While The Muppets have been known to hang out in Manhattan, Nanny's nursery, TV studios, outer space, and in Disney theme parks, the iconic characters have somehow never convened for a swine-killing...ahem...spine-chilling Halloween adventure. (Sorry, Miss Piggy.) Thankfully, everyone's October will be filled with felt-covered tricks and treats in the form of Disney+'s new special Muppets Haunted Mansion, which is a delightfully macabre combo that delivers everything a fan of The Muppets and Halloween could hope for. And even things we didn't know we were missing, such as Yvette Nicole Brown! And a statuesque Pat Sajak!
Ahead of the special's October 8 debut on Disney+, I had the life-affirming pleasure of speaking with Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, and the lowercase great Yvette Nicole Brown, as seen in the video above. And like me and presumably millions of other fans out there, everyone involved was pumped about finally bringing the Muppets into the horror-lite genre for Muppets Haunted Mansion. When I asked Miss Piggy for her thoughts on the connection, she laid out exactly what a fan would want to hear.
Well, The Muppets have wanted to do a Halloween special for a very long time, and it is so exciting to finally see this happen. And I'm glad we waited because I'm not sure we would have done it the same way had we done it a long time ago. See this special, this Halloween special, is kind of a monster mash-up, if you will, between the Haunted Mansion from Disneyland and The Muppets. And so it's spooky and it's creepy and scary. But at the same time, it's also very funny, and there's lots of good songs, and it's great for the whole family.
Miss Piggy immediately referenced what I've long considred to be one of pop culture's white whales: basically any of the previous attempts to give The Muppets a Halloween special. The holiday mash-up was originally pitched in the early 1970s and predated The Muppet Show, while a Muppets Haunted House concept was in various stage of early development throughout the 1990s, with the Playstation game Muppet Monster Adventure being the end result, as it were.
To Miss Piggy's point, Muppets Haunted Mansion is definitely a one-of-a-kind project that likely would have been handled completely differently had it been approached at an earlier time. While Disney has never been a stranger to marketing tie-ins, the complete immersion of Muppets-dom within the legendary Disneyland attraction feels like it could have only come after the MCU's interconnectedness (and even The Simpsons' crossover shorts) led the charge. To boot, it truly matches the all-ages enjoyment that The Haunted Mansion has delivered for over 50 years.
While Miss Piggy was in positive-minded promotional mode, Gonzo looked at things from a different and more personally literal perspective, which is what one would expect from the beloved weirdo. In his words:
Me? Uhhh, what makes us a good fit? Well, I can only speak for myself. I do love to be scared. I mean, I don't get really scared. Not really afraid. But I like people to try. I dunno. What do you think, Yvette?
Gonzo is a hard act to follow in any capacity, even when there aren't any cannons involved, but it helps to be as cool, collected and classy as Yvette Nicole Brown. The well-documented horror fan likely isn't the only one out there who was surprised to realize this was The Muppets' first foray into frights. Here's why she thinks Jim Henson's cherished creations are a solid match for Halloween:
I think it's a good fit because the Haunted Mansion is already something that we know and love, and The Muppets is something that we know and love. And The Muppets have never done a Halloween special. Which, when I realized that, I was like, 'Really? After all these years?' So it's kind of the perfect marriage between two things that are just amazing, and I think that we straddle the line of being just scary enough so that every age group can watch and enjoy this. New songs, and it's just all good.
Yvette Nicole Brown
Gather your kids, your parents, your siblings, your friends, your pets and all the ghosts from the old shed, so that everyone can find a seat in the Omnimover for the debut of Muppets Haunted Mansion on Disney+ on Friday, October 8. When you're done catching up with all the other Muppets fare the streaming service has to offer, check out everything else hitting the 2021 Fall TV schedule soon!
