Muppets Tonight

Muppets Tonight

Clifford, host of Muppets Tonight
Genre Comedy
Created by Jim Henson Productions
Written by Greg V. Fera
Brian Henson
Tom Trbovich
Gary Halvorson
Starring Dave Goelz
Brian Henson
Jerry Nelson
Steve Whitmire
Kevin Clash
Bill Barretta
Frank Oz
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 22 (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s) Hollywood Center Studios
Hollywood, California
Running time 2224 minutes
Production company(s) Jim Henson Productions
Release
Original network ABC
Discovery Channel[1]
Original release March 8, 1996 (1996-03-08) – February 8, 1998 (1998-02-08)

Muppets Tonight is an American live-action/puppet children's television series created by Jim Henson Productions and featuring The Muppets. Much like the "MuppeTelevision" segment of The Jim Henson Hour, the show was a continuation of The Muppet Show, set in a television studio, rather than a theater.[2]

It first ran on ABC from March 8 to July 14, 1996, with reruns on Disney Channel from 1997 to 2000.

Format

The premise of Muppets Tonight was that Clifford was the host of a variety/talk show on KMUP.[3] The show stuck closely to The Muppet Show format of various skits (mostly featuring the show's human guest star) interspersed with some sort of crisis occurring backstage.[4]

Characters

Main article: List of Muppets

Returning Muppets

New Muppets

Some of these introduced in Muppets Tonight went on to appear in later Muppet productions, particularly Pepe the Prawn, who has become a regular.

Recurring sketches

Among the regular sketches are:

Series run

The show ran from 1996 to 1998. There were 22 episodes produced in two batches. 13 episodes were ordered by ABC, though only ten of them were run in the 1995–96 TV season. The program was then purchased by the Disney Channel, which ordered a further nine episodes and aired these along with the three episodes ABC did not air, in the 1997–98 season. One of the nine newly produced episodes was a clip show compilation culled from the earlier episodes.

In the United Kingdom thirteen episodes of the show were transmitted at 7pm on Friday evenings on BBC1 from September – December 1996. The remaining nine episodes have not been shown in the UK.

In Ireland the show was broadcast on TG4, eventually being dubbed into Irish Gaelic.

Guest stars

Unlike the original Muppet Show, most episodes of Muppets Tonight featured multiple guest stars. Typically, there would be one principal guest, but other celebrities would make small walk-on appearances. For example, the Garth Brooks episode (aired as episode #2) features a cameo from Leonard Nimoy.[5]

Episodes

Muppet performers

Reception

The reception from critics was mixed.[6][7] Among the staff at other TGIF shows, reception was also negative; Jaleel White, star of Family Matters, blamed Muppets Tonight for Family Matters's own cancellation: "[S]omewhere along the line, Winnie the Pooh and the Muppets started emerging around us and it [TGIF] became kids' night. And we lost a lot of credibility."[8]

References

  1. Verrier, Richard (May 8, 2003). "Henson Family Buys Back Muppets For $78 Million". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  2. King, Susan (1996-03-10). "The Muppets Put On a Show, Again". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
  3. Mifflin, Lawrie (1996-03-10). "Following in the Frog's Footsteps". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-19.
  4. "Muppets Tonight! Means the Return of Cuddly Chaos". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  5. "TV NOTES;High Hopes for Aliens". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  6. "Muppets Tonight! Means the Return of Cuddly Chaos". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  7. "Picks and Pans Review: Muppets Tonight!". People. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  8. Hal Boedeker (July 18, 1997). "He's A Goober But CBS Has A Lot Riding On Urkel TV". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.