Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady is re-booting the series on ABC.
In the immortal words of our favorite Scandinavian culinary technician: *Mörf då bork du shmooti dee foofdum, ya!
*
“Big Bang Theory co-creator” is made misleading by its prominence (in the general entertainment media coverage of this, not in Happy Lendervedder’s post). Prady worked with the Henson organization long before BBT existed.
True. I suppose it helps with modern audiences, though, to have the co-creator of the biggest show currently on TV attached to the project.
I’ve only got one thing to say to this:
It’s time to play the music.
It’s time to light the lights
It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight. *
It’s time* to put on makeup. *
It’s time* to dress up right
Hmm, but without Jim Henson, it’ll be “The Muppet Show with Wrong Sounding Muppets…”
Not to mention that I’m not convinced they can bottle lightning again. The franchise may be too big and too lucrative to allow them the kind of utter insanity the old Muppet Show used to do so well. I don’t see Glenda Jackson hijacking the theater to commit piracy on the high seas this time around…
I see a potential problem - many of the characters were caricatures of society from just a few years before - like Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. Now they’re just the old Muppets. So will we get a rapper that’s not a kid character? A comic book superhero? The old guys have Alzheimers? I find some of the old shows are just not that funny because I know what they do already.
I was thinking the same thing. The last vestige was The Muppets Christmas Carol.
The last few films tried but just couldn’t do it.
I enjoyed Muppets Tonight, the 1996 attempt at reviving The Muppet Show, so I’m cautiously optimistic about this.
I like the last new one as well.
Yeah. They should be putting this on basic cable, where things can get a bit stranger.
ABC/Disney-Borg owns the Muppets, I understand that. But this project would do well with a bit of benign neglect.
It’s Prady’s involvement that should give hope, given his pedigree.
I’ve been pondering this since I read the announcement and I think it will do well. Because people seem to love their “variety” shows even though the variety means a singing show one night (American Idol) and a dancing show the next (Dancing With the Stars) and another singing show (The Voice) and some talent shows (America’s Got Talent, X Factor) and some more dancing and singing shows. With and without known stars.
Anyway so I think people will be open to some singing and dancing with Muppets, with jokes and side-stories thrown in.
Don’t forget the popularity of the famous-people-on-Sesame-Street sketches right now, too. They churn those out and post them on Facebook (maybe Twitter too) right away. So famous people absolutely love working with Muppets and people absolutely love seeing it, so why not make some advertising bucks off it?
I’ve decided. It’s going to be awesome.
Christmas Carol is at best the fourth greatest Muppet movie. The third greatest Muppet movie is more recent than Christmas Carol: The 1996 film Muppet Treasure Island is hilarious and easily holds it’s own when measured against The Great Muppet Caper (greatest Muppet movie) and The Muppet Movie (second greatest Muppet movie).
I call the 2011 and 2014 films the “Reboot” movies and I think they were both good. Good enough that I can fully respect anyone’s personal ranking putting Take Manhattan, Christmas Carol, and the two Reboot movies in any order of their choosing from places 4 through 7.
(For the purposes of this discussion, we are only ranking the theatrically released movies, not the made-for-television movies.)
But 1 through 3 are absolutely indisputable:
Caper
Movie
Treasure Island
Last place is also indisputable:
Muppets From Space
This is not only the worst Muppet movie, it is one of the worst movies made by anyone ever in the history of Earth.
Steve Whitmire took a little bit of time to really lock into Kermit, but he’s been doing it for 25years now and he’s excellent. He’s been Kermit for almost as long as Henson was.
I was troubled by Eric Jacobson’s performances of Frank Oz’s characters. His Piggy was fairly good even at the beginning but it really took him a while to lock into Fozzie. As of Muppets Most Wanted, I think he’s really come into his own and he’s doing all of Oz’s characters quite well now.
The other replacements are doing either a fine job or, if not, the characters have been sidelined a bit.
Remember not to judge solely on imitation of the previous performer’s voices. There are plenty of people who can do perfect voice imitations but there is a whole lot more that a puppeteer does to bring a character to life than just the voice.
Nefario, I don’t know if you ever watched the 90s series Muppets Tonight! but, like Thudlow Boink, I was a fan. What they did right with this series is that they made it it’s own new show rather than just a continuation of The Muppet Show. It was still a variety show with guests, but it was a new format and several new characters were prominently featured. This was a great idea and it kept the show fresh. New performers weren’t unfavorably compared to original performers when the new performers had new characters of their own. The classic characters were still involved but it was a bigger tent. New characters also meant a fresh perspective, so it didn’t feel like watching “the old Muppets”. The original characters were present sort of as the old guard, while the new characters were very grounded in “the now”.
This is what I’m worried about with the new show- that they won’t do what they were smart enough to do with the last new series. I’m worried that this time it will be an attempt to remake the 70s series. If they do that, I think it won’t be very good. If they’re smart enough to do something fresh with it, like the 90s series did, then I think it could be great.
Is it really the biggest show currently on T.V.? I know it’s a popular favorite here at the SDMB, and I know that it’s been quite popular for a number of years, but I’d even be surprised if you had said “the biggest sitcom currently on T.V.”
I really didn’t know it was that big.
Yes. For me, the Muppets died when Jim died. I get sort of embarrassingly emotional about it, even still. It’s like having someone who looks like your dad, and sort of sounds like him, move in and act like everything is normal. No. I reject you, false dad.
It is without question the most popular sitcom on TV for several years now. But it has never been the #1 show for any season. Last 3 seasons though it was top 10 and as high as #2.
The Henson kids are on a roll of reviving their father’s franchises.
In addition to the two recent movies and the possible new tv show, Joseph Gordon Levitt is going to attempt to make a Fraggle Rock movie.
They got the company back in 2003 and apparently it’s been taking them this long to build things up so they can take on all these projects.
A Fraggle Rock movie? Wtf?
Like others have said, I think that both the new Muppet Show and the Fraggle Rock movie are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as their predecessors. However, I am so excited to share these shows with my son. I was a huge fan of Fraggle Rock. It will be so much fun to see the movie with him. Maybe it will even be his first movie (he’s currently 4 1/2 months). 
Good, bad, or indifferent, I will watch the new Muppets TV show.