Muppet Mockumentary Pilot Filmed

[spcglider]

I am VERY excited to see ANY forward movement to having the Muppets back on the "small screen" where they belong. I hope this gives Disney an impetus to actually support a reprise of Muppets on TV.

However, and this can be debated ad nauseam, I do not believe that the Muppets NEED to be "re-introduced" to the viewing public. It is my personal view that that sort of terminology is used as corporate tactical stalling pushed by overzealous bean-counters.

In short, The Muppets SCARE the Suits. They are a wild card. They've seen the Muppets make fistfuls of cash (when they had a creative force behind them) and they've seen them make horrific popular blunders (when handled by folks who don't "get it"...Muppets Wizard Of Oz, anyone?). They simply don't gamble... at least not with their own money.

But I think it is a dis-service to the Muppets (and their performers and creators) to think they couldn't immediately come back (in their "idiom") and entertain audiences just as they did in the "golden years". I mean, really... the material isn't that deep. Its rich and broad, but not that deep. Anybody with eyes, ears and a funnybone can pick it up.

Just make a new Muppet Show. No funky change-ups, no "edgy" twists, no pre-school fixations, no need to treat the audience like morons. Entertain the WHOLE family. It'll work. REALLY.

But if you need a litmus test, I suggest this: pick up the phone and place a call to any Hollywood actor (male or female) and ask them if they'd like to be a guest star on a new Muppet Show weekly series. You'll have to beat them off with a stick. They'll be on your doorstep in a heartbeat asking what they get to do and can they be in a sketch with their favorite Muppet.

One of the Muppet's greatest assets is their ability to mirror and parody popular culture. In the 1970's they made us bust a gut doing just that with guest stars like Roger Moore, Lynda Carter, and Crystal Gayle. On Muppets Tonight (dragged to ratings oblivion by "Aliens in the Family") they drove us to hysterics with guests like Larry King, John Goodman, and Pierce Brosnan... "Prawn, James Prawn"...

That's why I have good hopes for this particular idea. It plays on their strengths. It doesn't force them into unfamiliar, ill-fitting roles like all of the recent movies. It allows them to give us what we desire from them. It lets them be THEM... which is what we all fell in love with at the start. Yes?

This long winded and oddly optomistic rant was brought to you by the number 6, the letter C, and Gordon (not the one actually on Seasame Street).

-Gordon

 

[unclematt]

Great perspective Gordon

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Nicely put, couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[spcglider]

Nicely put, couldn't have said it better myself.

Thank you... I thought maybe I was overstating the obvious.

-G

 

[unclematt]

not at all

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Ditto what unclematt said.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I still think that they should go back and study what made the Muppets popular to begin with and rope that in. The main problem is that corporate unfortunately has no idea how to handle them, and they just won't listen to us.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Right, They look more at what makes them marketable rather then what mada them great. At leat that is a part of it.

 

[spcglider]

Right, They look more at what makes them marketable rather then what mada them great. At leat that is a part of it.

Actually I think that they are trying to force them to become something that they know they can market without changing the tactics with which they do that.

The suits don't want to change their formula to fit what the Muppets need. They want the Muppets to become what their marketing formula needs. Just like every other "accquired" property they have. Pooh, Power Rangers, yadda yadda.

The Mupps just aren't "another cartoon show". They're not. And they won't just simply slip into a corporate formula and kowtow to business-marketing-as-usual. And I'm glad for that. It is a HUGE testament to Jim Henson and the fiercely independent (weird? silly? lamely hip?) streak he inspired in his people and subsequently the global entirety of their works.

The Muppets are outsiders. They wrote their own ticket and remained true to their own calling. Sure, they worked with the establishment, but they were never absorbed by it. Or tainted by it.

And they don't teach Muppet Values in marketing school.

-Gordon

 

[Marky]

Muppet Values is a past-tense concept that's been gone for, oh, almost 17 years now.