Disney+ joins the puppet renaissance, announces new series Muppets Now coming in July
Aux Features TV
It’s possible that the real news here is that it took this long for Disney to trot out Kermit and the crew out for its streaming service, but nevertheless: Disney+ has announced its first original Muppet Studios series Muppets Now, which will begin streaming this summer. The streaming juggernaut tweeted the news in conjunction with a newly sacred holiday, National Streaming Day, which it is using to unleash a number of presumably big reveals. The Muppets series, which is some version of “unscripted,” is the first of a couple of announcements scheduled for today.
Here is Disney’s official synopsis, in case the premise isn’t exactly apparent:
“In the six-episode season, Scooter rushes to make his delivery deadlines and upload the brand-new Muppet series for streaming. They are due now, and he’ll need to navigate whatever obstacles, distractions, and complications the rest of the Muppet gang throws at him.”
Hijinks! Buffoonery! Statler and Waldorf’s unhelpful commentary! But don’t look for skits or (too many) ornate musical numbers, as this appears to follow a more “spontaneous” model that we’ve seen in modern Muppets attempts. At least we can likely look forward to the same startling star power that has always defined this universe as Disney does promise guest stars.
The timing of this announcement is also notable. Exactly one month after Apple TV+ announced its quarantine-stricken Fraggle Rock reboot and on the heels of HBO Max’s Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo, the reveal of a streaming Muppets Show now signals a very apparent puppet renaissance for which we should steady ourselves. If Quibi announces a gritty revival of Allegra’s Window, we might be in trouble.
Muppets Now will begin streaming July 31 on Disney+.
51 Comments
Where’s Charlie Kaufman’s GD puppet streaming show, you bastards?
The premise has some promise of delivering an updated version of classic Muppet chaos, though somehow Foo-Foo looks… off?Anyway, the one unquestionable bright spot of the recent TV revival was the recasting of Uncle Deadly as Miss Piggy’s personal assistant, so I hope they either keep that or build on it somehow. He’s far too charismatic a puppet to keep in the background.
I made my comment before seeing yours – absolutely critical to heavily feature Uncle Deadly. “No. Ow. Don’t. Stop. Let go. Cease. Desist.”
Is Jim Henson still dead?Pass.
That’s a stupid thing to say.
Can’t they just find a way to steam the original Muppet Show. I could watch that shit all day
It’s Disney. They’ll suck all the charm, wit and fun out of it. I hope Jim was cremated otherwise its only a matter of time before these bastards dig up his corpse to literally start fucking his skull.
I can tell you appreciate the Muppets on a much deeper level than me.
Disney does not suck ANY charm, wit or fun out of it! Steve Whitmire, Debbie McClellan and Kyle Laughlin did!Plus Jim WAS cremated!
But when will Nickelodeon give us a Pinwheel reboot?
Didn’t they announce this a while ago? Nice to have an official date and to know it hasn’t already been cancelled, at least.I still think a very good Muppet thing to do would be to chop up whatever classic Muppet Show sketches and release them as a Muppets Now companion series, Muppets Then
There was a different series that Josh Gad had a hand in that got shelved. It may have had the same working title?
Nah… at the time when we learned that the Gad series was scrapped, Muppets Now had already been announced as a separate thing https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/muppets-series-josh-gad-adam-horowitz-edward-kitsis-disney-plus-1203330138/
I think I might be the only person who thought the last show was pretty good. It was still rough around the edges, but it was frequently funny and had a couple of inspired episodes. I think it would have hit its stride with a second season. The way some people reacted, though, you would have thought that they turned Kermit into a serial killer who wore Piggy’s skin for fun.
I liked it a lot. People got super-pissed about Kermit having a different pig girlfriend. They all appreciated the Muppets on a deeper level than us.
Kermit’s never really reciprocated Miss Piggy’s romantic overtures, so him having a different girlfriend, regardless of species (as long as she’s sapient), doesn’t bother me. I had read that he was deliberately cruel to her, though, which put me off from watching it for a while.
Wasn’t super, but it got to be pretty good eventually.
Without Uncle Deadly it would have been distinctly average muppet-fare. With him, it was well worth watching. (And that’s not the first time I’ve said that.)
I was one of the bad reactors. I also didn’t like the mockumentary format (used to hate The Office as well).However, after first watching The Office (delightful!), I finally checked this out on Disney+, and yeah, some stuff falls flat, but there’s some great Muppet gags and a lot of the heart you’d expect from the Muppets. I would have liked to have seen where it went in it’s second season, but, unfortunately I was part of the problem as to why it didn’t get one
yeah, I don’t think the mockumentary format was a great fit. if they were going to model it after a then-recent sitcom I kind of wish they had chosen 30 Rock, which had a more compatible hectic tone.It was starting to come together later in the season so I was a little bummed it got cancelled before it could fully course-correct
It was great for first few episodes, but it couldn’t sustain itself comedically down the stretch. I thought the show deserved second season to have another chance ironing out what works well in the show.Oh well, at least we get another Muppets show! Hopefully this one does the series justice.
