Muppets 2007 Presentation Pilot

A spec presentation pilot featuring the Muppets in a mock documentary, or "mockumentary", was produced by The Walt Disney Company in December 2006.

The piece was written and produced by Bill Prady. It was directed by Bill Barretta and featured puppetry by Barretta, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and Eric Jacobson. The demo also featured cameo appearances by John Landis and Melina Kanakaredes.

Premise

The pilot featured a fictional English filmmaker named Ian Bascombe. The premise of the piece was that Bascombe and his camera crew were given complete access to film Kermit and the rest of the Muppets as they attempt to develop a new television series.

In addition to following Kermit as he meets with a network executive, Bascombe interviews other Muppet characters. Some, he discovers, have left entertainment (Sam the Eagle, for example, is working as a security guard) while others have been pursuing solo projects (Fozzie Bear has continued to perform as a stand-up comedian, but he also mentions that he spent a season as a writer on Moesha). Kermit would also travel around having to get the gang to come back together to help with the new show.

The 10-minute presentation pilot, completed in December 2006, proposed a possible television mini-series that would be shot in the same kind of mock documentary style that would follow the adventures of the Muppets as they regroup and create a show.

Status

In a September 2007 radio interview, Dave Goelz speculated that it was possible that elements of the reel could make it into a series, but that the process was mostly for getting those talents involved, working on something together again.

“We did do something. We got together and did something written by Bill Prady last December and it was just a way of getting everyone together and working again on a project. It's possible that elements of that could wind up in a series but, you know, it’s a complicated process.”

-Dave Goelz