Oof, 2024, eh? What a dumpster fire. Elections gone wrong, wars continuting to rage, ANOTHER Venom movie. It’s too much.
Last year I wrote an article with my hopes for 2024, and the results were… fine? Like, I wanted a better Sesame Street and some Muppety goodness, and those didn’t really happen. I also wanted Fraggle Rock: Back To The Rock Season 2 to be awesome, and some ToughPigs silliness, and I got those right, so as that old Meatloaf song goes… ‘2 out of 4 ain’t bad’.
So, maybe this years hopes will be better? Hopefully? I guess the only way is to come back in 362 days and find out. Siri, set a reminder! What do you mean I did this joke last year? Oh, also text Jeff Bezos that my Lucky Charms never came…
The Muppets 70th Anniversary Celebrations
The Muppets are turning 70! Don’t they look great for their age? Way back in August last year The Muppets Studio launched a full 70 week social media celebration, which they kindly invited us at ToughPigs along for. And, sure, photos of Wayne and Wanda or an explosion joke from Crazy Harry on Instagram is fun, but what I’d really like is a lot more new content!
What that looks like, I don’t know. Mickey Mouse is the face of Disney, and they gave him a fun short film and some Parks stuff, and I vaguely remember a crummy live show that only had a walkaround Mickey for 2 minutes at the start. So hoping for some giant new movie or something probably isn’t reasonable.
What I WOULD like to see though are The Muppets on all of the TV shows, being interviewed by Seth Meyers or Stephen Colbert. On the TODAY show or whichever one it is where Pepe always hits on that one host. Spend all of May, the official 70th, showcasing the Muppets all over the world! Fly out to Australia so I can hang out with Gonzo and Walter (and also put them on TV, I guess)! Fly to England and have Piggy tell horrible stories about celebrities she’s met on The Graham Norton Show!
Have The Muppets make a short parody retrospective for Disney+, just 15 minutes where all the history is made up because Fozzie didn’t do his research and just relied on his brain. Have David Attenborough narrate it!
Heck, just do SOMETHING FUN WITH REAL MUPPETS THIS YEAR! We deserve it! We deserve each other, me and BOQ!
A New Home For Muppet*Vision 3D
Sadly, Muppet*Vision 3D will close its doors at some stage this year. It sucks, and I know for a fact the people at Muppets Studio fought to keep it. I also know they’re doing everything they can to find new life for it, though I don’t know what that looks like.
I’d love to see it find a new home, somewhere at a Disney Park. Whether they find some small attraction at Walt Disney World near what will eventually become The Muppets Rock’N’Roller Coaster and put a smaller version of it in there, or even implant it back at Disneyland, or Disneyland Paris or something!
But what I’d LOVE to see, what I think the best bet is – put it in Disney Springs, and make it free. Disney Springs is the shopping complex situated in the vicinity of Walt Disney World, with zero admission price, so anyone could go there. I’d imagine that if Imagineering put it in some building there and made it some fun free attraction, attendance in that area would skyrocket, and there’d be a Muppet*Vision 3D renaissance. Sure, the ride may need cast members and maintenance – but at the end of the day, it’s a small price to pay for Bean Bunny!
Oh, and let people meet Sweetums for free if they buy like a Wetzels Pretzel or something.
A Home For Sesame Street
Sesame Street is in pretty deep trouble in 2025, as HBO won’t be continuing their distribution deal and the show is struggling to find itself a new home. Heck, the show is struggling for a tonne of reasons, many of which were discussed in a recent Washington Post article, but the main thing seems to be a total disregard for the show’s entertainment value, instead focusing far too much on curriculum and toning down it’s character usage because ‘Kids don’t know who Ernie and Bert are anymore’. Hey, MAYBE kids WOULD know Ernie and Bert if you actually, I dunno, USED THEM? Ridiculous.
So yes, I want Sesame to find a new home, because I want my friends to keep having jobs and I want to interview Cookie Monster again. But I also want it to find a new home so it can rectify its current issues and become the show we all loved when we were kids. But there’ll be more to say about this on ToughPigs at a later date.
More Fraggle Greatness!
How weird is it that in 2025, the ONE franchise doing well is Fraggle Rock? This year sees a new live show, and while we still don’t know if the series is getting a third season, it’s become abudently clear that The Jim Henson Company places a lot of value on those cave dwelling creatures. I’d love to see a new season ordered, but I’d also love a movie or something! They looked at making one a bazillion years ago, why not do it now?
John Tartaglia sits in the drivers seat, and I know he has a lot he’d love to do with the characters moving forward. Give me books! Calenders! Behind the Scenes featurettes that show me exactly how Donna Kimball managed to steal Kathryn Mullen’s voice. Give me Fraggles interacting with Silly Creatures, or a thousand more dolls as cute as that one of Sprocket!
More ToughPigs Joy!
I love this silly little site. I love it when Ryan Roe posts a comedic take on something I’ve never even thought of before. Or when Shane Keating writes a news piece with a fun joke in the third paragraph. Or when Joe Hennes writes some super indepth article he’s poured his heart and soul into. I love when Becca Petunia tells me why I’m wrong about something. I just love all of them so dang much! Except for that one person… You know what you did…
I kid, I love it here. And we have a lot of fun stuff planned for the year. More podcasts! More videos! More Weeks With! We’re gonna be around to report everything The Muppets do for their 70th. We’re gonna churn that rumor mill when we hear about Sesame Street’s future. We’re gonna be over on Discord (link below!) chatting with you all about every news story, and even totally unrelated things like Doctor Who! Come join us, won’t you?
Oh, Hey Siri, let Bezos know the Lucky Charms did arrive, I just forgot I ate them all.
By Jarrod Fairclough – Jarrod@ToughPigs.com
Click here to buy a pretzel to meet Sweetums on the ToughPigs Discord!
