according to this Foxnews article, Fox is developing a new Muppet show! does anyone know anything about this? I must be informed!
[announcer]The continuing story of a Quack, who’s gone to the dogs…[/announcer]
Kermit has a star on the Walk of Fame? Way to go, Kermit! 
It’s still in the planning stages, but I hope it works. I mean, after all, everyone loves the Muppets!
Mr. the Frog has not yet recieved his star. He will be part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame’s Class of 2003, along with Drew Carey, Kevin Bacon, Susan Sarandon, the Osmonds, and Gilda Radner, to name a few-not bad company.
“Fabulous, edgy, and audacious…”?
I don’t want Muppets to be “edgy.” The Muppets were always kind of corny (in a hip kind of way). Kind of absurd like Monty Python, some jokes that were real groaners and a childlike faith and innocence.
Edgy? Grrr!
They came out with a “New Muppet Show” a few years back. I wasn’t very impressed. I’m afraid the world lost a true genius when Jim Henson died. 
Maybe this one will be better. I can hope anyway.
that was Muppets Tonight, which came out in 1996 alongside Muppet Treasure Island (great soundtrack if you can find it).
I actually thought Muppets Tonight was pretty good.
My best memory of it is the muppet dating game:
Michelle Pfeiffer: “Bachelor number 3, what is your idea of the perfect date?”
Beeker: “mee mee me mee mee me, moo moo moo.”
Michelle Pfeiffer: “That’s disgusting! You pervert!”
There was also a Speed takeoff episode in the 1996 version, where the studio would blow up if the ratings dropped below 50.
I’ve only seen Muppets Tonight a couple times, but I remember being rather upset over the fact that they replaced Kermit with some rastafarian new muppet they created as host of the show. It’s only right for Kermit to be the host, seeing as how he is the most recognized, and the original muppet.
I’m not too concerned about it being too “edgy.” They’ve got “Greg the Bunny” to satisfy all the tasteless humor, so I have confidence it won’t get too raunchy or bad. Now, a Meet the Feebles show on Fox…THAT would be interesting…
Clifford, the host of Muppets Tonight, wasn’t a new muppet. He was a late addition to the muppets cast the last time they were big, and was somewhat underused. Hardcore muppets fans recognized him, but casual fans wouldn’t have, so they treated him like he was new.
Kermit was still around, behind the scenes (loved his “Once In A Lifetime” music video on MT), but since Henson was gone, I think it was a pretty wise decision to let Clifford develop as a character rather than try to reuse Kermit. It’s a new muppets show, why not let the new muppets have a chance.
My FAVORITE new muppet, possibly my favorite muppet of all, was Johnny Fiama (think Sinatra as a muppet and you’ll be on the right track), who was new to Muppets Tonight and had a five second cameo in Muppets From Space.
(although I hated that clown muppet . . . poodlepants or somesuchthing . . . the Jar Jar of Muppets Tonight).
I remember the Sandra Bullock “Speed” episode too! In the end, they found out that SHE was the one who was threatening to blow up the studio.
Clifford was in the Muppets CD-ROM game, which was where i first saw him. The guy who does him does Elmo, Kevin Clash. My favorite Muppet Tonight bit was the anvil chorus with the two guys who banged their heads on anvils to do the song. Visual Crack! I thought Johnny Fiama and Sal were hilarious. That show died too young.
I don’t remember much about Muppets Tonight!, but I do remember it vaguely. It is sad, the way it died. Perhaps it was the fact that it was on a major network affected by the Nielsens that killed it? (The original Muppet Show was a syndicated program financed by the kindly Lord Lew Grade and his ITC company after the major networks thought the idea of the program ridiculous. Henson and Co. gave their own sort of thanks to Lord Grade-they modeled Dr. Bunsen Honeydew after him.)
You want edgy? On one Muppets Tonight Billy Crystal was the guest and they showed some “old footage” of Miss Piggy trying out for a starring role in WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. Naturally she did the restaurant scene in which Miss Piggy demonstrates how easy it is for a woman to fake a… sneeze.
Picture kids and adults laughing for completely different reasons.
