Why The Muppet Show’s Success Gives Us Hope for Figment’s Future

It’s been a bad decade for the Muppets, and an especially brutal year. MuppetVision 3D at Disney’s Hollywood Studios closed, and they were evicted by Monsters. The Jim Henson Studios Lot in real Hollywood closed, and they were evicted by John Mayer. Their Broadway show closed after like a week, and they’re being evicted by Cats. (Air quotes around some of these “evictions” since John Mayer is the good guy in that story, and the real thing that evicted them on Broadway was sluggish sales.)

Over the last decade-plus, the Muppets have received no shortage of failed revival efforts from Disney. The most recent of these was The Muppets Mayhem, which was cancelled after one season. Before that was Muppets Haunted Mansion in 2021, a short-lived series in 2020 called Muppets Now, and an ABC series in 2015-2016 that was also cancelled after a single season. We recently learned that plans for Muppets Big Thunder Mountain were (somewhat fittingly) abandoned.

The last Muppet feature films were Muppets Most Wanted in 2014, which was a sequel to The Muppets from 2011. The Jason Segel vehicle was the closest thing the Muppets have seen to success, at least in the mainstream, in the 2000s. None of these were bad. Even the much-maligned ABC series was watchable by the end of its run. They just didn’t quite capture the lightning-in-a-bottle of the Muppets, or the essence of the original The Muppet Show. Until now.

The Muppet Show is the best thing Disney has done with the Muppets in decades. It’s better than the Segel film, any of the shows or shorts. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading now and go watch. (But come back, of course, since we have the important topic of Figment’s future to tackle!)

The most remarkable thing about the 2026 revival of The Muppet Show is that it could just as easily be an episode from 1976 through 1981, during the original series’ run. Save for the songs and celebrities, there are no identifiers in the show that it’s a circa 2026 production.

No attempts at relevance or trendiness. No cringey “how do you do, fellow kids?” moments. No tortured references to TikTok, Facebook, YouFace or WUPHF.com. Even Sabrina Carpenter feels like a throwback to Madonna; Seth Rogen is the new head of Continental Studios, which is quintessential old Hollywood.

Watching The Muppet Show in 2026 feels like meeting up with a childhood friend you haven’t seen in years, and immediately picking up the conversation where it left off without missing a beat. It’s a stroll down memory lane, but at the same time, it also does not feel like naked fan service or slew of knowing nods to the original production, leaving little room for newcomers.

The Muppet Show is a nostalgia trip in its purest form, which is to say that anyone should be able to clock its timelessness. That familiarity is an unequivocal asset, but the show is not dependent on being a love letter to the Muppets made by fans for fans. It’s approachable to all.

The nostalgia is a big part of why it all works so well. The Muppet Show comes at a time when the old and young alike are yearning for simpler times, romanticizing and reminiscing of when the economy was stronger, political tensions were lower, and cultural mood was lighter.

The Muppets embody a warmer, innocent and purer time. The tactile quality of the production harkens back before the slopification of everything, and rise of garbage “family-friendly” programming like Cocomelon.

As always, the Muppets’ vaudevillian formula works by layering all-ages slapstick comedy with an adult showbiz sensibility with wry humor and heart. This is visible in self-referential nods to the Muppets’ comeback, backstage glimpses of the action, and even Gonzo’s big stunt involving him reciting of Oscar winners (for reasons unknown). There’s multitudes to the Muppets.

In addition to Gonzo’s stunt, the Muppet Labs sketch was likewise a classic one from the old show. And ironically enough, it’s about increasing attention spans; the perfect antidote to modern programming.

Even sketches that didn’t revive recurring ones from the 1976 show felt like spiritual successors. In particular, the “Pigs in Wigs” ballroom sketch featuring Miss Piggy juggling romantic suitors looked and felt like something of another era, and the running gags throughout the show are quintessential Muppets.

Of the Muppets, Miss Piggy is the character who truly shines in the special. Piggy plays the ideal counterpart to Carpenter, who delivers a perfect performance as host (no surprise to us SNL viewers).

Carpenter brings modern starpower, which will undoubtedly attract younger audiences; she also delivers the right amount of camp and memorable musical numbers. Most importantly, she humanizes the Muppets in the way she plays opposite them; one of the best to do it since Michael Caine.

As well as all of this worked, it was the change-of-pace musical number performed by Rizzo the Rat and his rodent homies that had me laughing hardest. (Full disclosure: Rizzo is my favorite Muppet.)

Why was there an all-rat rendition of The Weeknd’s hit song “Blinding Light” in a dark alleyway? Nobody knows. Don’t ask too many questions. But it was a weirdly glorious encapsulation of what makes the Muppets something special.

Not all of the jokes land, but that’s nothing new for the Muppets and it’s the nature of the beast with a show like this. By and large, the sketches are good to great, Carpenter is perfect as host, the other celebrity cameos work, and there’s enough payoff that you’re grinning ear to ear by the emotional end.

That lasting impression is what matters, and why The Muppets Show, as a vehicle, “works” better than all other recent ill-fated attempts to revitalize the Muppets. This revival special should be more than sufficient to prove an audience exists for the Muppets to stage another improbable comeback after a rough couple of decades.

You know who has had an equally rough couple of decades? Figment.

I’m cognizant of the fact that The Muppet Show revival featured zero references to Figment, which some might argue was its biggest fault. And that I sound like the local news trying to force relevance where it does not exist. (Growing up, the news often did the “Kalamazoo Connection” stories despite there being no discernible one.)

