matt_zimmer | "The Muppet Show" (2026) Review (Spoilers)

The Muppet Show (2026)

It was all right. I think it tried to do too much (I frowned at the "heartwarming" ending), and as a Pilot it would have worked better as a first episode instead of Special to test the waters. Variety shows gotta variety, and the different guest stars are what make the show different each week.

How is Sabrina Carpenter? Not as a singer, actress, or performer, how does she work with the Muppets?

I think it's been too long for this franchise. Because outside of her hug with Miss Piggy at the end (which was scripted) she never spontaneously touches the Muppets. On The Original Series that was crucial to forging a connection to not just the characters, but the audience. The first season of the old show was shaky as hell. And then Dom DeLuise treated the Muppets like people and things took off from there.

The jokes and comic timing feel a little better than The Original Series (Miss Piggy's runner about her lawyers was genuinely funny) but I feel like in order to fit in with what came before they deliberately made the jokes squarer, cornier, and less funny. It's for this reason I would have much preferred a second season of The Muppets Mayhem to this. Seriously, that show was freaking LIT. In was perfect on every level (which is admittedly a bit intimidating for the rest of the franchise). And yet people were clamoring for the actual Muppet Show to return.

Muppet notes: I'm mostly gonna note Muppets that were NOT on the original series. Walter is the biggest no-show. But outside of him, the special brought back Muppets from all eras, (although I would have killed for Chip the IT Guy. He sees letters in colors.) Clifford is the second-biggest noted absence. Pepe was there (which isn't REALLY a shock) and neither is Bobo, but I was pleased to see the return of Johnny Fiama and Sal, as well as Bean Bunny. The biggest shock return however was Rizzo. He was never on the original show. Rizzo never really became an individual character until The Muppets Take Manhattan. He has been retired for the past few years because he was wholly Steve Whitmire's creation, and Whitmire was fired for being a huge unending dick (and never shutting it off).

The thing is, the franchise needed Rizzo, especially since they have been really trying to give major things for Dave Goelz, the last legacy Muppeteer, to do. Did you see Muppets Haunted Mansion? Gonzo's big special? It was a disaster because they paired the character with Pepe, who appallingly outshone him. Rizzo and Gonzo go together so well because they complement each other's good and bad points. Whether or not this remains a special, or turns into a Pilot, Rizzo being recast and brought back will DEFINITELY be good for future Muppet stuff. Especially where Gonzo is concerned.

I'm not gonna lie. In hindsight, I was quite lukewarm on The Muppet Show. Have you ever seen the Family Guy episode "You Can't Handle The Booth"? They took a major shot at The Muppet Show, that I believe was truly underappreciated by the fans. They had Peter do Robin the Frog's "classic" song "Halfway Up The Stairs". And the thing you notice immediately about it, even though Peter and Lois talk through the whole thing, is that it sucks ass on every level. That bit was making a statement that the super high-quality, classic unimpeachable comedy and musical "genius" of The Muppet Show wasn't an actual thing. Some of it was great, so we loved ALL of it. It doesn't change things like that number, or even the ballroom dances, from being lame as hell.

I'm not a very fun reviewer, am I? I get why people don't like me.

Still, the special was cute enough, but overplayed an emotional ending, and Sabrina forgot to touch the Muppets. ***1/2.