Muppet Babies made its debut on September 15, 1984. That means the show turned 42 years old this week, and the babies themselves are a couple of years older than that, making them eligible to join AARP within the next year or two.
In case you didn’t know, the Muppet Babies were born out of a dream sequence from the third Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan. Maybe everybody already knew that. I never know what people know anymore. A coworker of mine didn’t know it used to cost money to call long distance and that later you had to buy “minute plans” for your cellphone. I am 100% sure that kid has not seen The Muppets Take Manhattan, but maybe you have.
In the film, Miss Piggy and Kermit have an argument during which Miss Piggy says she wishes the two of them had never met. Later she recants, stating she wishes they had met even sooner. Cue the musical dream sequence “I’m Gonna Always Love You” featuring baby versions of Ketmit and Piggy along with Rowlf, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Scooter.
So, two things. First, the Muppet Babies only appear in a dream sequence, which if you’re a nerd like me means they are non-canon. I’m guessing this isn’t a fact that keeps most people up at night, but nothing that takes place in this sequence or the animated series that followed are part of the official Muppet timeline. I don’t even know if there really is a Muppet timeline. It seems like Kermit and Miss Piggy meet for the first time in every single one of these movies.
And second, I don’t mind telling you that The Muppets Take Manhattan is one of my least favorite Muppet movies. I could probably drop “one of” from that sentence except I haven’t seen all the later ones so maybe there’s one out there worse than this one. Along with being somewhat lackluster, the film was released in July of 1984. Here are some other films that were released that same month: The Last Starfighter, The NeverEnding Story, Revenge of the Nerds, Electric Dreams, Purple Rain, Meatballs Part II, amd Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers. In the month before that, June, we got Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Streets of Fire, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Beat Street, The Karate Kid, Top Secret!, Bachelor Party, Conan the Destroyer, and Cannonball Run II. And then in August we got The Philadelphia Experiment, Red Dawn, Cloak & Dagger, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Dreamscape, The Woman in Red, C.H.U.D., and dozens of others.
Again, that’s not “every great movie released in the 80s” — those are the films that were released in the summer of 1984. Competition was stiff and The Muppets Take Manhattan got trounced.
And then somewhere some executive said “boy those baby Muppets sure were cute though” and thus were born the Muppet Babies. Er, reborn.
First of all, not for nothing, that’s one damn catchy theme song. 42 years later, I can still sing every word. Next, i you watched carefully you’ll notice all the Muppets that appeareed in the original sequence make appearances here along with four more: Skeeter (Scooter’s twin sister), Animal, and baby versions of Dr. Bunson Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker.
Two other major parts of the show are revealed in the opening. The first is the appearance of “Nanny,” who would enter the room from time to time. Nanny was only seen from the knees down and was voiced by Barbara “June Cleaver” Billingsly. Up and coming comedian and voice actor Howie Mandell provided the voices of Skeeter and Animal. Russi Taylor, the official voice of Minnie Mouse, performed baby Gonzo. Kermit’s voice was provided by Frank Welker and if you don’t know who that is get ready for this rabbit hole.
The other thing you’ll notice in that opening of the Muppet Babies are all the other movie references. Easy to spot ones include Kermit swinging from a rope in front of a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter from Star Wars, and four of the characters (Fozzie, Piggy, Kermit and Gonzo) appear in a tribute to The Wizard of Oz.
Stick a pin in all of those references for a minute.
Each episode of the show featured some sort of simple plot, like one of the Muppets being afraid of something or preparing for something, but there would be dozens of little side adventures throughout the show. Most episodes had music numbers and all of them had multiple imaginary sequences in which the characters parodied movies or just had imaginary adventures in the playroom. Sometimes these used film clips from well-known movies and sometimes they used public domain footage. More often than not the clips would be used in between animated sequences. In one scene Gonzo folds a paper plane and when he throws it we see a (probably public domain) clip of an old jet lying through the air. And then there are times when the Muppets would go to a pretend drive-in and watch… you know.
So here’s the thing. By the time the Muppet Babies came out I was a tween interested in arcades, skateboarding, and breakdancing. I shouldn’t have had any interest at all in a show like this… and yet, I did. The show’s funny and well-written, but the parodies, movie clips and references kept it fresh and interesting. Muppet Babies was on the air for eight seasons from 1984-1993, and while I didn’t watch every episode of every season, I watched more than I would care to admit to my pals. And so did they.
So according to legend, the reason Muppet Babies got away with using footage from Lucas and Spielberg and Disney and everybody else is that, well, Jim Henson is a nice guy and the Muppets were popular. George Lucas sued Luther Campbell for using the name “Luke Skywalker” in the band 2 Live Crew so it’s pretty amazing that he would look the other way and let a show like this use a clip from Star Wars in the opening. (If you’re a movie buff you will hear SO. MANY. SOUND. EFECTS. from classic films in this show.)
BUT. In the 1980s, and on television, handshake deals often worked and that’s because nobody thought television shows would be re-released on DVD or streaming services. Unfortunately what made the Muppet Babies so popular was the same thing that has prevented it from ever seeing an official release. I’m no lawyer but I’m guessing if you made a cartoon today that featured clips from both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars today it would cost roughly seven bazillion dollars. And of course it’s not just those franchises. There are so many little sound effects, clips, and parodies that it would make releasing the show on any format impossible.
It took me about 30 seconds to find this scene from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video in an episode.
If you’re wondering why all of these screenshots are a little blurry it’s because all of these episodes were preserved by fans on VHS tapes. Decades ago I bought copies of the first couple of seasons of Muppet Babies on eBay. Today, people have compiled all the best copies (usually ones recorded later from the Disney Channel) and stuck them online in places where people stick such things.
While it would be great to see these old episodes restored and presented as a complete collection, I’m okay with these old rips. I like them in the same way I miss my old vinyl copy of AC/DC’s Back in Black. The songs sounded cleaner on CD and louder after being remastered for Spotify… but the songs aren’t any better. They’re still great songs, always were. And while it would be neat to see these old Muppet cartoons all cleaned up, the jokes and laughs are all still there in all their 480p glory.
Maybe someday they’ll get around to finally releasing them on Blu-ray. We’ve got two of our best agents working on it right now.
