The Muppet Show? Oh, The Muppet Show! 15 seconds to curtain, The Muppet Show! Or, make that one month: Disney+ has announced that all of five seasons of Jim Henson’s pioneering variety show will join its library February 19—the show’s streaming debut, if you don’t count all the YouTube rips we’ve been watching while waiting for the show to come to streaming.
Running for 120 episodes and airing in more than 100 countries between 1976 and 1981, The Muppet Show introduced many of the colorful, chaotic characters who remain Muppet mainstays to this day. “It’s going to be great to welcome back longtime fans, and to give a new generation of fans a chance to see how we got our start, how Miss Piggy became a star and so much more,” said Kermit the Frog, a fictional character who can be plausibly quoted in a press release in large part thanks to the personality he developed on The Muppet Show. The puppet that became Miss Piggy had previously popped up in late-night and primetime (including a cameo in the more cheekily titled of The Muppet Show’s two pilots); it took a new set of eyes and at least one karate chop to make her Miss Piggy. The defining spirit of the franchise can be found in The Muppet Show’s messy visits to Muppet Labs and the Swedish Chef’s kitchen, the running commentary of opera box critics Statler and Waldorf, and the entire cast gently trolling Sam The Eagle.
And that’s all without a mention of the guest stars, who include their fair share of ’70s variety show usual suspects (Parents: Your children are never too young to learn about Mummenschanz) in addition to more enduring pop culture personalities like Steve Martin, Diana Ross, and Chewbacca. On The Muppet Show, Gilda Radner did Gilbert and Sullivan opposite a giant carrot, Elton John narrowly escaped the jaws of reptilian death, and Vincent Price got a neck full of vampire Kermit. When Rita Moreno became the third person to earn a EGOT, the “E” came from her tense musical standoff with Animal.
All of which is to say this is a long time coming. The Muppet Show reran in syndication and cable throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but has largely been out of televised rotation for more than 20 years. Following the Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of the Muppets in 2004, Disney began issuing full seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD—though plans for sets containing seasons four and five never came to fruition. With the legal hang-ups of music licensing ensuring that the show will likely never be seen in its entirety again (in non-bootleg form, at least), this Disney+ news represents the most complete home-video release of The Muppet Show to date.
Now when are A Muppet Family Christmas, The Fabulous Miss Piggy Show, and The Muppets At Walt Disney World coming out of the Disney vault?
117 Comments
It’s not quite a mop and it’s not quite a puppet…but man!So, to answer your question, I don’t know.
Fantastic news! Now hopefully it’s streaming numbers are bonkers and they realize that the best way to further utilize the Muppets is to just make new seasons of this show, rather than try to shoe-horn them into another format.
The most recent incarnation was VERY annoying.
You mean the one with different segments they just showed on Disney Plus (obviously made in quarrantine), or the weird “Office like” sitcom they had that was clearly not made with families in mind?
The first one – but now I’m going to check out the second one!
Also – despite airing during quarantine, The Muppets Now was all filmed in 2019 so they have literally no excuse.
I likes Muppets Now
What can I say? I’m just too cool to like stuff.It’s a lonely life but a worthwhile one.
I am pretty sure that liking anything involving the Muppets makes you uncool, but I am a 40-something dad so I thrive in my uncoolness
Wait until you are a 50+ dad and all you do is irritate you late teen early 20s kid.
Oh I can’t wait.
On the last episode they gave a thank you to “all the people who stayed quiet or out of the background” like they were recording in their own houses. I mean, they could have anyway, but it seems like an odd thing to do if you didn’t have to.And don’t bother with the ABC show I mentioned. It was kinda dull, and the humor was somewhat out of line for those characters.
Looking into it a bit more, the majority was filmed in 2019 with just the little bookend bits in lockdown.The more you know.
That makes sense, since they did have “guest stars” and outdoor segments. Probably did a lot of post in lockdown as well.
Can humans and Muppets transmit coronavirus to one another?
Not through kissing.
The did try to retool the ABC show and change directions, but it was too late to avoid cancellation.
The ABC show has one, and only one good episode. The one involving Dave Grohl. Gonzo gets his daredevil groove back to the tune of “Learning to Fly” and Animal and Grohl have a drum off (a callback to Animal v. Buddy Rich 30+ years before)
Anything with Dave Grohl is good. I saw them on tour with Motorhead. Motorhead didn’t play because Lemmy was stuck somewhere else because of the weather. Instead of Foo Fighters playing their set and going home early, they played a double set to make up for Motorhead not being there.
