Next week you need to know about . . . The Muppets

US broadcaster NBC has ordered scripts for a new series of The Muppet Show, and a new film, The Muppets, opens in the US this weekend.

It features all the characters created by Jim Henson, in their first big-screen outing in 12 years. In a sure sign of the times, however, Miss Piggy is now editor of French Vogue, Animal is taking a course in anger management and Kermit the Frog lives in a Bel Air mansion. In keeping with Muppet tradition, music and dance figure large, with more than 12 songs, including a barbershop-quartet arrangement of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spiritand a new ballad by Bret McKenzie that asks, " Am I a man or am I a Muppet?"

At its peak, 235 million viewers a week in more than 100 countries watched the TV series, which began in 1976. Some of the more memorable moments from the show's history include Miss Piggy appearing in a sauna with the dancer Rudolf Nureyev, the Muppets' take on Bohemian Rhapsodyand Elton John performing Crocodile Rock. When Eddie Murphy pulled out of hosting the Academy Awards earlier this month, an online campaign called for the Muppets to replace him. What Jim Henson would have thought of the renewed interest in his creations we'll never know. He died suddenly in 1990 at the age of 53.