It’s been ten years since Palisades Toys produced its last Muppet action figures, and while that line was extensive and beautiful, it may be time for another company to play the music, light the lights, blah blah blah. 

This time it’s Diamond Select Toys, rolling out a line of 6″ scale action figures starting in March 2016. This line of figures is going to have all of the characters in two-packs (and sometimes three) for $22.00, which is pretty much the going rate for action figures these days. It almost makes me want to go into an old man rant, but I shan’t. Yet. 

Here’s the lineup:

Kermit the Frog comes with his nephew Robin and Bean Bunny; Bean Bunny is a character that Palisades never got to in their 2001-2005 line, so I’m particularly happy that he’s going to be in the mix. I love Kermit’s jointed-ness; for a dude with such spindly arms and legs, he looks amazing. And that banjo and stool are the perfect accessories for my main frog. 

Fozzie Bear comes with a rubber chicken (because why wouldn’t he?) and Scooter comes with hisself. There are a few things that may be messy photography or editing by DST, like Fozzie’s left foot looking like a melted caramel, and Scooter’s left hand looking like Kristen Wiig’s character with the baby hands from SNL…but overall both look good. For me this is the weakest pack of this first wave of figures.

Gonzo the Great is a longtime favorite of mine, and I love that he’s in his classic purple tux from “The Muppet Show.” His girlfriend Camilla is also looking good, and making me realize she still hasn’t appeared on the new Muppet series on ABC, and I would really really like her to.

I kind of like that Miss Piggy isn’t in this first wave of characters; we know she’ll be coming eventually, along with Rowlf and Animal and Bunsen and Beaker and hopefully all of the members of the band, plus Statler and Waldorf…okay, everybody. These are coming in March 2016, and are available for preorder now. 

“The Muppets” Episode 1.1, “Pig Girls Don’t Cry” Starring Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel; Written by Bill Prady, Paul Kushell; Directed by Randall Einhorn.

Imagine the Swedish chef making a Muppet stew. He takes a bit of “The Muppet Show,” a dash of “Muppets Tonight,” and parts of the recent big screen Muppet movies, and he comes up with “The Muppets,” now airing on ABC.

And yes, the portions rely heavier on the newer, post-Jim Henson (and even Frank Oz) Muppets. Those looking for the sentimentality of “The Muppet Movie” may be disappointed, but the new show certainly embraces the zaniness of the original Muppet television series, where Kermit tried to maintain order at a theater while calming Miss Piggy, corralling guest stars, and dealing with wacky chickens, weirdos, and a bear that loves to tell jokes. Bad jokes. Now, instead of a theater, he works in a television studio, but there’s still plenty of drama behind the scenes. Even Statler and Waldorf have returned to ridicule and mock from the front row.

“The Muppets” has all the great Muppet characters we love. In addition to Miss Piggy, Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie, there’s Animal, the Swedish Chef, Pepe the Prawn, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band . . . the list goes on. And even if the pilot had nothing else to offer, it does have Muppets. Lots of them. And that’s just about enough for me to love it there.

But overall, how was the show? I really liked it. I’ll never get used to Eric Jacobson as Miss Piggy instead of Frank Oz, but that’s just my own personal issue. The plot of the first episode focuses on Miss Piggy and Kermit after an emotional break-up, but they still work together. This means Miss Piggy is more volatile than ever, and she takes out some of her anger on guest star Elizabeth Banks. A camera crew follows everyone around, and they follow Fozzie as he meets his girlfriend’s parents, who aren’t thrilled their daughter is dating a bear. I think we can expect to see more of the Muppets’ lives outside of the studio as the series progresses. 

Gonzo suggesting a “Dancing with the Tsars” segment after Kermit spoke to Tom Bergeron about being a guest star had me laughing out loud. Pepe and Rizzo popped up in Russian costumes, and it was the sort of silliness that took me right back to “The Muppet Show.”

I love the Muppets. I have loved them since before I could form sentences, so I’m thrilled to see them back on tv. I think I already like this new series better than “Muppets Tonight!” which was another attempt to bring these beloved characters back onto television in the 90’s. As far as first episodes go, the series looks promising, and I know I’ll tune in next week.

