The Muppets Episode 1 - Pig Girls Don't Cry (Pilot)

[MuppetsRule]

Wouldn't Piggy's interviews with the guests be that? Or do you want her to sit on a wall as well?

Except we haven't seen any of Miss Piggy's interviews with the guests? You mean the one in the 1st episode? That wasn't an interview. It was a 30 second set-up for a joke.

 

[Blue Frackle]

First, I think they are trying too hard to get in as many Muppets as they can in each episode. They'd be much better off on concentrating on just the core. The original Muppet Show had Kermit, Miss Piggy, Rowlf, Fozzie, and Gonzo as the main characters with secondary characters like Rizzo, Scooter, Dr. Bunson Honeydew and Beaker and then the minor characters. Most popular sitcoms have only a few main characters, think MASH, Friends, Seinfeld, Cheers, etc.

I agree with all of that. It's like they have this goal of making sure each Muppet gets at least one line in every episode, which I guess is good, but I don't even think they have to make Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie and Gonzo the main characters of every episode because this show has the rare liberty of having already a million well-established characters to boot. Like we already know all of the characters so well they could have one episode centered on say Piggy, Fozzie and Gonzo, and the next on Dr. Teeth, Gonzo and Scooter or whatever, but it's pretty clear it's Kermit and Piggy's show so far, while Fozzie goes out and does his own thing in the real-world and Scotter and Gonzo seem to have a slight importance over the other characters, but I think they've done a good job of balancing it so far.

Third, I think they are missing a huge opportunity to feature the Muppets in skits or musical numbers. The subplot of Miss Piggy as host of a late night show is the perfect setup but they haven't taken advantage of that. Maybe they will in the future. Remember the original show when Kermit would sit on a wall and chat with that week's guest? Easily could be done with Miss Piggy. Have we really seen any performances? That could also be done. The 1st episode had the Imagine Dragons but their performance felt tacked on at the end to fill out the necessary time slot. They really weren't integrated in to the show.

I'll give it some time to improve.

Yeah, as you pointed out, Miss Piggy's show isn't the actual show, but it's just there.

It was just like "Hey, look! It's Imagine Dragons!", and they didn't actually show off any of their talents or anything. That's where the Muppet Show reigned supreme over this show, but that's not to talk down this show either. It just feels like the guests are props or something. They're just trying to cram too much stuff in each episode. Like these episodes should be an hour long or something.

 

[Stephanie Evjen]

I really did enjoy the episode. It was really cool to see the Muppets back on TV again since the specials and movies. My favorite scene would have to be the Electric Mayhem agreeing with Kermit on their performances on "Up Late with Miss Piggy", when Dr. Teeth said: "Aah, did not know that. Perhaps we should dismystify any futher misconfusion with a daily confabulation-type meeting." For me, that was really true Dr. Teeth spirituality I was feeling there.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Bumping up this thread and expect the other episodes to be bumped because I finally gave this series a chance and will be posting my reviews for each one. Bombs away!

After watching the first episode, I will say it does have a different feeling to it compared to the Jim Henson era and Muppets Tonight.

I have noticed it definitely shows “The Office” humor in it, with the interviews and cutaway jokes. It felt like a much more adult-themed version of both Muppet sitcoms (while The Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight both had some adult humor in it, both shows still had the family-friendly feeling to it).

I thought Fozzie’s storyline with his new girlfriend was pretty funny, and how her parents just made it clear they wanted nothing to do with him. Miss Piggy and Kermit breaking up wasn’t a big deal to me, because I always saw them as tounge and cheek humor and nothing more. Denise, on the other hand, I’m kind of skeptical on as a character. She seems pretty one note so far….. but maybe my opinion will change later on. We shall see.

Overall I’d say this series seems pretty good so far. Feels like a good behind the scenes Muppet Show.

 

[Blue Frackle]

I think it went uphill after this episode, so you should enjoy the rest of the series.