The Muppets just belong on television. That’s a fact, Jact. For way too long, the colorful characters created by Jim Henson and company (and not the ones still on Sesame Street) were little more than a nostalgia trip for people of a certain age. That was, of course, until a few years ago when the characters were brought back for a feature film called The Muppets which won an Oscar for best song, and then a follow-up film called Muppets Most Wanted which didn’t win any Oscars for anything but was still very funny. Those films put the characters back in the public consciousness, but hopefully their next endeavor will put them back in the public’s households, where they began way back in the ’70s (before I was born, thank you very much) with the landmark The Muppet Show.
Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady is developing a brand new Muppets TV show for ABC along with Anger Management‘s Bob Kushell. ABC, as you well know, is the network owned by Disney, which also owns Marvel and the Jim Henson stuff, which is why there’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter on that network as well. So far, no real details about the project, though Deadline is reporting that one rumor is that it’ll be about the behind-the-scenes antics of a late-night talk show, not unlike a family-friendly Larry Sanders Show. Despite the lack of details, I’m still prepared to do this.
Besides The Muppet Show, which ran from 1976 to 1981 in first-run syndication, the characters also had a primetime series called Muppets Tonight which ran briefly on ABC in 1996. So, we’re talking about 20 years without any substantial Muppet presence on television. Hell, they can’t even put out DVDs of Muppet Babies because of all the film clips they used. Rights and whatnot. Whatever this new series actually is, I hope it captures the zany madcappery of the original show and doesn’t water it down too much for modern (and probably younger) audiences. Gotta make sure we can still get stuff like this:
What would you like to see from an updated Muppet program? Tell us below!