My one complaint is there wasn’t enough Swedish Chef. We saw him occasionally, but I would love for him to have his own cooking segment on Miss Piggy’s show each week. He could chase lobsters and cook chocolate mousse and do all the wonderful things he did on “The Muppet Show.”

Aside from that, I’m optimistic about the series and am thrilled to have the Muppets back on a weekly basis.

Today is Jim Henson’s birthday. I just wrote a big thing that was a timeline of his life, about how he went from rural Mississippi to DC to New York to London and became a big star and all his characters are great and blah blah blah…I wrote a lot. And I deleted it. 

Jim Henson is my hero. He’s been my hero for as long as I’ve known his name. I’d see his name in the credits for “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show.” I would sometimes ask my parents who different people were in the credits for shows, because I was starting to figure out that Luke Skywalker was actually a fictional character, performed by Mark Hamill. With Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog it was different, because you couldn’t see Jim at the same time you’d see Kermit on tv. I knew the Jim was the performer. But not seeing him–it gave it a sense of magic that I didn’t see with other live action performances. The magic went beyond just Kermit, and Jim Henson was one of the few people I consider a true genius. 

He’s had a profound impact on my life. I’m a teacher, and a big part of my teaching philosophy is that teaching can be, and should be, fun. Jim was only one of the many people involved in making “Sesame Street” what it was in the early 1970s when I was immersed in it, but the message was clear. The combination of humor and music and kind adults and obsessive compulsive monsters that ate your cookies — it’s how education could be. It wasn’t reading a textbook and answering the questions at the end of the chapter. It wasn’t a standardized test. It was personal, and weird, and fun. Jim Henson and his creations influenced the way I teach more than any class I took at a university, more than any book I read, more than any teacher I had in school myself. 

I was 17 when Jim Henson died. He died unexpectedly, he died young. That single event scarred me more than almost anything had up until that point in my life. Something broke inside me. I really should have therapized it out, but I never did. Instead of healing properly, it turned into an obsession with the Muppets and a love of the characters that took me from the normal kid of the 70s-80s who “loved” the Muppets into someone who was always drawing them, thinking about them, practicing voices.

That sudden loss made a lot of us realize what we had taken for granted — that Jim Henson, and his characters, would be around forever. Considering the tragedy that shook them, the Muppets actually picked things up pretty quickly. Things like “A Muppet Christmas Carol,” “Muppet Treasure Island,” and “Muppets Tonight” were all made within ten years of Jim’s passing — but each may have been a little too…reverent. Trying too hard to do exactly What Jim Would Have Done. Without Jim being there. I think too much of Jim’s legacy connects back to his tragic death. Muppet fans look at 1990 as this defining line like everything done before 1990 was pure genius distilled from the dews of heaven, and everything since has been crap. When really, there was a lot of trial and error in Jim Henson’s career. Some things are beautiful from a technical standpoint, but didn’t tell the best story. And yet, dude puts a sock on his hand, and magic happens. There are these ineffable qualities that real creators find, and for Jim, as much as he wanted to put the Muppets behind him, they were a part of him. 

There was a lot of trial and error in Jim’s career

With the premiere of “The Muppets” on ABC this week, I’ve had at least a dozen conversations with people in person, and double that online with friends and colleagues who know I would watch it, and know I’d have an opinion on it. Here’s the quick version: 

They’re going for funny instead of sentimental, which is going to alienate a lot of viewers. They’re going for a “30 Rock”/”The Office”/”Parks and Rec” thing, which I like. There are some tonal things like ‘we’re on later, we can say “hell” and “god”‘ …which the Muppets have said before, certainly, but stacked up several times in the first two episodes, it comes across as crass. But

1. I do think it’s funny. We watched it as a family, and each of us were laughing at different things. I love that there were jokes that Melissa and I got that my boys didn’t. 

2. Issues that One Million Moms have with it are ridiculous. They’re the same people that got mad at Mister Rogers for stripping at the beginning and end of each episode. 

