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

[jvcarroll]

As for the "mockumentary" vibe...remember these? They were really quickly done and on a minimal budget, but they're so incredibly funny. Even though the shows will be a much better quality than this and more tightly written, I think the Muppets will translate just fine into this sort of medium.

(I remember going crazy for these at the time)

(I miss Gonzo's old design)

(Pepe has a way of transcending any medium)

Add in an actual song or dance number and voila!

 

[Drtooth]

I agree about the "family" label. The religious right of the 80's is responsible for rebranding that word into something more limiting and insidious. The first three Muppet films were family films. Sure, there were some moments with Steve Martin and Madeline Kahn with a bit of edge and subtext that went over the heads of kids while entertaining their parents. That's classic Muppet humor. It walks a fine line sometimes, but it's still family friendly enough.

Oh man, that line about the Moral Majority Minority blew my mind. Ugh, the factors that kept "family" stuff as juvenile. And it really comes from all sides as well. True family viewing, at least to me, is a show the family can watch together without someone whining about it on some level. It depends on how old the kids are and how prudish the family is for content, but it's far from the G rated fair only crowd. Maybe G- PG-13. I doubt we'd see anything from the Muppets we haven't seen before. Just as long as the word "edgy" is faaaaaaar from the premise. That's my concern. If anyone else read the treatment/sample script for the Fox show... well... I don't want to say worse than MWO, but... yeah... totally even more cynical than that, but it had nuggets of good Muppet stuff in there.

Oh, and glad someone mentioned Rocko. Yeah. That was a kid's show... that had references to sex hotels, sex hotlines, short hares... yeah. Not that Nickelodeon didn't sever those things with a freaking axe, but...yeah. And "kids" cartoons are still doing it. And more clever and subtle than most adult shows. Check out Gumball. OOOOh the stuff that gets by in that one. Very subversive dark stuff.

 

[Muppet Master]

Who would watch a muppet show that is not adult, and for kids, it is ironic that many people here are adults, and are saying they would not want the muppets adult, anyways that article was saying that, because after muppet babies, everyone thought of the muppets as kids stuff, and by adult they probably mean a more family prime time show, Fresh off the Boat is not full of edgy stuff, yet it is considered adult, which is what is meant by that it will have adult content.

 

[LaRanaRene]

Who would watch a muppet show that is not adult, and for kids, it is ironic that many people here are adults, and are saying they would not want the muppets adult, anyways that article was saying that, because after muppet babies, everyone thought of the muppets as kids stuff, and by adult they probably mean a more family prime time show, Fresh off the Boat is not full of edgy stuff, yet it is considered adult, which is what is meant by that it will have adult content.

Some people thought that the Muppets were kids stuff before Muppet Babies.

 

[D'Snowth]

The most adult joke I've ever heard from any Muppet character was when Kermit was a commentator on VH1's I LOVE THE 70S, when they were talking about when streaking had become a fad.

"I don't understand what the big deal is, I'm naked right now. I guess you humans have more parts that flop around."

Well that, and there was Kermit propositioning Cher once.

 

[scooterfan360]

Yeah, just like Pepe never fathered a ton of babies with one of his many girlfriends.

I mean don't get me wrong, I get a kick out of Pepe, Bill does a great job with him and he's always a riot, though he is noticeably more "adult" than the other characters, particularly those occasions where he appears on talk shows where he really lets himself loose. Then again, Pepe is a product of his time, and the older Classic Muppets are products of their time as well. Janice has always been a milder version of that kind of ***** character, look at all the times whenever the crowd settles down and she continues rambling about her neo-hippy pasttimes like lying around naked on the beach and such, yet not taking her clothes off for anybody (even if its "artistic").

Then, of course, there's always the problem of "updating" he characters' personalities to make them appeal to today's audiences like they've been doing with those Chipmunks movies - I honestly can't picture Fozzie having a girlfriend. Having be a momma's boy briefly seemed to fit his insecure yet neurotic personality, but I can't see any girl finding that kind of personality appealing. Who would it be anyway? Beth from MTM? Fozzie didn't seem to like the idea of her snuggling with him, lol.

EDIT: Wow, really? We have to censor a certain word that rhymes with "corny"?

i can't picture fozzie having a girlfriend ether , i think that they are going to nix that, before airing. that's if it airs.

 

[dwayne1115]

Just give it a chance! I mean it has not even been picked up yet, and people are almost wishing for it to fail. I know that people on here have little or no faith in Disney, and the style that they are going with, but give it a chance.
One thing that the Muppets have been great at doing is changing, and when something dose not work they change it. Let's just hope that the powers that be will allow them to work on it, and grow.

 

[Colbynfriends]

The Muppets as a franchise is coming back in a big way, like Dwayne said, give it a chance. Let them try this new Avanue out and see how we react to it instead of (over)reacting prematurely. So some of you may have bad vibes about the office? This isn't a verbatim copy of "The Office" with Kermit and co., its a new chapter in the franchise. Let's see how it turns out and let's be glad we're even gettung a new series and that the publicity for it is already as good as it can be.
The phrase "adult" in terms of comedy may turn people off, but remember, the original Muppet Show had Miss Piggy trying to seduce a towel clad Rudolph Nyrevu (spellings off I'm sure so my bad).
I for one am extremely excited for the new series!

 

[dwayne1115]

So........What kind of guest stars would anyone like to see? Or what relationships would you all like to see grow or become new?

 

[Drtooth]

I do agree with one point, though, and It's what I've been saying for years, so skip to the point, MWOZ sucked and that's what JHC would have continued with, it's not like any other entertainment company is well run enough to do anything decent with the characters as they can't even handle their own (look at the crap that went down with Spider-Man at Sony), JHC can't get a project off the ground that isn't a CGI kid's show to save their lives, and at best we'd have a Muppet movie that's been in development purgatory for 10+ years. But above all, you can't go home again.

There are3 kinds of fans, I feel. The kind that know that nothing's going to be the same or "as good" or whatever again yet accept that and hope for the best tempered with a little concern and those who know things aren't going to be good ever again and just leave the franchise. Then there's the third kind that want things back on their terms, and when they don't get that, they whine their butts off and then whine their butts off even harder when the franchise disappears completely. I'll agree at least that woman wasn't one of them, and I at least respect the whole "done with the franchise" bit. Good. Move on.

But the number one thing that bugs me is this whole "The Muppets where an organic thing when they were owned by a family and now that a corporation owns them, they're slowly dying." If I'm to be lectured about how "terrible" new Muppet projects are, I'd rather listen to someone who says "the last great thing they were in was JHH" than "why don't we have the same quality we had with KSY, the Jessica Simpson and the other guy talk show, and those appearances where Kermit and Piggy chased each other like bad caricatures of themselves?" A lot of what made the Muppets good left with Jim. There's nothing wrong to say about that, as it happens with every entertainment legacy when someone dies. Heck. Star Wars. Even when the franchise's originator is still there. You can't go home again, but that doesn't mean no one ignore the neighborhood, maybe try the new restaurant that looks good where that place you kept getting food poisoning but kept going to used to be.

And the Looney Tunes analogy again... just because we aren't seeing another What's Opera Doc or Duck Amok doesn't mean you can't appreciate something as bad as Loonatics ever again being made. The characters can continue, you can ignore them if you don't like the direction, but you can't whine about not having a commercially available replacement for the VHS your machine just chewed up.