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When I was a kid, no Saturday was complete without The Muppet Show. I loved Bunsen and Beaker and the Swedish Chef. I loved The Great Gonzo’s stunts and Crazy Harry’s explosions. And, as it turns out, I still do.
The Muppet Show really was a unique show. A vaudeville-style variety show for kids, starring a cast of puppets—one that aired on network TV on Saturday night. It was funny, and it was musical, and each week it snagged some of the day’s biggest guest stars—almost like a Saturday Night Live for kids.
The Muppet Show offers up a musical smorgasbord. I always figured that my love of music came from a bunch of really good music teachers—but after watching all 24 episodes in this four-DVD collection, I’m starting to think that my love of music came from a frog and a pig and a big brown, piano-playing dog. Because you never know what kind of music you’ll find on The Muppet Show. It could be an old folk song or the latest pop hit. It could be Dr. Teeth and his Electric Mayhem band playing Bach’s “Minuet in G Major.” Or it could be a bunch of pigs performing part of Der Fledermaus.
And the guests on season two couldn’t be more diverse. There’s Milton Berle and George Burns, Julie Andrews and Bernadette Peters, and Steve Martin and John Cleese. Ballet dancer Rudolph Nuryev inspires the Muppets to bring a little bit of class to the show (thus Der Fledermaus). And Elton John blends right in (since, according to Sam, the American Eagle, “he dresses like a stolen car”).
Each half-hour episode mixes a little bit of music with a bunch of corny jokes and plenty of slapstick silliness. There are also a few serious moments—but those were often the ones that I didn’t like as a kid (as soon as I heard Judy Collins start singing “Send in the Clowns,” I remembered hating that episode when I was a kid). And I don’t especially like them now, either. But the sketches are short, and there’s so much variety that there’s something fun in each and every episode. Of course, some episodes are better than others—and some guest stars work better than others. But, overall, season two was a pretty good season for The Muppet Show.
Going back and watching The Muppet Show as an adult, I was often surprised by the vocabulary used on the show. The writers definitely didn’t talk down to kids. And I’m sure I didn’t get all of the jokes when I watched it as a kid—so it was fun to go back and watch the show again from a totally different perspective. I was also surprised by the number of adult references—stuff that I’m sure Mom wasn’t too thrilled about when she watched it with me. Of course, it never sunk in back then—but, this time around, I definitely got a good laugh out of the song about the dangers of “cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild women.”
Season two of The Muppet Show includes some classic Muppet moments and some great Muppet guest stars—as well as some of my favorite sketches ever. So if you grew up watching The Muppet Show as religiously as I did as a kid, be sure to pick up this Muppetational collection.
