Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Like every great Muppets special, Muppets Haunted Mansion features a murderer’s row of celebrity appearances. The Disney+ special uses the iconic Disney attraction’s lengthy cast of characters ranging from tombstones, busts, and ghostly beings to cram in cameos from Craig Robinson, Justina Machado, Pat Sajak, Sasheer Zamata, Danny Trejo, and—positioned between ghostly Alfonso Ribiero and Chriss Metz—the late, great Ed Asner.
His appearance is of course welcome, but also bittersweet. Asner passed away just five weeks before the debut of Muppets Haunted Mansion, making his role as Brother Claude one of his final onscreen appearances (but not his final one; the man stayed busy!). But there he is, part of Caretaker Darren Criss’s undead role call as good ol’ Claude, planted there beneath the sod.
And FYI for everyone who’s more of a Muppets fan than a Haunted Mansion fan: Brother Claude is actually one of the many tombstones glimpsed at the actual Haunted Mansion attraction. He’s named after Disney Imagineer Claude Coats, who worked as an artist on the actual Haunted Mansion.
Asner’s appearance here is just indicative of how booked and blessed this icon remained up until the very end. Asner never had a drought and he never faced irrelevancy. Even at the age of 91, Asner was appearing in modern hits like Grace and Frankie, Cobra Kai, and Dead to Me. He gave his voice to Central Park, American Dad!, and Disney+’s Dug Days where he reprised his famous role as Carl from Pixar’s Up. Seriously—just as many people know Asner for his 21st century roles in Elf and Up as they do for his Emmy-winning role in The Mary Tyler Moore Show 50 years ago.
And of course Ed Asner agreed to play a ghost with no lines in a Muppets special! The man seemingly made time for everything and everyone up until the end, including a bunch of Zoom reunions during the dark days of 2020, random fans on Twitter, numerous charities—even me. Considering how often he popped up in new shows and his active Twitter presence, his absence really is felt by all. That’s one reason why the tribute to him at the end of the special rings so true:
Whether you were a Muppet performer, a crew person on Muppets Haunted Mansion, a Twitter follower, a recipient of help from the Ed Asner Family Center, a Senior Reporter/Producer for Decider, or just someone whose comfort show is Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner really felt like our friend. And Muppets Haunted Mansion is a fine way to remember him.
