Why “The Muppet Show”’s Arrival on Streaming is a Cause for Celebration
Last Friday, the classic variety series from Jim Henson, which premiered nearly 45 years ago and has never been commercially available in its entirety, made its debut on Disney+. The streaming debut of the series is obviously an exciting development for fans of the Muppets, but it is also a cause for celebration for those who could care less about the witty, wacky puppets. Here’s why.
A Brief History of The Muppet Show
Jim Henson first brought the Muppets to the screen all the way back in 1955 with Sam and Friends, a series that aired locally in Washington, D.C. era and is largely unavailable to this day due to most episodes not being recorded. In the 1960s, Muppets like Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog started becoming popular on talk shows and television commercials, giving the Muppets some national recognition. The Muppets true breakthrough came in 1969 when Henson developed a whole array of characters for a Children’s Television Workshop endeavor that became the iconic Sesame Street, which remains on the air a half century later and has won 189 Emmys and 11 Grammys.
But Henson always felt that the Muppets were not just for children and continually tried to find the right vehicle to market them to a more adult audience. In 1974 and 1975, two primetime specials featuring the Muppets aired — The Muppets Valentine Show and The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. Both specials were designed to be pilots for an ABC variety series, but the network passed both times. A few years later, however, Henson got funding to develop a weekly series and have it distributed in syndication.
The Muppet Show premiered on September 5, 1976. It aired for five seasons, eventually wrapping its run on May 23, 1981 after 120 episodes. The zany half-hour variety series featured a combination of comedy sketches, behind-the-scenes showbiz satire, elaborate musical numbers, and stand-up comedy. The show would pack in around a dozen bits per episode, making it remarkably fast-paced. It was here that many of the Muppets we now consider integral parts of the gang like Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Scooter either debuted or rose to prominence. Every episode of the series had a prominent guest star similar to the weekly rotating host of Saturday Night Live. Although unlike Saturday Night Live, no host appeared more than once. The list of icons that appeared on the show is utterly extraordinary. It included:
- Legendary film and television actors like Gene Kelly, Julie Andrews, Liza Minelli, Candice Bergen, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Carol Burnett, Steve Martin, George Burns, John Cleese, Bob Hope, Don Knotts, Gilda Radner, Ruth Buzzi, Harvey Korman, Phyllis Diller, Milton Berle, Madeline Kahn, Rita Moreno, Mark Hamill, Alan Arkin, Glenda Jackson, Hal Linden, Florence Henderson, Vincent Price, Sylvester Stallone, Lynn Redgrave, Dudley Moore, Joel Grey, Christopher Reeve, and Lynda Carter.
- Legendary musicians like Elton John, Diana Ross, Johnny Cash, Lena Horne, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Liberace, Debbie Harry, Ethel Merman, Gladys Knight, Petula Clark, Helen Reddy, Alice Cooper, Harry Belafonte, Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn, Anne Murray, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, and John Denver.
The Muppet Show was a cultural phenomenon and ratings hit, as well as a critical favorite. It was nominated for 21 Primetime Emmy Awards and won four, including a win for Outstanding Comedy — Variety or Music Series in 1978, where it beat two legendary series at the height of their popularity — CBS’s The Carol Burnett Show and NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
When home video (and later, DVD) became all the rage in the subsequent decades, several episodes of The Muppet Show were released in various collections. Numerous “Best Of” sets featuring selected episodes were made available and between 2005–2008 the first three seasons were released on DVD. However, most of the episodes of the fourth and fifth seasons were never available for viewing again after their original airing.
When Disney launched its popular streaming service Disney+ in late 2019, there was a great deal of discussion about whether The Muppet Show would ever make it to the streaming service. The main reason the show was never available in its entirety on home media or on reruns in syndication was due to the fact that there were complex licensing issues, particularly for the many classic songs that were performed on the show. Earlier this year, Disney+ wowed fans with the announcement that they had resolved most of these issues and would premiere all five seasons of the show on February 19th, 2021 almost fully intact. Although several episodes have a musical number or skit edited out due to licensing issues, all but two of the 120 episodes are available on the site and the majority are unaltered.
The fact that The Muppet Show has never been widely available has always been both a curiosity and a frustration for fans and the Disney corporation, which purchased the Muppets intellectual property from the Jim Henson corporation in February 2004. Although the Muppet universe also includes numerous hit films and television shows, The Muppet Show was the flagship and its lack of availability always harmed the overall brand.