That kind of showmanship and appreciation of the audience is always endearing. Very few artists really have that level of humility/work ethic.
Grohl is an awesome dude. And for such a nice guy, he also made a great Devil.
Because he is such a nice guy, you just beg to sell your soul to him. Or just give it away in appreciation.
I still have “Times Like These” stuck in my head after watching them play it for the Inauguration last night.Also, ironically, Jon Bon Jovi played (just him, not the band) and he just covered “Here Comes the Sun.” Like, seriously Jon, you don’t have your own song you could sing for this event?Anyway, ended the evening showing my son some old Foo Fighters videos, some George Harrison, then the video of Prince absolutely ripping it at the George Harrison tribute performance.
Times Like These is so earwormy. As for John Bon Jovi, I am fully with you on that. “Living on a Prayer” would have worked just fine. Prince showing what an awesome guitar player he was never gets old.
Simply making new seasons won’t mean anything unless you can somehow bring Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt back to life.Those writer/performers, plus Frank Oz and Dave Goelz, ARE THE MUPPETS! The cute creatures made out of felt are just the instruments they used to bring their characters to life.Just like it wasn’t the Beatles guitars and drum kit that made the music, it was the four guys who played them. Even if you handed those instruments to talented musicians who could mimic every note on the records, it will never be the Beatles.Indeed, the best way to further “utilize” the Muppets would be for Disney to honor Jim Henson’s unique talent and legacy by making as available as possible all the incredible work he produced throughout his lifetime.
I completely understand this view point but think that the Muppets HAVE put out high quality content post Jim Henson and can do it again. The Jason Segal Muppet movie was quite good! And one of the reasons it was so good was the fact that the climax of the movie was just an episode of The Muppet Show, imo. So more of that.
Sorry, but your standards are too low.The Jason Segal movie was mediocre at best — a safe, nostalgic retread that lacked the talent, wit and cheekiness of the original three movies.
(Protip: If the best song in your new Muppet movie is the Rainbow Connection, and that song serves as the film’s emotional climax, your movie is creatively bankrupt and culturally irrelevant. They did it right the first time.)
Okay, bye.
Very excited for this. I haven’t seen this show in years and the new muppets show on D+ was pretty disappointing. I really can’t get past the new Kermit voice actor
You might have gotten a chance to adjust to him if they’d given Kermit more than 15 seconds per episode.
Who the hell made the decision to make SCOOTER the MC? That made no sense whatsoever.
Nobody likes Scooter. Ed Sheeran-lookin motherfucker.
I hope they put up Muppets Tonight too, there’s a lot of great stuff in that show.I do look forward to people putting on the first episode and explaining the musical Cabaret to their children.
Hey kids wasn’t Joel Grey fun in The Muppets, you should check him out in Dancer in the Dark.
“Kids, let me start with the concept of ‘genderfuck’ and then we’ll branch into prewar Germany.”
Isn’t that the third episode?
Wikipedia lists it first, I think based on UK airdate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Muppet_Show_episodes
Huh. It’s definitely third in the (NTSC) DVD release.
Muppets Tonight gave us this…
And this…
And this…
OG Muppets was great because a 3 year old could enjoy most of it without needing to know the context of the skits, with the show still being relevant to adults. It’s also why the sketches are still funny today. These videos are all explicit pop-culture riffs, and don’t really work that well without knowing the source material, apart from maybe Schiffer’s Roxanne/Cyrano sketch.
Yeah, I was a kid watching Muppets Tonight, and the bits I enjoyed were things like the cooking show titled “Hey What Smells……So Good? It’s cooking with Seymore and Pepe!” But, I really liked that show.
The Prince episode is really something, more from a Prince rather than Muppets perspective perhaps
Does Disney have rights to Jim Henson Hour and Storyteller? I’d love to have access to those again. But, definitely second the vote for Muppets Tonight.
In another two years, Disney will own enough pop culture IP to finally be able to air The Muppet Show uncut.Three years after that, they’ll be able to air the original Muppet Babies TV show.(And I think I’m joking, but at this point I can’t really tell anymore.)
In less than two decades, scientists predict that all things will be Muppets!
De-hibernate me then.
I for one welcome my amusing felt overlords.
I miss the original Muppets baby show. Was there a lot of licensed music I’m not remembering?
