Your Thoughts: Lady Gaga and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular on ABC

[dwayne1115]

I think what the main problem is that, like other people are saying To much Gaga, and not enough Muppets. The Muppets are known for there great holiday specials and things. Like I, and other have said if this where a Muppet special it would have been better.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think what the main problem is that, like other people are saying To much Gaga, and not enough Muppets.

Isn't that like walking out into the rain, and then saying, "I think it's wet out today."

 

[ryhoyarbie]

Saw the special for the first time this afternoon. What can I say, it was a Lady Gaga special featuring the Muppets for the sake of throwing something in. Did a frog, a couple of bears, a dog, a whatever, several chickens, a pig, and crazy musicians not remembering a darn thing about their favorite holiday memory add to anything? Not really. As what others said and I echo them, it was about Lady Gaga promoting her new album and throwing the Muppets into the mix.

Things I liked-
-It was nice to see Rizzo speak again. He and Gonzo are best buds. I didn't really care of the whole Gonzo/Rizzo thing back in the 90's, but the 90's seem like a lifetime ago.

-Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem- I was smiling at what they were saying.
-Zoot-I've been using the same reed since 62', and then Lips nodding in agreement. And....-Time to clean my spit valve....Nice one Zoot, nice.
Janice-That wasn't a holiday. (She's done some interesting things in her lifetime)
-Lips. For the love of god Steve, let him say things. I want Lips to be a chatter box. Nice to see him again though, even though he wasn't in the opening number. Why was that?

-The Muppet Auditions-Sam Eagle-I'm don't need to audition, I'm an American....
-Pepe calling Scooter "Scooper"

-Bunsen Honeydew dressing Beaker in bubble wrap to add something new to the finale, then Beaker falling down following Bunsen and then Animal popping the bubbles. That was funny.

However the rest was meh. It seemed like someone decided to add Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kristen Bell for the sake of adding whoever. Surprised she did try to promote her Veronica Mars movie in the special in some way.

Did this feel like a holiday special? No. The Muppet Family Christmas back in the late 80's was a holiday special, and a good one at that.

I'm curious what the Muppet performers thought as they were filming the special with Lady Gaga. Steve: "Hey, we're in a special with Lady Gaga. Isn't that strange?" Dave: "Not as strange as the episode with Alice Cooper acting on the behalf of the devil trying to get Kermit's soul."


All in all, it was okay. I'd give it two out of four stars.

However, I do dig the song "Venus". I downloaded it this afternoon from Amazon.

 

[jvcarroll]

Bring back the Show...

The plain truth is that fans just want the Muppet Show back. If we can't get that, then we'd prefer a Muppet special featuring their chosen guests. No matter how good this special could have turned out, it was never really going to be that. I can respect that. There were some great segments on the program that I enjoyed very much.

I'd love it if Disney gave the Muppets some sort of summer special. Not a TV movie or a bunch of duets, but a legitimate 30-90 minute program of their own featuring all sorts of stars. It's also a good opportunity to shop around some of the upcoming ABC stars for the fall season. Maybe a July 4th spectacular (that's actually Muppety and spectacular)? They could test that as a legitimate backdoor pilot without having to bump anything around the schedule. With all the criticism networks receive about unsavory content, this is the perfect opportunity to create a family friendly flagship program that's still irreverent enough for mature audiences. In a word...bring the Muppet Show back...at least for specials.

 

[Fiona1024]

I'm nuts to see this Could I watch it online?

 

[FrackleFan2012]

The whole thing is on Youtube.

 

[Fiona1024]

Thank you so much ^-^ and thanks for following me.

 

[FrackleFan2012]

Your welcome.

 

[FletchySRF3088]

Whoever said the "core group" of Muppets was restricted to Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Scooter, and Rowlf? If you ask me, the "core group" of Muppets is ALL the TMS characters - that is, taking into consideration ALL of the Muppet characters there are out there (SST Muppets, TMS Muppets, Fraggles, yadda-yadda-yadda).

I hear ya, I've always seen the Muppets as one big family of characters but it also felt to me that the Muppet family consisted of the "main group" of characters and the "secondary" characters. I remember the Episode Guide for TMS Season 2 on this site saying:

...the main cast from here on out seems to headline Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, and to a slightly lesser extent, Scooter...

I think that after Jim and Richard's deaths in the 90s, that main cast changed to Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and Rizzo. Then later joined by Pepe, and usually Animal. I see Muppets from Space, more than any other movie or project from that era, as a good example of that.

I guess everyone would also have different opinions as to who belonged in which group during which era, too. I think one could argue that Clifford was also part of that "main cast" for most of the 90s.

Anyway, apologies if I'm rattling on about this too much. As a fan, I just find this kind of stuff interesting.

 

[cjd874]

Pros: Rizzo had a much greater presence in this special, and it's good to see that he & Gonzo still have good chemistry, as do their respective performers. It was good to see more obscure Muppets like Lips, Bobo the Bear, Big Mean Carl, and Mo Frackle as well. And the Statler and Waldorf jokes were good, even though most of them were recycled or reworked from previous Muppet projects, including the Muppet Show.

Cons: Miss Piggy came off as one-dimensional YET AGAIN. Once again, she acted very self-centered and pushy, and had a one-track mind on her frog. She wouldn't let Kermit even explain his "conversation" with Gaga before karate chopping him (is this what some of you mean by a "Flanderized" Piggy?). Also, there should have been more lines for Fozzie Bear and Gonzo. The Swedish Chef/Animal/Beaker bits didn't live up to my expectations, either. There was absolutely no need for Kristen Bell or RuPaul. They added NOTHING to the special whatsoever (Kristen tried too hard, in my opinion). And as much as I love Sir Elton John, he didn't add much either. He and Gaga should have sung a Christmas song, not "Bennie and the Jets." The music was pretty terrible throughout the special. And the male dancers…UGH! NO! STOP! BOOOOOO!!!

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars, at most…or maybe…oh, what the heck.
2.5/5, would not watch again