The Muppets Are Making A Comeback!

[FanOfOneTimers]

How absurd were Disney’s metric for success did the special need to be viewed 15 million or any other absurd number to be green lit?! I am truly just very disappointed, as the special was a clear success unlike many other shelved Muppet projects

 

[Muppet Master]

Could it be a cost issue? I mean getting enough big-name celebrities to do a full season of shows can't be cheap.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Popping back on here once more just to give my own thoughts with this:

Honestly, I can’t say I’m surprised Disney isn’t bothering to give the Muppets a chance to shine again after that pilot. I only expected it to be a one-and-done after I finished watching it (and was REALLY impressed) knowing Disney’s overall history with the franchise.

Disney is a company that, far as I’m concerned, have enough cash on them that they could practically revive Disney stores if they wanted to. Of course every individual celebrity is going to have a different cost to them but I frankly just don’t see that being the case, especially when you also consider “Muppets Tonight” aired on ABC. Of course TV rights and streaming rights may also be a little complicated there as well so…… why not just stick to TV, which seems to be the cheaper route? And times of course were perhaps cheaper then with money but I just don’t see celebrity cost issues being the case one bit. Disney is cheap when it comes to money. They’ll practically lay off so many employees if a movie even bombs one bit in the box office instead of taking accountability for their own mess-ups. I just honestly think they don’t care enough for this series to really get them off the ground.

My honest advice to Disney? If y’all are just gonna be hoarders with these guys and let these puppets rot, just use them for occasional commercials and shorts here and there. Don’t keep forcing them off the ground just to tease us, the fans. At this point I’ve seen enough of it and it’s getting old. The fact that I was even able to predict nothing coming out after the pilot special with Sabrina Carpenter was telling enough.

 

[Muppet Master]

I will give Disney this, they really did try quite a few times with the franchise. They just quickly learned that audiences are incredibly fickle. The 2011 film did reasonably well, then the sequel brought in less than half the revenue. The ABC series opened with 9 million viewers, then was down to about 2.5 million just twelve episodes later.

Keeping these trends in mind, it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint to limit Muppet productions to one-off specials.

If the Muppets were transfered to a smaller studio, I feel like they'd put in more care into getting projects off the ground, just because it'd be a major deal to have such a legendary IP on their roster. For Disney, the Muppets are barely a blip on the radar.

 

[GuySmileyfan]

Okay, I think I over did it with being doom and gloom. I just don’t understand why it hasn’t happen yet? But, we must remember that the Muppets are making a resurgence. The Muppet Show’s 50th Anniversary Special is a hit and Rock N Rollin Coaster with the Muppets is a hit. I think we’ll just have to give Disney some time to developed the full reboot series of The Muppet Show and other Muppet projects. It maybe a while, but at least I didn’t say it’s the end of the Muppets.

 

[GuySmileyfan]

By the way, here’s a bit of good news: https://x.com/dtvanews/status/2089513152979353618?s=61

 

[MWoO]

Jim Henson sold merchandise to fund Muppet projects. Disney makes Muppet projects to sell merchandise.

When Disney first bought the Muppets they were placed under the consumer products division. Disney wants to squeeze all the money they can from The Muppets and no Muppet production will bring in a ton of money. Most lose money. The special did it's job. It pushed The Muppets back into the public eye long enough to justify a ton of merchandise sales.

 

[GuySmileyfan]

Jim Henson sold merchandise to fund Muppet projects. Disney makes Muppet projects to sell merchandise.

When Disney first bought the Muppets they were placed under the consumer products division. Disney wants to squeeze all the money they can from The Muppets and no Muppet production will bring in a ton of money. Most lose money. The special did it's job. It pushed The Muppets back into the public eye long enough to justify a ton of merchandise sales.

Um, let's try not to get negative about it, okay?

 

[Grumpo]

... no Muppet production will bring in a ton of money. Most lose money. The special did it's job. It pushed The Muppets back into the public eye long enough to justify a ton of merchandise sales.

Um, let's try not to get negative about it, okay?

It's not negative.

Getting a decent Muppet special now and then, and a chance appearance here and there is good -- it means that Muppets will keep public interest piqued by random blips on the radar ("Did you say The Muppet Show? yeahhh that's the legend!") -- and so, the Muppets will continue.

On other hand, making THE original TMS reboot, actually called The Muppet Show, very thoroughly produced to look and feel as close to original as they possibly can nowadays -- and then having it follow the fate of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance -- collecting a whole bunch of awards, winning praise from fans and critics -- and then finding out after half a season that the viewers had moved on, consider the format outdated or found something they miss, and so the number of views no longer covers the production cost ("Did you say The Muppet Show? yea, i think there was something like that last year, didn't work") -- that might end up putting the Muppets in much more uncertain position.

It might be that they tested the public reaction with the Special, collected 3 mil views on the initial airing, 8 mil views total over first 8 days... but the overall numbers still did not quite crunch in favor of the full series option.

Or maybe they are busy writing scripts for it right now, who knows.

Whatever works to keep the Muppets going is good enough for me =)