Classic Muppets episodes ruined a secret weapon in the Disney era

There are few things in modern pop culture that are more magical than the moments when you can forget that the Muppets are not actually living beings. Usually it happens with a song – it does at least for me every time I see Kermit sadly see the frog singing “Rainbow Connection” in a swamp. Or if I say ‘Hey, a movie!’ of The Great Muppet Caper, where Fozzie, Gonzo and Kermit – taken seriously by everyone around them – sing and dance through a vibrant set of films, which is the starting point of the story that viewers are about to see.

All puppetry is a testament to the power of belief, but as a cast of feel-and-fur characters with more than 50 years of history, the Muppets have endured in a way that virtually no other puppet characters have. They are also slightly on track these days, compared to the critical and commercial success of their peak in the 1970s. The Muppets were a sensation, a primary success for adults and children alike. They sang favorite songs, starred in films and took over Johnny Carson’s work for a night. But while they are still a fixed point in pop culture, there is something different about their tone.

Despite occasional highlights such as the 2011 film The Muppets and the new Disney Plus series Muppets Now!, lost some elusive recipes from Muppets. The Muppets were and are an ensemble of puppet masters, but at the heart of their early success was the unique, compelling chemistry between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, who performed and pronounced the most iconic Muppet characters, from Kermit the Frog to Miss Piggy to Animal. But while the Muppets are now immortalized as brands, the artists who brought them to life were just people. Creative chemistry cannot become intellectual property.

The Muppets survived their creators’ involvement. Jim Henson’s death in May 1990 was an incalculable loss for the Muppets. Frank Oz retired in 2001 to perform, and Muppet Show lead writer Jerry Juhl, who played a major role in shaping many of their characters, passed away in 2005. At the moment, Dave Goelz, best known for playing Gonzo, is the only remaining core member of the original Muppets ensemble.

Then Disney bought the Muppets in 2004, and the transformation from comedy ensemble to brand is complete. Disney tried to expand the original magic, but the company apparently helped promote a boys’ club culture that began to take shape in the Oz and Henson days. The reluctance to fix emerging issues as The Muppets entered the Disney era eventually stifled creativity and excluded female artists such as Julianne Buescher, a 30-year veteran of Jim Henson Co. who currently plays Beverly the Turkey. . Muppets Now! It seems the Muppets are no stranger to institutional problems most industries struggle with, and perhaps their current owners would be better managers, more likely to cultivate new talent, the Muppets would not be considered an eternal groove. After all, “new talent” is an excellent answer to the question that prominent cultural critics repeatedly ask: Are the Muppets still relevant today?

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

Another part of the problem is simply, “Are the Muppets relevant?” may be the wrong question. A better one might be, “Did the Muppets evolve in a less relevant direction?” While the reported issues behind the scenes do not play a minor role in The Muppets’ turbulent evolution and lack of a steady 21st-century groove, there is also a significant change in the way it has been presented to the public. The problem is sincerity: the Muppets at their peak in the seventies have a timeless charm because they are very sincere. And the changing cultural context around them has made the sincerity almost impossible to maintain.

Stream from the original 1976-1981 edition of The Muppet Show on Disney Plus today means disappearing into a world that no longer really exists. But that was also the case at the time. The Muppet Show was not television, it was vaudeville. The series is a deliberate setback that goes to great lengths to pay tribute to a previous generation of entertainers – such as the early television legend Milton Berle – while showing a new generation that the old magic still worked.

Initially a big self-conscious joke in the heart of The Muppet Show was that it could not discuss big stars, even if it wanted to – the Muppet characters who presented a stage show in the TV show, all knew that theater was not usually popular, just like Jim Henson and co. knew that watching puppets vaudeville was a big question for a sophisticated adult audience. But the series was a success and set up a feature film franchise that started in 1979 The Muppet Movie. And as they became more and more successful, the running joke that no one watched the hardscrabble puppet show became more and more ridiculous. It was a hard facade to maintain when the cast of Star Wars was seen on the program.

