Except SNL is a variety show and isn't dead, and AGT is also a variety show and isn't dead.

The Muppet Show was a loving homage to Vaudeville which had died 40 years earlier. The issue isn't it being a variety show, the issue is it being a variety show that's harking back to a style of comedy that's 100 years old at this point.

I don't think so, those angry parent groups were complaining about it before it even aired and it went on for 15 episodes. It just wasn't pulling in viewers.

I mean if ABC pulled every show that had angry parent groups upset, there'd be nothing on the network.

Muppet productions are expensive - the Muppets themselves cost a lot to make and maintain, not to mention if they need different costumes - and if the show just isn't pulling in ratings it's not worth it to keep it on the air.

Most jokes are off limits in today's world.

The original format relied on audiences being nostalgic for vaudeville. What they needed to do was make a reboot more like Mad or SNL - which ultimately the difference is really the style of the theater and Fozzie's jokes.

I think The Muppets (2015) would've worked way better if instead of "let's follow the private lives of the muppets who are writers for Miss Piggy's late night talk show", they did more of a 30 Rock thing - where some of the Muppets are writers for a new live Muppet variety show, and some of them are the stars of that variety show. So we'd get some backstage and production shenanigans and also get to see actual sketches, and there'd be plenty of organic room for celebrity guest stars.

Also while I'm here, it still bothers me that the only muppets in the audience for Miss Piggy's show were Statler and Waldorf. They couldn't have peppered the audience so it was half Muppet, half human?

To you. I know lots of people that think Abbott Elementary is extremely funny. We just don’t all culturally unite around sitcoms anymore.

> Feel free to disagree

it's not about disagreeing or agreeing... it's just not true.

this is a great idea for a post though. but their are way better examples you could've used for shows that were pop culture sensations in the 2000s but aren't talked about at all today.

No

Sometimes a person comes into your life or circle for a brief time and then goes in another direction. As is life. If anything this is a very real portrayal

They kinda did that with Muppets Tonight (1996), so instead of a stage show, it was a TV Studio.

Their first FAMK was great but S3 left a lot to be desired...lol

Compared to what is on streaming now (Succession, The Last Of Us, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Perry Mason, A League Of Their Own, to name a few that I watch), sit-coms and regular commercial television in general is just . . . ridiculous and pointless. What is the plot of most sit-coms? Oh there was a misunderstanding? That's OK, it was cleared up before the final commercial break. Somebody is upset? That's OK, we'll talk about it and they'll reveal their true feelings so we all understand before the final commercial break. Someone is being rude/mean/heartless/ignorant? That's OK, they'll get their comeuppance before the final commercial break and go on to be the same next week.

You're right that they don't feel like real people, because you can't get to the root of real people when the main plot has to be resolved in 22 minutes! There's so much other stuff to watch that is deep and real (or crazy-not real in an awesome way) and hilarious and touching and wacky and high-stakes. The quality and depth of streaming shows just blow regular TV out of the water.

Plain and simple. Government interference.

Muppets Tonight was amazing.

Ah I see.

This is for the back half of Season 6, that’s why there’s no Mando and Dalton is in the guest category

Nope, but there is a Diff'rent Strokes curse.

No. The fact that the ratings were dogshit for a series of that pedigree and a production/promotional budget of that scale is why it was cancelled.

Humor is so subjective. But I think “what we do in the shadows” is on par with the office or parks and recs, there are still game changers and successful sitcom type shows being made. Part of it is also nostalgia, that era of television was a special one, a renaissance.

I don't. I'm 26, and didn't grow up watching shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, but when I watch it now compared to modern sitcoms I see a clear difference in quality even though I don't even really like a show like Raymond.

It's just statistics. If 20% of children go on to lead tragic lives, then there's a 0.8% chance that any group of three children will go on to all lead tragic lives. Now multiply those odds by all the television shows in the 1980s that featured at least three child actors, and it was basically inevitable that one of those shows would produce a trifecta. Diff'rent Strokes was that show.

Do you think maybe nostalgia is a part of it?

they try to be super progressive, culturally respectful and funny at the same time. It's incredibly hard to pull off. These things will only gel together in the hands of master writers and the people doing sitcoms today are far, far, FAR from being ones

Why is Animal eye-f*cking that box of Kleenex?

But even the successful shows now aren't typically considered to be as good as the successful shows then. Are there that many people who find American Auto, Welcome to Flatch, How I Met Your Father, Call Me Kat, Bob Hearts Abishola, etc. hilarious? Enjoyable, maybe. But hilarious the same way that audiences found 30 Rock, The Office, or even shows like That 70s Show or Everybody Loves Raymond to be hilarious? Even if you don't like a show like Raymond, I think it's clearly better in most ways to a show like Call Me Kat or The Neighborhood.

My username is because of two of these shows. So still relevant.

> do cable companies in the US only serve a specific area

yeah, most places only allow one company to serve their town