It’s Definitely Not Easy Bein’ Green
What Sesame Street is to children, what Avenue Q is to adults, TheMuppet Show is to families. That being said, most of the first two discs of The Muppet Show 2 four-disc set are probably best reserved for the carpet crawlers or the truly hard-core fans. In between sublime and cherished gems, adult viewers may end up longing for a commercial—not a good sign for a show that runs barely 24 minutes as it is.
Employing a show-within-a-show musical variety format, the series, which ran from 1976 to 1981, takes place on-stage and backstage in an old vaudevillian theater. The venerable Kermit the frog, whose career started out in 1955 with five-minute segments on WRV-TV’s Sam and Friends, tries his best to control (and sometimes corral) the other Muppets, and to keep the show running and the guest star happy.
Note, though, that I said most of the first two discs. As painful as the first episode is (guest star Don Knotts is left to fend for himself in half-baked script ideas), it does offer up Rowlf singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ to a live, but sleeping puppy. This insulin-inducing moment is, unfortunately, the best—and perhaps only—reason to watch that episode. Later in the season, an attempt to recreate the magic of that moment has Link Hogthrob singing ‘Sonny Boy’ to a rather confused piglet. (With apologies to all the pork pals out there, sleeping puppies beat bewildered bacon any day.)
It’s not unreasonable to think that the Muppets would somehow have managed to develop a cohesive chemistry by the start of their second season. Especially since the entire cast of characters were voiced by about a half dozen performers, including Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, and David Goelz. While Jim Henson and crew had established a worthy cast of characters and a format replete with satisfying recurring skits, such as Pigs in Space, and Veterinarian’s Hospital, they don’t seem quite up to the directing and overall pacing of the early shows in season two.
Not that anyone should write off the first two discs. Zero Mostel, who could often be difficult to work with, appears to be having a great time throughout episode 2; his recitation of a poem on fear is a classic performance that cannot “quickly be dispelled.” Milton Berle, former vaudevillian and “Mr. Television,” seems positively endearing as he trades quips with master hecklers Statler and Waldorf, sings an understated ‘The Entertainer’ with Rowlf, and brings back the worst of vaudeville with ‘Top Banana.’ Likewise, George Burns becomes his episode’s recurring punch line. And Judy Collins’ ‘Send in the Clowns’ is sublime. Meanwhile, the Muppets struggle to pull the right strings that don’t overexpose their charmingly ragged singing.
(Starting front row L-R) Gonzo, Kermit, Scooter; Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Camilla The Chicken, Rowlf; Lew Zealand, Animal, Floyd, Dr. Teeth; Bunsen, Uncle Deadly, Waldorf, Statler, Link Hogthrob, Beaker.
The Muppet Show Season Two Special Edition is now available on DVD.
Image copyright© The Muppets Holding Company, LLC. and BVHE. MUPPETS and The Muppet Show are trademarks of The Muppets Holding Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.”
“Not…Just Another Cute Puppet Show”
The Muppet Show 2 finally hits its mark and stays in the spotlight starting with the Bernadette Peters’ episode toward the end of disc 2. The chaotic randomness becomes pleasantly cohesive, without losing the choreographed spontaneity that is the hallmark of the show. This is no doubt the work of Jerry Juhl, who served as head writer for The Muppet Show starting in 1977. The show continues confidently with the rest of the season, giving each of the guest stars entertaining vehicles that compliment rather than distract from their talents.
Guest star highlights include:
- Rudolph Nureyev performing Swine Lake, and then being accosted in the steam room by Miss Piggy as they duet on ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ (with the usual gender roles being reversed)
- Elton John, in perhaps the best show of the season (if not the series), singing four of his now-many greatest hits in costumes that out-muppet the Muppets (“why does he dress like a stolen car?”)
- Lou Rawls scat singing with Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem
- Cleo Laine’s ‘If’ with Bruce Schwartz’s marionettes providing context
- Julie Andrews reprising her song for Kermit, ‘When You Were a Tadpole And I Was a Fish,’ which they originally performed in a special a few years before
- Peter Sellers, in a Viking cap, corset, and boxing glove, reciting Shakespeare’s Richard III with tuned chickens (I think you have to be there!)
For their part, Kermit and friends have their own classic moments as well (besides the ones already mentioned):
- Kermit’s opening tap dance number (what other show could get away with not showing the dancer’s feet!) and his signature song, ‘Bein’ Green,’ originally sung on Sesame Street
- The overlapping At the Ball and Veterinarian’s Hospital skit
- The Time in a Bottle mad-scientist skit
“The Continuing Stoooory…”
What makes the Special Edition special is the addition to this collection of the 1974 Muppet Valentines Special with Mia Farrow. It’s a fun (and borderline adult) look at love, Muppet-style. You might have to explain to younger viewers the concept of a typewriter.
Weezer & The Muppets is a music video, Keep Fishin, featuring the band Weezer backstage at The Muppet Show. The song was originally released on their 2002 album Maladroit on the Geffen label.
In The Muppets on the Muppets, a few of the ‘foam fatales’ answer a series of probing questions (Kermit and Miss Piggy may need some Dr. Phil time).
Oh yes, and don’t be too quick to start the watching the shows, the introductions to the discs are entertaining, as well.
Miss Piggy and Kermit. The Muppet Show Season Two Special Edition now available on DVD.
Image copyright© The Muppets Holding Company, LLC. and BVHE. MUPPETS and The Muppet Show are trademarks of The Muppets Holding Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.”
“Welcome Again to Muppet Labs”
The Muppet Show: The Complete Second Season has been digitally remastered and restored. This is important since the show was produced in England, which uses a different format, and transferring the image from PAL to NTSC usually darkens the image and mutes the contrast. The colors on the DVD, however, are vivid. The clarity of the image, however, is a bit uneven, sometimes causing guest stars and Muppets to blend together (unintentionally, I’m sure), at other times to be so sharp you become distracted by the sparkling of the studio lights off the foam rubber. The sound is crisp and almost makes you think the series was recorded yesterday.
Finally, though it doesn’t really matter in the long run, the Special Edition is nicely packaged in a “Muppetational” flocked close-up of the porcine diva.
So, in spite of a start as uneven as the planet Koozebane, The Muppet Show 2 redeems itself in the second half—enough so to, yes, deserve that Emmy. B
Feature run time: 612 Minutes
Aspect ratio: Fullscreen (1.33:1); some special features are letterboxed
Sound: Dolby Digital Surround Sound
Languages: French Language Track