Now this The Muppet Show current more or less in its entirety, it is possible to see this transformation happen with full foreknowledge of what is to come. The first season in 1976 is famous without big names. The program draws guests from outside TV or cinema, such as dancer Juliet Prowse, or from actors who have not yet reached the pinnacle of their fame, such as Rita Moreno. Then two things happened: the show became a hit, and the blockbuster era – which began with the 1975 release Kake – started in earnest. Rock stars like Debbie Harry from Blondie appear in the program, and successful old-school actors like Vincent Price and Bernadette Peters pass by. Then, finally, The Muppet Show was prominent enough to draw the actors who made their names in feature films and the performances inspired by them: Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Reeve, Mark Hamill and Lynda Carter.

Not every actor who appears The Muppet Show is very good at interacting with the dolls, but everyone gives it their best. I like Stallone’s appearance, which channels the sweetness that made him an icon Rocky, but that subsequent sequels and action roles were later left behind. He puts up a punching bag in the green room, only to learn that the bag is also a Muppet. He dresses in a gladiator outfit to sing and dance with a lion. He’s never completely natural with his Muppet co – stars, but he’s clear like they. He was bought into their world. He is sincere.

All of this is an engaging turn in the cultivation of kayfabe, where wrestlers are performances and the performance does not stop outside the ring – all interviews and public performances are part of the program, in one continuous performance.

This is the trick that makes the sincerity of the Muppets work: their best stories happen when their human guests – and therefore the audience – try to join their world. The Muppets are at least functional and entertaining in stories that are too tightly positioned we world. This is the crux of many complaints The Muppets, the failed 2015 channeled mockumentary series The office and inter-Muppet relationships exploited for drama, such as Kermit’s breakup with Miss Piggy. Or this viral moment on The masked singer, when a giant snail is revealed to be none other than Kermit the frog in disguise, and the judges work very hard to sell how much their minds are blown.

The Masked singer the appearance was followed by an interview with People, where ‘Kermit’ answered questions via email about the program and joked about how snails and frogs are served at French restaurants. If it’s not clear, I hate this kind of Muppet shit because it’s sincere. It forces people to play kayfabe with the Muppet, rather than inviting them to the Muppet world. This is the reverse of the original magic, which despite people’s puppetry was about people. Setups like the Masked singer Cameo is more about brands.

While the original Muppet Show is not necessarily a bastion of artistic purity – most of the guest stars were there to promote something, even if it was just their own careers – the series worked pretty hard to hide it. (It also helped that the publicity game was very unlike before the internet.) While the guests of the show – and also the Hollywood actors who would appear in Muppets movies – could benefit from a Muppets appearance, they still serve the one thing the Muppets have to do every time do: sit on a show.

That last part is important. All the time Kermit, Fozzie and friends have spent coming to Hollywood in their movies, the Muppets are not necessarily. over Hollywood. Hollywood is an obstacle. Hollywood thinks the Muppets do not matter, and that is the silent villain in many Muppet productions. (Muppets Most Wanted, the last Muppets movie to be released, joked about the cynicism of sequels in the opening number, while the Muppets continued to … make a sequel.

The Muppets are interested in Hollywood as a shorthand for why someone wants to climb on a stage, sing, dance or clap on a typewriter. At their best, the Muppets elegantly wrapped the needle that every commercial artist should have – they were honest about their ambition to be rich and famous, but only if they had to keep their hearts intact. Entering the world of the Muppets means accepting the feeling that there is something bigger than you that you need to get out of your head, and the chaotic, exhausting work required to make it real. It’s about how ridiculous it looks and feels like putting yourself out there.

This is the secret behind the success of 2011 The Muppets, which, oddly enough, a decade later remains unmatched by contemporary Muppet productions. Aside from the infectious sincerity and charm of star and co-writer Jason Segel, this is a film that uses these famous dolls as a medium to take viewers away from our world. It’s a step away from reality, where your secret ambitions and hopes may seem silly and childish compared to your adults, and to a place where those dreams are already important. At the end of the film, the Muppets sing “The Rainbow Connection”, just like at the end of their first film. At this point, it’s a familiar song instead of a new one. But the effect is the same as it always has been: the audience forgets that they are singing with dolls, and rather remembers what they always dreamed of doing.