I suspect she will be a story arc and then gone by the end of the season.
I enjoyed it. I was especially amused by Fozzie being a bear looking for romance. 
It was OK. I laughed. I don’t see why One Million Moms are so het up about it. It’s one million miles away from being perverted.
I’ve read a lot about Jim Henson and I’m pretty sure that he didn’t mean for The Muppets to be squeaky clean. He just didn’t start making money until they cleaned up their acts.
And really, every single show on primetime broadcast is racy or racier than “The Muppets”. I still can’t watch “Everybody Loves Raymond” with my parents without blushing.
Can I be a dissenting voice here and say I didn’t love it? It wasn’t terrible. It just didn’t click for me I realize it was just the first episode and these things take time, but I didn’t think it was great.
I wasn’t thrilled either. They are too established. One of the big charms of the Muppet Show was that they were always on the edge of chaos, with Kermit holding it together, just barely. Plus, the mockumentary format has been done to death. They didn’t satirize it (except Gonzo’s bit in the beginning) just used it.
Elizabeth Banks was a terrible choice as a guest star. The guest stars on the old show either had a talent suited for the stage or pushed themselves into doing something weird that suited the show. Banks was just - there. Not her fault, terrible writing.
I think what would have worked better would be to have Kermit manage to put together a revival (since TV today is reviving all sorts of stuff) and have to put on a show under the threat of cancellation. That way you can work in guest stars, and have some tension.
Trying to pack all the characters into the first show made it a bit frantic, so I’ll wait to see if they do something with the Swedish Chef - though I like the concept of him running Craft Services.
Curious thing… Riki Lindhome played Fozzie’s girlfriend in episode 1. In the preview that was first played at a comicon, Margo Harshman played the same role.
Riki played Ramona Nowitzki, Sheldon’s grad student groupie/Yoko Ono on Big Bang Theory. Margo played Alex Jensen, Sheldon’s assistant with a crush on Leonard. And Bill Prady is a producer on both The Muppets and Big Bang Theory.
Maybe with the BBT connection, Bunsen Honeydew will have a more prominent role. Beaker does sort of remind me of Sheldon.
It just didn’t click for me. Apparently I’m in the minority for not liking the new version.
This. Kermit sounds waaaaay off. The characters also seem to have less energy than before.
And…Jim Parsons (Sheldon) was in the 2011 film? Speaking of which, where is Walter?
I don’t know about BBT, but if the new Muppets show is going to be a vehicle for cross-promoting other ABC shows and stars, that’s gonna get old.
That said, I quite enjoyed the first episode. The faux-“30 Rock/Office” format is a natural half-step forward from the old Muppet Show premise and makes sense for them. (Though I am enough of a stickler to wonder why the cameras were there to record Kermit and Piggy’s breakup.) I disagree with the poster above; a mere parody of the mockumentary format would quickly grow tiresome, and I’m glad they’re not moving in that direction. All you need is a format that lets the characters’ personalities shine through, and the show seems well set up to do that.
I think the weakest part was Fozzie on his date. Not sure if watching the characters’ home lives is going to work that well. But that’s something they can easily tweak.
On the bottom of that scene there was text that said something like “From Paparazzi video”.
I enjoyed the show. It was pretty amusing and the new set up is interesting. I absolutely lost it when Fozzie was talking about putting up an online profile that said “Bear looking for love” and the unexpected responses he got, LOL!
I enjoyed the show as well. I didn’t think it was the greatest of greats but it had moments and it has potential. I like the faux “behind the scenes” The Office/30 Rock vibe OK. I don’t think it’s necessarily dated since it seems like the only one really making 3 camera laugh trackers is Chuck Lorre. It will be fine if they don’t lean on the talking heads bits too much – I just remember two from last night and that’s OK by me.
It also looks like some people are all buttmad that the Muppets are “adult” now. I’m pretty sure we all realize this on this board but the Muppets were on late night TV quite a bit years ago: Last Gasps in The Land of Gorch on Vimeo. Though I do admit that the most memorable jokes to me include Zoot in the meeting and Fozzy talking about being a bear looking for love.
I think it may serve them better if they used an SNL-type show as a framing device as opposed to a late night talk show. I guess the talk show gives them an opportunity to focus in on the characters a little bit but the SNL-type show would give them a bigger range that they can work with. I would guess that they are going with the talk show to distance themselves a bit from 30 Rock.
Steve Whitmire has been playing Kermit for 25 years now. There are probably people who grew up with his Kermit who think that Jim Henson sounds “off”. I can live with it. I’ve accepted Jeff Bergman or Billy West or Joe Alaskey as Bugs Bunny. Henson would have wanted his characters to live on. It’s natural when people die. It doesn’t mean their characters have to die with them.
Human/bear relationships are what comes after gay marriage, ya know.
I was happy that Miss Piggy didn’t get as much time as I thought she would. It was ok and might get better but I’m not counting on it. Who was the guy playing Fozzie’s date’s dad? I know I’ve seen him before but couldn’t think of his name.
Jere Burns. He used to be in a sitcom with Judd Hirsch.
Thanks. After checking IMDB, I probably recognized him from Justified or Burn Notice or maybe Breaking Bad. Dear John was too long ago and I don’t think I ever watched it.
I liked it but there was an undercurrent of meanness and cynicism that didn’t feel very Muppets.
I never saw the original TV shows and have watched a few of the movies, so I’m probably not one to criticize, but I didn’t like it so much either. It was too adult. I get what they were doing and it was well-done but the spirit wasn’t what I expected or wanted from the Muppets.
Nothing in last night’s show struck me as more “adult” than Miss Piggy pouncing on Rudolph Nureyev in a steam room.