ABC’s revival of the late Jim Henson's "The Muppet Show" debuted this week and it seems that not everyone is happy about it. The series, created by Big Bang Theory’s Bill Prady and Anger Management’s Bob Kushell, tweaked the original format of the 1970s variety show, turning it into a mockumentary -- mimicking the paradigm of NBC’s "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation."
Following the series premiere, One Million Moms released a review stressing out the negative delivery of Kermit and co. to children as a group of modernized characters. “ABC hopes children watch the show and predict they would enjoy some of the humor, but 1MM would disagree. It is not the show it once was. ABC has ruined "The Muppets." How many parents want to explain the punchline of sexually charged jokes to young children?” the site commented.
Another publication pointed out the rather hostile portrayal of the characters they used to love as kids. According to the post-mortem, in-depth review of The New York Post, “Tuesday’s premiere was a half-hour of tough-to-watch anthropomorphized drama dominated by the puppets’ troubled love lives, choked with “jokes” for adults that all turned on bathing Henson’s sweet and innocent creations in the tropes of our cynical age.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the pilot garnered an average of 2.8 in rating with a total of nearly 9 million viewers among adults 18-49. Although the premiere fared strong on its first week, the backlash and glacial comments and reviews will yield a challenging run for the resurrected comedy. ABC, nor co-creators Bill Prady and Bob Kushell, have not released a statement about this ongoing setback for "The Muppets."
ABC’s revival of "The Muppets" did not receive positive reviews after airing its pilot episode last Monday. Albeit the strong performance in ratings, the negative criticisms could signal a bigger problem that may force the network to pull out the Bill Prady-produced series. Followers of the show have yet to find out as the next episodes unfold.
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