Bunny and I watched the latest go around of the Muppet Show [1] and … eh?
I perhaps found it just slightly more amusing than Bunny did, which wasn't much. The format of the show is no longer the Muppetonian chaos of a vaudevillian theater, but the back stage machinations (filmed as a reality television show complete with one-on-one camera interviews) of a talk show hosted by Miss Piggy [2] who is no longer Kermit's [3] girlfriend (which brings up a question—was she ever Kermit's girlfriend? The original show implied she had the hots for him, but he didn't reciprocate the relationship that much from what I could tell). Fozzie [4] has a human girlfriend whose parents are … racist? Specieist? Muppetist? They don't approve of the relationship in any case and make what could be construed as racist remarks towards Fozzie (why is this even in the Muppet Show? Hello? Disney [5]? Is anybody home?)
You know what? Disney could have taken the old 70s scripts [6] and just slot in new stars. Instead of Alice Cooper [7], have Lady Gaga [8]. Remove Steve Martin [9] and replace him with Jack Black [10]. Heck, replace Mark Hamill [11] with … okay, you can redo Mark Hamill's [12] episode with Mark Hamill [13]—it'll still work.
Or heck, just rerun the original series again.
But I'm willing to give the new format another episode or two just on the off chance it finds its voice and becomes funny.
[1] http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Piggy
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fozzie_Bear
[5] http://muppets.disney.com/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppet_Show
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz0lXNNkqac
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyvCJlPgME
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Black
[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eul1NlwytF4
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBJp6-oiXBI