I’m going to pull from that playbook here. In part because I’m coming to this review several days after The Muppet Show debuted (and with 98% critics and audience scores, it probably doesn’t need the DTB endorsement to succeed). But also in part because there actually is a Figment connection!

The Muppet Show revival was developed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of Point Grey Pictures. Disney has been attempting to work with Point Grey on numerous projects, with Rogen’s and Goldberg’s production company having been previously attached to a Figment feature film.

That was announced back in 2022, but it seems to stuck in development purgatory. More recently, Disney CEO Bob Iger promising a series or short-form videos featuring Figment during the last annual shareholder meeting. Some say he’s leaving right before the 2026 meeting so he doesn’t have to answer to angry Figment fanatics.

Our hope is and has been that Rogen’s ongoing relationship with Disney results in the Figment feature film getting greenlit and moving forward. We’ve been cautiously optimistic about his involvement in both the Figment and Muppets projects from the beginning, and the practical reality is that (just like the Muppets), Figment needs something big to turn the character into a serious brand or franchise for Disney.

Whenever Seth Rogen comes up as being attached to a Disney project, fans inevitably recoil in horror. “I’d rather this not be done at all than have him attached” was more or less the consensus in response to the Figment feature film news. It was a similar story with the Muppets.

This is understandable. Seth Rogen has a sticky reputation as a lazy stoner who makes juvenile humor. This image made sense a decade ago when he was producing shock value films and crude humor. But as we’ve been saying, that reputation hasn’t matched reality in over a decade. The Studio, which was the most awarded show of the most recent Emmy Awards, is the latest example of this. It’s not the only one.

The output of Rogen and Point Grey in the last few years has grown tremendously and expanded in range. Rogen is one of the hardest working people in Hollywood, capable of making quality shows for a range of audiences. He’s similar to Adam Sandler, who similarly vacillates from one extreme to another, making both the worst paycheck movies you’ve ever seen to award winners.

With that said, I could understand the initial concern over Rogen’s involvement. Fans wanted this to be the Muppets’ distinct brand of humor, not the Muppets acting as, ahem, puppets for Rogen’s comedic sensibilities.

There’s also the reality that Disney has missed the mark in capturing that certain je ne sais quoi that makes up the Muppets magic. Their “voice” has been off, and I don’t just mean Kermit. Some of the recent shows have had flashes of this, but they haven’t quite stuck the landing; the tone and overall personality never matched the Henson heyday.

We were cautiously optimistic about Rogen’s involvement from the beginning. He had worked with the Muppets previously on a couple of smaller projects and seems to be a genuine fan. The Muppet Show revival struck me as a passion project for him, just as the 2011 movie was for Jason Segel.

Rogen wrote as much on Instagram: “I’ve been working the better part of the last decade to try to bring my favorite show back…and it looks like I’m getting close.” (Here’s hoping his favorite old school EPCOT Center attraction was Journey into Imagination.)

I feel vindicated in that perspective after watching The Muppet Show. Rogen threaded the needle of crafting the perfect love letter to the original series, rediscovering the Muppets’ voice instead of projecting his own, and using the special as a stealth pilot for launching something fresh.

The thing is, the previous few paragraphs could just as easily apply to Figment. He too has been mishandled by Disney. Figment’s figurative voice is off in the current incarnation of Journey into Imagination. He also has a fervent fanbase that is skeptical of adaptations turning Figment into a ‘flavor of the month’ as opposed to restoring his timeless, all ages appeal.

If there were any doubts about Seth Rogen’s involvement with the Figment feature film, actually watching The Muppet Show revival special should quiet the criticism. If Rogen could do for Figment what he did for the Muppets, new CEO Josh D’Amaro would have no choice but to greenlight a $1 billion new Journey into Imagination attraction. Maybe even an entirely redone pavilion featuring Figment!

Ultimately, I just wanted to take some time to circle back to the whole Figment feature film, as it’s once again worth spotlighting following Rogen’s loving handling of the Muppets and success of this special.

I’ve taken a sacred oath to advocate for Journey into Imagination 4.0 whenever the opportunity presents itself because, selfishly, I want to experience the attraction and Figment with his true “voice” during our daughter’s formative years. Perhaps this post will be that one little spark of inspiration that someone needs to ask a question at the upcoming shareholder meeting.

The more logical and obvious conclusion to draw from the creative and commercial success of The Muppet Show revival special is that the future could be bright for the Muppets. After all, The Muppets Show averaged 3.07M viewers on ABC, was the biggest show of the night on network TV in the coveted 18-49 demo, and hit #1 on Disney+ in 59 countries. It remains to be seen whether that’s good enough for a series order, but it’s undoubtedly sufficient for us to see more Muppets.

From a Walt Disney World fan perspective, we’re hoping this keeps the door open for Muppets Courtyard 2.0 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Later this summer, the reimagined Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets will debut at DHS, as the Muppets turn the tables and evict Aerosmith. The success of that ride and The Muppet Show revival special increase the likelihood of Muppets Courtyard (revival) featuring a MuppetVision 3D (revival) once Villains Unfairly Ever After ends.

Here’s hoping that we’re standing on the precipice of a bona fide Muppet-aissance, and we look back at this special decades from now when the Muppets are again dominating pop culture as the moment when Muppets’ fortunes changed. Thanks, Seth Rogen. Now run it back again with Figment.

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YOUR THOUGHTS

What did you think of The Muppet Show revival special? Pleased with the job done by Seth Rogen and Sabrina Carpenter & co? Do you now trust Rogen and his team to turn around Figment’s fortunes? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!