Photo courtesy of Disney ABC.
Modern Muppets swill coffee to make it through their morning commute, maintain online dating profiles, and make references to shotgun weddings and 12-step programs, leaving at least one parents’ group unhappy with the puppets’ move toward middle age.
“1MM [One Million Moms] suspects there are going to be a lot of shocked moms and dads when they discover that the family-friendly Muppets of the 1970s are no more. It appears that no subject is off limits,” states a press release from One Million Moms, a division of the conservative American Family Association. “ABC's new Muppet Show, airing on Tuesday evenings at 8:00 pm ET/7:00 pm CT, is not what Jim Henson imagined and created. The new show is aimed at a mature, modern audience and addresses subjects not suitable for family viewing.”
The latest incarnation of “The Muppets” is a mockumentary much like “The Office.” Henson’s creatures and a few new characters produce “Up Late with Miss Piggy” while a documentary film crew captures the action behind the scenes. “Up Late” stars Miss Piggy, her hapless sidekick Fozzie Bear and a rotating cast of real-life guests including actress Elizabeth Banks and the band Imagine Dragons. Kermit the Frog is at the helm as executive producer, overseeing the often-incompetent cast and crew. It’s a job made even more difficult by the fact he and Miss Piggy have recently broken up, turning the frog’s life into “a bacon-wrapped hell on earth.”
Even so, Kermit has decided to add another layer of complexity by dating Denise, a pig with a Southern drawl. Kermit and Denise, who runs marketing for the network, met at a work-related event, “and we ended up cross promoting,” confides Kermit to the camera during a one-on-one with the documentary makers.
Meanwhile, Fozzie is seeing a human woman whose parents disapprove of the puppet-person love connection; Rizzo the Rat spends most of the first episode trying to make the moves on his lady friend, who is actually another Muppet rat.
Such storylines have 1MM calling for parents to protest the program and encourage ABC to abandon it. This seems an unlikely cause considering Burger King’s latest commercial features a chicken announcing she and French fries are about to produce a love child in the form of chicken fries. In addition, the episode of Family Feud leading into the Muppets premiere included prompts like, “Name something in a honeymoon suite that encourages romance,” and “I like to make fun of the shape of my partner’s ___________.”
Given competition like that, “The Muppets” hardly stands out as one of television’s most-explicit examples of inappropriate content. Some media-watch organizations, including Common Sense Media, agree. Common Sense’s review of The Muppets stated the program could get risqué, but is probably okay for kids 10 and older – if they’re interested at all.
Common Sense reviewer Emily Ashby writes “much of The Muppets' appeal is nostalgic in nature, beckoning to viewers who have watched the characters' joint story evolve over the years through a classic TV show and a variety of movies. For these viewers, this series puts a modern reality spin on the working relationships and environment we saw as far back as the original Muppet Show. On the other hand, for those whose introduction to the Muppets themselves is this show, the laughs may be harder to come by, and the more overt use of mature humor calls into question its role as family-friendly fare.”
So parents might want to use the DVR and review episodes before letting younger children watch “The Muppets.” And they also might find their kids have little interest in workplace woes and rebound relationships – even when the show’s protagonists are puppets.
Charlene Oldham is a writer and teacher. She lives in Crestwood.
