Disney’s Hollywood Studios is in the midst of becoming one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. With the just-opened Toy Story Land being a huge success and the gargantuan beast that is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on the horizon, the park is about to see an influx of visitors, the likes of which it hasn’t seen since it’s opening in 1989.

Which is why it’s important to note the minor miracles that are the attractions that have been in place for years. For decades now, Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM) has been, by far, Disney’s most eclectic park. It’s the only place in the world where guests can journey to the Twilight Zone, speed through the streets of LA while blasting Aerosmith, and become a rebel spy in the Star Wars universe all in the same day.

Thus, it’s fitting that an attraction as beautiful and strange as Muppet Vision 3D would find a home here. An immersive four-dimension experience, Muppet Vision 3D is not only one of the best attractions at Hollywood Studios, it’s flat out the best show of its kind at any theme park.

The basic premise of the show is simple: Kermit is giving guests a tour of the Muppets Studio and demonstrating a newly refined film process of their own creation, Muppet Vision 3D. Kermit’s goal throughout the show is to show guests all the unique and varied applicable uses for their new 3D technology and in theory, his plan should work. He’s set up segments such as a Muppet Labs demonstration with Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, a ‘little song’ from Miss Piggy, and a ‘big musical finale’ from Sam Eagle.

But of course, the Muppets being the Muppets, everything goes awry. Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker accidentally create a 3D monstrosity, known as Waldo, the spirit of 3D. Miss Piggy’s ‘huge, show-stopping, major song’ takes a turn for the worse when Bean Bunny decides to attempt to help out in a few unexpected ways. And Sam Eagle’s self-described ‘salute to all nations but mostly America’ is the culmination of it all, quite literally resulting in the Muppets destroying the entire theater.

 What makes the show such an awe-inspiring accomplishment is the way it applies the Muppet’s typically irreverent and meta approach to the art of constructing a theme park show. Work began on the show in the late ‘80s, as Jim Henson neared signing a deal with Disney to construct not just a show but an entire land for the park. As Henson and Disney Imagineers got to work on creating the show, Henson reportedly grew increasingly infatuated with the idea of how far they could push the guest-interaction elements of the show.

 And the results are inspired. The entire show is founded not only on breaking the fourth wall but on utterly demolishing it. The narrative of the show even goes so far as to foreground this approach, ending with the Muppets’ antics quite literally blowing the fourth wall up. From the very opening of the show, the screen is not the show’s stage. The entire theater is the show’s stage.

From opening the show with real-life puppets of Statler and Waldorf heckling the audience from box seats in the theater, to having a fully-costumed Sweetums emerge to ask the audience questions, to a Bean Bunny animatronic sneaking into some of the theater seats, to the bubbles and firework effects that fall from the ceiling at various points, to the orchestra full of Animatronic penguins who score the entire show, to the Swedish Chef running the projector from the back of the theater, to the 3D itself. Every creative decision is designed for the purpose of erasing the line between the audience and the show.

The lengths that the film itself goes to re-enforce this idea is absolutely astounding. Utilizing the 3D technology to realize its greatest potential, characters like Kermit, Fozzy, or Gonzo, who only exists within the frame, are able to lean and turn outside of the frame to interact with real-life animatronics and characters inside of the theater.

Within the first minute of the show, Kermit is having a full conversation with the Swedish Chef Animatronic, who is all the way at the back of the theater. Kermit and Fozzy both bemoan and converse with Statler and Waldorf from their box seats. And in what is arguably one of the show’s most inspired uses of initiating conversation between the different dimensions of media it’s playing in, Kermit, Fozzy, and Gonzo all lean out of the frame to talk to a Bean Bunny Animatronic, while the all-CGI Waldo watches, the fully-costumed Sweetums interacts from the theater seats below, and the Statler and Waldorf Animatronics heckle them all from box seats on the other side of the theater.

