#specifically the 2015 reboot/its failure to really give the muppets back that 'maturity'

[theneighborhoodwatch]

something funny I noticed is that some of the commercials were selling adult products (tobacco, sleeping aid…) even though in-universe Welcome Home is a children’s show. I find it a bit odd since I can’t think of any real life examples of children’s media using their image to sell products like those.

hiiii let's pretend i'm not answering this 5 months later lol

iirc, the hooplah/tobacco ad Seems to have been a reference to this series of flintstones winston cigarette commercials - although in the flintstones' defense, it was not Necessarily considered children's programming around the time that these would have aired. i was going to write about how with this angle it feels very similar to how wally's interview is discussed in this ask (i.e. putting a character that Looks muppet-y/retro enough in a scenario designed to be reminiscent of those properties to demonstrate just how Unlike them they are, despite appearances) in addition to maybe demonstrating the slow and steady but Alarming approach of an appeal to advertisers taking priority over artistic integrity (especially given that hooplah products were also directly advertised to children, albeit not Actual cigarettes lol) yknow, like - start with something that is grounded enough in reality that any concerns can be be quickly brushed off with "eh, product of its time i guess" and then have the horror escalate in such a way that it makes you ask why you ever accepted the initial event(s) to begin with.

but i wonder about an alternative possibility... i wonder if it's a sign of welcome home - the show - yearning for some kind of maturity, but only being able to imitate either a child's frame of reference for what an adult is, or a corporation's. with all the comparisons people make between ronald dorelaine and jim henson in speculation, i wonder if dorelaine (or whoever was running the show) did want to eventually take welcome home in a more mature direction, but felt that he would never be able to do so, either because there was pressure to keep welcome home the same program it was when it first aired, Or because if welcome home Did eventually go down that more mature route, it would have only been allowed to grow into one specific Type of maturity that did not completely suit any of the characters involved. that no matter what he did it would have been just a little bit off for at least one neighbor although that's not to say things aren't still off Now lol. i wonder about a lot of things....