Thank you all for your enthusiastic responses to my latest update! And now, for my replies to your comments...
Love the Jim Henson sehlat connection, makes perfect sense in-universe.
Thank you. It was a very fortunate "in" that I found, which I basically explained within the post itself: "Yesteryear" would require two creatures, and virtually all of the large creature work was done by
Janos Prohaska (IOTL
and ITTL), who was only one man; they would have to farm out the second creature to someone else. Henson was definitely a "name" by this point (the episode would have filmed in the late spring of 1969; he would start filming the first season of
Sesame Street a few months later), and his more relatable and expressive Muppets would have been deemed more desirable for the character of I-Chaya than Prohaska's more generic "monster" designs.
Also, I can imagine a few things different in this alternate US-based Muppet Show. Sam the Eagle will probably be different and perhaps less visible: in the OTL show he was a take-that in part to the US studio executives who hadn't backed the show in the US, and there was a certain transatlantic component to the mockery, playing to the British audience. That won't happen in TTL of course and I imagine he'll be a purer example of a strawman moral guardian. Also, given the close Star Trek connection, "Pigs in Space" will presumably be absent or very different...which might butterfly away the memetic "X IN SPAAAAAACE!" phrase it created (regrettably few of The Youth seem to realise this is where it's from).
Agreed about Sam the Eagle; the primary satirical element behind his characterization ITTL would be how the show is intended only for children, and how everything must be designed to appeal to them, which would be played up a lot more vis-a-vis OTL (it will
also prove topical, with the Family Viewing Hour on the horizon).
Sadly, I think "Pigs in Space" will not exist in anything near its OTL form. Collateral butterflies, alas.
Henson really is a man who deserves more praise than he gets, if that's possible. In addition to the Muppets, he pioneered most of the techniques used to create realistic animatronic puppets. The question here is whether, in this story, he gets more recognition for his serious, realistic puppetry and creature design...
It seems that, IOTL, the lone ventures where his creativity was not met with commensurate success were his non-
Muppet-Show-movies in the 1980s.
The Dark Crystal and
Labyrinth are the shining examples here. I obviously can't say what his career will look like when
The Muppet Show finally comes to an end, but we'll see.
I'm guessing the slight alterations to the show will affect The Muppet Movie somehow...
Glad you're still reading! As to your comment... that of course assumes that there
will be a Muppet Movie!
Last great variety show? I think In Living Color would like to dispute this...
Glad you're still reading, Kalvan! But as e of pi so adroitly put it,
In Living Color has in all likelihood been butterflied away. (Note that both Shawn and Marlon Wayans were born well after the POD). Also, I too have objections to describing
In Living Color as a "variety" show in the classical sense. It was a sketch comedy show, punctuated by occasional guest musical performances (notably
not musical numbers performed by the cast, which is a variety staple) and, if you
really want to stretch, the Fly Girls.
Yes, it won the Outstanding Variety Series Emmy, but that's a
very broad category (and it has been awarded to a
talk show every year since 1998, IOTL).
Even if you want to count it as a variety show, it's like trying to call A Prairie Home Companion a competitor for Last Great Radio Variety Show--it's inspired by the traditions of the applicable genre (In Prairie Home's case the radio shows of the 20s and 30s), but they were mostly dead for decades before it started.
Let's not get carried away, now - the "death" of the variety show is usually pinned to
1980 (with the series
Pink Lady and Jeff), with
In Living Color airing a scant decade later - and other variety revivals being attempted prior to that; some meeting with marginal success, such as
Dolly and
The Tracey Ullman Show (though you probably remember that one better for the weird cartoon about those yellow people that spun off from it). Also, syndicated variety shows like
Hee-Haw endured into the 1990s.
One problem- wasn't the Muppet show picked up by CBS OTL? (While it was syndicated, CBS wanted it for their O&Os, and the end credits mentioned the CBS Television Stations.)
That may be true, but Henson shopped his concept around to
everyone IOTL, and didn't discriminate. And ABC
did air both test pilot specials IOTL, and presumably would have picked the show up as a series if they had deemed it sufficiently successful. (That they commissioned a second special after the first is proof enough of that.)
Very good point. They could decide to reverse the mockery and have a different character - Leroy the British Lion perhaps?
