This year marks 50 years since The Muppet Show first appeared on screens in the USA and Great Britain. The first episode aired in Germany in December 1977. It is probably no exaggeration that the dolls came from the Home Jim Henson are firmly inscribed in pop culture memory, at least for Generation X.
That Kermit, Miss Piggy and Co. are currently celebrating a comeback with a new edition of this same show on Disney+, which is not a given despite the anniversary year and the ongoing wave of nostalgia. Actually, for several years now it has been the impression that the Muppets are having a hard time finding a suitable place for them in the current streaming and content landscape.
For a long time, the chaos squad around the famous frog was pretty spoiled for success. The mixture of anarcho-humor, silliness and allusions to show business, paired with musical variety numbers, hit a nerve in the late 70s, precisely because it was aimed at an adult audience – despite colorful felt and foam creatures as protagonists – and still amused children.
„Die Muppet-Show 2026“first episode now available on Disney+
After five seasons it was over „Die Muppet Show“not because of ratings weakness, mind you, but because Henson didn’t want to ride his Emmy-winning creation to death. But by then the Muppets had long since set off for new shores away from their theater: they made their Oscar-nominated cinema debut with “Muppet Movie” in 1979, other films followed and with their version of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Story they were responsible for a holiday favorite that is still revered today.
74 million dollars
So established and successful were the Muppets as a brand (thanks in part to their merchandise potential, which ranged from toys to clothing to home goods) that the Walt Disney Company paid $74 million for them in 2004, 14 years after Henson’s untimely death.
Peanuts compared to the sums the company paid a little later for Pixar or the Star Wars rights. Disney seemed to treat Kermit and his friends in a correspondingly neglectful and haphazard manner.
After a few little-noticed television films, Jason Segel was able to bring the Muppets back to the big screen in 2011 and quite successfully made the struggle for a comeback the central plot. But when another film flopped three years later, the new cinema chapter was closed again.
The series “The Muppets,” a linear mockumentary based around a late-night talk show hosted by Miss Piggy, was canceled in 2016 after one season. The same fate befell “The Muppets Mayhem” six years later, a series produced for Disney+ about the in-house Muppet band.
The improv short series “Muppets Now” and the 50-minute Halloween adventure “Muppets Haunted Mansion” also didn’t make too many waves. After 34 years, “Muppets*Vision 3D” was replaced by a new attraction in the Disney World amusement park in 2025.
So have the overzealous frog, the bitchy pig diva and all of their companions really fallen out of time? Has their sense of humor, with its penchant for Dadaist absurdities and cheeky parodies, simply become outdated?
Real return to roots
Or was there simply a lack of the right vision as to where and how the talents of the Muppets (and the gifted puppeteers) could best be used beyond guest appearances with Lady Gaga or in commercials? Actor, producer and lifelong Muppet fan Seth Rogen, who is now responsible for the return of “The Muppet Show” together with creative partner Evan Goldberg, was not least convinced of the latter.
What Rogen has come up with for the Muppets’ recent comeback is as simple as it is compelling. Instead of trying out a new format again or putting the gang in a completely new context, this time a real return to the roots is called for. The title suggests it: The program is a new edition of the show that started it all 50 years ago.
Immediately after Kermit switches the lights back on in the Muppet Theater, we briefly reflect on our own past with a walk through the ancestral gallery of former guest stars. But otherwise, apart from a few comments about being rusty and even more overwhelmed backstage, it’s business as usual.
Gonzo has a hard time trying a daring stunt, Dr. Honeydew Bunsen burner and assistant Beaker fail with a scientific experiment and in the hall Waldorf and Stettler sit in their box and gossip about the program on stage.
Pop singer Sabrina Carpenter has everything that makes an ideal Muppet guest star. Not just musical talent for a few shows, but also the visible joy of performing together with dancing chickens. It goes without saying that Miss Piggy definitely doesn’t want to let her steal the show. After all, she’s guaranteed the leading role in a wonderful “Pigs in Wigs” sketch.
From rats covering pop hits to Maya Rudolph in the audience to old Muppet acquaintances like king crab Pepe, Kermit’s nephew Robin or Mahna Mahna & The Snowths – the return of the Muppet Show hits exactly the right note and should not only delight old fans. Without overstimulating the nostalgia factor, but also free from cramped attempts at modernization, it shows: the humor and the overall concept still work today.
Thanks to its revue structure, “The Muppet Show” is actually designed to be consumed not only in its entirety, but also in the form of viral clips and memes. The guest star concept could ensure that a visit to Kermit’s stage becomes a must in the future for celebrities on a promotional tour who also devour spicy chicken wings elsewhere.
For now, however, this new half-hour episode is just a test balloon. Only if enough people tune in will the Muppets actually be allowed to go back into the series.