3. If you’re younger than me, you’re comparing it more to “Sesame Street” and “Muppet Babies” and post-Jim movies (squeaky clean Disneyfied adaptations and worlds) than “The Muppet Show” (which got freaky sometimes with Alice Cooper, and murder, and ) and the Jim movies (which had drinking and swearing in them and Janice talking about how she can walk around on the beach naked if she wants to). Basically you think that this is the first time Muppets have been adults. And it’s not. 

4. I love having an entire cast of characters back, with Scooter and Janice and Rowlf and Dr. Teeth and Muppet Newsman everyone I love, instead of just the Big Four.

5. I really don’t know if this will find its audience. I hope so. If it doesn’t, I’m pretty sure Disney will box up the Muppets forever. So I’m scared. 

“Would Jim like it?”

The other conversation I keep having is “would Jim like it?” Truthfully, I think he’d be excited. Excited for something new. If Jim Henson’s career has any through-line, it’s that he was always trying something new and different. Puppets were a big part of that career from 1955-1990, but he was constantly trying to do new things with technology, with different kinds of puppet, with different formats. He would not want to do “The Muppet Show: 2015” as a 1970’s variety show with a single guest star and the whole vaudeville thing. If his characters lived on, had a life of their own, I can see him putting them in a workplace comedy. The Muppets in our real world, just like they were in the three Muppet films he was involved with. Not on a cartoony set, not playing other characters. Being themselves, sometimes awkwardly, always weird, but with a connection to each other that won’t ever be lost. 

I may go back and delete all that too. It’s not exactly what I want to say. It’s too wordy. My feelings about him are complicated, and as I grow as a dad and teacher and creator myself…they just get more complicated. It comes down to this. Jim Henson is my hero. I love him. It’s his birthday. Happy Birthday, Jim. I…uh…I made this for you.

Steve Whitmire has been the voice, and the heart, of Kermit the Frog since the untimely passing of Jim Henson in 1990. As a guest of the puppetry track at this year’s DragonCon, he appeared on panels and answered questions about Kermit and the new upcoming series “The Muppets,” premiering tomorrow on ABC.

The number one question on everyone’s minds was about the recent (and heavily publicized) breakup between Kermit and Miss Piggy. “It’s amazing to me how it’s exploded on the internet . . . I don’t think we expected that at all. We’d been talking about the idea of Kermit and Piggy having a breakup of some kind for probably 25 years . . . the conceit of the [new] show is that they’ve broken up but they have to work together.”

In “The Muppets,” a documentary crew follows the characters around as they film Miss Piggy’s late night show. The atmosphere is tense, however, since Miss Piggy’s ex Kermit is the executive producer. Especially because he’s “now seeing Denise, a younger pig. He has a thing for pigs.”

“He hasn’t switched species . . . he’s just switched pigs.”

Statler and Waldorf will also appear, but they are no longer in their box in the balcony; they’ll be in the audience watching Miss Piggy’s show. Fozzie is the warm-up comedian, and fans can expect the usual heckling and jokes from them.

With viral videos and constant social media updates, the ABC marketing machine is showing its support of the upcoming series. “Muppets Tonight!” an attempt in the late 1990’s to revive the Muppets, suffered due to decision making on where it should be placed in the schedule, and people lost track of it.

On whether or not there will be more Muppet movies, Whitmire replied that it’s always possible, but current plans are focused on the television show and more internet videos. The videos have kept the Muppets alive for fans in between movies

And his thoughts on J.J. Abrams taking the next “Star Wars” film back to puppetry and practical effects? “I have nothing against CGI . . . but to me the limitations, at least in the Muppets’ case of what they can’t do just challenges us to try to get more out of them. When it comes to a character like Yoda, I would rather . . . see him back in the puppet version, even though he’s limited and more crude and can’t do the flipping around karate scene. There’s something about the spontaneity for a live actor to play off of something that’s right there than to be playing off a green sock that will be put in later.”

And a variety of live actors will be appearing with the Muppets in episodes of the new series: Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Kerry Washington, Nathan Fillion . . . with more to be announced. So it’s time to play the music and light the lights because the Muppets are returning to television!

