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I'm as caught up as I could be on Muppet Babies (both the original 1984 version and the 2018 reboot), so I decided to do a tribute to both Muppet Babies cartoons.

The story of the Muppet Babies began with the Muppets film The Muppets Take Manhattan, which famously had a scene of Miss Piggy wondering what it would've been like if she and Kermie knew each other as kids, then imagined the Muppets as babies. The scene was so popular that an animated series began development under Jim Henson Productions and Marvel Productions and started airing on CBS.

The cartoon's premise was that the Muppets were all toddlers with active imaginations, with hilarious and touching moments abound. Yeah, it was pretty much the Rugrats of its day. Notably, a new character was added in Scooter's twin sister Skeeter, who was added so that Piggy wouldn't be the only female character.

The main cast of the original cartoon consisted of Greg Berg (Scooter and Fozzie), Howie Mandel (Skeeter, Animal and Bunsen in the first two seasons), the late Russi Taylor (Gonzo and Robin), Laurie O'Brien (Piggy), Frank Welker (Kermit, Beaker and Skeeter after Mandel left), Dave Coulier (Animal and Bunsen after the departure of Howie Mandel as well as Bean Bunny, Janice, Statler and Waldorf), Katie Leigh (Rowlf), Barbara Billingsley (the Muppet Babies' caretaker Nanny) and additional voices by Peter Cullen and Pat Fraley.

The original show lasted 7 seasons, totaling 107 episodes. It was a very funny and endearing show. One thing that amazes me if how well it handles unlikely stuff. One specific thing is how they incorporated Kermit's nephew Robin. I know it's not that unusual for a child to already be an uncle or aunt (in middle school, I had a classmate who told us that her older sibling was a parent), but a toddler is still awfully young to be an uncle. Nevertheless, it was very sweet to see the children interact with Robin, plus how quick Kermit was to accept being an uncle when Skeeter explained what that meant.

While Disney currently owns the rights to the show, owing to their acquisitions of Marvel Productions and the Muppets franchise, there haven't been any home media releases lately because the show used a lot of footage from copyrighted movies. Some of the copyrighted footage was from Lucasfilm, another subsidiary now acquired by Disney, but that still doesn't quite resolve the copyright problems because a lot of the copyrighted movies footage was used from were movies that Disney most certainly does NOT own the rights to, even taking into account their recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

When the original show entered its second season, CBS asked for another show in response to Muppet Babies' popularity. The result was the short-lived Little Muppet Monsters, which only lasted three episodes because of production issues and because Muppet Babies doing better in ratings persuaded CBS to pull the plug on the new show. All that remained of Little Muppet Monsters after that was the ending credits theme for the remainder of Muppet Babies using portions of the Little Muppet Monsters theme and the final episode using clips from the animated Kermit & Fozzie and Pigs in Space segments.

Little Muppet Monsters to date hasn't been released on home media of any kind, but all three episodes can be found on YouTube at this time of writing.

Scooter's sister Skeeter has yet to make the official leap to regular Muppets. Her most notable appearance as an adult was in an arc from The Muppet Show Comic Book, which avoided naming her for most of the arc because Boom Studios, the publisher of The Muppet Show Comic Book, was unsure if having the comic book license to The Muppets meant they were allowed to use elements from Muppet Babies.

As is often the case with popular shows from the past, Muppet Babies eventually got a reboot. The new Muppet Babies premiered in 2018 on Disney Junior and was animated in CGI and helmed by Tom Warburton, the creator of Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door. I have seen every presently aired episode with the exceptions of Counting Kermits, The Karate Cub/Don't Over Duet and Run Fozzie Run/My Brother Vinny

Scooter and Skeeter are no longer part of the main cast, but they have appeared in a picture that can be seen as early as the first episode, and they have been confirmed to make full appearances eventually. To prevent Piggy again being the only female, a new character is brought in called Summer Penguin.

The cast of this version consists of Matt Danner (Kermit, Waldorf, Beaker, Rowlf and Swedish Chef), Melanie Harrison (Piggy), Eric Bauza (Fozzie, Bunsen, Robin and Statler), Ben Diskin (Gonzo and Rizzo), Dee Bradley Baker (Animal and Sweetums), Jessica DiCicco (Summer Penguin), and Jenny Slate (Miss Nanny).

I have nothing but nice things to say about the reboot. There are a lot of nice nods to the original as well as the Muppets franchise in general, the new cast does a bang-up job of emulating the Muppet characters' voices (with special props to Melanie Harrison for sounding just like Laurie O'Brien as well as occasionally shifting to sounding like grown-up Miss Piggy), it's still a funny and entertaining cartoon and also teaches very valuable lessons to kids (e.g. it can be fun to try new things, there's no shame in not knowing everything and you shouldn't be afraid of people just because they're different).

I do not know much about DVD releases, but I do know that the 2018 Muppet Babies is one of the shows available on Disney's new streaming service Disney+.

I'm now in the process of catching up on everything else related to the Muppets, but I will continue watching the new Muppet Babies whenever I have the chance to watch more new episodes.

