A show that didn't go to 11
Jul. 11th, 2010 06:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogDay 11 - A show that disappointed you
Muppets Tonight.
Jim Henson’s original series was one of many parties I came late to. Still, by the time this remake hit the airwaves in the late 1990s, I’d already immersed myself in all things being green, some on account of Eleanor’s love of the show, the rest when Emily came along. We came upon a lot of those back eps before we had cable, on VHS tapes gacked from my mother-in-law’s house, where a spare VCR automatically recorded a daily Muppet hour off Nickelodeon every afternoon, allegedly for Emily’s benefit. Through that, we acquired a lot of old Muppet Show episodes, a few of their primordial color works like Bunny Picnic, and some post-Muppet stuff like The Storyteller series. We even got a few of the never-released-to-DVD episodes of Jim’s last series called The Jim Henson Hour, which varied in quality but had one faboo behind-the-scenes explanation of “How do Muppets ride bicycles” and other secrets of the craft.
After Jim’s death, things were a creative mess for awhile, and understandably so. These wound up affected, as well, by two corporate marriages that were under way at that point- his production company’s, to Disney, and its, in turn, to ABC. Those connections brought the hopes of there being a new generation of Muppet viewers to add to the fold, and the network now owned by the Mouse had a big stake in putting it on in prime time to help make it happen.
Most of the performers from the classic days came back. Steve Whitmire took Kermit by the butt and stuck his hand in him, as he’d had to do in other productions in process when Jim died. The regular voices of Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Statler and Waldorf all were there. Some new characters, or carryovers from Jim Henson Hour, also came along, but there was enough of an anchoring to make it work. The guest-star format stayed the same, and the parodies and bridge sketches should have all worked the same way, too.
Eight episodes later, though, it was clear it didn’t. The sacked show moved to Disney channel for awhile, but it never gained the success in either ratings or public consciousness that any of the previous stuff did.
My guess is that it was the stable of all-new writers that didn’t click. I didn’t recognize a single one from the IMDB list, and the ones I do remember from seeing the original shows’ credits dozens of times were all absent- Jerry Juhl (who died in 2005), Jack Burns (still with us in 2010), and of course Jim himself.
The failure of this series didn’t kill the movie franchise, and I see another one is due out late next year, with the usual cast but, again, no writers I’ve ever heard of. I just hope it will bring me cheer, and not a reason to heckle from the balcony.
Muppets Tonight.
Jim Henson’s original series was one of many parties I came late to. Still, by the time this remake hit the airwaves in the late 1990s, I’d already immersed myself in all things being green, some on account of Eleanor’s love of the show, the rest when Emily came along. We came upon a lot of those back eps before we had cable, on VHS tapes gacked from my mother-in-law’s house, where a spare VCR automatically recorded a daily Muppet hour off Nickelodeon every afternoon, allegedly for Emily’s benefit. Through that, we acquired a lot of old Muppet Show episodes, a few of their primordial color works like Bunny Picnic, and some post-Muppet stuff like The Storyteller series. We even got a few of the never-released-to-DVD episodes of Jim’s last series called The Jim Henson Hour, which varied in quality but had one faboo behind-the-scenes explanation of “How do Muppets ride bicycles” and other secrets of the craft.
After Jim’s death, things were a creative mess for awhile, and understandably so. These wound up affected, as well, by two corporate marriages that were under way at that point- his production company’s, to Disney, and its, in turn, to ABC. Those connections brought the hopes of there being a new generation of Muppet viewers to add to the fold, and the network now owned by the Mouse had a big stake in putting it on in prime time to help make it happen.
Most of the performers from the classic days came back. Steve Whitmire took Kermit by the butt and stuck his hand in him, as he’d had to do in other productions in process when Jim died. The regular voices of Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Statler and Waldorf all were there. Some new characters, or carryovers from Jim Henson Hour, also came along, but there was enough of an anchoring to make it work. The guest-star format stayed the same, and the parodies and bridge sketches should have all worked the same way, too.
Eight episodes later, though, it was clear it didn’t. The sacked show moved to Disney channel for awhile, but it never gained the success in either ratings or public consciousness that any of the previous stuff did.
My guess is that it was the stable of all-new writers that didn’t click. I didn’t recognize a single one from the IMDB list, and the ones I do remember from seeing the original shows’ credits dozens of times were all absent- Jerry Juhl (who died in 2005), Jack Burns (still with us in 2010), and of course Jim himself.
The failure of this series didn’t kill the movie franchise, and I see another one is due out late next year, with the usual cast but, again, no writers I’ve ever heard of. I just hope it will bring me cheer, and not a reason to heckle from the balcony.
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Date: 2010-07-11 09:41 pm (UTC)Current disappointment: Due South. We loved Paul Gross in Slings & Arrows, and I suspect the Unindicted Co-Conspirator doesn't find him too difficult to look at, so she put Due South on the Netflix list. Just saw the pilot and first two episodes last night. I've often bemoaned poor writing, but never noticed just how much poor direction and poor cinematography can hurt a show. Gross is an amiable guy, and you gotta love his character, but I can see why the show was cancelled after only two seasons.