First Look: The Muppet Show 2026

[alanajoli]

From the opening, nostalgic-sounding music to the final saxophone note, the newest episode of The Muppet Show feels like a return to the original. Between 1976 to 1981, audiences watching the original run of The Muppet Show learned to love Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, and the gang as much for their on-stage performances as the chaos backstage. And now, that magic is back in what may not be the finest episode of the variety show, but in something that will absolutely make fans (and newcomers) realize why the original was so special.

Disney’s The Muppet Show stars Sabrina Carpenter and the original Muppet cast. (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)

In the special, the Muppets have returned to the Muppet Theater to put on the first episode (and possibly only episode given that this is being presented as a Disney+ special) of their show. Of course, everyone wants to be involved, and with only a half-hour runtime, Kermit has some tough decisions to make. Luckily, Sabrina Carpenter is there as the special guest, keeping the momentum going with her own musical talents and gushing about her lifetime love for the Muppets. (Carpenter is clearly playing a caricatured version of herself here, but she’s also clearly having a great time.) In true Muppet fashion, there are additional cameos, including Maya Rudolph and Seth Rogen (also an executive director).

The structure of the special mirrors the old episodes of The Muppet Show, where the on-stage acts are interspersed with backstage and dressing room shenanigans (including familiar Kermit and Piggy drama and banter). Unlike the short-lived the muppets., which leaned too far into edgier adult jokes, there’s only one borderline joke in The Muppet Show—and it’s the type that would make a teen viewer scandalized but would fly right over the heads of younger watchers. That’s the balance the old Muppet Show always struck; it was family friendly not because it catered to the youngest audience members, but because it played equally well across age groups. There’s a nice hint of that here, and Muppet-loving families are going to be happy to watch it together.

The new special could easily consider the film The Muppets (2011) canon, since it’s a film all about saving the Muppet Theater, but it could also simply be a continuum of the original show, with the films and programs between all being fiction. (Rogen makes a comment about “canon” Muppets at one point, and it almost begs audiences to ask the question about what is canon in an IP that has always pressed the boundaries of the fourth wall.) While it would have been nice to have a throwaway line about the Electric Mayhem finally releasing an album (the plot of the excellent Muppets Mayhem, a one season show that felt complete rather than canceled), it’s also laudable that the special doesn’t need to lean into the other Muppet properties. It’s The Muppet Show!

The Muppet performers are all excellent, and while it’s easy to miss Steve Whitmeyer and Frank Oz, Dave Goelz still gives as gonzo a performance as ever, and Matt Vogel (Kermit and others), Eric Jacobson (Piggy, Fozzie, and more), and Bradley Freeman Jr. (Bean the Bunny and Rizzo) do their characters justice. It’s especially nice to see Rizzo back in the spotlight in one of the variety show numbers. Bill Barretta’s Pepe the King Prawn also steals a scene in a comedy sketch that fills a spot where Pigs in Space once would have run, and it’s one of Pepe’s most likeable performances. (Barretta also reprises Rowlf, whom he’s been performing since 1996, so well that it’s hard to distinguish his performance from Henson’s).

While I don’t think all the jokes here are on the Muppets A-game (even Kermit admits they’re a little rusty), the experience of just getting a new episode of The Muppet Show after so many years of nostalgia is a delight, The biggest disappointment here is that it’s not the first of many more episodes to come.

The Muppet Show airs on Disney+ beginning February 4.

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