The Muppets (c) Disney

Description

Made with DeviantArt muro

I'm as caught up as I could be on Muppet Babies (both the original 1984 version and the 2018 reboot), so I decided to do a tribute to both Muppet Babies cartoons.

The story of the Muppet Babies began with the Muppets film The Muppets Take Manhattan, which famously had a scene of Miss Piggy wondering what it would've been like if she and Kermie knew each other as kids, then imagined the Muppets as babies. The scene was so popular that an animated series began development under Jim Henson Productions and Marvel Productions and started airing on CBS.

The cartoon's premise was that the Muppets were all toddlers with active imaginations, with hilarious and touching moments abound. Yeah, it was pretty much the Rugrats of its day. Notably, a new character was added in Scooter's twin sister Skeeter, who was added so that Piggy wouldn't be the only female character.

The main cast of the original cartoon consisted of Greg Berg (Scooter and Fozzie), Howie Mandel (Skeeter, Animal and Bunsen in the first two seasons), the late Russi Taylor (Gonzo and Robin), Laurie O'Brien (Piggy), Frank Welker (Kermit, Beaker and Skeeter after Mandel left), Dave Coulier (Animal and Bunsen after the departure of Howie Mandel as well as Bean Bunny, Janice, Statler and Waldorf), Katie Leigh (Rowlf), Barbara Billingsley (the Muppet Babies' caretaker Nanny) and additional voices by Peter Cullen and Pat Fraley.

The original show lasted 7 seasons, totaling 107 episodes. It was a very funny and endearing show. One thing that amazes me if how well it handles unlikely stuff. One specific thing is how they incorporated Kermit's nephew Robin. I know it's not that unusual for a child to already be an uncle or aunt (in middle school, I had a classmate who told us that her older sibling was a parent), but a toddler is still awfully young to be an uncle. Nevertheless, it was very sweet to see the children interact with Robin, plus how quick Kermit was to accept being an uncle when Skeeter explained what that meant.

While Disney currently owns the rights to the show, owing to their acquisitions of Marvel Productions and the Muppets franchise, there haven't been any home media releases lately because the show used a lot of footage from copyrighted movies. Some of the copyrighted footage was from Lucasfilm, another subsidiary now acquired by Disney, but that still doesn't quite resolve the copyright problems because a lot of the copyrighted movies footage was used from were movies that Disney most certainly does NOT own the rights to, even taking into account their recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

When the original show entered its second season, CBS asked for another show in response to Muppet Babies' popularity. The result was the short-lived Little Muppet Monsters, which only lasted three episodes because of production issues and because Muppet Babies doing better in ratings persuaded CBS to pull the plug on the new show. All that remained of Little Muppet Monsters after that was the ending credits theme for the remainder of Muppet Babies using portions of the Little Muppet Monsters theme and the final episode using clips from the animated Kermit & Fozzie and Pigs in Space segments.

Little Muppet Monsters to date hasn't been released on home media of any kind, but all three episodes can be found on YouTube at this time of writing.

Scooter's sister Skeeter has yet to make the official leap to regular Muppets. Her most notable appearance as an adult was in an arc from The Muppet Show Comic Book, which avoided naming her for most of the arc because Boom Studios, the publisher of The Muppet Show Comic Book, was unsure if having the comic book license to The Muppets meant they were allowed to use elements from Muppet Babies.

As is often the case with popular shows from the past, Muppet Babies eventually got a reboot. The new Muppet Babies premiered in 2018 on Disney Junior and was animated in CGI and helmed by Tom Warburton, the creator of Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door. I have seen every presently aired episode with the exceptions of Counting Kermits, The Karate Cub/Don't Over Duet and Run Fozzie Run/My Brother Vinny

Scooter and Skeeter are no longer part of the main cast, but they have appeared in a picture that can be seen as early as the first episode, and they have been confirmed to make full appearances eventually. To prevent Piggy again being the only female, a new character is brought in called Summer Penguin.

The cast of this version consists of Matt Danner (Kermit, Waldorf, Beaker, Rowlf and Swedish Chef), Melanie Harrison (Piggy), Eric Bauza (Fozzie, Bunsen, Robin and Statler), Ben Diskin (Gonzo and Rizzo), Dee Bradley Baker (Animal and Sweetums), Jessica DiCicco (Summer Penguin), and Jenny Slate (Miss Nanny).

I have nothing but nice things to say about the reboot. There are a lot of nice nods to the original as well as the Muppets franchise in general, the new cast does a bang-up job of emulating the Muppet characters' voices (with special props to Melanie Harrison for sounding just like Laurie O'Brien as well as occasionally shifting to sounding like grown-up Miss Piggy), it's still a funny and entertaining cartoon and also teaches very valuable lessons to kids (e.g. it can be fun to try new things, there's no shame in not knowing everything and you shouldn't be afraid of people just because they're different).

I do not know much about DVD releases, but I do know that the 2018 Muppet Babies is one of the shows available on Disney's new streaming service Disney+.

I'm now in the process of catching up on everything else related to the Muppets, but I will continue watching the new Muppet Babies whenever I have the chance to watch more new episodes.

The Muppets (c) Disney