Little Muppet Monsters

First aired	September 14, 1985
Last aired	September 21, 1985
Network	CBS
Seasons	1
No. of episodes	3 aired, 18 made

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Muppets Babies and Monsters

Little Muppet Monsters Animated Characters

Excerpt from a full-page CBS promo ad for their Saturday programming

Boo, Scooter and Tug.

Molly, Boo and Tug.

Little Muppet Monsters was a short-lived Saturday morning TV show, of which only three episodes aired on CBS in 1985.^[1] The first season of Muppet Babies did very well in the ratings, so CBS decided to expand the series from half an hour to a full hour, pairing Muppet Babies with Little Muppet Monsters. The umbrella title for the hour-long package was Muppets, Babies and Monsters.

The show was anchored by three young Muppet monsters: Tug, Boo, and Molly. Occasionally, Muppet Show characters such as Scooter, Kermit the Frog and various penguins would drop by in cameos. The Electric Mayhem were featured in the opening credits sequence watching the show on television, as they excitedly bounced about on a living room sofa.

Recurring animated segments included "Pigs in Space," "Kermit the Frog, Private Eye," and "Muppet Sports Shorts" (featuring Animal). Muppet segments included "Fozzie's Comedy Corner," with Fozzie discussing issues related to old jokes, illustrated through animation, and Gonzo presenting a cavalcade of weirdness, using silent film footage. Each episode also featured an original Muppet song.

Storyboard director Scott Shaw discussed the show in MuppetZine issue #3 (Winter 1993):

The concept of this second half-hour was neither simple nor particularly well-developed. A trio of new (live-action) Muppet Monster Kids, working from the basement of the adult Muppets' home, create their own television station which broadcasts only to the TV sets in the house upstairs...

Although eighteen episodes were produced, only three of them ever aired; Henson Associates and CBS agreed that the concept had never been properly thought out and just wasn't up to Henson's high standards. To Jim's credit, it was his idea to pull the show from the Saturday morning lineup.

I've always felt that the juxtapositioning of live-action and animated Muppets invited an unfavorable comparison, to which the cartoon version inevitably suffered; the puppetry was just too good. The combination of Muppet babies, adults and kid monsters was very disorienting. Also, due to a lack of development time, the concept -- and therefore, the writing and designs -- never quite jelled.

The now-vacant second half-hour was filled with repeats of the first season's Muppet Babies episodes, and the ratings stayed strong.

After Little Muppet Monsters was canceled, an instrumental version of its opening theme was used for the Muppet Babies end credits from 1985 onward.

The three monster kids were also seen briefly in the special The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years, which was broadcast in January, 1986. The special was shot before the decision was made to take Monsters off the air, so the show cheerfully plugged the Muppets' latest production -- even though that production had been cancelled four months earlier.