Josh Gad Shares Script Excerpt from Cancelled Muppet Project on Instagram

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Josh Gad just shared a page-and-a-half from the script of his cancelled Disney+ Muppet project, Muppets Live Another Day.

What’s Happening:

  • Josh Gad took to Instagram to share a page from the script of Muppets Live Another Day.
  • The news broke in September that the unannounced Disney+ project had been shelved.
  • In that post, Gad shared a description of the show: “It was meant to be a limited event series that picked up a year after “Muppets Take Manhattan” and was essentially about what happens after you’ve reached the end of the rainbow. It was going to be Muppets by way of “Stranger Things” and feel like a movie spread over 6-8 episodes. Part of the joy for us, by placing the Muppets in the middle of the 1980’s, was to subvert and comment on our current love for all things nostalgia while at the same time allowing the characters to tell a story that would ultimately lead to and end in present day, revealing some secrets along the way.”
  • The project would’ve featured original music from Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the songwriting team behind Frozen.
  • The script pages feature Rowlf and Steve Martin interacting. If you can’t read the Instagram post, a transcription is below.

The Script Transcribed:

INT. APARTMENT – LIVING ROOM – LATER

CLOSE ON — BROWN FURRY HANDS tickling the ivories. REVEAL — ROWLF sitting at a piano, playing a FUN, PEPPY version of “Chopsticks.” He is accompanied by a BANJO.

Behind the BANJO sits STEVE MARTIN wearing a younger looking GREY WIG. The duo crescendo out of the song and high five.

STEVE MARTIN

Thank you, Rowlf. I just wanted to practice it once before my Grandmother’s funeral.

ROWLF

Of course.

Steve hangs his banjo on his wall alongside 50 other banjos.

STEVE MARTIN

Can I offer you a drink?

ROWLF

I’ll have some milk if you don’t mind.

Martin walks into his kitchen.

STEVE MARTIN (o.s.)

So. Have you spoken to the gang lately?

ROWLF

No. Everybody’s off doing their own thing. And Kermit’s still in seclusion. I don’t think he ever recovered from the poor reception.

Rowlf peruses all of Steve Martin’s PICTURES. Each one is of him in a grey wig, even as a baby.

STEVE MARTIN

Oof. Neither would I. I mean… I’m sure it’ll all work out.

Martin walks out and puts a dog bowl filled with milk on the floor. Rowlf is perplexed.

STEVE MARTIN

Oh, sorry.

(Drops an ice cube in it)

So, what’s next?

ROWLF

Well, aren’t we gearing up for the movie?

STEVE MARTIN

Yeah, about that. See, the studio thinks instead of the Four Amigos, we might be better served doing the Three Amigos.

Beat.

ROWLF

Who’s going to tell Martin Short?

STEVE MARTIN

Sadly, my little canine piano virtuoso, you’re the odd dog out.

ROWLF

(Stunned)

But why?

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