These dimension-crossing hijinks, of course, reach peak insanity just as the show reaches its climax. Sam Eagle’s ‘glorious three-hour finale’ is derailed by Waldo, who has spent the entirety of his screen-time attempting to escape the film like Bean Bunny did. As a CGI creation, and the in-narrative spirit of 3D, Waldo is quite literally bound to the frame.  But he finally manages to find a way out, setting the Animatronic penguin orchestra on fire. As a result, the fully-costumed Sweetums emerges at the front of the theater, screaming for the Swedish Chef to ‘stop the projector!’ as he throws a bucket of water on top of the smoking penguins. The now-enraged penguins suddenly rise up with a giant cannon and fire it at the projector, leaving the audience to watch as it shatters and the film strip of the Muppets is literally torn from the screen.

Waldo manages to escape the film strip as its being torn off, leaving only him against a blank canvas to gloat about being ‘out of this silly film’, at last. But the now-enraged Swedish Chef proceeds to draw a gun and shoot at Waldo from across the theater, before eventually pulling out a cannon of his own and destroying not only the screen but entire chunks of the theater decorations as well. The film then ends with Kermit coming through the wreckage of the destroyed screen on the back of a firetruck, apologizing for the technical difficulties but encouraging guests to ‘come see us again sometime’ before the curtain drops.

If all of that sounds more than a little bonkers, it is. Muppet Vision 3D was and is one of the most innovative theme park attractions of all time. It’s been often imitated, both in Disney’s own subsequent 3D shows, and in competitors like Universal’s shows, but it has never ever been duplicated.

Directed by Jim Henson himself, the show is tremendously well-made and nothing short of genius. And its masterful craftsmanship is only made all the more poignant and affecting by the knowledge that it was Henson’s final masterpiece. On May 16, 1990, Henson tragically passed away, in the middle of finalizing the show and his deal with Disney.

In the aftermath, Henson’s estate withdrew from the deal with Disney. Not only was the fate of the envisioned Muppets’ land at stake, so too was the fate of Muppet Vision 3D, Henson’s final work. Despite all of this, Disney and Henson’s crew never stopped working on it. Frank Oz took over directorial duties for the last few days of shooting and Disney paid for and oversaw the creation of CGI Waldo all on their own. All of which was done out of respect to Henson, even with the knowledge that there was a strong chance their work would never see the light of day.

It wasn’t until months later, when Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Jim Henson’s oldest son, Brian Henson, met that things changed. They sat and watched the finished film together and something truly magical happened: they laughed. They laughed until they couldn’t stop laughing because that was Jim Henson’s gift to the world. Brian Henson quickly set about convincing the Henson estate to sign with Disney and on May 16, 1991, exactly one year after Jim’s death, Muppet Vision 3D premiered.

Jim Henson was a great many things; an innovator, an auteur, a genius. But most of all, he was an entertainer. And the fact that his final work, a monument that was in many ways the culmination of all of the different art forms he had explored over his career, has stood and entertained audiences for nearly three decades now is nothing short of a miracle. Even as other sections of Hollywood Studios have been closed down or renovated in favor of crafting new guest experiences, Disney has shown the utmost respect to Henson’s final work. If anything, they’ve doubled down on it, finally realizing Henson’s original dream of creating a Muppets Land, with the surrounding area including a Muppet-themed restaurant and bathroom area, and being officially known as Muppets Courtyard.

So as entire new generations of guests flock to Disney’s Hollywood Studios over the next few years to see what kind of modern innovations Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge have in-store, it is my hope that they will also stumble upon the innovative work of art that just-so-happens to be sitting in a theater right next to the entrance of Galaxy’s Edge.

Muppet Vision 3D is and always will be a pop cultural landmark.

In the new documentary Muppet Guys Talking: Secrets Behind the Show the Whole World Watched, five performers of some of the most iconic Muppet characters sit around and reminisce about their characters and Jim Henson. You would think by now I’d be immune to discussions about Jim, but hearing the first few strains of The Rainbow Connection brought tears to my eyes. I guess it always will.

But this documentary isn’t sad. In fact, it’s joyous and celebratory as the five (cough, not really guys, since one of them is a gal) performers discuss what fun it was working with Jim and with each other. 

Today marks what would have been Jim Henson’s 80^th birthday. And though he left us all too soon in 1990, his vision and legacy lives on in his children and their dreams. Recently, Brian Henson attended Dragon Con and spoke a bit about his father, the 30^th anniversary of “Labyrinth,” and what the Henson Company is working on now.

