"The Muppets" show runner exits, series to be relaunched February 2 with episodes 11-16

[charlietheowl]

Here's a link that says the reboot will occur after episode 10, not 16.

 

[Blue Frackle]

Here's my whole issue: They're putting puppets in the role of humans. Puppets don't age, unless they really went all-in and created older-looking puppets, but then again, who wants to see puppets age? Imagine the current show in 2 seasons. What could they possibly be up to? How could they keep it fresh? I feel like it would get old after a season or two.

 

[LaRanaRene]

Here's a link that says the reboot will occur after episode 10, not 16.

What it says at the end of that article really got me.

"Meep meep meep meep meep meep meep. Meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep. Meep meep meep meep—meep meep meep. Meep meep? Meep!"

 

[dwayne1115]

What it says at the end of that article really got me.

"Meep meep meep meep meep meep meep. Meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep. Meep meep meep meep—meep meep meep. Meep meep? Meep!"

Is this some kind of a joke???

 

[Blue Frackle]

Is this some kind of a joke???

Joke for the casuals.

 

[muppetlover123]

We just have to hope for the best

 

[Muppet Master]

I really am fine with the show as it is, but it seems like someone who had worked on Galavant would be a better fit with the muppets, hopefully those nitpickers are satisfied with the retooling, and it becomes the hit it should have been in the first place.

 

[Drtooth]

This is indeed worrying. I also hope that this "soft reboot" doesn't mean tossing out the promising plot lines that we already have.

Is my major concern. I'm incredibly furious at Archie comics for all the sudden pulling the plug on the Mega Man comic before they even got to the Mega Man 4 plotline they were building up to. Then they planned a reboot comic series and there were two things that bugged the crap out of me on that. The first being oh yeah...sure...a "Hiatus." In comic book terms that's usually a "we've completely moved on and so should you." and more importantly, I've been invested in this series for the 5 years it was being published only to have everything end with the ubiquitous "The Adventure Continues." If I wanted to leave the story up to my imagination, why bother spending 4 bucks a month to see someone else's interpretation. Archie comics is essentially dead to me. Not even going to bother with the last 2 comics in the series.

And frankly, why should I bother being invested in this series when I just want to see the Kermit/Piggy/Denise angle play out? Not even if this "retool" leads to cancellation and replacement with horrible sitcoms and or singing competitions. Keep the plot, flesh it out, and give it the satisfying ending it deserves.

The reason why this sucks is bec reboots mid season is a sign of a dying show. Its never worked. A better fate would have been if ABC allowed it to run the way it is and retool for Season Two. Plus that would have given more time. With six episodes it'll be tough to satisfy and ABC might feel the reboot didn't have strong enough legs for S2.

Disney invested hard into this idea, and the ratings slump was a kick in the crotch to this. Then again, it's opposite two shows I can say passive aggressive things about and one show that actually splits the demographic. Even if the ratings are lower, there's still an audience out there for this. I don't think changing the series will get the viewers back they lost, and I'm worried that the small cult audience that actually tolerates the format of the show will leave once everything is said and done. Then there's the worse outcome.

Remember how I just said "I'm not going to be invested if they pull the plug?" Why should any of the audience bother when Disney basically says "we done screwed up, but we'll fix it?" It's an admission of guilt. Is anyone not going to point to this show and laugh at it failing after this? That's a sure fire way to kill the series (and the Muppets outside of kiddie nostalgia and Family Guy cutscenes) to say, "you know that stuff half the viewers didn't like but you did? Well..." If there's anything in the whole wide world the show doesn't need it's the same snarky and cynical viewers who complained how the show was too snarky and cynical getting snarky and cynical about the show's trouble finding an audience. The fact that the reboot comes in the first season instead of waiting to pick the show back up and change it for season 2 is troublesome and worrisome. I'd almost be less unnerved if they just canned the show.

We'll see what they do. I highly doubt they're going to go to a TMS style show, my guess is they're going to focus more on "absurd" plotlines than the relationship-based comedy.

I honestly think that can be accomplished gradually without having to change the entire show. If there's any thing that should have been a better guide for what a sorta realistic-ish series featuring the Muppets, it's The Muppets Take Manhattan. It proves that the Muppets can work in a more gritty, realistic setting without having to be completely cartoonish and being aware they're in a movie. They need to review that version of the characters and pick out what worked. They had just enough Muppetyness without turning into a cartoon. But I guess the audience wants the cartoonyness, even though it didn't exactly work for the last movie.

Then there's part of me that says, even if this was a competent clone of the old Muppet Show, the audience would still be bored and switch to "Formulaic Terrorist Fightint Force with the Compu-tors" no matter what. Cartoony and absurd didn't make MT a success. No wonder they went for a different format.

Still, nothing here sounds even remotely like good news unless it does indeed improve the show and gets the ratings back up there. And I'm skeptical about that. yet, I'm also completely baffled by the fact anyone tuned into the awful new Odd Couple and the fact that Last Man Standing keeps getting renewed. Those shows are far far worse in quality than this show will ever be.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Remember how I just said "I'm not going to be invested if they pull the plug?"

To be fair, when fans here wanted to jump ship on this show and the changes it made to the characters, they were continually begged to give it another chance. Now with this next reboot, you don't want to do the same?

 

[Drtooth]

To be fair, when fans here wanted to jump ship on this show and the changes it made to the characters, they were continually begged to give it another chance. Now with this next reboot, you don't want to do the same?

Heh.

I wasn't the one begging. I was the one that said the opposite, that if they can't find enjoyment in it that there's plenty of classic material they do like to revisit. Unless any of the fans had Neislen boxes, there wouldn't have been a significant change. It's not like a movie where every dollar counts.

Now, if there's one thing I feel the need to stress, it's that there's a difference between loyal Muppet fans who have seen everything they can ever and have perspective, casual fans that see a good enough amount to sort of judge things, and mainstream audiences who watched a couple movies or episodes of the TV show when they were kids (of which we know this cycle.... they loved them as kids, became too cool for the room 11 year olds and hated them through their teen years until they hit their 20's and everyone suddenly talks about them again and it's all the sudden cool to like them again) that expect the same stuff they swore was either in the movies or TV Show. Those latter are usually the ones that spammed the board with "what are the 2 guys in the balcony called" or "I remember miss piggy on sesame street" questions (they never stick around to answer).

Now that that's out of the way...

I, personally, will give the reboot a chance as a Muppet fan, but the nagging problem of dangling plot points that don't get the satisfying payoff they should...well, that leaves a sour taste. And I'm sure the more casual to mainstream fans that tolerated the changes to the show because they were building up to something will feel cheated that the stuff they were able to look aside in context essentially means jack diddly squat now. That's what kills shows, you see. When you get very invested in the storylines and then told "HEY! The series is cancelled" I don't think that many will stick through the remainder of the episodes. Certainly that's my issue with the Mega Man comics and why I vow NEVER to buy another Archie product ever again. And I'm huge enough a Mega Man fan (or was) to should have at least wanted to stick it through, but I was so ticked off that nothing in the story line mattered I gave up 3 issues before the end. Not even going to get them in the future if they're in the 50 cent bin.

Now I'm sure no one watching is going to be that annoyed, then again, we're talking about a show that's been on about 7 weeks vs wasting 5 years of story investment and a miserable summer of trying to get connecting covers for a crossover event that didn't even save the *&^%$ comic series... (did I say I was angry at that enough yet?) Maybe the audience will be willing to throw away 10 episodes for a new format. I'm giving it a shot, but the desperation this smacks of doesn't bode well.