Last night Jimmy Kimmel welcomed Kermit the Frog to promote the upcoming The Muppet Show special.
Kermit talks about coming back to television with “The Muppet Show” on ABC and Disney+, guest hosting for Johnny Carson, vacationing on Magic Johnson’s yacht, meeting Kaley Cuoco backstage, working with Seth Rogen, what he would do if he hadn’t gotten into show business, having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and advice he would give to young people trying to make it in Hollywood.
We even get a brand new clip from the special! Check it out below:
Be sure to watch The Muppet Show 50th Anniversary special on Disney+ and ABC Feb 4th!
Join me as I take a deep dive into The Muppet Show's 50th anniversary trailer. We'll look at all the hidden references, characters, jokes, and even a few mistakes!
From blink-and-you’ll-miss-them references to beloved characters popping up, we’ll break down every joke, Easter egg, and callback packed into this trailer.
I’ll also point out a few curious mistakes you might not have noticed—because even the Muppets aren’t immune to a little chaos.
Be sure to check out more videos on our Youtube channel and watch The Muppet Show 50th Anniversary special on Disney+ and ABC Feb 4th!
As you probably know, Disney aired the trailer for the The Muppet Show 50th Anniversary Special New Year's Eve during Dick Clark's New Year's Rocking with Ryan Seacrest.
BUT, what you may not have noticed was all the easter eggs it contained.So join us as we deconstruct the trailer scene by scene to reveal all the good, and the bad, we uncovered.
First, if you HAVEN'T seen the trailer, watch it in high-def below:
Now, let's go through it. As you can see Rowlf's eyes look a little cross-eyed, jut like they were at his recent appearance at The Game Awards.
This is probably a new Rowlf puppet and hopefully they'll adjust his pupils for further productions.
The curtain rises... with Janice in the orchestra pit?
Janice is not supposed to be in the orchestra pit. As we'll see soon, she appears in the arches and now she's in two places at once!
Next, we have the large monsters coming through the arches. Sweetums, Thog, and The Mutations and now joined by Doglion instead of Timmy.
Speaking of Thog, it's great that they rebuilt him to fit through the arches unlike in 2011's The Muppets, however - it's a bit jarring to see his fur flap around and not look like all one piece of shaggy fur.
We get our first look at one of the skits, presumably featuring guest star Sabrina Carpenter in a bar room brawl throwing Blue Frackle around (more on him later).
If you look closely, in the background is Paul Revere!
In the next shot we see Miss Piggy barging into Carpenter's dressing room. It looks similar to how it looked on the original show, with new framed cards and pictures on the wall.
Now we come to The Muppet Show arches, and quite possibly the most controversial part of the trailer.
I say controversial because it's so iconic, and yet also has the most changes of anything else seen in the trailer.
For starters there are only 4 rows, as opposed to the original's 5. (More info on the original lineup here.
This means characters have be rearranged or removed entirely. A similar thing happened with the arches in 2011's feature film The Muppets where there were only4 rows and they even left a few arches empty.
This arrangement doesn't put Kermit in the center and feels squished. I'm not sure why the 5th row couldn't have been preserved.
In the new new arrangement, the top row consists of Hilda (making her first appearance since the first season of the original series), Pops, Robin, Uncle Deadly, Baskerville, Pepe, Beautiful Day Monster, Bobo, Beaker, Howard Tubman, Crazy Harry, Marvin Suggs, Wanda, Wayne, and Lew Zealand.
Hilda is an all new rebuild and looks pretty good from the brief clip we see.
Not having Beaker in the original arches was an odd omission that I'm glad was corrected both this and in the 2011 version.
Row 2 features the male koozebainian, Bean Bunny (making his first appearance since 2009), Dr. Strangepork, The Swedish Chef, Sam Eagle, a whatnot (similar to the one used in 2011), a rebuilt George the Janitor, a rebuilt Boppity - Blue Frackle, Link Hogthrob, a rebuilt Gloat -Green Frackle, and Beauregard.
Bean looks great, but George's nose seems a bit too light and doesn't have enough difference to the rest of his face.
George in The Muppet Valentines Show
2026 George
The rebuilt Gloat (the Green Frackle) looks like his face might be more condensed and Boppity (the Blue Frackle) seems to now have a wider body.
Row 3 has Rizzo, The Newsman, Dr. Teeth, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and Mahna Mahna.
No major change here except the replacement of two chickens on the ends with Rizzo and Mahna Mahna.
Row 4 has the female Koozebanian, Mildred, a rebuilt Zelda Rose, Janice, rebuilt female whatnot, Camilla, and a rebuilt Miss Mousey.
Similar to George, Zelda Rose's nose seems to light and doesn't contrast enough from her face.
Zelda Rose on The Muppet Show
Rebuilt Dancer Whatnot
Last we have a rebuilt Miss Mousey who hasn't been seen since 1986. No real complaint here except that her hat seems a bit more floppy then before.
After the arches we see Miss Piggy backstage on the stairwell wearing an outfit strikingly similar to the ones used for Fisher-Price's dress-up doll.
We then see another shot from the bar sketch, this time with Sabrina Carpenter smashing a bear bottle over J.D. Frackle's head.
Beau breaks some sort of contraption off the wall.
There a nice dynamic shot of Zoot and Lips, presumably from The Electric Mayhem's number. It's great to see a shot like this as most of The Muppet Show featured still camera shots.
Executive Producer Seth Rogan makes an appearance suggesting we may see other cameos as well.
We then see the title and air date.
But that's not all. The thumbnail for the video features a shot of The Swedish Chef, Uncle Deadly, Scooter, Mildred, Miss Piggy, Kermit, a pink armadillo, and Marvin Suggs backstage not seen in the trailer itself.
Be sure to watch The Muppet Show 50th Anniversary special on Disney+ and ABC Feb 4th where we'll get to see all the new puppets, performers and Muppet theater in action.
The rumors circulation around the web about the possibility of The Muppet Show returning have been CONFIREMED to indeed be true!
Disney and The Muppets posted the following on their social media platforms:
It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, it's time to get things started as The Muppet Show returns for a triumphant event on Disney+ in 2026 with special guest star Sabrina Carpenter!
This brand-new installment from The Muppets Studio and Point Grey Pictures will feature Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and the gang as they return to the Muppet Theatre to put on a variety show filled with music, comedy, and plenty of chaos.
Now, before you get your hopes and expectation too high, so far this is being labeled as an "Event" special and not a full series.
The Muppet Show will return in 2026 as a Disney+ special starring (and executive produced by) Sabrina Carpenter — next year marks the 50th anniversary of the original variety series. The hope is for the Muppet Show special to serve as a backdoor pilot for a new season of the iconic series that debuted in the ‘70s.
Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver and Alex McAtee will executive produce the special for Point Grey Pictures. David Lightbody, Leigh Slaughter and Michael Steinbach executive produce for The Muppets Studio.
Albertina Rizzo will write and executive produce; Alex Timbers will direct and executive produce. Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson are also executive producers. Longtime Muppet performers Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, David Rudman and Matt Vogel will all perform their classic characters.
Very exciting news, let's hope this The Muppet Show special becomes a full on revival of the series!
The Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock "Night of the Lights" holiday special is almost upon us and AppleTV+ and The Henson Company are giving us an early look.
You’re invited to a festive celebration with your favorite Fraggles. New musical adventures await in Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock’s special holiday episode "Night of the Lights.”
Watch the trailer below and get your Baloobius ready for the "Night of the Lights.”
The Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock "Night of the Lights" starts streaming November 18 on Apple TV+.