I wanted to ask him a million questions (and had to resist doing a Fraggle dance, I was so excited), but I focused on “Labyrinth,” which is celebrating 30 years since its release, and a new exhibit celebrating the film just opened at Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts. The night before Dragon Con, the Center hosted an exclusive masquerade ball, and Henson presided as judge over the costume contest. Tickets for the event sold out mere moments after going on sale. I know—I tried to purchase some. Of the ball he said:

“It was lovely. The costumes were extraordinary . . . I think they’re going to try to find out how to make it bigger. But they were at capacity for the Center . . . But this was us supporting and sponsoring something that fans have been doing . . . so now we are sponsoring it.” Such good news! Hopefully next time I’ll be able to attend!

Henson then said, “I had an entire life on Labyrinth, I feel like. It was those days when you shot for a long long time . . . To work with one creative team for a year is so much nicer than popping in for ten days here, doing two days over here . . . So for me it was like a whole lifetime. And so going to the masquerade ball was like going back into that life . . . and it was a very important film to me. It was probably my third project out of school. I had a lot of responsibility. And I was working for my father . . . The other two films were not for my father.

It resonates for me in many different ways. It was a really exciting time for me in my relationship with my dad. I grew tremendously.

 I went in as a special effectsy kind of guy. And then came out as a much more of a mature performer and coordinator and then went on to directing not long after . . . I wish Jennifer Connelly was here. I wish David [Bowie] was still here. It was a lovely time in my life. And very unique and impossible to ever go back but going to that masquerade ball was pretty close.”

What about the Muppets? Henson continues to consult though the characters are managed by Disney. Though he didn’t discuss it, the Muppets continue to see new life (in the aftermath of their canceled television series that debuted last fall) in current and upcoming attractions at the Disney Parks.

Everyone wants to know about “Farscape.” They are working and working on it, but it’s not currently slated for production.

They are also currently working on the script to adapt Terry Pratchett’s “Wee Free Men.”

And though they’ve had the script, finding the budget to produce “The Happytime Murders,” a film noir detective genre film, has been a challenge. However, it looks like it may be close to being greenlit so they are working on casting. He described it as “kind of ready to go.”

It was truly an honor meeting Brian Henson, and his passion for his work and his respect for his father’s legacy shows.

He quoted his father: “Try to leave the world a little bit better off by having been here,” and then added, “That’s certainly the way we approach most everything. Sometimes leaving the world better off is teaching people to laugh at themselves.”  

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 1.3, “Bear Left Then Bear Write” Starring Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel; Guest Starring Christina Applegate, Liam Hemsworth, Nick Offerman. Written by Nell Scovell & Steve Rudnick; Directed by Randall Einhorn. (8 out of 10)

Whatever apprehensions I had lingering about “The Muppets” disappeared entirely this week. I laughed and laughed at the latest episode. There was a lot less Miss Piggy and more Pepe and Gonzo, as well as a belly-laugh-inducing scene with the Swedish Chef. Whom I love.

For her latest show, Miss Piggy invites Christina Applegate on as a guest, but the interview goes awry when the guest shares an embarrassing video of Miss Piggy falling face first into a cake. Miss Piggy, not one to take being embarrassed lying down, vows revenge.

The Swedish Chef runs into Christina and asks her for an autograph, and to make it out to “Meegan”. At first she thinks it’s a woman he’s asking for, but then she realizes that “Meegan” is the Chef. Again misunderstanding, she says “You go girl, live your truth.” Chef snaps his fingers and says “Okey dokey.” It’s a scene I can’t do justice to with words, but it was hysterical. And “how to say me in Swedish” is something I did just Google.  

The cameras follow Fozzie after he decides to leave Piggy’s show to write a movie, but Fozzie’s scenes are the least interesting, in spite of his trek inspiring the episode’s title. “He wasn’t funny, but he kept it clean,” Sam the Eagle says after his departure, and that mostly sums up the bear comedian’s segments. He doesn’t even talk about a fork in the road or moving right along, so I was eager to move right along to the next part.

And oh, boy.  Pepe. Dear sweet Pepe. He is the true star of the show. When Chip the IT guy discovers emails and a dating profile on Gonzo’s computer, it’s revealed that he used Liam Hemsworth’s photo instead of his own. He’s supposed to meet Debbie that very afternoon and asks what he should do. Pepe: “Drink poison. That is the only move that will satisfy a Debbie.”

