Muppet Storyline Continuity

[CaptCrouton]

What's the rule of thumb regarding Muppet continuity. This is probably old hat, but I wasn't in on the discussion.

Reason for asking. I watched MTM with some friends last Saturday and the debate arose afterwards whether Kermit and Piggie are really married.

I contend that MTM was a parody of an old Judy Garland movie about making it big on broadway. (not that I remember the name, which doesn't help the debate) Kermit and Piggy simply can't be married because that eliminates that romantic/evasion tension of the personalities.

 

[kansasteen14]

it's not reall known I also started a topic of this you might want to check out and everyone has a different opinion.i feel they are because of that and other things.I mean if they werent they could flirt with more people like piggy did on the Muppet Show,but after MTM she only flirted with kermit.

 

[Luke]

There was a poll here at Muppet Central and it turned out that the majority thought that Kermit was NOT married to Piggy - but there will be a Kermit/Piggy kiss coming up in the xmas movie.

Awwww aint it great when Puppets swap saliva ? ;-)

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

I believe that, like all of the other Muppet movies (excluding The Muppet Movie), The Muppets Take Manhattan features the Muppets playing themselves, except in different roles than they play in their normal everyday lives. For example, let me explain:

Let's say that the real world of the Muppets is the world we see in The Muppet Show, The Jim Henson Hour, and Muppets Tonight. Then, in all Muppet movies (excluding The Muppet Movie, where they play themselves in a dramatization of "real" events"), they may be playing themselves, but they are in different roles. For example, in The Great Muppet Caper, Kermit plays a reporter for a major newspaper. In The Muppets Take Manhattan, he plays a college graduate trying to get "Manhattan Melodies" on Broadway. In Muppets from Space, he plays...well, I haven't seen the movie, but from all the reviews I read, I know that it doesn't take place in the Muppet "reality" either. So none of the Muppet movies take place in the Muppet "reality" seen in TMS, JHH, and MT. All of them are movies starring the Muppets, and are not only movies to us, but movies to the Muppets as well.

So, to put it in short, only the three classic-Muppet TV series (and the upcoming Muppet Christmas TV movie) show the Muppets' real lives. Since TMTM doesn't take place in the Muppet "reality," Kermit and Piggy aren't married, and haven't even considered getting married (well, Kermit hasn't, at least).

I don't want to get into depth about the SS Muppets or the Fraggle Rock Muppets...I think that A Muppet Family Christmas already explains very well that SS and Fraggle Rock are part of the Muppet "reality."

 

[Luke]

I think you are right there Jeffrey, but the Pig just won't accept it ! LOL !

Penguins were witnesses at the wedding too - that might have made it unlawful anyway !

 

[CaptCrouton]

This is my take. The assumption is that the Muppet Show is "real." (I guess that would be in the Velveteen Rabbit sense of real, wouldn't it?)

Muppet Movie isn't real because Scooter comes with the band and we know that he is only involved in the Muppet Theatre originally because his uncle owns it. Besides, Robin asks Kermit if it's really how it happened, and Kermit implies that it's not exactly how but it's pretty close. This tells me that the Muppet Movie is a Hollywood Version of how the Muppets came together. Loose as any Hollywood retelling of a historical event. See Pocahontas.

In the G. Muppet Caper, the muppets are playing parts and the Kermit, Foz, and Gonzo discuss this at the beginning. Besides, there is no evidence that Kermit and Fozzie are really brothers except that their father is Jim Henson.

In Manhattan, it isn't real because now the Muppets are back in college. If this takes place before the tv show, then it would have taken place between the Muppet Movie and the Show because they met in MM. Or else it invalidates the Muppet Movie as being real at all.
If MTM takes place after the Muppet show, then the muppets have all gone back to college after their hit TV show. Why would Broadway be such a big deal if you've had a national TV show for five years?

I just find the fact that Kermit and Piggie are married disturbing. I think Kermit would have done better to get together with Jenny the waitress. As a kid, I never liked Piggy and related well to Kermit running from her. What an awful life to be stuck with Piggy til death do us part.

Treasure Island and Christmas Carol are both retellings of a classic story.

Muppets From Space might be real. I'd never thought about it 'til this thread. I'd have to watch it again but I would take it as "the Muppets today."

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

They probably intended for it to be real, but if they did, why wasn't Piggy already a star, and why was Bobo named Rentro?

 

[Salmoto]

Adding into the assumption that I read too mamy muppet transcript, I read about a recent interview by Al Roker in which Piggy was trying to use the news of Al's recent marriage to hint at Kermit that they should get married

Piggy: Are you happy married, Al?
Al: Um, yeah.
Piggy: Year that Kermie? He's HAPPY married.....

 

[beaker]

for the record...

for the record, the muppets...each and every one of them, including singing vegetables and rudebagers...are actors.
they may not all have their S.A.G. card, but in the canon of Muppetdom they are all actors.

so from TMS to the movies, thats all acting.

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

I know THAT...but the backstage stuff on TMS, the control room stuff on MuppeTelevision, etc....are not acting in the Muppet world.