I'm sorry, but that would
never occur to them. What is the UK to
them, anyway? They would want something more esoteric - like, say, a
Swedish character
NCW8 said:
I don't think that "Pigs in Space" appeared in the first season of the Muppets in OTL anyway. By the time they decide to do such a sketch ITTL, maybe Adama's Ark will be well enough known to serve as the basis of the parody. Or if they do have a British characature on the show, he could star in a sketch based on Dr Who, with Miss Piggy as his companion.
British Muppet aside, these are all
intriguing possibilities.
I'm imagining some of the Guest Stars that might be available for US recordings that couldn't make UK tapings.
Miss Piggy meets The King? Imagine the duet!
I like that idea
so much that I'm willing to call it canon. Elvis Presley
will be a guest star in the second season (1975-76). Sure he'll be bloated and past his prime, but he
is still Elvis, and his appearance will be immortalized in popular culture ITTL. (It may well prove the "Nureyev moment" of the series.) Elvis impersonators were already a "thing" by the mid-1970s, so we'll undoubtedly see lots of Muppets in those ridiculous hairstyles and costumes. Colonel Tom Parker may have been a stick-in-the-mud, but the King himself had enough of a sense of humour that he would play along. And who knows what the appearance might do for his longer-term prospects?
I think my imagination just sploded!
Be sure to clean up after yourself, Professor
The Professor said:
Glad to see that Henson is doing much better TTL.
Will it mean an earlier or later foray into film?
What could replace
Dark Crystal? Whose loss is keenly felt here!
There's only one way to find out!
A very nice update - love the Muppet Show here, and Shatner is great as a guest!
Thank you! This is probably going to mark the beginnings of his rehabilitation ITTL - whether it will be as complete or successful as IOTL is another question entirely.
It seems as if this Muppet Show is a bit earlier, and will have other differences. Is there some particular reason why Mia Farrow would be the very first guest in both timelines?
Many actors refused to act with - and writers refused to write for - "felt" (as the expression goes), until such time as the Muppets were established (in the late-1970s IOTL, and the mid-1970s ITTL). Mia Farrow was obviously willing to give the Muppets a chance IOTL, and she's a reasonably big star, so I decided to stick with her. Obviously, for various reasons, the list of those guests who appear on
The Muppet Show proper will be very divergent from the OTL roster.
A possibility of a behind-the-scenes special ties into my executive plans for Desilu going forward, so you'll just have to sit on that for now.
Towards the end of the seventies, ATV was criticised for it's lack of local production in the Midlands region. As a result it was restructured as Central Independant Television and sold its Elstree studio to the BBC. ITTL, if ATV can't find another programme to produce at Elstree, it might decide to sell the studios earlier, in which case it wouldn't be criticised about non-local production. There would be no need to restructure and ATV would continue into the eighties.
This is a fascinating consequence of Grade not being given the chance to produce
The Muppet Show ITTL; thanks for sharing it with us.
More interesting is what the BBC would do with Elstree if they aquired it earlier. In OTL, Eastenders has been filmed there since the mid eighties. Maybe the BBC could produce their own soap opera earlier. That would probably be better than their early eighties series Triangle, which has been described as some of the most mockable British television ever produced.
Now
this is a curious scenario. When I discovered how young
EastEnders actually is (it began running in 1985, in contrast to its eternal rival
Coronation Street, which started in 1960; the two are habitually the #2 and #1 shows on British television, respectively), it really surprised me that the BBC would take
that long to develop a "response".
No Elstree might butterfly unique series like Sapphire and Steel.
Would Lew Grade have the resources to bring Jesus of Nazereth to the screen without Elstree?
No JoN means Monty Python's Life of Brian either costs a shit load more, or looks a LOT cheaper.
(LoB made use of left-over JoN sets)
Monty Python's
what? Looks like someone
else is getting ahead of themselves again
Maybe a British Television timeline based on this may help answer some of these mysteries?
Welcome aboard, Matthew! To answer your question, I'm afraid I'm far too megalomaniacal to cede direct control over this fictional universe that I've created, at least with regards to the Anglosphere. Besides, I do have an excellent consultant on the subject, supplemented nicely by the helpful suggestions of the apparent plurality of my readership hailing from the British Isles
You will hear more official word on the state of British television in later cycles, I can assure you.
Indeed, we'll get a taste of British television through transatlantic eyes when we finally take a look at the would-be "fourth network", PBS, in the very next update!
