Even though there has been some decent original programming on Disney+ so far, it’s been missing something that would have made an outstanding addition to the line-up: The Muppets.

Back in February of 2019, we learned there was a new Muppets series in development from Frozen star Josh Gad and Once Upon a Time creators Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz. The show was called Muppets Live Another Day, and rather than trying to create a new modern Muppets series, the show was set immediately following the events of The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984. Unfortunately, the series was scrapped, so we’ll never get to see it. But thankfully, Josh Gad has shared a couple script pages from the pilot for you to read.

Muppets Live Another Day Script Pages

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To hopefully brighten your quarantined Tuesday, here’s an excerpt from our unproduced #MuppetsLiveAnotherDay project which was set in the early 80’s. Hope this brings a needed smile to your face. The script, written by me, @adamhorowitzla and Eddy Kitsis was truly one of the most fun things I’ve ever had the honor of working on. Hope to share the whole thing with you all one day! Scroll though.

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In Muppets Live Another Day, the gang has been disbanded by Kermit for some reason. It appears the reception to the Muppets show on Broadway from Muppets Take Manhattan wasn’t very good. So Kermit is now in seclusion, and Rowlf looks to be a little sad that everyone else has gone off to do their own thing. Eventually Rowlf becomes the catalyst for the entire series as he disappears and the whole gang goes off to look for him. But this scene is before all that happens.

In these script pages from the axed show, Rowlf is hanging out with Steve Martin, a frequent guest star of The Muppets projects. I love the note about Martin wearing a younger-looking gray wig, especially since he always seems to have had gray hair. In fact, the script goes on to make a joke about that by having baby pictures of Steve Martin with a gray wig on.

As their conversation continues, we learn that the hit comedy Three Amigos starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short was once going to be the Four Amigos, and Rowlf would have been the fourth companion. Unfortunately, the studio thought the movie would be better with just Three Amigos. I can only imagine how many other timely references there would have been to the movies of the 1980s, especially with all the guest stars this show could have gotten.

Speaking of which, part of me wonders if one of the challenges of this show was that the 1980s setting would have required Disney+ to spend more money on make-up and maybe even visual effects in order to de-age some of the guest stars who would have been famous in the 1980s to appear in a Muppets show like this. Or maybe Disney felt like they couldn’t make the show relevant enough for younger audiences who maybe don’t have any idea who celebrities like Steve Martin are. It’s tough to know for sure, but Josh Gad says in his Instagram post, “Hope to share the whole thing with you one day,” so maybe the project isn’t permanently dead yet.

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