It’s okay. My wife loves it, but she never saw the original, and she especially loves the Swedish Chefguy. Bork!
It’s Greengrass, and yes he does. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like the second Bourne movie as much, quite a different style to Doug Liman in the first one. The third one works a bit better with it, though.
[Disclaimers: Barely remember Muppets Tonight, much less, the original show; don’t have a problem with the current voices. Never watched 30 Rock or The Office. Never watched Greg The Bunny. Didn’t see either recent movie. Seen very few mockumentaries (the last one was Behind The Laughter). Soured on “adult humor” by The Tick, which I found largely boring as hell. That plus any network television-acceptable adult anything is invariably going to pale in comparison to the roughly 100 lesbian sex DVDs I own, buuuut that’s a separate issue.]
Seen every episode so far. Thoughts:
It’s definitely more mean-spirited, more nasty than anything I’ve seen from this gang before, and some of the moments were borderline jaw-dropping. Gonzo casually admitting to going behind Kermit’s back, Rowlf ravenously chewing at his stitches, Bobo trying to extort Kermit into buying cookies, Fozzie’s self-righteous snivelling after he was tranquilized, Miss Piggy’s office-wrecking tirade because she couldn’t get a date for the People’s Choice Awards. Most disturbingly, there have been TWO effin’ Karma Houdini’s so far: Statler taking advantage of Fozzie’s guilt to play a prank on him and The Electric Mayhem leaving Kristin Chenoweth stranded in the middle of nowhere. I’ve seen a number of shows try to make the total jerk who always gets away with it work, and it NEVER does.
The best thing I can say about it is that it never drags. We go from one set piece to another, and as soon as a plot ends, that’s it. It’s always a good sign when a show thinks we’re intelligent enough to know what’s going on and when enough is enough. I’ve never been a fan of overblown, draggy musical numbers either, and I appreciate that thus far it’s only been that karaoke night (which I found fairly entertaining, though not the rollicking riot most of you seem to think it was) and an intentionally over-the-top Miss Piggy “apology”. Oh, and no laugh track…big, big win. (Honestly, I don’t know how I ever put up with those things.) The humor is, for lack of a better term, efficient, and at my age and with my current TV habits, that’s something I wholeheartedly appreciate.
I was very eager in the early episodes and watched nearly all of them a second time, something I haven’t done in ages. Lately, though, the nastiness and unpleasantness is creeping to the fore. Right now I’m in “keep watching and see if it gets better” mode.
Oh, and most unintentionally funny moment: Kermit ripping into Scooter for choosing Tom Bergeron when there were so many stars he could have taken. Um, hello? Have you watched Dancing With The Stars lately? At this point Bergeron is about ten times as big a name any of those contestants!
Tidbits:
- They gotta find something for Rowlf to do. I don’t want my last ever memory of him to be undoing the surgery that he himself decided to get. I mean, come on.
- Statler + Waldorf. It’s very simple: guffawing snark good, manipulative douchebaggery bad. Someone needs to right the ship here pronto or this once-funny duo could go completely off the rails.
- The Electric Mayhem is in a similar spot. It’s possible to spotlight internal snippiness without screwing over the guest star. Or better yet, have them do something genuinely nice to even things out. Hey, if Miss Piggy could see the light…
- The Swedish Chef is looking like a victim of the new emphasis on nastiness, as he simply doesn’t have a nasty bone in his body. He’s a lovable, harmless goofball, and right now that’s looking like an extremely awkward fit with the tone of this show. The best bet could be to just put in something food-related. He’s always been one of the funniest Muppets, and it’d be a shame to leave him out in the cold.
- Someday, somehow, I’d like to see a good, hard look into Fozzie’s various neuroses. Why was he seemingly so obsessed with taking a souvenir from Jay Leno’s home? Why does he so stubbornly refuse to realize what a hack writer he is? What does he even get out of standup comedy anymore? He is flat-out inexplicable right now, and there could be some rich episodes in exploring just what the hell is wrong with him.
Aside from being kinda gross, IMHO the bit with Rolf’s surgery went on too long and overexplained the joke. I think it would have been funnier had it been mostly a sight gag. Like, Kermit or Fozzie says “Hi Rolf, good to see you back, how are you feeling?” and then there’s a shot of Rolf with the cone on his head saying “Not too bad, the stitches come out next week.”
No one has any opinion on the news that the show will essentially be rebooted after the winter break?
(Post#112)
A sudden, early reboot smells like panic, and does not bode well. What happens if ratings then don’t jump up?
Longtime muppet fan here (see screenname for proof). I watched The Muppet Show religiously as a kid. I watched the Jim Henson Hour. I watched every episode of Muppets Tonight. I watched all the movies (most of them multiple times) and… I like this.
I don’t love it. yet, I hope. But I like it.
