The Muppets are here to celebrate Presidents Day, with Sam the Eagle taking the stage, flanked by American flags, to perform a reading of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. Along the way, though, Sam get some…uhh…help? Sure, let’s say help…from Scooter, who helps bring the Gettysburg address a little modern flair. It’s a brief but entertaining clip that showcases two Muppets with very different personalities and attitudes, something that creator Jim Henson used to love to play with (he was the puppeteer behind Ernie to Yoda performer Frank Oz’s Bert in the early days of Sesame Street, for instance).
Videos by ComicBook.com
The video closes with Scooter saying, “Eat your heart out, Lin-Manuel.” Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known for creating Hamilton, is currently working with Muppets owner Disney on a filmed version of the stage play, created with the show’s original Broadway cast.
You can check it out below.
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. In that series, Scooter played an associate producer and assistant to Kermit (the premise of the show had Kermit serving as executive producer for a latenight show hosted by Miss Piggy). Sam the Eagle played a representative from ABC’s standards and practices.
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.
