After being put to pasture a few years ago following a string of disappointing films and a ho-hum return to TV, the Muppets are a pop culture phenomenon once again.
Now, comfortably middle-aged, the zany puppets who came to prominence in the 1970s with "The Muppet Show" have recaptured their youthful bravado.
And they're doing it by popping up all over the Disney corporate matrix, including appearances on ABC and ESPN programs, top billing on the Walt Disney Company's homepage and, soon, in a network special and feature film written by "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" star Jason Segel.
(Click here for a full list of recent and upcoming Muppets projects.)
But nothing has brought audiences back into the fold quite like YouTube.
Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest of Jim Henson's creatures have become internet sensations with their recent viral video cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody," as well as their more recently released version of the Christmas carol "Ringing of the Bells." The puppets' take on the Queen classic has drawn over 11.5 million viewers.
Versions of "Ode to Joy" and short videos featuring the likes of the Swedish Chef demonstrating pumpkin carving also have attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers to the Muppets' YouTube channel.
The Muppets have been further shaking off their self-imposed seclusion (it's been more than a decade since their last feature film) with a series of strategic cameos on established television shows. Characters are popping up on programs such as "Dancing With the Stars," where Animal banged on the drums as Aaron Carter hoofed it to the theme from "The Muppet Show." Miss Piggy interviewed guests during the series' finale.
A theatrical film written by "Forgetting Sarah Marshall's" Segel also is in the works.
Video (Bohemian Rhapsody):
It's all part of a canny strategy by Disney, which bought the property from Jim Henson Productions in 2004, to introduce new audiences to the stalled brand and to remind traditional fans what they were missing.
In an odd confluence of events just as the Muppets were racking up page views, "The Muppet Man," a script by Christopher Weekes, attracted a great deal of attention after it was named the best unproduced script in Hollywood as part of film executive Franklin Leonard's annual survey The Black List.
The screenwriter himself thinks the Muppets are well positioned for a resurgence.
"It's fantastic that people are rediscovering the Muppets," Weekes told TheWrap. "Making videos for the internet is something Jim would have done. It's brave and clever. They're viral video pioneers."
The newfound success follows a particularly fallow period for the franchise.
While the iconic "Muppet Movie" was considered a hit with $65.2 million in 1979, after Henson's death in 1990, the troupe's big-screen adventures grew increasingly stale, drawing critical opprobrium and diminishing box office returns. "Muppet Treasure Island" (1996) netted a modest $34 million and "Muppets From Space" (1999) took in an even more disappointing $16 million.
