In spite of not having been nominated for an Academy Award this weekend — or, y’know, even being invited to the show — beloved Muppet Miss Piggy managed to take home a trophy. Of course, the trophy in question was a “Best Grandpa” trophy pilfered from a senior citizen and had nothing really to do with the Oscars other than the fact that she happened to steal it at the right time. Still! Pretty…ahh…impressive? Nonetheless. Surprisingly, she has a little bit of conscience being imposed on her here by Uncle Deadly, who tries to convince her that she is being delusional, before leaving. Then, of course, Piggy has to fend off the actual grandfather.
While Uncle Deadly used to be a bit more of a straightforward antagonist, his edges have softened somewhat over the years. When ABC had their The Muppets TV series in 2015, Deadly was the wardrobe coordinator for Up Late With Miss Piggy, the fictional show-within-a-show that drove much of the plot.
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The Muppets have been absent from screens since the failure of their 2015/2016 sitcom The Muppets., a workplace comedy using a documentary style a la The Office. In spite of similarities to The Office and appearances by NBC standouts Ed Helms and Mindy Kaling, the show aired on ABC and never really found its audience. Josh Gad was set to co-write a six-part The Muppets Live Again miniseries for Disney+. The project, which was an ’80s-set sequel to The Muppets Take Manhattan, would was cancelled by Disney after creative differences drove Gad and his co-writers away.
Their next project, Muppets Now, is described as a short-form, improvisational comedy series produced for Disney+.
The Muppets, created by legendary filmmaker Jim Henson in 1955, were massively successful during his lifetime, with The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock being watched by huge numbers of people in their first runs as well as in syndication. Henson approached Disney to purchase his assets in 1989, and they came to an agreement in principle, but Henson passed away in 1990 before the deal could be completed. Without Henson there to anchor it, the deal fell apart, and Disney didn’t get the Muppets until 2003, when they bought a much smaller batch of rights (this time excluding a number of projects, which Henson’s company now retains the rights to) but did get they key Muppet characters.
