Yesterday, ABC decided to stop pulling on our heartstrings and make it official by bringing The Muppets back to primetime. The new TV show, which has been picked up to series, will be a modern-day, documentary-style show that is said to have a more adult focus than in past iterations. Now, this isn’t to say that we’ll find Fozzie Bear shooting up heroin in his run-down Bushwick apartment after bombing at the Comedy Cellar; rather, it simply means that the series is looking to explore the lives of the Muppets outside of the stage, looking into their personal lives, triumphs, failures, relationships, and more. The series comes from writers Bill Prady and Bob Kushell, who also serve as executive producers alongside Randall Einhorn and Bill Baretta. According to Entertainment Weekly, the pilot presentation received a standing ovation from ABC executives. If anything I’ve heard about network executives is true, that should be damn near impossible.
The Muppets wasn’t the only thing ABC added or subtracted from its schedule yesterday; the network ordered six new dramas, including the FBI thriller Quantico, Shonda Rhimes’ insurance fraud drama The Catch, the Joan Allen-starring The Family, the Biblical saga Of Kings and Prophets, an untitled oil boom drama starring Don Johnson, and the LA-based true crime anthology Wicked City. In the comedy department, ABC picked up two new series, the Ken Jeong-starring medical comedy Dr. Ken, and a comedy about a Catholic family that starts getting waaaay too honest, The Real O’Neals. Likewise, the network announced it would be renewing Agent Carter for a second season, but passing on the reported Mockingbird/Lance Hunter-centric spin-off series. Forever, Cristela, and Resurrection, however, have shuffled off this mortal coil after receiving cancellation notices.
Which ABC shows are you most excited for? Are you on board with the idea of a more adult-oriented Muppets series? Let us know in the comments below.
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious) and buy his new book about the Avengers.
IMAGE: Eric McCandless/ABC
