If I recall, they did eventually shift from Miss Piggy's show being a talkshow to a variety one, but most of the focus of the show was still on the behind-the-scenes stuff. Had they used that format and included sketches, it might've worked well. I think it was just too far away from what people expected of a Muppets television show.

The writing was actually great. I read the scripts before watching and laughed.
Watched the show, and the timing and delivery fell flat. Format did not work. Low energy and bad pace for Muppet characters and jokes.

They most likely outsource subtitling which is weird since it seems easier if it was done in house?

But yeah I’ve seen [inaudible] replaced for a fairly common word that was said very clearly.

It is never just one issue when comparing time periods:

• first HIMYM is a very good show from 2005, I did a quick Google and 2 other show from that year were the ‘War at Home ‘and ‘everyone Hates Chris’. How would HIMYF compare in quality to them? War at Home had good performances if I remember but was very unoriginal, it got 2-3 seasons. No one would remember it if it wasn’t for Remi Maleck being in it.

The point I am trying to make is you remember HIMYM from then as it was very good, but most shows aren’t that good. so it is a bit of an unfair comparison. You would need to compare the best few seasons of a sitcom from now to HIMYM, when it was good it was untouchable.

What about the trampoline nazi?

It recorded on my DVR because I have Better Call Saul as a series record and they were presented at as Better Call Saul: Lucky Hank or something like that. Sneaky. Didn't watch it because it didn't sound up my alley, although I would consider watching if I hear some hype that it is really good. But alas, that has not come to pass as of yet.

>S2 is already leagues better than S1 because the characters and storylines are starting to gel more

Please tell me more. I thought s1 wasn't bad tv per se but not exactly something I will rush to watch to see what's next.

canned or pre-recorded laughs kills any fun I have watching something. if taped in front of a live audience it's another ball game.

The same people would also freak out to learn The Muppet Show pilot was titled “Sex and Violence”. The Muppet Show was never intended to be a children’s show, from the jump.

There's also times where guest stars becoming cast members like Summer in The O.C or Amy and Bernadette in Big Bang Theory. If we get away from love interests and go with just friendships, the Arrowverse had a habit of never getting rid of most of their season long guest stars.

Why is Gonzo so clearly Tracy Morgan to me?

AppleS

I'd say that the sitcom format is too constricting to keep up with modern viewers' tastes and expectations.

In the 90s, it was easy for a network to pump out a sitcom that followed the procedural format because that it was viewers expected and were comfortable with. But now writers have a different bar to meet. There basically needs to be a serialized element to the plot, which makes it harder to fit things in a comfortable 24minute run time.

Only Murders in the Building is a great modern show that probably qualifies as a sitcom. But its main hook is its long mystery arc. Many of the jokes rely on callbacks to what happened 4 episodes earlier.

Poker Face is largely procedural, but it relies on longer run times and isn't focused on comedy, so it doesn't really qualify as a sitcom.

Sitcoms struggle because they just aren't easy to pull off in the modern streaming environment where audiences expect to consume content by binging whole seasons as a time.

I'm currently binging "Wealthy White People are Fucking Crazy," season 5.

The original format was a parody of variety shows like the Smothers Brothers and Laugh-In. I imagine they've been reluctant to go back to that format because they think modern audiences won't be familiar with that genre.

The 2015 Muppets show changed it to a late-night talk show, which I think made a lot of sense because that is a similar genre that also has celebrity guests, but one that modern viewers actually know.

I find the setting similarities to be a large issue. Office type comedies remind us of what we've seen before, and everything has a muted effect as a result. Personally one of the funniest sitcoms in recent history for me has been WWDITS, which obviously has a unique setting. They're able to adapt old sitcom tropes to that absurd setting, and that made them feel new. Going from a government office to a government office, or from a bland group of friends to another bland group of friends will leave things feeling too similar, as if hearing the same joke twice. Viewers who haven't seen those older shows will end up appreciating the newer ones, but you won't get the same universal acclaim until there's a bit of time without them..

That's exactly what this show reminded me of I still liked it tho fun watch for sure

Didn't know AI now can produce series.

Saturday Night Live is a sketch comedy show. Yes, there are still music performances, this seems almost done not because people actually care about the music performances (people mostly hope the musician shows up in a sketch) but out of tradition.

America's Got Talent isn't a variety show it's a reality competition show.

The issue is that it's a variety show, and people don't like variety shows anymore, because media is so splintered and the means by which people consume media is so democratized that the very idea that made variety shows possible basically doesn't exist anymore.

The Muppets trying to put on a show is a fine framework for interpersonal dramas that lead to really funny situations. The show being a variety show is a terrible choice in the 21st century. This show seems to have figured out a way around that.

thought it was watchable... but the casting of the leads were bad, they had way better actors as supporting too

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I'm not excited for her either, but someone pointed out elsewhere that it's been long enough that her style of comedy may have changed... and also she's not the writer or main attraction of this show. So there's probably not going to be a lot "white guys, am I right?" jokes.

I actually do think Abbott is really funny, even if I don't think it quite reaches the comedic highs of other shows from before.

But to counter that...you know lots of people that think Abbott is extremely funny...and what other current shows? Does it say something about the state of comedy on TV that there are only 1, maybe 2 shows on currently that people find really funny?

> Seasons are shorter, so every episode exists to move the plot forward.

Which is the worst thing to do for a sitcom. Who tf watches a sitcom for 'the plot'? The entire 'plot' of the show should just be about the adventures/relationships between the characters. 99% of a sitcom like Friends, How I met Your Mother, The Office, etc, were all 'filler.'

it's unfortunate spoiler material but it doesn't ruin it.

when a book is adapted into a series, it generally preserves most of the major plot points. Is it "ruined" by being an adaptation? No, because most of the audience hasn't read the source material. That's even more true in the case of cast lists, because even fewer fans would bother to dig out that info.