I think it was licensed video clips from various movies and stuff.That said, if you have little kids, the new one is cute. Satler and Waldorf are even in it as grumpy neighbors.
A lot of movie clips. Every time Gonzo opened the closet there would be a random film clip, including Star Wars and Raiders. That’s why the King of Cartoons stuck to public domain cartoons whenever he visited Pee-Wee. He knew the game.
But Disney now owns Star Wars and Indiana Jones. They could probably edit in Marvel or their own stuff for anything where they don’t have the rights.
I’m not sure about having to license music, but they used tons of licensed movie and TV clips. It’s a small miracle they got clearance for that stuff even in the cheaper ‘80s.
As a warmup I’d recommend Muppets Now, it’s actually a decent modern update of the originals I thought. Swedish Chef vs. Danny Trejo is a highlight imho
Brought to you by Leakey Bucket! “Leakey Bucket – all others just pail in comparison”
Think what they could do if they weren’t obviously recording it in quarantine. (they credit all the families at the end for doing in their own houses).
I have to wonder if the limitations of how they could record actually helped make the show better.And of course Linda Cardellini is always delightful.
“Thank you Yolanda the Rat, Camilla the Chicken, and Linda the Cardellini.”
The way Piggy pronounces it is great too, Linda Cardelliiiini.
Rule #1 unless you are Bill Cosby, anyone who has ever acted with Muppets is automatically coolRule 2: Linda Cardellini is always delightful.
Some of the best memories of last year were family movie nights outside on our deck, where we started with watching the newest episode of Muppets now
That’s awesome! One of the things I liked about Now is that it really captures the ‘entertainment for pretty much everyone from age 2 up’ vibe of the original.
It’s 2015, and I am tiredly trudging through Disneyland’s California Adventure with my then 11-year old daughter. It is the second day of our two-day visit. We are both exhausted already, and it’s scarcely 11am on the second day.
As we pass the main strip leading down the primary avenue leading into the park, we hang a hard left down a street that’s intended to look like a 1920s-style Hollywood lot. We peruse the food vendors working in this section, and neither find anything that’s worth an immediate pitstop. Instead, we find ourselves wending towards the back of that section, and towards what looks like a disused theater, doors open, but not a single other soul heading towards it. Years of visiting Disney have taught us that these typically lead to “passive” entertainment like the Enchanted Tiki Room, or the Hall of Presidents. It’s not thrilling, but it’s a good opportunity to sit down in the air conditioning for 30 minutes.
As we find our way inside, I realize it’s all starting to look very, very familiar. The attraction posters. The brick-lain backdrop. The red curtain.
We enter into a very large theater seating area, one that perhaps was once used for Broadway-style productions like the Aladdin (or, now, Frozen) attractions. There are, maybe, 30 people sitting in seats that could easily accommodate 700-800 people. We take a seat in the center of a long row that could seat perhaps 40 people, and we are the only ones in it.
The backdrop on stage is immediately recognizable to me, but I don’t say a word to my child. We unpack snacks and bottled water from our backpacks.
And in 10 minutes time… the Muppet Show begins. It lasts for about 30 minutes, and it is solely filled with Muppets doing Muppet things. Statler & Waldorf sit in their balcony seat, poking mild fun at the proceedings. Gonzo and his chickens perform a “death-defying” stunt of some kind. And we both had an absolute ball enjoying this weird but welcome attraction on the Disney grounds, one that had zero fanfare or advertising, but delivered the goods anyway. It seemed very on-brand for the Muppets.
The very next year, when we return to Disneyland, we both actively seek out this theater again. By that time, it’s being retrofitted for something else. Our one-time performance was just that — one time.
My hope is that one day, I’ll return to that park. My daughter’s 16 now, so that outcome isn’t at all a sure thing, and even if it is, it’s far from a sure thing that she’ll enjoy it the same way she did when she was 11. And if this series is successful, maybe that theater will find itself open to the public again, with that balcony just off stage-left and waiting for Statler & Waldorf to occupy it once more. And, maybe she and I can have another trip in the time machine. One can dream, I suppose.
I was fortunate enough to experience it when I visited Disneyland in 2007. It was wonderful.
That is Muppet Vision 3D. I don’t think California will ever get it back but last I checked it is still running in Florida at Hollywood Studios
With Sam the Eagle’s “Tribute to All Nations, But Mostly America”.
