dragonfire88's Full Review: Muppet Show - Season 1
When I was growing up, I watched Sesame Street and The Muppet Show all the time. I also enjoyed Fraggle Rock even though I wasn’t able to see it as often because of the station it was on. Over the years, The Muppet Show turned up on different stations so I was able to continue enjoying the show at times. It has been several years since I last saw it on any television station. I have been hoping the complete seasons of The Muppet Show would be released on DVD. I know that some Best of The Muppet Show DVDs were released, but they didn’t include entire seasons like I wanted. I was tempted but I held off. I was thrilled when JediKermit shared in a comment section of one of his reviews that The Muppet Show - Season One would be released on DVD in August.
The Muppet Show first started to air in 1976 and ran until 1981. Jim Henson first introduced some of the Muppet characters, like Kermit, earlier on other shows. A few characters, like Rowlf the dog, were in commercials. Some Muppet characters were even on the first season of Saturday Night Live. The Muppet Show was popular in the United Kingdom from the beginning and later gained popularity in the United States and other countries around the world. The Muppets went on to appear in several movies and some television specials after the show ended.
The Muppet Show was a variety show with elements of vaudeville. The cast of the show was made up of puppet characters. Every so often the audience was shown which was made up of puppets as well. Each episode featured a different guest star that would be involved in some scenes with Muppet characters. As the show became more popular, there were more people willing to be guests on the show. The guests from the first season aren’t popular anymore and children that watch the shows now more than likely won’t know who most of them are. I don’t think that makes the show less entertaining. I didn’t remember seeing some of the guest stars on the show, though I did remember some of the numbers once I was watching the shows again. I wasn’t sure who some of the guest stars were when I looked at the list included with the DVD set, but I recognized some of them once I saw their episodes. Mummenschanz, a group from Switzerland that performed with masks was the guest for the last show of the season. I don’t remember ever hearing that name before, though I did remember seeing a few of their sketches once I watched the episode. I’m still not sure who a few of the guests were, but I still enjoyed their shows.
All of the episodes shared some elements and still managed to be different from each other. Kermit was the host of the show and introduced most of the acts. He also took part in some of them. The guest stars did different things throughout the episodes, many of them singing or dancing. I didn’t know that some of the guests, like the model Twiggy, could sing. During the first season, most of the guests spent a little bit of time talking with Kermit. Other Muppets also took part in a few of those talks. Things going on in the backstage area between the numbers were also shown. A few of the guests did more in the backstage and dressing room areas than others. Some segments are missing from episodes because of copyright and licence issues. I’m not certain exactly how many are missing. All of the first season episodes included a musical number that originally was only shown in the United Kingdom.
A sketch called At the Dance was in most of the episodes which had characters dancing around telling jokes. Kermit and Miss Piggy only danced together once in that segment during the first season. Statler and Waldorf sat in a box complaining about the show, usually heckling Fozzie. Some of the shows had running jokes, like when several jokes were made about a hatrack being a writer. The hatrack was even listed as a writer for that episode. The episode featuring Vincent Price was the first theme show with spooky elements added to the entire show. A later episode featured a story going on backstage about The Phantom of the Muppet Show. The first season had an opening sequence that included Fozzie telling a joke. The theme music was the same, but the sequence itself was a bit different from what I remembered. I think it changed for the second season.
As the first season progressed, some of the characters changed and developed into the more popular versions they would become. Miss Piggy started off mostly in the background and ended up a more central character. Her obsession with Kermit was shown in the early stages. She even attempted to make him jealous in one episode with the help of the guest star. Miss Piggy looked very different and even her voice sounded different in some segments. I discovered that was because someone else was performing her character at times. Janice also looked and sounded a bit different from how I remembered her. She, along with the rest of the Electric Mayhem, weren’t major characters yet, though she was featured in segments without the band. Gonzo started off being called The Gonzo instead of The Great Gonzo. He looked slightly different and I thought his voice was a little different as well. Gonzo acted much more timid than he did in later seasons and the movies. By the end of the first season, the beginnings of the Gonzo I remember, and his love for Miss Piggy, were starting to show. Fozzie evolved into a more featured character.
Several characters and repeating sketches were missing from the first season of The Muppet Show. I remember really enjoying Pigs in Space. That hadn’t been created until later in the show sometime, maybe the second season. There were a few other pig characters around in some scenes, but I don’t think they were the pigs that would be in Pigs in Space with Miss Piggy. Dr. Bunsen Honeydew did a few Muppet Labs segments without Beaker. Gonzo hadn’t shared his love of chickens yet so Camilla wasn’t with him like she was in later seasons. There were some other characters that were used throughout the first season that wouldn’t be seen again. George was a janitor mostly seen backstage, though he did take part in some of the At the Dance numbers. Mildred was a female character mostly used in the At the Dance numbers. She did turn up in a few other segments once or twice. Helga took care of the costumes for the show. I did remember seeing her before, though I hadn’t remembered her name. A dog named Muppy appeared in some episodes. A real dog was shown in longer shots and then replaced with the puppet version for closer shots.
