Why do we always come here?

It was with heart-in-my-mouth, suddenly transported back to the age of 7 and getting to stay up later than my bedtime to watch the end of the show excitement that I read the headline---The Muppets are returning to television! Prepare your ticker tape and champagne, people of the United States!

But then I read the story. The Muppets were purchased by Disney, and are being given what the reporter termed, "...the “Hannah Montana” treatment, being blasted into every pop-culture nook and cranny that (Disney) owns or can dream up..."

I realized The Muppets were hokey even when I was a kid- they were rollicking and fun, and although I didn't realize this at the time, rather too odd to be products of a corporate rating committee. Life is change, and I fear the disappointment likely associated with the ones Disney is no doubt making. At least one of the new characters pictured with the story appears to be modeled vaguely on Daisy Duke.

And the crossovers have already started. Kermit and The Little Mermaid were never meant to occupy the same universe, no matter how well it plays in panels, and muppets appearing with "High School Musical" stars bodes nothing good.

Like we needed another reason to be suspicious of a place where no one is allowed to die...