{"id":563917,"date":"2026-02-03T19:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/563917\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T19:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:01:13","slug":"the-muppet-show-returns-for-a-cute-and-nostalgic-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/563917\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Muppet Show\u2019 Returns for a Cute and Nostalgic Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago\u2014even earlier if you count its two early pilots\u2014The Muppet Show arrived to prove that a frog could host a variety show and that human celebrities could mix it up in sketch comedy and musical numbers with all manner of Muppets. To mark that big anniversary, ABC and Disney+ have produced a one-off episode<\/a> of The Muppet Show<\/a>, which comes encoded with the suggestion that there could be more on the way.<\/p>\n

A screener of The Muppet Show was provided for review with a couple of \u201cdo not reveals,\u201d including which specific songs are performed during the half-hour special. The guest star is pop icon Sabrina Carpenter, so you can narrow down at least one of the tracks. Also, if you saw the trailer<\/a>, you know that the iconic The Muppet Show theme gets its moment to shine.<\/p>\n

\"Tms\u00a9 Disney\/Mitch Haaseth <\/p>\n

But there aren\u2019t too many big surprises tucked into the narrative. Instead, this is an earnest attempt to recapture that Muppet Show magic\u2014while openly acknowledging the audience is aware there have been attempted Muppet comebacks in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so excited to be back on the very stage where it all started, and then ended\u2014and then is maybe starting again depending on how tonight goes,\u201d Kermit says in his opening monologue, which is (naturally) interrupted by the heckling Statler and Waldorf, who alternate between lobbing insults and cackling at their own jokes throughout the program.<\/p>\n

The structure will be familiar to any Muppet Show fan\u2014as conflicts brew backstage, chaos bleeds into the acts themselves, with equipment snafus, last-minute casting changes, and Gonzo\u2019s death-defying stunts causing mayhem on both sides of the curtain.<\/p>\n

And while the performances and skits are enjoyable, the backstage scenes are when you really need to pay attention, because that\u2019s where you\u2019ll glimpse all the other random Muppet characters popping up in the background. With a cast of fan favorites this big, there simply isn\u2019t room to give everyone adequate screen time.<\/p>\n

\"Themuppetshowsabrinacarpenter\"\u00a9 Disney\/Mitch Haaseth <\/p>\n

That just so happens to dovetail perfectly with Kermit\u2019s big dilemma: he has too many acts scheduled. Everybody wants to be in The Muppet Show\u2019s big return! It\u2019s the perfect gag to structure the special around, especially since it pushes Miss Piggy\u2014who insists on having no less than two featured numbers\u2014into one of her famous temper tantrums.<\/p>\n

Speaking of, Miss Piggy fans will feast the most with The Muppet Show special. The script has a lot of fun playing her off Sabrina Carpenter\u2014a Miss Piggy superfan who fully admits she\u2019s modeled her own style after the purple-gloved diva. (Miss Piggy: \u201cMy attorneys and I have taken notice, and we will be in touch.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Even beyond this clever pairing, Carpenter proves the ideal choice for the tone this new Muppet Show is aiming for: kids can certainly enjoy it, but adults will pick up on the gently racy jokes (Kermit: \u201cWe\u2019re still working out a few kinks\u201d; Sabrina: \u201cThat\u2019s all right! I love a kink\u201d) that prevent the special from being merely a nostalgia-fest.<\/p>\n

\"Tms\u00a9 Disney\/Mitch Haaseth <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a good bit of that, though. Along with the Gonzo sequence, The Muppet Show brings back a few classic skits, including a Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker lab snafu that goes way off the rails, as they always do.<\/p>\n

The production values are top-notch. Kermit\u2019s spindly green legs\u2014once a rarely seen oddity of the Muppet realm\u2014are on camera more often than not, and the show uses brisk editing and cuts to an audience populated with both human and Muppet guests to create the buzzing energy of a live show.<\/p>\n

Still, not everything works. Executive producer Seth Rogen pops up for a quick cameo (and a funny crack about Muppet canon), but as much as we love Maya Rudolph, her bit involving a near-death experience is more weird than witty. We could also have done without the jokes calling out Miss Piggy for being old\u2014she\u2019s the same age as most of the other Muppets, after all, and she looks just as fabulous as ever.<\/p>\n

\"Tms\u00a9 Disney\/Mitch Haaseth <\/p>\n

By the end, the show-within-the-show manages to solve its problem of too many performers and not enough time\u2014of course it does\u2014but it also can\u2019t resist giving Kermit a speech that feels aimed more at TV viewers than their studio audience: \u201cMaybe we\u2019re a little rusty, but we promised to do a great show for you, and I hope that you at least enjoyed some of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a little too on the nose, but it\u2019s hard not to welcome the small-screen return of these much-loved characters all the same. If this really is just a stand-alone special, it\u2019ll go down as an entertaining entry on the Muppets\u2019 long timeline of TV and movie projects\u2014far more successful than that Office parody that was attempted a decade ago.<\/p>\n

But at just 30 minutes, it leaves you wanting more, and you get the sense, especially considering the choice of finale song, that its creators are hopeful that might happen.<\/p>\n

The Muppet Show arrives February 4 on ABC and Disney+.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifty years ago\u2014even earlier if you count its two early pilots\u2014The Muppet Show arrived to prove that a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":563918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[13205,171,15160,151617,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-563917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-disney-plus","tag-entertainment","tag-sabrina-carpenter","tag-the-muppet-show","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}