{"id":9845,"date":"2023-05-18T03:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T03:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9845"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:33:10","slug":"a-glimmer-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9845","title":{"rendered":"A GLIMMER OF HOPE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is so much garbage being produced by Hollywood in general (and Disney in particular) right now, that I feel it is my duty as an optimist to highlight a bright spot on the cultural landscape when I see it &#8211; and give Disney a little credit &#8211; even though it involves me admitting to a childhood obsession that has never really left me:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love the Muppets.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But for years now I have had to specify: I love the OLD Muppets. The way they<i> used to be<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But then Disney decided to create a new show for their streaming platform, telling a brand new story involving Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, the Muppet Show&#8217;s in-house band.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I figured it would be disastrous.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, surprisingly, it is a complete throw-back, not only to the way the Muppets used to be, but to the way television used to be. This show was clearly made by people who:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>Love the Muppets<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Understand the gentle, offbeat humor that made them so appealing<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Know something about music<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Have skill in storytelling and character development<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And by people who <b><i>do not<\/i><\/b>:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>Hate men<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Feel the need to make the lead female human character into an infallible &#8220;girl boss&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Get preachy about woke nonsense<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Plus, there are dozens of cameos by famous musicians and actors engaging in conversation with the Muppets in sweet and funny ways very reminiscent of the original Muppet Movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe it&#8217;s just the optimist in me, but this show gives me hope that not all has been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fer sure! Totally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is so much garbage being produced by Hollywood in general (and Disney in particular) right now, that I feel it is my duty as an optimist to highlight a bright spot on the cultural landscape when I see it &#8211; and give Disney a little credit &#8211; even though it involves me admitting to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9846,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions\/9846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}