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Muppet fans have been begging Disney to put The Muppet Show on Disney+ since the streaming service started back in 2019. It's finally happening on February 19, when all five seasons will be available to watch! While the first three seasons got DVD releases when I was a kid, the final two seasons have never been officially released until now, so it's very exciting ("officially" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that season).  To many fans, the variety series which originally aired from 1975-81 remains the high point of the franchise, which has since grown to include numerous feature films, specials, other TV shows (including the not very good Muppets Now ), internet videos, and much more. I'm sure there are folks out there who know of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest, but aren't really sure why they are famous. The answer to that question is The Muppet Show - the wacky brilliance of Jerry Juhl's writing combined with Jim Henson and Frank Oz and Jerry Nel...

When Muppets Now was first announced, I thought the concept seemed safe, uninspired, too kiddie, and boring. The original idea, for the Muppets to star in short-form videos parodying Internet culture, seems to have been revised between now and then, since the videos have been stitched together into six half-hour episodes, the first of which premiered on Disney+ on July 31. Connective tissue between the segments appears to have been filmed after the pandemic started, or else I assume that's why Kermit and Scooter are videochatting each other. While it's nowhere the disaster I initially suspected it would be, I still thought it was a pretty uninspired use of everyone's favorite felt comedy troupe.  Because of the apparent change in direction, Muppets Now is considerably light on the kinds of backstage antics that were often the highlight of any given episode of The Muppet Show . The absence of that putting-on-a-show chaotic energy puts a lot of pressure on the sketches to b...

The Muppets are in  a bit of weird situation. Six years ago they made their big comeback with a smash hit movie, but since then they have had another flop movie and a short-lived television show. The franchise is still figuring out what iteration of itself works best for a 21st-century audience, and if it's not movies and it's not TV, what is it? It seems like they are trying to answer that question by putting on a rare live performance, happening September 8-10th at the Hollywood Bowl. Like the good Muppet fan I am, I was on hand opening night in eager anticipation of finding out what a live Muppet show looks like. It looked like, well, what you might expect it to look like. Puppeteers dressed in all black performing their characters right before our very eyes. That is when there wasn't a platform or podium they could hide behind, which there occasionally was during the course of the two-and-a-half hour show. While it certainly isn't how we are used to experienc...

      By now I'm sure you have heard the news that Steve Whitmire, the longtime portrayer of Kermit the Frog (and other Muppets), has been fired after 27 years of playing the frog and 39 years of being with the group .  At first, the circumstances of Whitmire's departure from the Muppets were unclear. Whitmire later released a statement revealing that Muppet Studio executives had made the decision to recast Kermit, citing two instances as the reason for the recast; Whittier's vocal input on the creative direction of the character, and what he described as a "union issue". Disney (who owns the Muppets) then  released a statement claiming Whitmire had been fired due to "unacceptable business conduct".   According to Brain Henson (who, along with his mother Jane, had handpicked Whittier to succeed his father in the role of Kermit after Jim Henson's death in 1990), Whitmire made "outrageous demands and often ...

Ranking the Songs of Muppets Most Wanted Since it is still technically opening weekend for the latest installment in the Muppet franchise, I thought it'd be appropriate to rank the original songs featured in the film, from worst to best. Bret Mckenzie, who won an Oscar writing songs for "The Muppets" returns to write them again this time around. "Most Waned" is definitely more of a musical than the last one, and, in my opinion, the songs are better. None of them are duds, each one great in their own way. That's why ranking them isn't an easy thing to do, but I'll try anyway.  6. Interrogation Song Despite being ranked last on this list, "Interrogation Song" is in no way a bad song. It's just that I thought the others were better. Hilariously preformed by Ty Burrell and the Muppet performers, mainly Eric Jacobson, who preforms Sam Eagle, the song is almost all plot and lacks a catchy tune that the others have. Even though it...

Muppets Most Wanted For my first post, I'll be reviewing "Muppets Most Wanted". Let me start off by saying that I am a huge Muppet fan, and have been since I was very young.  So, needless to say, I had very high expectations for their eight feature film. And I am happy to say, I was not disappointed. "Most Wanted" picks up after the events of the 2011 reboot, "The Muppets", and follows the gang as they embark on a World Tour. Oh, and Kermit is replaced by his evil doppelgänger, Constantine, but that's a very minor subplot and doesn't really go anywhere. "The Muppets" was a nostalgia-filled reintroduction to these characters, who hadn't been on the big screen since 1999's "Muppet From Space". The reboot hit all the right notes to get people to care about these characters again. And it worked perfectly for that movie. But now Muppets fans, like myself, wanted the next one to be a classic Muppet adventure,...