The puppet characters were the stars of The Muppet Show. There were animal puppets like Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie, along with people puppets like Statler and Waldorf. There were other monster characters and some of them, like Sweetums, consisted of a full body suit for the performer to wear. The performers for the different characters weren’t shown during the episodes. The only humans shown during the episodes were the guest starts. Each of the performers portrayed several characters. Jim Henson and Frank Oz are probably the two most known Muppet performers. Henson portrayed Kermit the Frog, Waldorf, Rowlf, Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth, The Newsman, and many other minor characters. I do think that Rowlf and Dr. Teeth sound similar. Frank Oz performs several other now popular characters like Animal, Fozzie, Sam the Eagle, and Miss Piggy. I don’t remember how old I was now when I learned that a man actually performed Miss Piggy. At the time that really shocked me. Oz worked with Henson on the character of the Swedish Chef, operating his hands while Henson did the voice and controlled the character’s mouth. Their characters ended up sharing many scenes together. Their characters had good chemistry and worked well together. Oz also performed several other minor characters. He went on to perform as Yoda in five of the Star Wars movies and direct several movies.
Dave Goelz performed one of the most unique Muppets in Gonzo. He also performed for Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot from The Electric Mayhew, Mildred, and Muppy along with other unnamed characters. He was an assistant for Fozzie. Goelz would perform other characters in future seasons. Jerry Nelson portrayed more of the additional Muppets in the first season of The Muppet Show. The only main character he was responsible for was Floyd from The Electric Mayhem. In later years, Nelson would have more characters. He also sometimes helped with Rowlf. Richard Hunt was the person that also sometimes performed as Miss Piggy. Hunt also did Scooter, Statler, Sweetums, and Crazy Harry. There were a few other performers that were responsible for other small characters.
The Muppet Show - Season One DVD set features a front on the package that looks like a close up of Kermit’s body and is covered in felt. The set has four discs. Each disc has the picture of a different character on it. The characters are shown looking like they do now instead of how they did during the first season of the show. The DVD case folds out and has two discs on each section, one disc on top of and slightly lower than the other. I don’t really like that since the front discs have to be removed to get to the DVDs in the back or to return them to the case. A little booklet was included that listed the guest stars for each of the twenty-four episodes. The menu for each disc contains the same options - play all episodes, episode lists, special features, and set up. If a selection isn’t made fast enough, Statler and Waldorf shown up saying things to try to convince the viewer not to watch. They said different things on each disc.
For the first three discs, the only special feature is something called Muppet Morsels. When that feature was turned on, little facts related to the episodes in some way showed up on the screen. I thought that facts were very interesting. They were how I learned that someone else sometimes performed as Miss Piggy and that Henson and Oz worked together on the Swedish Chef. During the opening credits for each episode, the dates the show was taped and then aired were shared. Some of the episodes were aired in an order different from the order they were taped in. Information about the guest stars was also shared this way. All the guest stars were asked which character they wanted to do a scene with and Miss Piggy was the most picked. This feature also stated that Oz created a back story for Miss Piggy that included her being in beauty pageants, something that was used in The Muppet Movie. He also came up with an autograph for her. A running count of her karate chops was kept. The final count for the first season was twenty-two, though I did notice once or twice when one was missed. I did see a few typos in the facts.
The fourth disc contains a few other extras in addition to the Muppet Morsels. The original pitch reel that Jim Henson used to sell the show was included. It was very creative. The Season 1 Promo Gag Reel showed different characters, usually Kermit, doing a promo for an up coming episode while something was going wrong. Fozzy was frequently around tickling Kermit. The original pilot for the show, which was called Sex and Violence, was also included. Most of the pilot was different from what would eventually be The Muppet Show. There was a different opening sequence with different music. The show was hosted by Nigel instead of Kermit. Nigel was shown as the conductor of the band in the closing credits and one or two episodes of the show later. The sets were all different. Some of the characters like Sam, Floyd, Statler, and Waldorf were around, but many others, like Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and Fozzy, were missing. Kermit was only briefly used. Statler and Waldorf were in a segment together, but it didn’t work as well as what they did in their balcony. The characters were putting on a Seven Deadly Sins Pageant and the show was just jumping around to different segments. It seemed disjointed. A segment started, then quickly moved on to other things and then circled back to continue the original segment. The pilot didn’t work as well as what eventually became the series, though there were a few glimpses of what was to come. During the credits for the pilot the cameras pulled back to show the performers with their puppets. I did think that was interesting to see.
I loved The Muppet Show when I was growing up and am very happy that I now own the first season on DVD. The Muppet Show will always be one of my favorites and I hope that the rest of the seasons will be released on DVD in the near future. This set is a must have for anyone that is a fan of The Muppets and the work of Jim Henson.
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