“The Muppets” starts up next Tuesday night on ABC. As a lifelong fan, I feel like I’ve been on a roller coaster with these characters, and I feel like they’re my heroes, they’re my friends, they’re my family. I’ve used the online moniker “jedikermit” for about half of my lifespan. I have a piece of Gonzo’s fur on my fridge. Digging through archives of various fan forums, you’ll find both dirty limericks and heartfelt sonnets to Miss Piggy. The first conversation I had with my wife was about the Swedish Chef. They are a big part of my life. I want them to be happy. I want this new series to be successful. More than anything, I want it to be good. The Muppets are most famous for “The Muppet Show,” which ran from 1976-1981; since then they’ve had eight cinematic releases, dozens of television specials, and two fully-fledged attempts to recapture the magic of their original series. “The Jim Henson Hour” lasted twelve episodes in 1990; “Muppets Tonight” had twenty-two episodes from 1996-1998. It’s been a while. “The Muppets” is heading in a different direction, one with potential simply because it is a different direction. 

Here are five things I’d like to see in the new series. The sixth was to not have the title be “The Muppets.” With a period at the end. 

1. Be Funny. 

The Muppet characters have ended up in this weird place where they’re seen as exclusively children’s characters, when they weren’t originally meant to be. “Sesame Street,” yes. But the Muppets have always had innuendo, had a little bit of scandal, had a subversive snarkiness that set them apart from Grover, Big Bird, et al. And that’s funny. Too many productions since Jim Henson’s passing in 1990 have made the characters so sentimental that you forget why they made it big in the first place–because they were funny. The were weird. Random characters like Lew Zealand threw boomerang fish. The Swedish Chef used a blunderbuss to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. Gonzo was in love with poultry. Miss Piggy was entirely inappropriate with Christopher Reeve. Crazy Harry blew shit up. You may not even know the names “Lew Zealand” or “Crazy Harry,” but you remember the bizarre chaos they brought. 

With this faux documentary format, popularized by “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” the Muppets have a chance to do all of those things. Some of it might be in the background of a shot. Some of it will be in snarky asides. We keep saying this is a brand new format for these characters, but the Muppets have been making snarky asides and breaking the fourth wall since the very beginning. It’s what they do. They’re perfect for this format, and there’s the potential to make it very, very, funny. 

2. More female characters. 

Remember when Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy broke up? And that broke the internet? And then we saw the first pictures of Kermit’s new love interest Denise? And it broke the internet again? Okay, it’s very possible that it just broke my internet, as people Facebooked and Tweeted their outrage. For most, it was based on Denise’s appearance (above), criticized as being Not Very Muppety. Cool. Whatever. The thing is, she adds to a very elite club of female Muppet characters. There’s Miss Piggy (of course), Janice (lead guitarist for Electric Mayhem) and Camilla (Gonzo’s chicken girlfriend). After them it drops to D-list characters like Wanda, Hilda, Mildred Huxtetter, Zelda Rose, Annie Sue…chances are verrrry good you’ve never heard of any of them. 

As such, I’m kind of excited that Denise is around. I’m hoping she becomes a fully developed character, that she becomes more than just Kermit’s love interest, that she’s not a bimbo. Make her real. I like that it upsets the status quo. I’d love them to introduce other female characters, most notably Skeeter, who was Scooter’s twin sister on “Muppet Babies,” and was later introduced as an adult character in the comic book series from Boom Comics. She would bring an entirely new personality into the mix, and also let Scooter’s character develop more. 

3. More music. 

The Muppets have always been associated with music. Some of Jim Henson’s earliest work was simply puppets lip syncing to popular records of the day. Muppets have been playing covers forever, they’ve also got a deep library of music that was written for them. We need to build on that. It sounds like the talk show-within-a-talk-show format of “The Muppets” will provide opportunities for music–the band Imagine Dragons is on the first episode–hopefully they’ll make the most of it. In the lead-up to the new series, the Muppets have released a few music videos on YouTube, including Jungle Boogie and Flowers on the Wall. If those are any indication, hopefully we’ll get more music, more often. 

