The Not-So-Late Show, Preview: We Need The Human Connection

HBO, you are working hard to lure us into new Muppet content. I’ve been watching vintage Muppet clips and taking solace in Harry Belafonte’s songs about light and banana boats. It seems that it’s hard to replace the risks that The Muppet Show took for their variety show, where Kermit has to play the straight man to a lot of whimsical characters. After about two decades of trial and error, it seems HBO realized that the attempts to reboot the Muppet show had the wrong headliner.

Before Elmo goes to bed, he dresses in a tuxedo and gets wishes of good luck from his parents. Then he introduces the band Mama Bear, featuring the titular character as the drummer, Harry on the strings, and a monster I don’t know shredding the keys. They certainly are good, so good that when Abby’s magic causes them to play super-fast none of them miss a beat.

This is obviously manufactured joy. I am also swallowing it up because we need the lessons of the Muppets more than ever. Rewatching vintage Sesame Street is a great way to calm down after a bad day. It’s also a relief to see a show where humans and Muppets appear together, after most of the original cast was forced to leave.