Now that's what I call 'The Muppet Show'

It's never been any big secret that I'm a certified Muppet Freak. That one Onion article has long served as a not-actually-a-joke shorthand for my general worldview. I have an Uncle Deadly tattoo, which predates both the Uncle Deadly renaissance that began in 2011's The Muppets and decent Uncle Deadly reference photos on the internet. (Prior to the Palisades Toys release of the Uncle Deadly figure in 2005, there were a total of two photos of the character on the internet, and only one of them was of a high enough quality to make out any distinguishing features.)

I'm far from the only person to grow up with the Muppets, given that Jim Henson's creations have been on television in one form or another since Sam and Friends in the mid-1950s. (Indeed, last year marked the official 70th anniversary of the Muppets.) The first media I remember actually, truly loving was the twin flames of Sesame Street on PBS and reruns of The Muppet Show in syndication, so I had Muppets when I woke up, and I had Muppets in the evening. I had The Muppet Show 2 album on cassette and The Muppet Movie soundtrack on 8-track(!) and listened to both of them incessantly. The Muppets Take Manhattan was my favorite movie for several years and I consumed any Muppet stuff I could get my hands on: Muppet Babies Happy Meal Toys, Muppet Magazine (there was only one grocery store in town that carried it, so I had to request a special trip to that store once a month to check for a new issue), Presto Magix Sesame Street transfers, Little Golden Books – you name it. Jim Henson's death when I was in third grade was a major life event for me. I have become no less of a Muppet Freak as I've aged, to the point where Christmas season isn't official until The Muppet Christmas Carol has been screened.

(My love of Henson and the Muppets is also why I started watching Farscape in college, which is important for reasons I hope to get into in the coming months.)

There are loads and loads of other people who grew up being obsessed with and loving the Muppets just as much as I do, if not more, and a good number of those fans have grown up to have some manner of clout in Hollywood. Over the years, some of them have managed to get a foot in the door with Disney (which owns the Muppets IP) and tried to strongarm a revitalized interest in the brand. Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller managed The Muppets in 2011, an extremely well-received revival of the theatrical Muppet movies that grossed nearly $200 million at the box office and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. A follow-up, Muppets Most Wanted, turned a far smaller profit, but still managed to convince Disney to put the muppets. on ABC in 2015. the muppets. is almost criminally underrated, and only lasted 16 episodes. In the decade since that show aired, there have been a few stop-and-start attempts to infuse life into the Muppets as a going concern (various webseries, a well-received Electric Mayhem Disney+ show, a Haunted Mansion Disney+ special), but Disney's near-complete lack of leaning into them since acquiring them in the early 2000s, combined with a constant dwindling of Muppets presence in the parks (in the last couple of years both MuppetVision 3D and PizzeRizzo closed in Walt Disney World) have convinced fans that Disney is actively antagonistic towards the Muppets.

More than anything, the plea has loudly been "Just make The Muppet Show again!" The Muppets are almost intrinsically linked with the variety show format in the minds of the larger culture, and while the muppets. was as close as humanly possible to being a contemporary version of what The Muppet Show would have evolved into – arguably, that's what it was – there's no denying the twin pulls of nostalgia tied to The Actual Muppet Show and the bite-sized bursts of performance and parody that highlight everything magical about these little felt wonders.

And now, freshly launched on Wednesday, from executive producer Seth Rogen, wielding immense power after the accolades of The Studio, has given the world precisely what they've been asking for. The Muppet Show one-off special, guest starring and co-executive produced by the perfect Sabrina Carpenter, debuted on Disney+, and it is indisputably perfect. As a concept, as a Muppet project, and as an episode of The Muppet Show, this was as close to flawless as a legacy project can be. (I won't get into the sour grapes and scorched-earth campaign of Steve Whitmire, the previous voice of Kermit, but I will say that I have zero problems with Matt Vogel, who has performed Kermit for years now.)

I teared up several times at how absolutely tone-perfect the special was, and "Manchild" was practically written to be performed on The Muppet Show. Tons of Muppets got a terrific showcase (I wasn't expecting a Rizzo version of "Blinding Lights, certainly), including some obscure and little-seen ones who got fresh builds, and sneaking in a few brand-new characters who fit right in.

The big question is, "will this attempted backdoor pilot actually result in a full series order?" So far, everyone who has seen it is begging that the answer will be "yes," but even if this is all we ever get, it's an absolute triumph. (Please, please, please don't embarrass us, motherfuckers. Give us the Mups.)