New Muppet Pilot in Development by Randall Einhorn (The Office, Modern Family) for ABC

[D'Snowth]

You do realize that 30 Rock and the Middle are completely different than the others despite being a single-camera show?

How would I realize? Just about all shows today look alike.

 

[Oscarfan]

Don't judge a book by its cover.

 

[jvcarroll]

Here is the thing, if they tried to just "re-do" the Muppet Show it would fail for a couple of reasons. Fist off it would fail because no matter how hard they would try it would never live up to how great the original show was. Secondly, I don't know how many people would watch. they would think that they had seen it before or something.
This type of show is going to be more story and character driven then both the Muppet Show, and Muppets Tonight. Which is something that a lot of fans have said is something they have kind of wanted, which is to dive deeper into who these characters are. Let's face it since the Muppet Show, or even Muppets Tonight all of Frank's Richard's and Jerry's characters have been beautifully recast. So now is the time to let the new Muppeters grow into there characters, and give them new or adjusted personalities,friendships, and problems.

I mean come one It's not even a show yet, lets at least give it a season before we judge it at least.

I couldn't agree with this post more.

The Muppets tried to recapture the magic with Muppets Tonight (and somewhat with the Henson Hour) and not enough audience members responded.

Younger people still haven't discovered the magic of the Muppets and they probably won't see much of it if they keep retracing old steps. This show sounds like a way to honor the original program while adding a new layer to it. Single camera comedies have been around since the early days of television. It's just been made popular again over the last decade.

I've always found 30 Rock to be kind of based on the Muppet Show to begin with. Now that the Muppets are basing their new show on that kind of set-up is gloriously meta.

Muppet fans have grown up and it seems that Disney is allowing the Muppets to be grown-ups again too. That's what they were before - weird, deranged grownups but without the cynicism. The gang is now showing up in a format familiar to younger auds while maintaining a level of humor we grew up with. That sounds like a good recipe to me.

 

[dwayne1115]

I could almost understand not giving this show a chance for one of two reasons.
One: the original muppeters where recast. Steve, Eric Dave, Bill, all gone.
Two:They are getting people to write, direct, and produce the show that have never worked with the Muppets, or in TV at all.
Nether one of those is happening, and from things I have seen and hear the people who are working on this only want to put out the best show the possibly can. So have a little more faith.

 

[D'Snowth]

Just to clarify, I never said they should try to redo TMS like MT did (matter of fact, I'm almost certain I mentioned that much earlier in this thread), and it's not the single camera format I have issue with - as I've always had a strong preference for the more cinematic and artistic visuality of single camera shows - it's the mockumentary style that bugs me. Even though mockumentary has been around for a long time in movies, THE OFFICE started the trend for television, and it seems that almost every other sitcom that the networks ahve cranked out since then has followed that trend, and really the Muppets have never been about following trends; they've always been far too unique to do that . . . if anything, they've poked fun and mocked trends themselves, such as the TALES FROM MUPPETLAND specials sending up Grimm's fairy tales, TMS sending up vaudeville and such. It almost feels like to have a new Muppet show follow one of the trends of primetime television kind of goes against their integrity and credibilty. It'd be like if SST faded away from a while, and then they tried to revive it by making the show be more like Barney or Teletubbies with babyish characters set in a saccharine, diabetes-inducing sugar bowl world.

 

[jvcarroll]

Just to clarify, I never said they should try to redo TMS like MT did (matter of fact, I'm almost certain I mentioned that much earlier in this thread), and it's not the single camera format I have issue with - as I've always had a strong preference for the more cinematic and artistic visuality of single camera shows - it's the mockumentary style that bugs me. Even though mockumentary has been around for a long time in movies, THE OFFICE started the trend for television, and it seems that almost every other sitcom that the networks ahve cranked out since then has followed that trend, and really the Muppets have never been about following trends; they've always been far too unique to do that . . . if anything, they've poked fun and mocked trends themselves, such as the TALES FROM MUPPETLAND specials sending up Grimm's fairy tales, TMS sending up vaudeville and such. It almost feels like to have a new Muppet show follow one of the trends of primetime television kind of goes against their integrity and credibilty. It'd be like if SST faded away from a while, and then they tried to revive it by making the show be more like Barney or Teletubbies with babyish characters set in a saccharine, diabetes-inducing sugar bowl world.

