A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, on NBC
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Caution: potential spoilers
A 2008 Christmas special, set on Christmas Eve, with several of the Muppets going to the post office to mail some stuff. They're planning on heading to the Caribbean for the holidays after this, however, during a musical number at the post office, things get kind of weird. And later Gonzo finds out he has a few letters with him. Letters people had written to Santa. So he goes back, but the post office has closed early for the holiday. One of the letters is from his friend Claire (played by Maddison Pettis, who's in some Disney shows I don't really watch, but I'm aware of). Her mom's played by Jane Krakowski of 30 Rock. There are in fact a number of cool guest stars in the special. Anyway, Gonzo really wants to get all these letters to Santa. Kermit and Fozzie want to help him. They also get some help from Pepe and Rizzo, though those two are pretty skeptical about the whole Santa thing, especially Pepe, okay? Meanwhile, throughout the show, we also get to see a ton of other Muppets, many of whom I hadn't seen in anything for quite awhile, so that was fun. Though they're generally just cameos. Um... Miss Piggy doesn't want to help at all, she just wants to head off on her Caribbean vacation.
Anyway. Um. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker have a wish granting device they've created, which Beaker (who's wearing it on his head) demonstrates by wishing Petra Nemcova into the room. But then he uses it for Petra and himself to disappear, so Gonzo and the others won't be able to use the device to deliver the letters. Pepe and Rizzo visit a couple of mafia guys to ask for help (they were played by actors from the Sopranos, and at least one of them I recognized as such, in a vague way, since I never really had a chance to watch the show). But that doesn't pan out, for a predictable yet amusing reason. Gonzo and the others I think try to get some pigeons to fly the letters to the North Pole, but that didn't work out. I may be forgetting some attempts, I dunno, but in the end, they decide to try to catch a plane to the North Pole, themselves.
Whoopi Goldberg is the cabbie who drives them to the airport. Nathan Lane is a security guard named Meany, who detains them (along with Bobo the bear). Uma Thurman is Joy, who works for North Pole Airlines. And... there are some other guest stars of less interest to me. And a few musical numbers which, for the most part, didn't do a lot for me. But anyway, eventually Gonzo, Kermit, Fozzie, Rizzo, and Pepe make it to the North Pole. And of course things work out in the end, in a few ways, and everything basically comes full circle.
Not sure what else to say, but I'll reiterate that I enjoyed seeing Muppets both newish and old (especially one of my favorites, Sam the Eagle), and the guest stars. And if the basic plot and the songs were kinda so-so, at least I thought a lot of the stuff that happened was funny, and wacky, in that loveable Muppety way. So all in all, an enjoyable enough hour....