There’s also a Revolutionary War themed attraction in Liberty Square at Magic Kingdom in Orlando (I think three mini-plays performed by Muppets from high windows above the square) after each of which Kermit makes a very sweet apology to any “English friends” who might be in the crowd.
That would be Great Moments in American History with the Muppets. I believe that it is not currently operating, unfortunately.
That’s it! Great moments in history…but just the American parts.Looks like it’s been permanently closed, which is sad.
It’s no replacement, but this video is a pretty nifty facsimile
♩ ♪ It’s time to play the music
It’s time to light the lights
It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight… ♫ ♬
YAAAAAAAAY!!!
There’s a song the kindergarteners sing every year to start the “winter sing” at my school and it is uncannily like The Muppet Show Theme that I can’t help but sing along with the Muppet lyrics. Wish I could remember the name of the song so I could see who plagiarized whom!
The “family sing-along” videos that Disney did early in quarantine are very popular with my kids, and the second one opens with a take on the Muppets theme, complete with Kermit arms, so that’s entered into our family lexicon (I tried, but they weren’t going for the muppet show dvds last time I tried – maybe we’ll give it another go soon).
Great news!!!!Now, Disney. Add the unequivocal best Muppet production to your service please. We need a restored A Muppet Family Christmas
Also, John Denver and the Muppets, a Christmas Together.
Hot damn! I’m gonna watch the hell outta the Raquel Welch episode.
Those aren’t boueys!
Ill be in my bunk
Then the Lynda Carter one is a good follow up.
I love the Muppets. I’ve seen the films and the newer shows but I’ve never gotten to see this so I’m excited.
I wonder how they’re gonna handle the Johnny Cash episode; there’s a big ol’ Confederate flag in the background the whole show.
I’m really excited to see the show, especially after watching the Jim Henson documentary done by Defunctland. If you’ve never seen it, I fully recommend it and will provide the link to it;
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLplWWKocAfTYIGzH8eQ0x0kEQgoV9CpYm
Defunctland’s Henson series is just wonderful. Everyone should watch it.
This is by far, the best news I have heard in a year
Awesome! This makes me happy.
Next step: The Muppet Muppet Show, where they remake The Muppet Show with Muppets
Just. In. Time. I showed my four year old the 1979 movie the other day and she was SO into it. I assume she’ll have the same response to Gilda Radner because what sane person wouldn’t? STATLER: Boo!
WALDORF: Boooo!
STATLER: That was the worst thing I’ve ever heard!
WALDORF: It was terrible!
STATLER: Horrendous!
WALDORF: Well it wasn’t that bad.
STATLER: Oh, yeah?
WALDORF: Well, there were parts of it I liked!
STATLER: Well, I liked a lot of it.
WALDORF: Yeah, it was GOOD actually.
STATLER: It was great!
WALDORF: It was wonderful!
STATLER: Yeah, bravo!
WALDORF: More!
STATLER: More!
WALDORF: More!
STATLER: More!
Dad, what’s a Muppet?
Such a great show. I watched it when it originally aired, and loved it. I always felt the best guest stars were the ones who ‘got’ the Muppets: not just the anarchic spirit but who treated them like Kermit or Fozzie or Gonzo, not like puppets being operated by Jim Henson or Frank Oz or Dave Goelz. John Cleese and the Muppets? It works, mate.Also, for all the enduring characters, the show’s impact on popular culture is summed up (for me) by the enduring popularity and fame of Statler and Waldorf. Just as ‘Scrooge’ has entered the language as an adjective for someone miserly or mean or Christmas-hating, ‘Statler and Waldorf’ (or ‘those two old guys in the balcony’) have entered the language as shorthand for the ‘everyone’s a critic’ type of person.I’ll second the hope that John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together gets restored and re-shown. I have had the LP (and later CD) soundtrack for years, and it’s available in not-great quality on YouTube, but I would love to see it repeated properly. The duet on ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ between John and Rowlf is my favourite version of that song, their ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ is the only version of that song I can stand, and I love ‘Christmas Eve: 1912′ so much that I brought it to the attention of our local choir director and persuaded her to add it to the repertoire, where it’s now a standard.
There is also one of my favourite sly Christmas jokes, when they’re singing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. They get to the line ‘Then bring us some figgy pudding’ and Miss Piggy pitches a fit: ‘PIGGY pudding?’ Scooter reassures her (as the song continues): ‘No, FIGGY pudding. It’s made with figs.’Appeased, Miss P says ‘Oh.’ There’s a beat, then Scooter says sotto voce ‘And bacon,’ which is followed by an aggrieved shriek from Piggy: ‘WHAAAAAT???’