I have a video somewhere of some episodes of the old Jim Henson Hour from the late eighties (?) featuring the WONDERFUL series called The Storyteller, featuring John Hurt. I hear they also did a Storyteller series on Greek myths, but I’ve never seen those. By the way, the Storyteller episodes were written and directed by Anthony Minghella, who later did THE ENGLISH PATIENT.
Fifteen Iguana
I’ll always remember the Storyteller from the Jim Henson Show mainly because it had one of the creepiest stories I can remember as being a kid. It dealt with a guy who got these gifts from vagrants in the dark ages for sharing bread with them. One was a sack that whenever you said “X, get into my sack,” it would get sucked into your sack. Then, he got a deck of playing cards, with which he could never lose. He then got locked in some building with a bunch of demons, played them in poker until the sun came up, caught them all in the sack, then let them loose, but kept the leader’s hoof. Later on in life, he traded the hoof for a glass that could see Death at either the foot or head of someone’s bed. If He was at the foot, the guy could sprinkle water on Him, and the person would be fine, but if He was at the person’s head, then the person would die. In order to save the king, he trapped Death in his sack, and thus, no one died. When the man saw how much suffering was going on in the world, he let Death out, but Death refused to ever claim him, and niether Heaven nor Hell would allow him in. So, he ended up becoming this wanderer that would lead souls to Heaven or Hell.
Really sad, really creepy, and really fucking cool. Any idea where one can get episodes?
Sandra Bullock “My new movie is Phenomenom”
Muppet cast “Do- dooo di do do.”
classic.
Elvis-
That episode was called “The Soldier and Death.” It was one of the best (along with “A Story Short,” and “Fearnot,” and uh… the one with the troll… In my house we often quote the troll when one of us arrives home: “I have recurred.”) As far as I know they are not out on video or dvd. Damned if I know why.
Fifteen Iguana
Although no new news on the new series is in this story, it is interesting. Apparently Snoop Doggy Dogg was going to be in the new muppet christmas movie on NBC this year, and has now be cut. Story
These were shown in the UK. For a while, they could be seen at some television museum or another here in the USA. Then, a few years back, they were shown on HBO(or was it Cinemax?).
I still have them on tape actually. IF AND ONLY IF these episodes are not available for sale to the public, I'll mail out some copies.
BTW- “Galllllleeeeeeeeoh!” “HOOP! HOOP!”
“Pigs! In! Space!”
BTW-Again, I was flipping through the channels whilst visiting my parents. Comedy Central was, as usual, showing an old Saturday Night Live. I was about to continue clicking, when they started a segment involving bedraggled puppets living in filing cabinets. I recognised some of the puppeteers’ voices from the Muppet Show, and the puppets were made in the same style. But the humor was explicitly adult. Can anybody give me details?
Way back when, I taped probably all of the episodes of Muppets Tonight when they were rerun on, I think, the Odyssey Channel (which was later renamed “The Hallmark and Henson Network”, and now I think is just “Hallmark”). The tapes are buried somewhere in my closet, I’m afraid; I’ll have to go through a lot of unmarked cassettes to find them.
Other great moments from the show:
“It’s time for another episode of Thor: God of Thunder!! This week: Thor gets a library card.”
The whole Garth Brooks episode. Garth is singing “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. Producer: “What the…he said he was gonna sing a country song!” Rizzo: “Yeah, but he didn’t say which country.”
Tales from the Vet with Dr. Phil Van Neuter
“I’m Seymour…I’m Pepe…We’re two of a kind…I’m a little bit forward…And I’ve got a big behind!”
Muppet routines were part of the early lineup of the Saturday Night, as it was originally called, in the first year. I don’t know if they ever came back in the later years Comedy Central shows, but segments from the first year took place primarily on a planet called Gooch. The cast and the Muppeteers didn’t really get along though-I think it was John Belushi who called them “the mucking Fuppets”-and they were eventually dropped.
Don’t forget the Coolio episode with Seymour and Pepe trying to figure out what “back” meant, as in “baby got back.”
Oh, and Martin Short!
Clifford: “Great, now he’s Short and fat.”