The Muppets sing and dance no more with this new series on ABC, which premiered Tuesday
The Muppets have always been lovable puppets, whether they sing to find the rainbow connection, buried treasure or more recently, dance along with celebrities like Tina Fey in Siberia.
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But this new Muppets story isn’t necessarily a family fun sing-along and choreographed show.
ABC’s The Muppets is a meta mockumentary-style TV series where the Muppets, who work for a late-night talk show, find out that ABC wants to film a documentary about them (30 Rock, anyone?). The camera becomes all-knowing as it follows around Kermit, Miss Piggy and the others during a typical day in the Up Late With Miss Piggy studio.
There’s one thing, though: Kermit and Miss Piggy aren’t together anymore. With Miss Piggy as the host of the show, Kermit, the executive producer, said he lives in a “bacon-wrapped hell on Earth.” He’s been dating a new pig, Denise, for a couple of months. She does marketing for the network and has a weird accent, in case you cared.
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He must have "a thing for pigs." Denise makes me uncomfortable, and if the audience is like me, the show will be better off sending her on her way by mid-season.
Up Late With Miss Piggy has Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem for its live band and Fozzie bear as the emcee. Gonzo is one of its writers and once in awhile, you’ll see the Swedish Chef walk by to restock the food on the set for the crew.
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Kermit scrambles to meet Miss Piggy’s outlandish requests, one of which includes dropping Elizabeth Banks as a guest on the talk show. Apparently, there’s beef between Banks and Miss Piggy because of a Hunger Games screen test. Scripts weren’t memorized, and Piggy thought she was fighting for hunger. Moving on. Banks had a minor role in the episode, but still had some funny moments.
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Kermit obliges, not happily, and replaces Banks with Dancing With the Stars host Tom Bergeron. It’s obviously not his first choice: There was a room full of stars and he "only got the host," and Tom overhears him saying this to Scooter.
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After Denise persuades Kermit to change his mind about canceling Banks, he brings her back, only he plans to not tell Miss Piggy until Banks walks on stage. The plan doesn’t work out too well because Banks decides to show up on set early to hang out with Miss Piggy.
Scooter distracts Banks by taking her around on a golf cart to show her the studio, which leads to her knocking him off the golf cart. She returns to the set, and Piggy sees her.
Kermit goes to apologize and finds out that she didn’t want Banks on the show because Piggy saw an Elizabeth Banks poster at the movies where Kermit broke up with her. She was too busy forcing "fans" to take selfies with her that she made them miss Pitch Perfect 2 — apparently that was the last straw for him.
The sarcasm and jokes are styled more like The Office-type humor — problems are confined within this niche of the Muppets' talk show and they don’t really matter to the outside world.
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All of the characters balance their personal and private lives between what they say in front of their co-workers and how they actually feel in confessions. I can’t help but wonder what ABC’s game is by mirroring The Office for the show. Many viewers, like myself, grew up with the Muppet movies, and the original Muppet Show. The combination of the characters and the directing style is so odd and the humor is there, but maybe I’m thinking too hard. After all, it is the Muppets.
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I am happy that my pals Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem are on, but this adult take on their back stories kind of irked me.
Zoot basically admitted he was an alcoholic during the morning meeting, and Animal apparently keeps notches on his bedpost and loses control when he goes on tour saying “too many women, too many towns.” I felt like it was a "childhood ruined" moment — like the camera was going to walk in on two Muppets in a heated hallway. The show is crossing the line between its usual deadpan humor and unthinkable jokes to make it more adult. The demographic for this show might not have stayed the same age, but the Muppets are timeless and don't need to be, dare I say, sexualized.
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The subject was brought up when Imagine Dragons showed up to play at the talk show that night and told Animal that he was more than welcome to drum for them on tour whenever. Sorry, current Imagine Dragons drummer.
As Fozzie warms up the crowd with his unfunny jokes, we’re welcomed by Statler and Waldorf, who are my spirit animals. They do their typical spiel of insults and “ho ho ho” laughs.
We drive along with Fozzie to his new human girlfriend Becky’s house where he’s about to meet her parents. They met on an online dating site. The joke is an old one, just like Fozzie's countless attempts in stand-up.
Her dad has some prejudices against bears and wonders angrily what their kids might look like. Fozzie keeps the conversation light by explaining he actually gets his fish at Costco instead of a river. He then gets mad how bears going to the bathroom in the woods is a stereotype.
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Fozzie promises the family a meet-and-greet with Miss Piggy to win her parents’ love.
Other notable characters, such as Rizzo and Sam the Eagle, work in the studio. Sam enforces network rules on censorship, what they can and can’t say on TV. Twiddle is one of the words. Rizzo is in the writer’s room with Gonzo, but he rarely writes any sketches.
At the end with the Imagine Dragons performance, Animal breaks his bass drum and disappears running through it.
“Looks like that drum is the way out of here. Let's make a break for it!” Statler and Waldorf say. Not sure if I should apply and take their advice for this show just yet.
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The Muppets airs every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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