Tinseltown News

[Luke]

Gotta admit i can see how it could have easily offended some people - some of the writing was a bit blatently stereotypical towards the gay community and i think they'd raise their eyebrows and say they can tell its written by two straght guys. I liked the idea of a puppet spoof of Hollywood, but maybe using puppets to act out some of the visual jokes skewed towards the gay theme were a step too far. I think it could have been done a lot better and cleverer, only gotta look at Will & Grace to see thats possible. I get the feeling Brian and Bill had the idea of doing it around the gay theme as thats quite popular and "in" amongst the comedy genre right now rather than trying to make any kinda point but its quite a sensitive topic and some will feel by using puppets and being so over the top and stereotypical about it they are making fun of it rather than being funny about it. I'm not sure how i feel there, i thought some things worked and some things missed the mark or were just too in your face.

 

[RedPiggy]

I can see it as stereotypical ... but name me some non-stereotypical Muppets. I see the hen-pecked (so to speak) "husband", a shallow and materialistic diva, the perennial loser friend, the bizarre outcast, the right-"wing" conservative, the street-smart wiseguy, the sex-crazed Latino, etc. (Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Sam, Rizzo, Pepe, etc)

The only downside I saw was that having a pig and bull as the main characters doesn't do much to counter the argument that being gay is the same as, say beastiality (yet that's weird since on the Muppet Show and in the movies, humans had crushes on Muppets all the time).

I thought it was a good fit for Alien Boot Camp, which shouldn't be considered serious by any stretch of the imagination. Aren't these the same people who have a sketch consisting of what looks like Fisher-Price toys?

I mean, it's not just about parodying Hollywood. It aired on a frickin' gay channel, for God's sake. I thought it was a hoot (I'm hetero, but I find stuff on Logo particularly amusing, like the Gay Sketch Show). It's parodying lots of things. Perhaps part of the problem was just they didn't do more than just the pilot. Once characters are developed, things can be more interesting. I seem to recall Will and Grace making a stir when it first came on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_and_grace#Reception).

I thought there was a lot of interesting things to mention/spoof if given the chance.

 

[Luke]

I think part of the problem may have been that its the kinda steretypical gay humour straight people might appreciate, but perhaps it went a little too far on the stereotypical side for gay people themselves .... and it was on a channel for gay people. I think a lot of gay people (who obviously understand things a lot better as thats their community) might have found it a bit lame and not a clever enough take on them. There were good aspects to the characters, look and story though - it wasn't way off mark, just a bit blatant in places. I don't think it could be compared with anything that Jim did in adult puppetry, two totally different time periods and the genres are completely different now.

I enjoyed it for the most part and would like to see more of it, just maybe with writing and visuals toned down a bit and more of an emphasis on character. I certainly prefer it to Sam Plenty, that justs looks so pointless and not where the Henson company should be heading right now.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

i just watched it on Henson.com i thought it was kinda funny...not for me...but... funny! I loved the Pig...You can sooo tell its Bill...u can almost hear Pepe's laugh when the pig laughs hhaha!