I’ve been getting into The Muppets lately, and I just realized that none of the shows after The Muppet Show were nearly as successful, with the exception of Muppet Babies.
Why haven’t the post-Muppet Show shows been as successful? Is it because the Muppets are a product of their time? Kids today probably have no idea what a variety show even is, which is what the Muppet Show was making fun of. And yes, I know the Muppets were originally intended for general audiences, like Looney Tunes, but also like Looney Tunes, they’re now marketed toward kids.
I suspect that part of it is that, during the 1980s, a good portion of the company’s focus was on projects that didn’t feature the traditional Muppets: The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth on film, and Fraggle Rock on TV.
During that same period, there were also a couple of fairly successful Muppet films (The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan), though I suspect that neither were as successful as the original The Muppet Movie (or the original TV series). And, in '89, they did The Jim Henson Hour, each episode of which was half The Muppet Show (i.e., variety), and the other half Henson showing off other projects. But, I suspect that it didn’t get good ratings, and was only on for one summer.
And, then, Jim Henson died suddenly in 1990, and the Muppets lost their creator and greatest creative mind.
After the show ended, Henson turned his interest to movies, which were probably more lucrative. Muppet Babies were animated, which were easier to perform, and Henson did do Fragile Rock for TV, so probably couldn’t do Muppets, too.
After his death, Henson Associates continued to do movies, because that was where the money was.
Also Farscape. Same techniques, vastly different story, characters, audience and feel. Which is really what a creative person should be doing, rather than get stuck in a rut with a single bunch of characters for decades on end. You have to let things go, and move on.
ETA: on further research I see that was his company, after he died. Still, the principle about not sticking with specific characters too long still holds. They have their time, then it’s time for something else
The Muppets have always been a mix of scripted and improvisation, which in the hands of certain performers can be magical, and in others a bit awkward and forced. The core team that performed for The Muppet Show, including writers like Jerry Juhl, just worked. Everything came together like destiny. The current performers are going through the motions and don’t have that spark of manic insanity that made the characters zing. You need to compare a recent Sesame Street sketch with one from the 70s to see how marked that difference is.
Though Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and The Jim Henson Hour did not perform well, they are more than just cult hits, and if anything were before their time. The magic was there, but the projects were a little too esoteric.
Sometimes the stars just align.
(Other things that have had their time and will never regain their initial burst of popularity include Star Wars, the MCU, Avatar, Looney Tunes cartoons, and 2D Disney animation)
I really, really hate when someone asks what ought to be a question generally answerable in a couple paragraphs and then posts a link to a long YouTube video, sans description, as if they couldn’t just summarize. Well, I am not going to do that.
Instead, I am going to recommend this six video playlist by YouTube channel Defunctland, and its series DefunctTV, about Jim Henson’s TV endeavors. The short answer, though, is: it’s hard. It’s hard to make a nationwide television sensation. Harder still to do it twice. And when you think about it, Jim Henson did it more than once, just not always with Kermit and the gang (Fraggle Rock), or always with them appearing “in the flesh” (Muppet Babies). Keep in mind, also, that Jim Henson:
Was the most significant driving force behind the muppets, and there’s only so much one man can do.
It’s not like the muppets disappeared completely after the show. There were movies.
Along with the above, there was Fraggle Rock and various other attempts at branching out.
Finally, elephant in the room, Jim Henson died at a time when the muppets were hardly a spent force. Who knows how things might have turned out, if only…
Anyway, here’s a link to the playlist, with the last video in the series primed to play, because while I think the question is addressed in one form or another throughout (like, in a foreshadowing sort of way), it does the most to answer the question directly:
I watched the Muppet Show some short years ago and came away with these distinct impressions:
It wasn’t that great except when compared to the rest of television in the mid-70’s.
It seemed to be trying to fill a niche that exists between children and adult shows, yet ignores teens. Honestly I’m skeptical that this niche exists, but the show did stay alive for 5 seasons and 2-3 movies.
I don’t think it’s much more complicated than the fact “The Muppet Show” was a really good show and they haven’t created a really good TV show since.
I don’t think it can be overstated what a miracle “The Muppet Show” was. I mean, Muppets have been with us for so long that it can be easy to forget that it was a prime time show STARRING PUPPETS. It was an honest to god Network primetime program in which the star was a felt frog with a hand up its ass, trying to run a show within a show that kind of looked like some 1920s burlesque show. How hard is that to sell? It was one of the most utterly bizarre television programs to ever grace primetime and was unlike anything then, before, or since. Muppet-related programs on kids’ TV just aren’t comparable in any way because kids accept things adults don’t. The only thing on earth lamer than mimes and community theatre improv is a puppet show. Adults do not want to watch puppet shows, and yet they put the Muppet Show on primetime and folks loved it.
The show was the product of the sheer, awesome genius of Henson and Oz and a series of serendipitous events (people forget Henson got the Muppets onto SNL a bit before the Muppet Show, an experience that was invaluable in preparing him for Muppet Show) and you could try for a hundred years and not replicate it. It was a fluke of the highest order.
Jim Henson and Frank Oz were a comedy team. In chemistry and timing, they were of a magnitude approaching Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy. Yes, I said that. Certainly they were at least equal to Bob and Ray.
You can go all the way back to the early Bert and Ernie sketches on Sesame Street to see how well they worked together. When Kermit interacted with Miss Piggy or Fozzie Bear, that’s pure Henson and Oz.
Their successors can do the voices well enough, but the chemistry is missing.
Excellent point about Oz, as he was undoubtedly a big part of what made the Muppets special. Not only did he lose his partner when Henson died, but he had been increasingly moving away from being a Muppeteer, and into directing; by 2001, he largely retired from being an on-screen performer, and his signature Muppets (Miss Piggy, Bert, Cookie Monster, Fozzie, Sam the Eagle, etc.) were taken over by other Muppeteers.
well part of the appeal of the show was the unlikely guest stars they had also they re was a strong SNL vibe where said guests stars made fun of themselves
And, American networks did not pickup the show, it was made by the British ATV, then later it was syndicated in the USA.
Both pilots failed to garner enough support for ABC or any other American networks to pick up The Muppet Show as a regular series in 1976, so Henson looked across the pond. British network Associated TeleVision (ATV) decided to pick up the series, and gave Henson a deal to produce each episode at their studios in Elstree, England and broadcast them on ITV stations across the UK.
Sesame Street isn’t a Jim Henson or The Muppets project, any more than Star Wars was. Sesame Street was created by other people and they were blessed that Henson created characters for them and added cartoons and film shorts. And that Muppet performers from the shows and movies worked on the characters. But it’s written by and directed by and owned by other folks. The characters are under different licenses.
This thread is about Henson Studio > Disney Muppet projects, not Sesame Street.
My contribution to this thread… I dunno. The 2015 show was HILARIOUS and classic. I am really bummed it didn’t catch on. I’m enjoying Muppets Now on Disney +. It’s pretty fun with some classic elements!
I suppose the saying, “It’s funny because it’s true,” might apply, but then it is also very sad.
Is there a word for that, for something that is both funny and sad, but doesn’t necessarily fit within the realm of the ironic? If not, I call coining rights: dimsical. Let that be the word for it.