The Muppet Show’s beloved house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, are back with a new ten-episode musical series on digital streaming platform Disney +. On a musical journey to finally record their first album, they’re helped on the way by a small cadre of flesh and blood friends, but as always, it’s the Muppets and the music that are the real stars here.
Not to say the human cast, including an ambitious record label employee, Nora, played by Lilly Singh (A Little Late with Lilly Singh), Tahj Mowry (Baby Daddy) as Mayhem superfan Moog, Nora’s sister Hannah, played by Saara Chaudry (The Mysterious Benedict Society) and Workaholics star Anders Holm as JJ, don’t do a fine job pushing the story forward. It’s just that the felt-faced crew of the Electric Mayhem (Bill Barretta as Dr. Teeth, Dave Goelz as Zoot, Eric Jacobson as Animal, Peter Linz as Lips, David Rudman as Janice, Matt Vogel as Floyd Pepper) and their long-established character traits are near perfectly utilized in the series by a totally seamless exhibition of puppetry and cinematography.
The Muppets are one of the most recognizable, beloved franchises in media but attempts to recapture the spirit that made them a household name have been…well hit or miss, to put it mildly. Iconic puppeteer Jim Henson first utilized them in a kids’ series in 1955 before evolving their look, refining their characters, and searching for a home for his cast of puppet oddballs. After finding one on the iconic kids’ show Sesame Street starting in 1969, Henson managed to parlay their success across numerous other projects, including, bizarrely enough, an adult-themed iteration of the puppets which starred in their own segments of the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975.
In that same year, the nationally syndicated The Muppet Show took the nation by storm. That series followed the concept of watching the puppets run a weekly variety series featuring a mix of comedy sketches and some truly amazing music segments from the likes of Elton John, Johnny Cash, and more. That show spawned a series of feature-length films, including 1979’s The Muppet Movie, adaptations of classic stories such as Treasure Island, A Christmas Carol, cartoon adaptations like The Muppet Babies, and more before falling into disuse.
Despite being one of the most loved and recognizable intellectual properties in the Disney stable, subsequent revival attempts have been more miss than hit. The Muppet Movie in 2011 did well enough (surely aided by fun turns from Jason Segel and Amy Adams) but its 2014 sequel Muppet’s Most Wanted didn’t fare nearly as well as earlier cinematic efforts. An attempt at a faux reality TV show utilizing the characters was, in a word, disastrous, and speedily canceled.
Where the most recent TV series failed due to drastic changes in personalities and ham-fisted attempts to shoehorn in modern, adult situations and nods to the modern zeitgeist, The Muppets Mayhem soars. Elements like toxic fandom and the band’s reaction to social media, with Janice becoming a cult-leading influencer and Animal becoming a Tik Tok celebrity (aided by Hannah), are perfectly integrated into the storyline.
The high point of The Muppets Mayhem series comes midway, in episode five, when the troupe plus Nora make a nod to Oliver Stone’s desert psychedelic journey from The Doors due to some expired marshmallows. We get a peek inside each character’s mind, reset their egos, and drop some universal truth bombs from a somehow cosmic and yet down-to-Earth “Weird” Al Yankovic appearing. There’s a wonderful claymation sequence and a throwaway joke about a Polaroid camera that takes pictures of hallucinations that, if it was real, would make ALL the money.
Yankovic is a welcome guest but he isn’t the only musician or modern star clamoring to join in the fun. There are plenty of other cameos from the likes of Chris Stapleton, Lil Nas X, Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe), Danny Trejo, Steve Aoki, Sophia Carson, Zedd, a rare duo appearance by iconic potheads Cheech & Chong, director Kevin “Silent Bob” Smith, Suzanne Hoffman, Paula Abdul, titanic radio morning show host Charlamagne The God, and even an inspired comedic turn by venerated actor Morgan Freeman. Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson even turns up and somehow makes his early career, R-rated cult classic Muppets/Beatles satire he directed, Meet The Feebles, in-universe Muppet canon.
There are some bumps and detours on this ride but no real surprises in the story as it unfolds. The writers kept it simple because they trusted the material and these beloved characters to carry viewers’ attention and it works beautifully. You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel when all you really need is a fresh coat of paint and a winning story. Especially when The Electric Mayhem already knows how to rock and roll all night and part of every day!
Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem – “Rock and Roll All Nite” (KISS)