Muppet Show Saved by $125,000 Offer, Plus Museum Scandals and Book Bans

Last month, The Muppet Show celebrated its 50th anniversary. The series was created in England after British producer Lew Grade proposed $125,000 to Jim Henson for a single episode, contingent upon filming at Grade's vacant studio near London. Henson had previously encountered two unsuccessful ABC pilots and a stalled CBS agreement. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Daniel Weiss, 69, assumed the role of director at the Philadelphia Museum of Art following the dismissal of Sasha Suda; vice chair Osagie Imasogie noted that the search could be seen as "performative." A new publication from the Getty Research Institute discloses that in 1947, the Minneapolis Institute of Art acquired a "King Chak Mool" for $10,000, which was later revealed as a forgery. Additionally, Quebec novelist Thélyson Orélien acknowledged plagiarism in articles from 2012 to 2014 but refuted claims of using AI for his novel C’était ça ou mourir, which was disqualified by the Goncourt jury on September 25. At La Scala, workers voted for a strike on October 20, coinciding with the premiere of Gounod’s Faust, with only one dissenting vote among over 450, demanding a 15 percent pay increase. In Minnesota, one school removed 80 books last year, including The Handmaid’s Tale, despite the state's ban on book censorship. In Texas, South Grand Prairie High School canceled its production of Little Shop of Horrors due to a girl being cast as Seymour.