YMMV / Muppet Babies (1984)

• Awesome Art: The backgrounds of many of the fantasies are very well drawn and stylized quite realistically, like an etching.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Occurs regularly with the stock footage.
  Rowlf: Tell her she's cool! Tell her she's -
  Bob Hope: -nutty as a fruitcake.
  • In "Water Babies", as the babies pretend to be searching for treasure in a mine tunnel, Gonzo sets off on his own and sees a train coming towards him in the tunnel (via live-action stock footage, of course) and runs out, only to come across a glowing circle of light that appears to be another train, and Gonzo braces the impending collision, only turns out to be Baby Kermit and the others with a flashlight. It's never brought up again for the rest of the fantasy.
  • "Babes in Troyland" has Gonzo end up dancing with the Minotaur while the latter is in drag. This comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Kermit wears a sailor suit. At first it just looks like cuteness for cuteness's sake, but think about it. Due to their amphibious nature, frogs often live close to water. Who else lives close to water? That's right, sailors.
  • In "Goosetown Babies," Skeeter plays a version of Little Bo Peep who's allergic to her own sheep. A season later, in "Gonzee's Playhouse Channel," we find out that Scooter is allergic to sheep. Obviously this is hereditary: they're both allergic to sheep because they're Half-Identical Twins.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Who owned the house the Nursery was located in? With the obvious exception of Scooter and Skeeter, none of the muppets are siblings, and yet none of them are ever seen to go home. Where are their parents? Who exactly employs Nanny, and why do they have a gaggle of children they're taking care of?
  • Simple: the place where the Muppet Babies live is an orphanage or children's home. Nanny is a full-time employee there. Or else they're all in foster care and Nanny is their foster mother.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • There have been hints made that Gonzo is an alien, years before Muppets from Space went with that concept.
  • Bunsen Honeydew also has a 3-D television set he made for the babies to test out in one episode. They would be on the market about twenty-six years later.
  • The above-mentioned A New Hope Shout-Out would become hilarious once Disney bought both the Muppet franchise in 2004 and Star Wars in 2012. And to complete the hat trick, the show was produced by Marvel Productions (purchased by Disney in 2009).
  • In "By the Book", the babies spoof The Wizard of Oz, which they would later do again as adults. Furthermore, in both instances, Kermit plays the Scarecrow^note despite Baby Kermit's inability to scare prompting him to wish the Wizard would give him a new job, Gonzo plays the Tin Man, and Fozzie plays the Lion.
  • "This Little Piggy Went to Hollywood" has Piggy dress as the Bride of Frankenstein at one point. The video game Muppet Monster Adventure would later have Miss Piggy transformed into a Bride of Frankenstein pastiche called the Ghoulfriend of Ker-Monster.
  • In "Comic Capers", Skeeter pretends to be Spider-Girl when she and Rowlf are in the Spider-Man newspaper comic. The episode aired nine years prior to the introduction of an official Spider-Girl. Then, Stan Lee makes a cameo where he stops "Spider-Girl" and "Spider-Dog" from competing and tells them that there's only one Spider-Man. Not anymore.
  • "Snow White and the Seven Muppets" has Piggy being unhappy with playing the Evil Queen in the babies' play of Snow White, especially because she knows having another girl play Snow White means that Skeeter will end up being kissed by her crush Kermit. A similar premise is used in the Muppet Classics miniseries Muppet Snow White, where Miss Piggy again plays the Evil Queen and tries to get Kermit the Prince to marry her in order to prevent him awakening Snow White (here played by Spamela Hamderson) by kissing her.
  • In "Out-of-This-World History", the song "Yankee Doodle Rock" repeatedly features the lyric "rock-a-doodle". Don Bluth's animated film of the same name was released six years later.
  • In "Pigerella," Gonzo plays Piggy's "Fairy Godweirdo." Gonzo's voice actress, Russi Taylor, would later become the official voice of the Fairy Godmother from Disney's Cinderella (replacing the late Verna Felton, who voiced her in the original film) in the two sequels and in theme park shows and parades.
  • In the Valentine's Day special, Scooter tries having his computer write a Valentine's Day poem. The result is so weird, Scooter wonders what he did wrong. 30-some years later, the ability of ChatGPT and other AI programs to write everything from poems to term papers became Common Knowledge, along with being infamous for the results ranging from awful to downright bizarre.
• Moe: Fitting for a show about babies, the kids are adorable, particularly Baby Piggy, Baby Rowlf, and Baby Beaker.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In "Dental Hijinks", due to a little accident, one of Fozzie's teeth gets loose. The whole episode, the gang's trying to calm him down, because he'll have to see the dentist. Among their many fantasies, one was a tall man in a dark suit, who abruptly reveals that one of his hands is actually a drill. The freak turns it on and starts getting close to Fozzie's mouth, slowly. The whole thing ends with Kermit screaming "Fozzie!".
  • In "Babes In Troyland", during an Imagine Spot of Gonzo, Camilla, and Scooter traversing the Maze of the Minotaur, they come up to the entrance of the lair of the legendary Medusa. Scooter advises Gonzo not to knock as the gorgon might turn them to stone like she did to a pizza delivery guy.
    Gonzo: Ah, stone schmone. What was her name again?
    (The door opens up, showing a creepy live-action scene from The Storyteller of Medusa sitting up on a rock)
    Medusa: Meduuusssa! (Commercial break)
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • In addition to Muppet Babies, developer Jeffrey Scott is also best known for developing Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling as well as writing Starchaser: The Legend of Orin.
  • Sindy McKay wrote 25 episodes. McKay is best known for co-creating Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks.
  • Chuck Lorre wrote an episode.^note Lorre worked on a lot of 1980s cartoons.
  • Barry O'Brien also wrote an episode. O'Brien is best known for co-creating Hannah Montana and co-developing Beverly Hills Teens and Filmation's Ghostbusters.
  • Model designer Chris Sanders is best known for creating, writing and directing Lilo & Stitch (as well as creating and voicing Stitch), and for co-writing and co-directing the first How to Train Your Dragon.
  • Yes, people: that is Howie Mandel voicing Skeeter, Bunsen, and Animal during the first seasons.
• Squick: In "Kermit Pan", in an attempt to distract Captain Robo-Hook (Gonzo), Fozzie dresses up as a chicken (albeit not very convincingly) and Gonzo is more than just smitten.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: In "Buckskin Babies", as Skeeter imagines that she's Calamity Jane, the music that plays as she rides through on her stagecoach sounds a lot like the theme to The Magnificent Seven.

---