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

[DARTH MUPPET]

I'll just leave this here http://fortune.com/2015/09/21/one-million-moms-muppets/

Like I said this show is for the Kids who grew up with the Muppets in the 70's and 80's And are now adults, Being that I am neither Conservative nor Christian, I am Buddhist and believe in the force from star wars, I am not shedding any tears for those conservative Christian Parents that got a rude awakening. I live In America and we have the right to either watch or don't watch, or here is a novel idea set a block on your TV so your kids can't watch if it bothers you so much. Do I think they Might of done a Poor Marketing job on this making it seem like it was for Little kids, Yes I would agree to that. On the other hand Little Kids shouldn't be up at 8:00PM on a school night, My 7 year old nephew who has lived with me his whole life with his mom, my sister, because his dad is A deadbeat dad who left him when he was an Infant, my nephew goes to bed anywhere from 7:00PM to 7:30PM they, "ABC" might also be wise to put a 14 rating on the show so people know what age is appropriate, this reminds me of that christian Conservative group that pulled this same stunt with the Simpsons, the Simpsons is an Adult show after all kids should not be watching it.

 

[lilwolf]

Surprisingly, I did not enjoy this show. After watching it I felt frustrated and bummed, because there wasn't enough familiar things.
Two things would have worked me:
One is the modern twist, which they did but instead have new characters, or only a few old ones.
Two is have it be a variety show. Either as close to the old one as possible, or with a modern flare.
Hopefully the second episode with be a little more upbeat at least.

 

[DARTH MUPPET]

Surprisingly, I did not enjoy this show. After watching it I felt frustrated and bummed, because there wasn't enough familiar things.
Two things would have worked me:
One is the modern twist, which they did but instead have new characters, or only a few old ones.
Two is have it be a variety show. Either as close to the old one as possible, or with a modern flare.
Hopefully the second episode with be a little more upbeat at least.

Variety Shows are dead, The Ratings for SNL and shows like it have been horrible for years, going Mocumentary style was the way to go, I personally love Mocumeantaries one of my Favorites was Comic Book The Movie with Mark Hamill, Billy West, and Jess Harnell just to name a few!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Yes, but back then, they actually had something called Practices & Standards, which were a set of rules and guidelines of the things you couldn't say or do on television . . . which is pretty much everything you do see on television today.

But yes, as I've said numerous times before: give me reruns or DVDs of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, BEWITCHED, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, M*A*S*H, HOGAN'S HEROES, GREEN ACRES, THE ODD COUPLE, and SANFORD AND SON over THE BIG DANG THEORY, MODERN FAMILY, or really anything on TV today any day. I'd say SEINFELD and EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND were the last "good" sitcoms TV ever saw - and yes, I'm aware the former had a lot of sexual humor as well, but it's minimal and tame compared to sexual humor in sitcoms today.

Exactly. That was my point in my earlier post about "Three's Company."

Come and knock on my door anytime.

even Rocky and Bullwinkle, had sneaky adult humor that would go over the kids' heads and get laughs out of adults,

Hokey smoke! I almost forgot about that one.

Variety Shows are dead, The Ratings for SNL and shows like it have been horrible for years, going Mocumentary style was the way to go, I personally love Mocumeantaries one of my Favorites was Comic Book The Movie with Mark Hamill, Billy West, and Jess Harnell just to name a few!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wasn't that why MT! didn't work out? Because they tried the same formula, but they just didn't seem to cut it. Though that could have been mainly because they had Clifford host instead of Kermit. Who knows?

 

[Drtooth]

Variety Shows are dead, The Ratings for SNL and shows like it have been horrible for years, going Mocumentary style was the way to go,

SNL gets a ratings bump during political situations. Mainly because it's ...just not that funny anymore. The only really talented cast members are the black cast members (and Bobby), and they seem to use them in as little sketches as possible so we can have Cecilie Strong play the same unfunny charters over and over. Why, I'd venture to say Girlfriends Talk Show is one of the worst recurring skits in SNL history. Seriously. They have these talented comedians that are only there for the sake of being tokens and playing the President and Al Sharpton.

But anyway, the Muppet Show was a variety show straight out of the 70's. It managed to work that format better than most, and went right up until the early 80's. When they tried that format with JHH and MT, they were both updated, but something was missing and lighting in a bottle was elusive to recapture. JHH was too experimental and lacked some key elements of the original, at least the Muppet Central segments. MT was a mess, but when it worked, it worked nicely. The show's biggest problem was trying to recreate older sketches to be parodies of current TV shows. This lead to Pigs in Spaceeep Dish Nine (which sucked), Bay of Pigs Watch (which also sucked), and ERERO (which was meh). Meanwhile, the one shot pop culture parodies were actually the stars of the show. Seinfeld Babies, Co-Dependants Day... stuff like that. But the desire to make The Muppet Show only hip made the show start off weak, only to find its footing just as it ended.

