Welcome back to We Want Comics, a column exploring intellectual properties, whether they’re movies, TV shows, novels or video games, that we want adapted into comic books.
Three weeks ago, Disney+ dropped all five seasons of The Muppet Show on the streaming service. Airing from 1976 to 1981, the show breathed something different into the variety show genre and showed off a new side of Jim Henson’s beloved creations – – one that provided silly humor for the kids, but the wink and smile humor to their parents. The show’s success eventually led to the Muppets jumping to film, starting with 1977’s The Muppet Movie, and paved the way for further forays from Henson into that adult demographic, such as The Dark Crystal and Muppets Tonight.
Over the course of that inaugural weekend, I saw many of my friends, children when they first saw The Muppet Show, sharing it with their own kids. It then made perfect sense to consider the comic book possibilities from the series, to extend that cross-generational bond to another medium that brings families together. Now the Muppets are no strangers to comics; BOOM! Studios published a Muppet Show comic in 2011, with Marvel eventually taking the license in 2012. Those comics touched on both the backstage drama that was part of The Muppet Show’s charm, along with spin-off titles that put the Muppets in classic stories such as Robin Hood and Peter Pan.
It’s been nearly a decade since Muppets were in comics. Let’s see some of the other most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational ideas are out there.
The Adventures of Statler and Waldorf
Why did they always come there? For the five years of The Muppet Show, I guess we never knew what brought Statler and Waldorf back to the theater week after week. The curmudgeonly duo in their balcony seat always loved to heckle both human and Muppet performers, but that’s all we knew about them. (Well, save for that one time we met Waldorf’s wife, the appropriately named Astoria.) What were their lives like outside the theater? How did they meet? Did they have other interests? Let’s see some backstory!
Alternatively, one could also lean back into what makes them so memorable (their cantankerous quips) and take them on a road trip to Broadway (those two providing commentary on Hamilton would be amusing for sure) or to a side career in film reviews.
Statler and Waldorf also have the distinction of appearing in comics before the aforementioned BOOM!/Marvel series, appearing in 1978’s “Marvel Team-Up” #74, right at the height of the show’s fame. Naturally, they appeared in their balcony perch doing what they do best: heckling Spider-Man as he and the cast of Saturday Night Live take on Silver Samurai.
The Regular Sketches
Each Muppet Show episode took the flavor of its guest star. Roger Moore’s appearance played hard into the spy genre, as he was the current James Bond. Dancer Rudolf Nureyev performed “Swine Lake.” John Denver, known for his love of the outdoors, offered to take the gang on a camping trip to Kermit’s home swamp. But there were recurring sketches that carried over from season to season and episode to episode that would be fun to spin off into comics or graphic novels.
- Pigs in Space: The show’s mashup of Star Trek, Lost in Space, and 1930s sci-fi serials did get a comic one-shot back in 2011, but as the one sketch people no doubt think of when they hear The Muppet Show it certainly deserves the full series treatment. Miss Piggy would want nothing less.
- The Sam the Eagle Editorial Collection: The second season featured a segment in which Sam would provide his opinion on a topic, often with hilarious results. Bring in those editorials and add a few new ones to the mix.
- Muppet Labs Invention Catalogue: Relive where the future is being made today with inventions old and new from Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.
- The Not-So-Official Swedish Chef Cookbook: You probably won’t want to (or be able to) cook these recipes, but you’ll have fun reading them!
- Rowlf’s Poetry Corner: This was a sketch that only appeared in the show’s first season – – Rowlf’s recitations of poetry. A graphic novel of Rowlf’s poems, either poems from the show or new poems, would be a touching way to bring poetry to a new audience. Continued below
- The Planet Koozebane Adventures: Koozebane was a frequent stop for the Pigs in Space crew. Why not see what else the Merdlidops, the Fazoobs, and the Spoobles get up to when the Swine Trek ship isn’t around?
The Untold History of the Muppet Theater
The home of The Muppet Show was The Muppet Theater, also known as The Benny Vandergast Memorial Theater. Throughout the series and later in some films, we got bits and pieces of the history of this theater, such as who built in and when (an actor named John Stone in 1802), notable performances besides the Muppets (Hamlet, starring the theater’s builder), and who owns it (Scooter’s uncle). One does have to wonder what other adventures took place in that theater before Kermit and company dropped in.
The Muppet Superhero Adventures
Three episodes in season 4 featured stars well known to comic fans: Wonder Woman’s Lynda Carter, Superman star Christopher Reeve, and the stars of Star Wars. While Christopher Reeve didn’t don cape and tights, opting for some wink-and-a-smile references to the Man of Steel, both Lynda Carter and the Star Wars cast appearances played up the characters that propelled the actors to fame.
Inspired by DC’s success with matching Looney Tunes characters with their superheroes, let’s team up the Muppets with some of the greatest of the House of Ideas. (As much as I would love to see Wonder Woman and Wonder Pig together again, I must accept the limitations of capitalism. I doubt Disney would hand over the keys for a property they’ve owned for nearly two decades to WarnerMedia.) The easiest pairing would be Pigs in Space with the Star Wars gang; that matchup was the focus of the second act of that 1980 episode. But what other teams are out there?
Perhaps Iron Man (or Ironheart) with Bunsen Honeydew. Black Widow and Miss Piggy. Deadpool and Gonzo. (Or even Deadpool and Sam the Eagle.) Spider-Man and Scooter (or Kermit’s nephew Robin). In Lynda Carter’s appearance on the show, the cast tried their hand at being superheroes themselves through a correspondence course, so let’s give them a chance at the real thing.
What other Muppet Show comics would you like to see? Share them in the comments!
