It’s time to put on Disney, it’s time to dim the lights… it’s time to explain to your kids that 50 years ago, The Muppet Show was the first and last word in children’s entertainment. They will no doubt be baffled/alarmed by the grip Kermit the Frog and company continue to exert over their parents (potentially their grandparents) – though this faithful new reboot of the original 1976–1981 series (Disney+) may go some way towards explaining how The Muppets turned unglamorous glove puppets into generational icons.
There have been numerous attempts at reviving The Muppets across the decades – though weirdly the one that has stayed with people was Brian Henson’s A Muppet Christmas Carol, from 1999–2000, which he made as a tribute to his father, Muppets mastermind Jim Henson, who died two years previously.
With most other Muppet do‑overs having flopped, it is perhaps unsurprising that Disney is proceeding cautiously. This new 30‑minute Muppet Show is a felt toe dipped in the water, and the decision to go ahead with a full series will depend on streaming numbers.
But producer Seth Rogen has gone all out with a pilot that plays all the Muppets’ greatest hits. It has Miss Piggy, Dr Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker (Mee-mee-mee!) and Grover the stunt puppet – though there are notable omissions. No Swedish Chef, no Piiiigs in Spaaace, and no Fozzie Bear (Fozzie’s creator, Frank Oz, parted ways with the franchise a decade ago, complaining about the direction it had taken).
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What it does have is the perfect opening‑night guest in Sabrina Carpenter – who jokes about modelling her look (and “her wig”) on Miss Piggy and then performs a comedy version of her song Manchild. She brings the perfect mix of irreverence and pratfalling energy – and, most importantly, an unwavering sense of being entirely in on the joke.
The humour is largely terrible – but then that was always sort of the point and part of the charm of The Muppets. For instance, a parody of Bridgerton has Miss Piggy attending a soirée of hoity-toity farmyard animals including, “Duchess Piggerton from County Mayo upon Sandwich”. You only wish the writers brought a bit of local knowledge to the piggy paradigm: there was a “Mayo for Ham” gag right there.
In other words, this is The Muppet Show that Rogen will have grown up on in the 1970s and 1980s, when there was no high concept, beyond the joy of watching anarchic glove puppets cut loose. Best of all, it restores the great philosophers of modern television – the ever‑grouchy Statler and Waldorf. “Show’s not half bad…” says Statler. “Yeah… it’s all bad,” agrees Waldorf. That’s not quite true – but how great to have them back all the same.