But who's to say they won't be mocking the trend of the mockumentary? That sounds very Muppety. We have a new Muppet show coming. That's something to celebrate. I can almost guarantee you the pilot won't be perfect and they'll keep tweaking the formula as the weeks go by. That's what they did with the Muppet Show.

I'll boil my feelings down to a corny metaphor. When given a delicious muppety donut, I'd rather see the sugary goodness instead of focus on the hole.

I think a lot of the negative thoughts are coming from fans who are spinning an elaborate narrative after being given very little information. Fans complained about Jason Segel's Muppet film when it went into production. It wasn't perfect, but audiences loved it and it brought the Muppets back into a new popularity. When the sequel was pitched, some folk complained about the tired premise of an evil twin frog, but that brought us one of the best Muppet films in years and one heck of a fun character. While it didn't fare that well at the box office, it was a quality product. I put my faith in this project. We'll see.

Maybe I'm wrong. I just can't disparage the project due to a slightly different format. The story of Fozzie having a love interest and meeting her parents sounds incredibly funny to me. I choose to focus on dynamics like that. My favorite parts of the Muppet Show are the backstage moments. This show seems intent on including a lot more of them and that sounds fantastic to me. And who knows? Maybe the mockumentary is only for the pilot. We know so little.

 

[BlakeConor14]

Steve eric dave and bilo still work for the muppets

I could almost understand not giving this show a chance for one of two reasons.
One: the original muppeters where recast. Steve, Eric Dave, Bill, all gone.
Two:They are getting people to write, direct, and produce the show that have never worked with the Muppets, or in TV at all.
Nether one of those is happening, and from things I have seen and hear the people who are working on this only want to put out the best show the possibly can. So have a little more faith.

 

[dwayne1115]

Steve eric dave and bilo still work for the muppets

You missed my point completely.

 

[scooterfan360]

Okay, time for me to be hated on again, but I've lost interest in this.

I knew they were pretty much rehashing the shelved project from ten years ago, but come on, the Muppets have always been able to do their own thing while still managing to poke fun at the rest of the entertainment world and hold themselves up in the process, why do we need to try to mold the Muppets and turn them into another faceless sheep among the masses of mainstream entertainment? I don't want to another clone of THE OFFICE, PARKS AND REC, 30 ROCK, MODERN FAMILY, THE MIDDLE, whatever else the **** is on TV right now, I want to see the Muppets doing what they do best: bringing forth laughter and mayhem in all their goofy glory, not dulling themselves down to try and appeal to today's "sophisticated" and "intelligent" audiences . . . and they're trying to make them more adult? Yeah, they tried that with that trainwreck VMX. I mean, yeah, Jim always wanted the Muppets to appeal to adults as well, but he always kept their humor within an acceptable containment to keep them from becoming too inappropriate.

Yeah, sorry. As much of a big Muppet Freak as I am, I'll be passing on this.

you took the words right out of my mouth , i don't like the ideal of this at all. i don't want ABC to change anything about the Muppet's,

 

[JimAndFrank]

you took the words right out of my mouth , i don't like the ideal of this at all. i don't want ABC to change anything about the Muppet's,

I'm sure the change is not going to be as dramatic as the article is making it seem. At the most, what we'll get is more mature conversation and adult humour that will fly over kids heads. I think some people are imagining Muppets cracking jokes about sex and other explicit matters. That would NEVER happen!

I think it's a great idea! The Muppets need a chance to become a little more three dimensional and they're not going to accomplish that by their usual silliness and irreverence. Just imagine what this move could do for Miss Piggy. She has never been a Muppet for kids, so this would let her off the leash and allow her (and Eric) to rediscover what Frank had in mind. The Pig really does live within her complex imagination. Maybe we could see that come out in her again, away from the boundaries of 'family friendly' values.

Not only could it do wonders for the characters, but also for the overall feel of the Muppets. Why settle for 'silly funny' when you could have 'clever funny'? Jim Henson started his career with clever funny with Sam and Friends (with a few explosions added in). In fact, the Muppets remained clever funny until MTI and from there the humour just got thinner and cheaper until the terribleness peaked at MWoO.

It's been a dragging, but surely steady climb for the Muppets to return to thier best and perhaps this is what they need to take thier final step. Yes, let's keep the chaos, silliness and craziness, but let's also gain a deeper perspective while we're at it.

I know there's plenty of my fellow fans who will disagree with me, but I say let's give it a chance!