Now when are A Muppet Family Christmas, The Fabulous Miss Piggy Show, and The Muppets At Walt Disney World coming out of the Disney vault?Muppet Family Christmas, probably never, since half the show is Sesame Street Muppets, which is owned my Sesame Street Workshop (formerly CTW), and the segment with Fraggle Rock (also Doc and Sprocket) which is still owned by Henson. The DVD they released a while ago is literally 20 minutes shorter.
Being in Canada, I’m not going to hold my breath, it’s probably licenced to a cable provider that hasn’t aired the show in 20+ years. Disney+ still hasn’t put up Owl House so I’m far mare skeptical of something as old as the Muppet Show being made available.
I mean, they have old Mickey Mouse Club episodes up there, no?
what do you consider “old”, like black & white stuff? either way, search results is zero for “mickey mouse club”.
https://www.disneyplus.com/series/mickey-mouse-club-1955-59/6T0vNgrFMe0V
Yeah not available in canada. In the apps it doesn’t show up at all, following that link you see text for the discription but no images or anything.
I don’t think we will ever get the 80’s/90’s Mickey Mouse club because the music rights Are bananas
VPN your way to a US email account and you can get around all the international law nonsense.
With the legal hang-ups of music licensing ensuring that the show will
likely never be seen in its entirety again (in non-bootleg form, at
least), this Disney+ news represents the most complete home-video
release of The Muppet Show to date.
So, is it confirmed that a lot of the musical numbers are changed or cut?
Disney’s got the money to make these deals — a lot of these songs aren’t exactly selling in big numbers nowadays — but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Rat didn’t want to fork over the cash.
All they’re saying is all five seasons, with no word on cuts or anything.
No word yet, but a lot of the music that used to be an issue is Disney music or is now owned by Disney, which may help. I suspect they are aiming to have it as complete as possible. They want the good PR and that’s probably why it wasn’t already on there.
They need to get The Jim Henson Hour up there. It’s not currently available for streaming on any platform.
That one’s a little tricky: the Muppet halves are owned by Disney, and the other parts are owned by Henson.Given that the two companies recently collaborated on Earth to Ned for D+, it seems to me that it’s less impossible that they can strike a deal together (they were able to get Kermit back into the Henson-owned Emmett Otter and Christmas Toy not long ago).
Not to be too cynical, but given enough time and the current state of entertainment, the Henson Company might be open to selling off more pieces to Disney.
I wouldn’t call it unlikely, but I don’t see that happening too soon. They’re doing the new Fraggle Rock show for AppleTV+ right now, so if anything were to come of a merger, it’d be after that deal is done.
I’m thinking more like individual parts, so to speak. Fraggle Rock is at Apple TV like you mentioned. Dark Crystal was at Netflix. I suspect that Disney could make a play for other pieces of the company if they wanted them (or if Fraggle Rock doesn’t last).
One part of it that’s pretty easily accessible: The Storyteller episodes are streaming on Amazon Prime.
There were (at some point, not sure how much they cost now) dvds of a lot of the storyteller segments, including Dog City, but I definitely miss Jim Henson Hour. I remember liking it, anyways, although it’s been a while.
Wait, so did they get the music rights worked out for the streaming release, or are they cutting a lot of the musical bits out?
There *were* some out-of-copyright songs, including British Music Hall and Vaudeville.
It was always disappointing that they didn’t get seasons 4 and 5 onto DVD. Seasons 1-3 were nicely packaged and had some nice extras.I always assumed it was a George-Lucas-won’t-let-anyone-else-play-with-his-toys sort of reason why they had to stop, since I believe the Mark Hammil episode was in season 4. Now that Disney owns it all, I suppose that point it now moot.
Hopefully this attention gets them to do an HD upgrade of the original two movies (MOVIE and CAPER) – my kids are obsessed and the Disney + versions look like slightly upscaled Widescreen VHS.
Those ARE the HD versions. From what I’ve heard, they were shot on kinda cheap stock, so the quality is only going to look so good.
I had two criteria Disney needed to fulfill before I would sign up for Disney+:1) All existing quality Muppet content is on the service.
2) New, high quality Muppet content is being produced.So we’re getting closer to halfway.
Oh. My. God. I’m so excited.
I am 10,000% here for anything Muppets.