO are the reason Family Guy makes fun of Kermit so much. He's supposed to be this nice guy, but in interviews like that he comes off as a jerk. He seems phony and full of himself. And that bit where he flirts with women and they're supposed to be attracted to him has always been an eye-roller. Because of interviews like that and that awful Oz thing, I haven't bought either of the show DVDs or any Muppet merchandise really (and I used to have quite a collection) and I won't be buying any until I see a consistent rise in quality when it comes to the Muppet's personal appearances. Lately all they do is make me cringe.

Kermit has always flirted with the female guest stars on The Muppet Show and always shown a lack of respect towards the pig. He has fired her, told her in no uncertain terms that he doesn't want her and belittled her in many, many episodes. Also, why should the fact you don't like the way Kermit is portrayed nowadays stop you from buying the classic stuff? Doesn't sound like the words of a Muppet fan to be honest.

 

[Kermieuk]

Hi

Miss Piggy is on page 146 of Heat magazine here in the UK, there is also a web address to see more, which leads to a 1.06 min video clip.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1260618778/bctid1256318062

If it doesnt work, go to www.heatworld.com and search Miss Piggy!

Chris

 

[Mistersuperstar]

It's called "discernment". I don't buy junk just because a classic character's face is plastered on it. As for Kermit's attitude...I think the phrase "it's getting old" is the appropriate one here. For me, it's "been there, seen that". And I don't think I'm alone in that attitude. Given the Muppets' lack of appeal to today's audience, it should be clear that the old, much-used material isn't working (which no doubt is the reason the Muppets are getting thrown out of Disneyland - their attraction wasn't drawing enough of a crowd).

Besides, Kermit blows hot and cold when it comes to Piggy, and that's where it gets irritating. In the old eps he is indeed abusive at times, yet in the movies he's amorous, and in interviews he's all over the place. So you wind up with viewers not knowing what to think and finally deciding it's hardly worth the trouble. Then you have more people losing interest. It's a self-destructive cycle IMO.

I remain convinced that the people behind the Muppets nowadays don't know what they're doing, and that Disney would be best served selling them off and using the money for better projects. JMHO.

But surely the season one and season two boxsets of The Muppet Show have little or nothing to do with Disney or the new "annoying" Kermit except for the fact they have released them. All the footage contained is original Jim Henson footage. I can't imagine any real Muppet fan snubbing the chance to own this original stuff just because they don't like the way Kermit "acts".

I still stand by the fact that, even tho Disney have been a bit crap with the Muppets, we have still seen some of the best Muppet products ever released since they took the reigns. You might consider it selling out, I consider it giving the fans what they really want while keeping the Muppets in the spotlight. How many other TV franchises can claim to have had constant worldwide fame for 5 decades?

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Disney hasn't been crap on the Muppets, IMO. Disney's getting the raw end of the deal - ponying up all that dough and for what? An embarrassingly bad Oz movie, and crappy interviews like the one we're discussing. Disney is the Muppet's savior, keeping them from being shoved into a sock drawer somewhere and the other assets being broken up and sold off for 10 cents on the dollar. Disney can hardly be blamed if the writers/puppeteers currently with the Muppets can't create anything entertaining. Maybe if Disney fired everyone again and tried once more to find a good crew things would improve. It depends on how patient Disney is going to be about this whole mess.

As for the DVDs, I did rent the first one - and while I enjoyed the Muppet Show as a kid, I'm sorry to say that IMO it doesn't hold up well. And my nephews got bored with it and barely watched the first 20 minutes. That's why I didn't buy the thing. Plus the extras and interviews were annoying rather than funny. I'm all for the Muppets making a comeback, but certain people will have to get their heads out of their nether regions and figure out what's really needed to make the characters appealing again. And the first thing to do IMO is to stop having the frog blast the pig every chance he gets, thus lowering her appeal and hurting the franchise as a whole. Not a bright move on their part, it seems to me.

Fair enough. That's the good thing about this forum. All kinds of different opinions can be expressed. By the way, if the vintage Muppet stuff doesn't hold up well and the newer Muppet stuff isn't entertaining due to the writers and/or puppeteers... what Muppet stuff DO you like?

 

[Luke]

Disney hasn't been crap on the Muppets, IMO. Disney's getting the raw end of the deal - ponying up all that dough and for what? An embarrassingly bad Oz movie, and crappy interviews like the one we're discussing. Disney is the Muppet's savior, keeping them from being shoved into a sock drawer somewhere and the other assets being broken up and sold off for 10 cents on the dollar. Disney can hardly be blamed if the writers/puppeteers currently with the Muppets can't create anything entertaining. Maybe if Disney fired everyone again and tried once more to find a good crew things would improve. It depends on how patient Disney is going to be about this whole mess.