That’s not to say that the Muppets didn’t thrive in spite of The Muppet Show’s absence. Between 1979 and 2014, eight full-length feature films were released — The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Muppets from Space (1999), The Muppets (2011), and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). All eight films feature appearances by A-list actors and are certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The film series won its first and only Oscar to date when “Man or Muppet” from the 2011 revival led by Jason Segel and Amy Adams won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
On the small screen, there have been two television movies (2002’s It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and 2005’s The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz), two variety show revivals (Muppets Tonight, which aired on ABC from 1996 to 1998 and Muppets Now, which premiered on Disney+ last summer), an animated series (Muppet Babies, which aired from 1984–1990 and was revived in 2018), a single-camera sitcom (2015’s highly underrated one season wonder The Muppets), and numerous specials (highlights include 1981’s The Muppets Go to the Movies, 1987’s A Muppet Family Christmas, 2008’s A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, and 2014’s Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular). There have also been countless appearances by the Muppets in television commercials and on talk shows.
The arrival of The Muppet Show on Disney+ is obviously a reason to celebrate for Muppet fans, but even for those who aren’t Muppet maniacs, there are still several reasons to embrace the show’s arrival on streaming. I briefly discuss five of these below.
Five Reasons The Muppet Show’s Streaming Debut is a Cause for Celebration
- It allows a new generation to experience the joy of the Muppets. When the 2011 feature film reboot The Muppets scored big at the box office, garnered huge critical acclaim, and won an Oscar it seemed we were poised for a major Muppet comeback. Sadly, that never materialized as the film’s sequel and the subsequent television series failed to catch fire. But with the original show and many of the films now prominently featured on Disney+, there is the opportunity for younger generations to fall in love with the wacky cast of characters. In addition to the simple fact that they have consistently provided entertainment to the world for a half century, the Muppets are also notable for representing a unique brand of comedy that has never truly been duplicated. The characters, humor, and situations are innocent and wacky enough to be suitable for children, but also include razor-sharp satire, clever wordplay, and relatively complex character dynamics that are rarely featured on children’s television. Like the very best of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios’ feature films, the Muppets can truly be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds. (It should be noted that there has been some mild controversy over some outdated and offensive humor on the episodes, which prompted Disney+ to put a warning before some episodes. Although these issues merit conversation, they should hardly be considered a knock on the show or the franchise given that the show is over four decades old and our society has changed tremendously in the intervening years.)
- It gives us the opportunity to see countless icons in their heyday. It seems that particularly over the past few years an astonishing array of show business icons have passed away. Many of them were guest performers on The Muppet Show during its run (see a sampling of the icons who appeared earlier in this article). With The Muppet Show, younger audiences have the chance to understand what made these aging or deceased stars legendary and it also gives those who grew up with them the chance to revisit their heydays. It also allows people to see a unique and playful side of many performers that they rarely exhibited elsewhere.
- It represents an investment in a smaller brand by Disney. When Disney+ premiered, it was pretty clear that their focus was on four properties — Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, the Star Wars Universe, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although those four properties have produced countless classics and endless hours of entertainment, they hardly represent all of the classic and beloved properties owned by the Mouse House. By showing an investment in lower-profile and less-profitable properties like the Muppets, Disney is showing a willingness to expand beyond its core properties for content. A commitment to diversification is a thing to celebrate in the increasingly franchise-focused showbiz industry.
- It indicates a recognition from streaming services that there is an audience for the classics. Increasingly, classic television series are available on streaming. Hulu (also owned by Disney) is particularly impressive in terms of classic television titles, with the entire runs of classic shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and M*A*S*H streaming. Recently, classics like The Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live have also found homes on streaming services. But a remarkable number of classics are difficult or impossible to find on streaming. For example, you cannot stream three of the most popular and iconic comedies of the 1970s — All in the Family, Maude, or Rhoda. As streaming services seek to attract and retain viewers, they will need to go deeper into their catalogues and dust off properties that have yet to see the light of day with streaming. If Disney finds success with bringing The Muppet Show to streaming, it seems likely that streaming services will follow suit with other currently unavailable classic series.
- It shows a willingness for high-profile companies to navigate complicated licensing issues. Some of the currently unavailable classic series haven’t been brought to streaming due to a perceived lack of interest from contemporary audiences, but many would be on streaming were it not for complex licensing issues — often involving music rights. The fact that Disney worked so hard to resolve these with The Muppet Show and bring in excess of 95% of it to streaming despite these hurdles provides hope that other series that are being blocked from streaming by licensing issues will eventually see the light of day. A prime example of this is Murphy Brown, the classic sitcom that is unavailable for streaming due to the costly music rights for the many Motown songs featured on the show, particularly in its early seasons.
In conclusion, whether you are a lifelong Muppet Maniac, newly Muppet-curious, or simply a supporter of Hollywood diversifying its offerings and honoring its classic properties, I highly recommend you check out The Muppet Show on Disney+.
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