"Just when you think this show is terrible something wonderful happens."
"What?"
"It ends."
"It ends."
The Muppet Theater houses a weekly variety show. A slew of quirky characters perform musical numbers and comedy sketches for a live audience. The show is hosted by Kermit the Frog, who doubles as the frazzled stage manager and is assisted by the owner's nephew Scooter. Each week Kermit tries to keep the sketches rolling while making time to chat with the celebrity guest and keep the cast happy. His process is hindered by the show diva Miss Piggy, the incompetent comedian Fozzie Bear, the self-proclaimed "weirdo" Gonzo, and others. The show is heckled by two old men, Statler and Waldorf, who never miss a show from the comfort of their balcony.
It's hard to imagine life and popular culture without the presence of the Muppets.
Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and other puppeteers, had a successful TV show involving puppets: Sesame Street (which premiered in 1969). After the success of Sesame Street, they wanted to create puppet characters for adults / families to enjoy. During the first year of TV's Saturday Night Live, Henson and Oz had a recurring puppet sketch... but the sketch was removed by the 14th episode. A year after SNL, Henson and company introduced a new puppet show: The Muppet Show which featured a few characters from Sesame Street.
Borrowing structure from SNL, the show had a new celebrity guest each week and focused more on the puppet characters. The puppets were the main draw, with the guest adding something new to the mix each week. Yes, sometimes it gets weird and sometimes the jokes / gags are cheesy... but it is always funny. The funniest sketch has to be the Swedish Chef... he speaks incomprehensible gibberish and throws things, and the laughter is typically louder during this section as the crew can't hold the laughter in. The Swedish Chef was performed by Henson (the voice and head) and Oz (the hands), who often ad-libbed to make sure the other could keep up.
The success of the show (it was on the air for 5 seasons and could have gone longer) led to several successful Muppet movies (like The Muppet Movie) and a spinoff cartoon, The Muppet Babies (1984), and a different puppet TV show Fraggle Rock. After Henson's death the future of the Muppet franchise was in jeopardy, but they still managed to make a few decent films (Muppet Treasure Island and A Muppet Christmas Carol) and remake The Muppet Show into Muppets Tonight. In recent years the Muppet films have been pretty bad, focusing more on the celebrities and introducing new characters, and releasing the films on TV instead of creating a feature length film to show in cinemas. Later this year a new Muppet film will appear in theaters, The Muppets will be the first feature length Muppet film since 1999. With Jason Segel serving as writer and star, I have high hopes for this film.
The Muppet Show is now owned by Disney. At this point, they have released Seasons 1, 2, and 3 (of 5 seasons) on DVD. I have all three seasons and eagerly await the release of Season 4, although the release date is still unknown.
*Check out the Muppet Central Website for more information about The Muppet Show and other Henson productions.
The Muppet Show (1976-1981)
Created by: Jim Henson & Frank Oz
Starring: Frank Oz as Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and others
Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog, and others
Dave Goelz as Gonzo, and others
Jerry Nelson as Robin the Frog, and others
Richard Hunt as Scooter, and others
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