Oz was in pre-production BEFORE Disney bought the Muppets, and the appearances are to promote the DVD's in the UK, which is pretty much the Muppets biggest market. If anything, Disney hasn't ponied up much dough and the Muppets were seen more when owned by the Henson company. Disney are able to use whatever writers and performers they like, and infact made lots of changes to that Oz script so they had the chance to make it less embarrasssingly bad or ditch it. I think you need to get your facts sorted because if mistakes have been made a lot of it seems to have been at Disneys direction, and Henson seem to have managed their other non-Muppet stuff pretty well.

I'd agree TMS doesn't hold up at all well with kids, the movies do ok with them though. It is more of a retro property at the moment, whether they can make it work again with kids, or should even bother trying, who knows? I'd say its one heck of a challenge because todays market has changed so much and it has nothing to do with the Muppet franchise itself. U seem to be a big Disney fan so if they are the talented people u so obviously think they'd be able to sort it wouldn't they?

 

[Beauregard]

Oh for crying out loud...does every thread on this forum lead back to Disney-bashing and Frog/Pig for/against campaigning?

That was old Kermit footage, and Piggy laughed it off. Like as not, she's seen it before and Kermit's already paid for his careless remarks. Equelly, Kermit seemed pretty upset at the time so perhaps they had just had one of those steamy arguments and Kermit was just getting back at her? It's not as if she's never flirted...in that very interview she said that she and 'that dancer' were pretty hot in the sauna together.

 

[Luke]

You know this about the Oz script from...where? From the people I know at Disney (and I don't know the higher-ups, just a few production people through my grandfather), Disney people had precious little to do with it. If you're saying it's Disney's fault the nipple joke, for instance, wasn't thrown out, well okay then, but aren't the Muppet people supposed to be GOOD at their jobs? Aren't they supposed to be these brilliant entertainers? Can Disney be blamed for trusting them a little?

I know even from articles at the time, but like you and your gfather a lot of us have contacts too. Oz came off the back of the Very Merry Muppet Xmas movie, there was to be a series of Thatcher movies - originally for NBC, including possibly some Valentine's one but it turned out Disney bought them and carried on the project for ABC. I gather the poor casting was to do with Disney but you are right the original script didnt come from them. That said, this is Disney we are talking about, they don't trust people - they get teams of consultants and focus groups in. Overall it was their responsibility, and i'm not saying Henson wasn't to blame but the quality of the xmas movie wasn't bad and it seemed more like Disney wanted to put something together quickly to put their brand on the Muppets publicly.

The argument about MV3D is completely mute - that attraction is 16 years old and it was put in at a time when the Muppets were a more well known brand. It has done very well for Disney over the years and everything goes stale after so long no matter what.

I don't think Henson are blameless, but then when Disney has tried to do anything Muppety independantly it hasn't worked either. When the Henson kids bought back the Muppets from EMTV they seemed to have a few years when things were starting to go right and it was picking up steam as a nostalgia brand. Disney pretty much dumped that straight away to create the usual Disney style brand but some things adapt less well to being relaunched for kids than others - they are still trying to do it, but they don't seem to have an idea how to do it, or if it can be done - the team now at Henson may not either. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter to Disney because the main reason they bought the Muppets anyway was because the show/movie rights alone makes them the money - if they choose to brush off the puppets every now and again or produce merchandise its just a bonus.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Oh for crying out loud...does every thread on this forum lead back to Disney-bashing and Frog/Pig for/against campaigning?

That was old Kermit footage, and Piggy laughed it off. Like as not, she's seen it before and Kermit's already paid for his careless remarks. Equelly, Kermit seemed pretty upset at the time so perhaps they had just had one of those steamy arguments and Kermit was just getting back at her? It's not as if she's never flirted...in that very interview she said that she and 'that dancer' were pretty hot in the sauna together.

Good point. The "pig-bashing" clip (that seemed to have been recorded more than a few months earlier) only came about because Piggy was talking about the "steamy" sauna scene with ballet dancer Nureyev from The Muppet Show in 1976 (Piggy had a "thing" with pretty much every single male guest star and snubbed the frog almost every time).
Also, I agree that it gets tiresome when every thread turns into the same old arguement. There was a thread dedicated to this exact discussion a while back and it would probably be better to leave it over there.

 

[Beauregard]

I think that as long as the current Muppet crew still makes Kermit act like a full-of-himself jerk, then the controversy is going to continue. And Muppet projects will continue to fail. JMHO.

Hmmm...I guess I agree with you on at least some of that. I thought Kermit was over acting full-of-himself when he came to his senses in VMC...

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Have you seen this interview with Jim and Kermit, filmed about 2 weeks before Jim died? Looks like the Frog/Pig relationship was already having some problems. Look out for an early performance from CLifford who completely steals the show!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y1-PwZltH8E