Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Wideo Wednesday: Muppets Beyond the Show


Back in the early Seventies, fueled by their presence and popularity on Sesame Street, Jim Henson was frantically trying to grow his Muppet Empire to ever greater heights. This expressed itself in several specials (including The Great Santa Claus Caper; see elsewhere in the blog), most of which were ‘hip’ adaptations of classic fairy tales. Then for the first season of Saturday Night Live (1975) the Muppets appeared as a segment called ‘The Land of Gorch,’ which had much more sex, violence, and drug references than any other Muppet iteration. After really hitting the big time with The Muppet Show, Henson went on to make Fraggle Rock, which I never saw on its first run because we didn’t have HBO, but which I later developed a liking for, especially some of their songs. I retain a sneaking (if not whole-hearted) fondness for the Muppets, just nothing they’ve done post-Henson (1990). Whether that’s because the company now lacks his executive vision and are just poorly recycling his ideas and methods, or I’ve just become an old fuddy-duddy, is a debatable point. Enjoy these while you can; Disney (who now owns the Muppets) took down the complete “The Frog Prince,” and who knows what might follow?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvbcQJuR6Sw Hey, Cinderella!

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