Life is complicated. TV can help. “What Would TV Do?” attempts to explore life’s mysteries, problems and everyday situations with the assistance of the life lessons offered by television.
I don’t know about you, but I often find myself in need of a Muppet fix. Whenever life gets me down, I just need some brightly colored and insane joy to pick me back up. Strangely, my day-to-day life tends to be otherwise devoid of talking frogs, diva pigs and friendly monsters.
It’s sad, really.
Fortunately, we have television to provide all of the Muppet goodness needed to make it through the dark times of this world.
What would TV do?
Put Cookie Monster on Saturday Night Live.
There is absolutely no reason why our favorite Sesame Street Muppets need to remain confined to daytime television. Late-night TV needs its Muppets too!
TV, in its infinite wisdom, has begun to make this happen. After the Cookie Monster posted a YouTube video to audition for Saturday Night Live, it almost came to pass! We haven’t gotten to see Cookie Monster as the host (and possibly musical guest) of SNL, but he did show up for a brief duet with Jeff Bridges in the last new broadcast of 2010.
Show Muppet movies all day.
Television has arranged for a Christmas present this year: Muppet movies on The Hub (formerly Discovery Kids) starting on Christmas Eve! You can watch The Muppets Christmas Carol and The Christmas Toy on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25. If that’s not enough for you, television continues the Muppet gifting with The Muppets Take Manhattan on the nights of Dec. 25 and Dec. 26.
Have the Muppets build a house.
Last winter, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition brought in the Muppets to help with one of their many heartwarming building projects. Because what warms the heart more than Muppets? Nothing, that’s what!
Watch this clip, if you need some of that feel-good construction work right now!
I do hope they remembered to put on the roof.
Re-cast the Lost smoke monster with a Muppet.
Lost was a dark, dramatic story of death and redemption. But wouldn’t it have been a lot more fun with Muppets involved? Was that even a possibility? Check out this video for the answer:
Just imagine: Pepe the King Prawn as the Smoke Monster! It probably would have decreased the Lost death count, if nothing else.
Use Muppets to judge chefs.
Sometime soon — we don’t know when — the cheftestants on Top Chef All-Stars will face their most formidable judging ever. Instead of needing to please celebrity chefs or Joe Jonas, the cheftestants will have to please the delicate palates of Elmo, Cookie Monster and Telly from Sesame Street.
I would suggest cookies as the best way to win that challenge.
Let that guy from How I Met Your Mother make a new Muppet movie.
Television is even willing to share Muppet love with other visual art forms. Thanks to Jason Segel (Marshall on How I Met Your Mother), we will soon see a new Muppet movie in theaters. With an expected release date next Thanksgiving, the Muppets will break free of television’s confines again and soar to new theatrical heights!
This will be accompanied by much promotion on television, of course.
With television’s help, you never have to go without quality Muppet time. And that’s a good thing.
(Images and video courtesy of NBC and ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include Chuck, Modern Family, Supernatural, Mad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.