I’ve long since gotten over most of the voice changes (though the new Scooter is taking some time to sink in. They haven’t used him much after Hunt’s death until recently) and I’m ok (in theory) with the adult one-liner references. What bothers me more are the adult situations. And I don’t mean adult as in raunchy, but adult as in grown-up and sad. I don’t want to see a depressed Kermit. Frazzled, ok, that’s how he’s supposed to be. But not so… bummed out. I don’t want to see Fozzie have relationship troubles. I don’t want to face reality quite so much with the Muppets. That’s the jarring part.
Considering the aesthetic of the show, I really thought they might kill of Statler. Thankfully they didn’t go there, but I didn’t like that the show put me in the frame of mind where I actually considered that as a possibilty.
But when it embraces the zany and uses the reality parts for humor instead, I’m loving it. Fozzie’s visit to his girlfriend’s parents cracked me up. (“Where will they go to the bathroom?” “That is an offensive stereotype!”) As a parent of 2 girl scouts, Bobo and the Newsman’s cookie rivalry was hilarious (they even got the right boxes. Nice detail, props department!). And Chip the IT guy is the breakout new star for me. I can’t stop laughing every time I look at him. (His best line was in the trailer, when he couldn’t remember what Muppet show he was from. Turns out it was the Jim Henson Hour, BTW)
Best line so far: “You know my mother’s a terrible goat rider” Just look at the exquisite crafting in that line. Not only does Gonzo’s mother have prior experience riding goats (already funny), but Gonzo knows she’s terrible. AND Kermit knows she’s terrible. AND GONZO KNOWS THAT KERMIT KNOWS. It’s just like 5 layers of funny all wrapped into 1. (Let alone the fact that Gonzo is in the process of ruining Kermit’s chances with Lea Thompson as well…) That line alone was enough to keep me watching…
Tonight’s was the best episode, in fact it was the first funny and well paced episode of the new series. This gives me hope. I enjoyed Kermit’s old shoe.
My favorite part: “I’ll get you some emergency jeggings.” (Then in a whisper, “There are no jeggings! What she needs is hope!”)
Yup. Starting to get the feel of Kermit not as a despicable burnt out hack who no longer cares about his friends but as the old always almost overwhelmed regular nice but bit neurotic guy trying to do right in an oddball world … who knows he gets taken advantage of and helps anyway and who is in fact actually doing good even if he does not see his own successes too well.
Yes! Putting Uncle Deadly in charge of Piggy’s wardrobe was a genius choice. He’s hilarious.
Mine was later, where he lays some harsh reality on her about her waterlogged dresses: “Look at me, Piggy! They. Are. Gone.”
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Kermit singing “Rainbow Connection.” A nicely sentimental moment for those of us old enough to remember The Muppet Movie–and then perfectly undercut by the off-screen voice shouting, “Learn a new song!”
I’ll admit that 1) I’m slightly disappointed that there isn’t more for the younger crowd mixed in, and 2) I don’t think they’ve done a great job of using the guest stars (apart from Lawrence Fishburne, because that was hilarious), but the latter is a minor teething problem and the former is just wishful thinking.
Overall I’m finding the comedy writing excellent, and am personally becoming a big Pepe fan. Now I’m slightly worried that a reboot is planned…
I loved that…both the song and the off-screen comment. 
Funnily, though, Kermit’s singing voice made my dog bark at the TV. Both times (before and after the commercial break). It made me laugh that Kermit can talk all he wants and the dog will barely lift an ear, but “Rainbow Connection” resulted in a protest.
Just saw the Reese Witherspoon episode.
“I have an Associate’s degree - I use a towel.”
It didn’t make me (or my dog) bark, but the singing was a time when I was really conscious of Kermit having a different voice. Typically I don’t make too much of a fuss about the fact that most of the Muppets are done by different performers than they were when I was a kid. Time marches on, Whitmire and Jacobson have been doing these roles for years now, and all that. But Whitmire’s singing of “Rainbow Connection” was the only time the sense of NOT-JIM-HENSON!! really jumped out at me.
I may be too close to that song. It’s one of the things my wife and I bonded over when we were first dating, so the iconic performance from The Muppet Movie is pretty special to me.
My ear registers Whitmire’s Kermit (either speaking or singing) as slightly-different-but-close-enough.
Here too… I’m firmly in the Whitmire fan camp, and I don’t even notice the speaking voice difference anymore, but the song was very jarring. I’ve just got the original too drilled into my head since childhood. Kudos to Whitmire for even attempting it, but… let us never go there again.
Raising this dormant thread:
The Muppets returns on ABC tonight after a hiatus and a retooling for the final six episodes of the season. Not everyone has liked the show so far, although I think it’s OK. Let’s see if they can win back some fans.
I liked the eps I saw before they yanked it. I wonder if I will like the “retool” more, or less.