4. Muppets in the real world. 

I like the Muppets best when you can’t tell they’re on a soundstage. One of my issues with both “A Muppet Christmas Carol” and “Muppet Treasure Island” is that it’s very apparent that they’re in a fake world. I like both movies, it’s just that those beautifully crafted settings (and they are beautiful) take me out of the movie. I like thinking of the Muppets as “real” characters, not distracted by the production values of the world around them. It’s distracting enough sometimes wondering how they made a particular piece of puppetry work; do it in a real world environment. It sounds like we’ll be getting outside of the television studio where Miss Piggy’s talk show is shot frequently; we’ve already seen Kermit stuck in traffic, Fozzie Bear at his (human) girlfriend’s parent’s house, we know Rowlf runs the bar across the street from the studio. It sounds like we will get some of the real world with our Muppets. Jim Henson made an effort to do that with the three Muppet movies he was involved with; I think he’d like this direction. If I can put words in the mouth of a dead genius. 

5. Keep Kermit the heart of the Muppets. 

Okay, I just liked this picture. Rowlf’s ear is cracking me up. I’m easily cracked today. 

One of the myriad problems with both “The Jim Henson Hour” and “Muppets Tonight” is that they tried to remove Kermit from the equation. In the former he was even more behind the scenes than he was on “The Muppet Show,” and on “Muppets Tonight” he was replaced entirely–with Clifford, a purple…rastafarian…thing. They brought Kermit back more prominently, but it was after people had already decided the new show wasn’t for them. Kermit is the heart of this family of characters. He’s their glue, he’s their leader, their counselor, their spiritual adviser. His role on “The Muppets” will be the producer of Miss Piggy’s talk show, which should keep him at the forefront of things. He should be. There should be chaos surrounding him, he should have to freak out every now and then, but overall be the zenlike frog who can set things right. 

Even if he’s dating a pig who doesn’t necessarily look like the pig that he’s been dating. But you know. Still a pig. 

“The Muppets” premieres Tuesday September 22nd on ABC. 

In recent weeks there have been a lot of celebrity breakups. Ben and Jen, Gavin and Gwen, Will and Jada. It’s remarkable, and kind of funny, and kind of sad that the one getting the most attention is the breakup of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. To be fair, they’ve been a couple off and on for nearly 40 years, so they’ve got some history. It was a trending topic on Twitter, on Facebook, it’s been fodder for late night comics and early morning news shows. Hell, even NPR did a short story on it. Here’s the statement from the frog’s Twitter account:

Now, this is far from the first time they’ve broken up. Muppet fans know that. I’m pretty sure even casual Muppet fans know that. It’s fortuitous timing to get something in the press the month before their new series starts, and with the amount of attention it’s received, it seems like it’s been a good strategy.

In addition to that, they’re on the cover of TV Guide this week:

And Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem dropped a new video, covering “Jungle Boogie.” 

We also found out the names of some of the guest stars who will be on the new series; on the original “Muppet Show,” it was one guest star per episode, who would interact with the characters in songs, skits, etc…this series is formatted more like a late night talk show (in front of the scenes) and behind the scenes we have more of the personal lives of the characters. So each episode may have several different guests. Topher Grace and Elizabeth Banks were both in the ten minute pilot presentation (which you should watch if you haven’t), and the first few episodes guest star Nathan Fillion, Reese Witherspoon, and the band Imagine Dragons.  

…in addition to all that official stuff, this week we also got an “Epic Rap Battle of History: Jim Henson vs Stan Lee”…which is funny, offensive (but surprisingly family friendly as these rap battles go)(mostly family friendly), and ends with an incisive commentary on who the real winner is. I liked it, even though some of my Muppet friends had their feelings hurt by it. Again, getting four million views on YouTube in the weeks leading up to a new Muppet series–I’m okay with that. 

Last, but not least–not for any true Muppet fan at least, the week before “The Muppets” premieres on ABC, there will be a special “In Their Own Words – Jim Henson” documentary airing on PBS. Here come the waterworks. 

…wow. That was more Muppet news than I expected. It helps that Disney is boosting the frog these days, it helps that social media’s around for this go-round with the Muppets. For fans like me, I just hope it’s good. Looking at things like “Jungle Boogie” and the ten minute pilot presentation — I’m getting my hopes up.