I dunno about anyone else, but I'd rather see them do something new than just parrot what they did before in an unsatisfying way. It was nice to see The Muppet Show in small bits in the two feature films and that comic book (that improved the formula, quite honestly). But I don't want to see a blatant retread that comes off as a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox.

 

[RealWonderman]

I most agree with this writers' review:

(paraphrased, but the full article is attached)

Let’s be honest. The premise of 2011’s “The Muppets” feature film, by far the biggest hit these characters have ever had, was that their time had unfortunately passed.

It’s not that “The Muppets” isn’t relevant. And, despite the reaction from some parent groups to the decidedly grown-up approach taken by their latest show, it’s not that they’re making some kind of desperate move to stay in the spotlight. Their greatest hurdle seems to be the perception of what they are, based more on sentimental attachment than anything else, rather than their rich history of satirizing popular culture and championing outsider thought.

In that sense, “The Muppets” truly has more in common with “The Muppet Show” than anything fans have seen since. Once again, we’ve got an all-access backstage pass to a big variety show, this time hosted by the always unpredictable Piggy and supported by her tolerant and devoted staff. Scooter, Animal, The Electric Mayhem, and even the most minor characters are present.

The celebrities and musical guests are still a thing, but there is a clear confidence in the story of a bunch of puppets struggling to make it all work. It’s not just a riff on programs like “The Office.” It’s a kind of mirror for what these felt-covered friends have gone through from day one.

“The Muppets” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2015-09-24/review-muppets

 

[dwayne1115]

I wish there was some way I could get my point across, because it seems it's getting ignored. My point is that Jim never intended the Muppets to be for kids. He really wanted them to be for everyone.....

 

[Drtooth]

That's a sentiment that most of us share, anyway. Look at Dinosaurs. That had some pretty adult material and mild cussing, not to mention going on deep social issues. Dinosaurs even made fun of Scientology at one point, and as it was overlooked by a mass audience that thought it was a Simpsons with puppets knockoff, they didn't get their butts handed to them over it. Indeed, some of the Dinosaurs stuff was allegorical enough to just whiz by kids' heads (Mating Dance being a stand in for sex). Rewatching the series as an adult, you can tell that was their main audience and the merchandising bit was for kids.

I think that members here that have a problem with the overall media landscape because things overall aren't wholesome 60's TV fair, even though the lid was blown off that in the 70's and once again in the 90's. The 90's, of course, being the decade where the single 20-30 somethings trying to get some show ran rampant. I'm not kidding. There was actually even a show called The Single Guy. Lasted 2 years for some reason.

The thing I still find baffling is that when the Disney Jr. shorts were released, there were howling complaints about how the Muppets were being too kiddified, only to read contradictory complaints about this series being too adult (by adults, mind you). Overall, the Djr shorts were adorable and this series isn't anything raunchier than ABC's Wednesday Night line up. Yet, there are adult themes about romance and break ups and the like. It reminds me of that not too old, not too recent Simpsons gag where Bart goes behind the "adult video" curtain at a video store and finds Moe renting Brideshead Revisited.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I wish there was some way I could get my point across, because it seems it's getting ignored. My point is that Jim never intended the Muppets to be for kids. He really wanted them to be for everyone.....

It's okay, Dwayne. We see what you're saying. It's true that was never Jim's intention of making the Muppets for kids, but it doesn't change the fact that kids and adults both love the Muppets, so that's basically the point of this discussion, it's okay to use adult humor. But it's good to keep it clean for the sake of kids who are watching.

That's a sentiment that most of us share, anyway. Look at Dinosaurs. That had some pretty adult material and mild cussing,

Exactly. "Dinosaurs" seemed to fall into that category as well, especially later in the show when they used fictitious swear words like 'smoo,' 'flark,' and 'glip.' So they're not swearing for real. That's a path I'd like to see a lot of shows follow.

 

[Drtooth]

Dinosaurs used the mild 2, D and H frequently, especially season 3 onward. And hilariously, I might add. D was uttered by the Dinosaur devil that Earl sold his soul to for that ugly collectible mug.

But Dinosaurs had some rather subversive and adult themes to it despite Baby Sinclair merchandising focused to kids. It just managed to do the just over kids' heads route. I'd say this series is the same. I'm pretty sure most kids wouldn't have gotten the "bear dating" joke. Frankly, I've seen kid's movies get away with more. Well, just a certain green ogre before they went all PG is the new G.