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

[dwayne1115]

Um... KSY did have some edge to it, given the time it was made. Croaker especially seemed to use a little more "mature" language throughout the movie (but then again, it's Bill Barretta, what do you expect).

Well it has been a long time since I have seen it so I can't really recall.

 

[jvcarroll]

I still say KSY has a "Film School 101" look and feel to it, but in a good way. It's not overly stylized, and it doesn't rely too heavily on a lot of special or visual effects to carry the movie... and of course, more of actual puppetry techniques were utilized, as opposed to the heavy use of greenscreen and chromakey that both Disney and SST seem to always rely on anymore these days (even though KSY does have it's fair share of occasional such use). In short, it almost seems like either a student film that took a lot of time, effort, dedication, people to make, or a Sundance-esque indie film that actually had a pretty decent budget. As a teen, watching it made me feel like the kind of movie I could make myself.

Really, my only minor quibble with KSY is the inconsistency with the time period: it's clearly supposed to be the early 50s if it took place around the time Jim was in his teens, yet a lot of Croaker's slang and terminology, as well as George Washington High School are too modern and anachronistic to work.

I expect more polish from the Muppets than KSY provided, no matter the budget.

I'd say my main gripe, aside from the kiddified dialog, lack of Muppety humor and the rather pointless story, is that there really isn't a need to create Muppet origins beyond what TMM provides. I was willing to go with it, but they didn't really take much care with the story. I always thought Kermit would lead a much richer life in the swamp. I was bored.

Ultimately, Muppet projects are supposed to speak to everybody and work on several levels. Much of KSY talks down to children in a condescending tone. That's an automatic fail from me. I really wanted to like it. I really wanted it to be a comeback. It just wasn't.

Still, "Life as a Pet" was the wonderful thing that came out of it.

 

[Oscarfan]

And as cute the reference to Jim is, it really makes no sense in the context of the Muppet world.

 

[Beauregard]

The thing with KSY to me, is that the Muppets have always been about taking a popular Genre and doing something fun, parodying that genre. But when the world was full of prequels -- a prime time for a prequel parody -- they made a straight up kids movie prequel.

 

[Drtooth]

Going back to the special... am I the only one in the camp of "The Liberace episode was far worse?"

Instead of having him interact with the Muppets, they just tossed most of the show to him. Which is a shame, since he was pretty good in the 60's Batman show. There's nothing wrong with a celebrity doing their schtick on TMS... just let enough room for the actual stars of their own show to do theirs.

Worst case scenario, It was a Lady Gaga special with Muppets in it. The Liberace episode is still someone hijacking the show to be their own and shoving everything that made The Muppet Show The Muppet Show to the side. I'd say he's a candidate for worst guess star.

As for KSY... I can't rightly comment on it, as I haven't seen it (and don't really want to). But the whole thing was an unsold TV show that was made into a DTV.n So there's a real reason why it was prechoolish. The problem is, it didn't need to be.

 

[D'Snowth]

What is this whole KSY TV show you keep talking about? This is news to me, I've never heard anything about that before, I'm pretty sure it's always been a made-for-TV movie (because "DTV" are those old MTV-inspired Disney compilation specials from the 80s and 90s).

 

[Drtooth]

The wiki is your friend

Essentially the idea came out of an unrealized project called "Frog School" which sounds like it's essentially the same thing (or at least shares a LOT of similar threads) only as a TV series.

Something tells me they said "heck with it" and made a movie instead.

 

[jvcarroll]

The wiki is your friend

Essentially the idea came out of an unrealized project called "Frog School" which sounds like it's essentially the same thing (or at least shares a LOT of similar threads) only as a TV series.

Something tells me they said "heck with it" and made a movie instead.

I'm not really keen on that idea, but it sounds better than what KSY turned out to be.

I still think it's time for a new Muppet Show. The best place for it would be at 7:00 or 7:30 on Sunday nights that's currently taken up by America's Funniest Home Videos. Seriously, everybody has YouTube. Does that show need an entire hour? They could also shift it around to Friday night in order to give the Muppets a prime Sunday night spot. That's the family hour. It's the perfect lead-in to ABC's prime time block of Once Upon a Time. Or maybe they could just make the switch for the summertime months. Either way that's what I would do. I think the Muppets could fit perfectly with auds in that time period.

 

[Drtooth]

I still think it's time for a new Muppet Show. The best place for it would be at 7:00 or 7:30 on Sunday nights that's currently taken up by America's Funniest Home Videos. Seriously, everybody has YouTube. Does that show need an entire hour?

Other than the fact I still think the Muppets cannot work on a major broadcast network, AFV is never going to die because it's so cheap to produce. And I'm sure someone will bellyache if it did go away, begging it to come back. We do indeed have Youtube and vine. AFV has never been more culturally irrelevant, and it's hour long block sits like a moss and mold encrusted cinderblock on the network's schedule. Still, I don't see the Muppets on that time slot. That's probably better suited for last week's rerun of Once Upon a Time.

 

[jvcarroll]

Other than the fact I still think the Muppets cannot work on a major broadcast network, AFV is never going to die because it's so cheap to produce. And I'm sure someone will bellyache if it did go away, begging it to come back. We do indeed have Youtube and vine. AFV has never been more culturally irrelevant, and it's hour long block sits like a moss and mold encrusted cinderblock on the network's schedule. Still, I don't see the Muppets on that time slot. That's probably better suited for last week's rerun of Once Upon a Time.

It's a perfect timeslot, if they'd be able to poach it.