I liked it for the most part too. I’m not keen on the approach, but I liked the premise, the puppetry work was phenomenal, and most importantly it was super funny like 90% of the time.I read somewhere it was originally pitched for the 2016-2017 TV season, but the network wanted it for 2015, so we got a rushed product.
I never watched the first few episodes, which apparently started the whole buzz about it being cynical and mean-spirited and generally unMuppetlike. When I did start watching it, I saw traces of some of that meanness, but not enough to make me think it was a betrayal of Jim Henson’s spirit. It was uneven, but I was hoping for a second season and a second chance for the series.
I thought it was great! Kermit’s final plan to get rid of Josh Groban, for example, had me laughing out loud. And my muppets-obsessed SN kid loved it, too.
The show improved drastically in the back half of its season. The Gonzo stunt/Dave Grohl episode is the high point an episode which really really “got” the appeal of the Muppets.
I have this weird idea for a Muppet series I’ve been tossing around. Pretty low concept, actually—it’s just, like, them performing a show. They could do some sketches, maybe a musical number or two…you know, really lean into that wacky vaudeville energy. They could even bring in a different celebrity guest host every week. Something corny, but, like, deliberately corny. They could call it The Muppet Program, or maybe The Muppet Revue? Something like that. I don’t know.
So crazy it just might work! But seriously, why do they feel like they have to differentiate, instead of just making new Muppet Show seasons? It’s not like there aren’t a million other successful revivals/continuations of previously discontinued shows.
And as far as I can tell, there’s literally no reason for them not to put The Muppet Show on Disney+, like the legal issues that are keeping Take Manhattan and From Space out. They’re just not, out of some kind of spite.
There are some legal rights/licensing issues relating to the music and musical guests, but given that they’re *Disney*, I wouldn’t think those issues would be insurmountable. Someone did point out to me yesterday that Ghost of Faffner Hall is up on Roku, though – Not the Muppet Show, but that’s a Henson property that I expected never to see come available, so it’s given me new hope.
Music licensing issues are hardly insurmountable, but likely some MBA somewhere has figured out that the cost to put together a streamable version of the Muppet Show is greater than the additional Disney+ revenue it would generate.
This, exactly. Heaven forbid Disney take a chance at losing a few million dollars to make one of the most beloved TV shows of the 20th century fully available again for the first time in decades. It’s not like that could drive any sort of positive publicity or rejuvenate interest in an IP that they own, right?
“The Show with Muppets,” maybe?
They tried that in 1996 with Muppets Tonight.
The Muppet Based Entertainment Concern.
Bring back Skeeter, you cowards
Skeeter was only around when they were toddlers, she OD’d in her teens which is why they never mentioned her again
Relevant Robot Chicken:
Around 2009 there was a plan for an adult/teenage Skeeter that showed up in some show notes. She wore matching stripey tights and fingerless glove/arm warmer things, free-ran to work every day, and played Roller Derby. She was also supposed to be protective of Scooter but constantly bothering Miss Piggy for being a stuffy diva, while Skeeter was going to be a sarcastic tomboy backstager (she was a stagehand and engineer who would occasionally do stunt work).
she did eventually appear in the Muppet Show comic book
That could have worked, actually. A shame we’ll never find out.
Disney badly needs some content. Aside from the new Star Wars stuff and the National Geographic documentaries, it’s a really, really, REALLY thin service.
They were hanging a lot on Marvel shows that are presumably delayed since they had to stop shooting.
Mmmm, good point. I didn’t consider that.
As a lifelong Disneyphile, this is darn near a dream come true for me. For others not sharing my obsession, I can see how the narrow range of content could make it not worth getting.
None of those live musical performances like they had before?…okay probably for the best.
Beggars can’t be choosers, really. I want more Muppet stuff and I will take what I can get.
That synopsis reads more like a game for your phone than a series
Am I the only one who would simply like a new Muppet Show, like the original one? At a certain point, the new muppet stuff has become so meta that it loses the innocent charm, while also sacrificing some of the truly bizarre absurdity that helped define their brand. They already had the perfect mix of groundedness and surreality; why keep trying to find other formats that don’t fit as well?
I would absolutely love a straight-up continuation of the original, but apparently the decision-makers responsible for new Muppet content don’t think there’s enough of us.
Give us the original Muppet Show streaming! Pleeeeeeease.