This year’s The Muppet Show special garnered universal acclaim, huge ratings across ABC and Disney+, and four Emmys. You don’t have to be Dr. Bunsen Honeydew to calculate that all adds up to an unequivocal success. It also appeared to offer Disney an easy and obvious way to capitalize on a beloved asset after numerous missteps. The special starring Sabrina Carpenter was reportedly meant to double as a “backdoor pilot” to bring The Muppets back to TV. Since it took off, it would seem obvious there’s no secret to using The Muppets correctly. The best way is the one that has always worked best. Or at least you would think. A report from Deadline says “difficulties cracking a premise” means there are currently “no active series conversations” happening and no current plans to bring The Muppets back to TV. That simply doesn’t stand with us. But, thankfully, we have many suggestions on how The Muppets can return to television and be a smashing success. You’re welcome, Disney.
As just about every fan has said, the premise of bringing The Muppets back to TV should obviously be “do The Muppet Show.” We agree, but a single series might be both too much and not enough. Because in a world overrun with entertainment options and short attention spans, the key to modern-day Muppets‘ success on TV might be making every release special. And there’s more than one way to do that.
No fan of Jim Henson’s iconic characters is going to be upset if Disney, 20th Television, The Muppets Studio, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures—all of which produced the Emmy-winning Variety Show winner—decide to give The Muppets Show a full-season order. We won’t. Our general rule is “the more Muppets, the better.” But in this case that might not actually be the best option. “More” Muppets on TV might ultimately lead to “less.”
Unlike when The Muppet Show debuted 50 years ago, it’s hard for any TV series to break through now. There are simply too many viewing options. Reboots of wildly popular shows don’t always return to a waiting audience. Even with an established format, the Muppets would also face a challenge most series don’t, specifically because of how much people love them. The Muppet Show will have to live up to viewers’ best memories, which are inherently skewed. We all remember the greatest, most iconic sketches and bits from the original series. But there’s also a lot of bad or mediocre stuff people have rightfully forgotten.
That’s the nature of a variety show. They are very hit-or-miss. When you had just three networks to choose from, that kind of inconsistency was easier to get away with. (There’s a reason the format is mostly a relic with only Saturday Night Live grandfathered in.) A new, younger audience unfamiliar with variety shows will be even harder to win over… Ultimately, the very thing that works about The Muppet Show could lead to a quick TV cancellation.
The easiest way to avoid the “misses” is to not do a full season. Instead, Disney should produce more specials, each of which would also have the added bonus of feeling like an event the way weekly episodes can’t. Ideally we’d get at least one special every three months, but we’re amenable to that for reasons we’ll soon explain. Specials rather than episodes would mean more time to develop the best possible scripts and sketches. It would also make it easier to get the biggest, most famous stars, drawing in even more new viewers who will then find out why every generation comes to love the Muppets. Instead of getting a lot of The Muppet Show and all the good, bad, and in-between that naturally comes with any variety series, we would only get the best possible version of them while also being extra excited when we do.
Like we said, though, “the more Muppets, the better.” We know from featured films like The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Christmas Carol, that they work on the big screen (when done right). But we want The Muppets to feel as ubiquitous across pop culture as they did for decades, which means more time on TV. But there’s no reason Disney needs to limit itself to just doing The Muppet Show.
The variety show is not the only television format that works for The Muppets. And their current owner—which owns ABC, a streaming site, and roughly a million IPs—could not be more ideal to make that happen because the Muppets are also great at parody. That’s something we want a whole lot more of.
We should probably already have The Muppets Star Wars and Avengers: The Muppets. And where is our Muppets vs. Alien vs. Predator spoof? Avatar: The Muppets Take Pandora? Tron: Muppets is begging to be the funniest release of 2028. Miss Piggy was made to star in Desperate Housemuppets and Fozzi should host America’s Funniest Home Muppets Videos. Give us all of those as 45-minute releases that premiere on ABC before moving to Disney+. Disney can now essentially make a grown-up version of Muppet Babies.
Disney has also already shown, despite its many underwhelming attempts at Muppet TV shows, it can deliver a stellar crossover special. The fantastic Muppets Haunted Mansion is the only good Haunted Mansion movie. They should have already tackled Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Franchise parodies aren’t the only opportunity to give us more of Muppets, either. Disney should pick a holiday and let the Muppets own it. Give them Thanksgiving. Or maybe they can celebrate a different holiday every year so we always get something fresh and exciting.
In the meantime, have them make surprise appearances on Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote both them and the network.
Instead of having “no active” conversations about The Muppets, Disney should be inviting creatives to constantly pitch their ideas. Fans have been doing that forever with their “one human, all Muppets” cast ideas. But Disney actually has the ability to bring those visions to life. And they should. A full season order of The Muppet Show might not make complete sense, but not getting The Muppets on TV makes no sense.