They sit down to talk to Liam “Mr. Handsome Mans” under the guise of asking him to be on Miss Piggy’s show, and they convince him to meet Debbie and then direct her attention to Gonzo. When she walks in, Pepe again has something to say, “You wouldn’t think a Debbie would wear slacks to the first date.” But the date doesn’t go as intended.

The end segment reminded me of that time in “Muppets Take Manhattan” when Miss Piggy wears disguises and follows Kermit around, convinced he is involved with waitress Jenny. Evoking memories of beloved early Muppet movies is not a bad thing. Miss Piggy continues to seek revenge on Christina Applegate, but her plan, too, backfires. Hopefully next week our beloved Muppets will have more luck in love and revenge. 

“The Muppets” Episode 1.2, “Hostile Makeover” Starring Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel; Guest Starring Josh Groban, Laurence Fishburne, Jay Leno, Lea Thompson, Reza Aslan. Written by Bill Prady, Paul Kushell; Directed by Randall Einhorn. (8 out of 10)

Last week’s premiere of “The Muppets” was good. But there were a few missteps in the tone. A few times where it felt like they were being edgy for the sake of being edgy, instead of telling the best joke. I mean, there were some not-kid-friendly jokes that worked, and were funny. But a few that misfired too. “Hostile Makeover,” this week’s episode, is funnier than last week’s, and more coherent as an episode of an ongoing series, instead of a series pilot. 

The episode starts with Miss Piggy on a rampage, because she’s needing a date for the People’s Choice Awards. Kermit happens to know how her needs work, so he hooks her up with Josh Groban. They may have met on the set of “Muppets Most Wanted,” where Groban was a gulag prisoner kept in a box. Josh and Miss Piggy fall for each other fast. On a piano. On the set of her talk show. That scene was a meisterwerk of puppeteering, by the way. In the first two episodes we’ve seen some examples of puppetry that I’ve never seen with the Muppets before–not just greenscreening, not CGI, but actual puppeteering. That’s awesome. Uh. Anyway. Groban and the Pig. He wants to class up her talk show, booking guests like biographer Reza Aslan instead of the more lowbrow (and popular) guests she usually gets. 

Another storyline follows Fozzie Bear as he visits his hero Jay Leno’s house (I know, right? Ugh.) and finds a…unique way to show his appreciation at being at Leno’s party. Basically he steals stuff. A candy dish. And while the kleptomania seems a bit out of character for Fozzie, his excitement at being loved enough to be invited is very much in character. This felt more authentic than Fozzie’s storyline last week, which had some angry flareups at his girlfriend’s father. It felt weird. This was still weird, but funnier. Beware of bears wearing hats. 

Also bears selling Girl Scout Cookies, because Bobo the Bear and the Muppet Newsman end up in a fierce competition to sell the most cookies for their daughters (no, I didn’t know they had daughters either, and that’s part of what makes this great). They try one-upping each other until they find an elegant solution that’s funny for the kids on one level, and the adults on another. Munchies, man. Munchies. 

It looks like one of the features of this quick cut, edited-together format is going to be a lot of plots, a lot of one-liners all put together. This affords us tiny glimpses and gags that we might not get in a different format. I love seeing Kermit huddled together with Uncle Deadly and Scooter under his desk — a pair of characters who were forgotten (Deadly) or voiceless (Scooter) for decades. Seeing the Muppet Newsman, and a full Electric Mayhem band, and Rizzo and Yolanda the rats — it’s good. The Muppets need a critical mass of characters to reach full chaos, and they’re getting it here. They could use more chickens, some singing food, a boomerang fish — but this is good. You need those minor characters to fill in the spaces between Kermit and Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear and Gonzo. Some of them may even develop their own storylines. Rizzo the Rat used to be a background character. Hell, Miss Piggy used to be a background character. It will be interesting to see if this series lasts long enough for those to emerge through writing and performances. 

Also, Lips – the trumpet player on the far right – had his third line ever on this episode. Muppet history, man. Muppet history. 

If you miss any episodes of “The Muppets” you can catch it streaming here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets …or on my DVR if you’re around. Call ahead first. Pretty far ahead. 

“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.