The Muppets Mayhem (2023)
The Muppets Mayhem is a 2023 10-episode series on Disney+ starring the house band from the original Muppet Show, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
Nora, one of two employees at a failing record label, aspires to become a music mogul despite her current position as a lowly assistant. While shredding papers, Nora discovers that the world renown Electric Mayhem once accepted a large cash advance from the label in exchange for an album which they never delivered. (The band promised to deliver an album after their tour ended and then proceeded to go on tour for 45 years.) Nora, with help from her sister Hannah, her music mogul and ex-boyfriend JJ, and Mayhem superfan Moog, plan to wrangle in the Electric Mayhem, squeeze a debut album out of them, and reap the rewards.
The glue holding the show together is the Electric Mayhem, who ironically can’t seem to hold anything together. The six-piece band, consisting of Dr. Teeth, Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, Lips, and Animal, can’t focus on anything long enough to get anything accomplished. Subsequently, Nora spends 10 episodes attempting to drag the Mayhem into the 2020s by arranging recording sessions with modern producers, giving them cellphones, and introducing them to social media.
Like many one-off series, The Muppets Mayhem would have worked better as a two-hour special than a 10-episode series. To fill all those episodes, viewers are taken on multiple long side quests. In one episode, the band spends the night in the desert and attempts to find themselves by ingesting 30-year-old marshmallows and spending half of a 22-minute episode tripping and having hallucinations in a way-too-long Doors-inspired segment. In another episode, due to a misunderstanding Animal believes he is no longer needed in the band and spends half an episode at an employment agency applying for work. (His tenure answering phones is short lived.) On Family Guy these would be 5-10 second clips and in a normal length film they would last two minutes, but in today’s episodic format they become entire episodes that are slightly entertaining but ultimately don’t move the needle forward.
With Adam F. Goldberg (from the Goldbergs) at the helm you know this is going to be a nostalgia fest, and true to form there are classic Muppet references galore. Additionally, with Disney money comes Disney connections, and the show has more cameos and licensed music than it can handle. In ten 22-minute episodes the Electric Mayhem run into Billy Corgan, Morgan Freeman, Cheech and Chong, Kevin Smith, Peter Jackson, Ziggy Marley, Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul, Weird Al, Danny Trejo, and dozens of other celebrities. There’s also a steady stream of appearances for younger viewers like deadmau5, Charlamagne The God, Lil Nas X, and Zedd. This huge spread guarantees you’ll recognize some of these people, but unlikely to recognize (or care about) them all. Some of these cameos are so forced that they feel cringy, like when Susanna Hoffs (former lead singer of the Bangles) drops by and not only has to introduce herself but admit that Lips is the one who “taught her to walk like an Egyptian.”
There’s a price to pay for that kind of access and it comes in the form of product placement. The band makes an excursion to shop for groceries all to set up a bit where Animal fills a shopping cart with Fritos, and then says “Fritos!” ten times. Restaurants, businesses, and products are constantly mentioned and appear on screen. Sgt. Floyd Pepper spends a few seconds coming up with a new jingle for Bennigan’s. In an establishing shot, the camera pans down from the Chateau Marmot sign to catch the band’s bus driving by. Animal plays with a Simon toy for 30 seconds, during which the band says “Simon” 20 times. Animal gets a job at Teppanyaki Terrace, works around people in Teppanyaki Terrace uniforms, and appears on a Teppanyaki Terrace billboard. Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are frequently mentioned by name.
The series has 10 half hour episodes for Nora to succeed, for the love triangle between Nora, JJ, and Moog to get resolved, and the Electric Mayhem to record an album, all of which we know are going to happen. The final episode ends with the Electric Mayhem heading out on tour, which they had been doing for the past 45 years before the show began. It’s possible this could lead to a second season, but more likely it’ll lead to even more Disney+ series. What we need next is a 10-episode series about Fozzy the Bear’s journey through the world of stand up comedy, or how Sam the Eagle left the forest and found the Muppet Show, or…