The Muppets Are Back — Long Live the Muppets!

Image from Empire

“We are so excited to be back on the very stage where it all started and then ended and then is maybe starting again.”

Since The Muppet Show ended in 1981, stewards of the felt franchise have debated what its direction should be. Some of these ideas stuck to the wall (movies, a tasteful theme park presence). Others languished (late night talk shows, mockumentaries, pandemic-era clip shows). A few never had the chance to flourish that they might have otherwise sought (a narrative musical series, a 2010s revival). However, one idea that never seemed to be given a chance was the one that seemed to be the simplest of all: just do The Muppet Show again.

For most series and sagas, just repeating the exact same format as the progenitor would be seen as lazy and creatively bankrupt. For the Muppets, it always made the most sense. The variety show format that teetered between Vaudevillian and anarchic is a perfect structure for these characters to exist within. This doesn’t necessarily preclude them from other forms of media, but it is also reassuring to have a home base for the Muppets to operate from and guarantee that they’re never too far away from our screens.

Thankfully, the Disney brass finally acquiesced to a ferried vision of this idea when Seth Rogen and the Jim Henson production studios collaborated on simply reviving The Muppet Show. The pieces seemed to come together quickly. Just last month, we were back in the Muppet Theater — complete with heckling, laboratory science, and one enviously evergreen swine.

Hosted by Sabrina Carpenter, the revival of The Muppet Show currently exists as a one-off special. But as Kermit the Frog was quoted above, if the special does well enough, it’s expected that it could be ordered to series. Now, the social media teams for Disney have already bragged about how successful the special was, so I’m not sure what else they could be waiting for. Maybe the D23 Expo? Maybe there’s an upcoming date that is associated with the Muppets in the same way that, say, May 4 is for *Star Wars*? Regardless, I have to imagine an announcement is imminent; all the hard work is already done. The theater is back, and it’s not like you have to necessarily secure Fozzie Bear’s availability.

After all, nothing has felt this much like the Muppets are back since another *Freaks and Geeks* alum, Jason Segel, shepherded the team back in 2011. Yet, these two Carpenter-helmed segments bring back exactly what we’ve always loved about the Muppets. There is a sense of humor to these sketches, but there is also an earnestness with which the music is presented, just as it was with Harry Belafonte, Elton John, and Julie Andrews, among others. How can you watch these and not be utterly charmed by the unique charisma of these performers?

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They’re not uproarious. They’re not soaring. But they strike a middle ground of both, as the Muppets have always done at their best. And what a great, game host Sabrina Carpenter makes! Should a pickup to series prove veritable, think of all the new hosts who could consider stopping by the house that Henson built! Paul Rudd, Olivia Rodrigo, Donald Glover — all on the table! Even old favorites who’ve helmed before could appear, like Mark Hamill or even Segel and Amy Adams again.

Ultimately, the options are limitless, and that’s exactly why the Muppets should return in this exact form. I doubt I have any sway over Disney’s production decisions, but I am more than happy to add my voice to the chorus that believes The Muppet Show is long overdue for a return to television.