In the 64 years since they made their debut on a local Washington DC broadcaster's Sam & Friends way back in 1955, the Muppets have grown to inhabit a surprisingly resilient corner of popular culture – the word 'Muppet' itself has even entered everyday language (admittedly as an unflattering term). And now they're coming back for a new series on Disney+.
It hasn't been an easy journey for the merry band, with rights issues flinging their ownership this way and that way over the years, the death of Jim Henson in 1990, feuds over casting and the variable quality of some of the projects starring the troupe. In fact, the story of the Muppets is an epic saga in its own right.
Though they were created in 1955, the Muppets really hit the spotlight in 1969 when they appeared as a regular fixture in the evergreen PBS kids show Sesame Street with beloved characters Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and Oscar the Grouch.
Surprisingly, they really first came into their own via the UK, with Elstree-filmed ATV series The Muppet Show, which ran from 1976-1981 on ITV, at its height attracting audiences of 14m+ in its Sunday early-evening slot.
The show was syndicated to great success in the US and attracted a host of guest stars willing to be ribbed by the puppets, including Roger Moore, Rudolf Nureyev, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Elton John, Liberace, Bob Hope, John Cleese, Gene Kelly, Diana Ross and Debbie Harry.
The popularity of the gang was such that they even generated two hit singles, the atypically plaintive 'Halfway Down The Stairs' (sung by Kermit's young nephew Robin) reaching No.7 in the UK in 1977, while the oft-covered 'Rainbow Connection' gained the No.25 spot in the US two years later.
Aside from the catchy Muppet Show theme tune, our puppet friends are possibly best known for their cover of Piero Umilani's 'Mah Nà Mah Nà', a song guaranteed to amuse or drive one to distraction in equal measure.
The success of the ATV show led to a slew of cinema spin-offs, which went through three distinct stages. There was the early trio of The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), followed by mid-period releases such as seasonal favourite Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and the derided Muppets in Space (1999) – about which Kermit commented in 2012: "With all due respect to Muppets from Space, um, you don't want that to be the last movie you ever do."
Rights to the Muppets transferred to German company EM.TV & Merchandising AG, which promptly collapsed, leading the Henson family to reacquire the rights in 2003.
With Disney's full acquisition of the Muppets in 2004 – for a mere $75million – things picked up, albeit slowly, and plans were laid to reboot the movies. A handful of forgotten TV specials peppered the '00s, but Disney's stewardship eventually resulted in box-office hit The Muppets in 2011 and its less popular follow-up Muppets Most Wanted in 2014.
Meanwhile, the Muppets maintained a fitful presence on TV, with two short-lived series, The Jim Henson Hour (NBC, 1989) and The Muppets Tonight (ABC, 1996). In the UK, the latter was pulled from BBC One's Friday-night schedule, leaving nine episodes (of 22) still as yet unseen here.
Guests of the show were possibly a step down from the original series, but still included big names such as Billy Crystal, Pierce Brosnan, Cindy Crawford, Prince, Tony Bennett and…Coolio.
The last peak-time Muppets show was ABC's fly-on-the-wall Office-style sitcom The Muppets (2015-16), which was poorly received, being seen as mean-spirited and untrue to the upbeat vibe of previous incarnations.
Co-showrunner Bob Kushell (also responsible for BBC Three's assisted-suicide sitcom Way to Go) has some form with troubled sets, so maybe the failure of the show shouldn't come as a great surprise.
None of the original main voice actors now remain. Even Steve Whitmire, who played Kermit after Jim Henson's death, was booted in 2017 after a 27-year run in the role.
"Steve would use 'I am now Kermit and if you want the Muppets, you better make me happy because the Muppets are Kermit.' And that is really not OK," Muppet boss Brian Henson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Whitmire himself said: "I didn't yell, or call anyone names, or refuse to do my job. I just gave lots of definitive notes via emails to this small group about character integrity and always tried to offer alternative solutions."
Whatever the machinations behind the scenes, the changing voice of Kermit (it's now Matt Vogel under the green felt) gives the later versions of the Muppets a vaguely ersatz feel when compared to the original TV series and first few movies, although the newer cast members do a decent job of replicating the voices of the iconic characters.
While still with us, actor/director Frank Oz hasn't voiced Fozzie, Animal or Miss Piggy since 1999's duo of Muppets in Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.
Not that he's no longer haunted by his Muppet past. When directing 2001's heist thriller The Score, Oz was subjected to star Marlon Brando's Muppet-related abuse. The Guardian reported that "Brando took to calling former Muppet Show puppeteer Oz 'Miss Piggy' and apparently said: 'I bet you wish I was a puppet so you could stick your hand up my ass and make me do what you want'."
The thing about the Muppets is their ability to re-invent themselves for new generations of viewers (and older fans), as long as their essential sweet nature and yes, 'humanity' is retained.
With that in mind, we'll be looking forward with our fingers crossed to The Muppets Now, Disney+'s short-form 'unscripted' variety show featuring celebrity interviews that apparently harks back to the original ATV series.
Also rumoured to be in development for Disney+ is Josh Gad's Muppets Live Another Day, set after the Broadway-related events of 1984's Muppets Take Manhattan, presumably hewing closer to the original Muppets vibe.
For fans keen to get their fix, a veritable Muppets smorgasbord could well be in the offing.
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