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Contents: The first 24 episodes of "The Muppet Show"
"The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence" (a rarely seen ABC special the predated the Lord Grade series)
Jim Henson's original pitch reel to sell the series
Skits and songs previously seen only on the UK version of the show (and on Nickelodeon when it reran the series back in the 90s)
Brief comedy bits that acted as promo spots for upcoming shows
Season 1 of The Muppet Show was creatively a mixed bag. Except for Kermit and Rowlf, all of the characters were brand new...and many hadn't quite found the right "hook" yet.
For instance: Fozzie is an obnoxious, unlikable jerk for most of the early episodes. Miss Piggy is a background character with a wildly inconsistent voice. Gonzo is a one-joke cipher.
But...things improve. Things improve.
Likewise, the guest stars tend to be almost worshipfully adored in the earliest shows. They were so scared that they wouldn't even last one season that they were glad anyone appeared on this weird puppet show filmed out in the UK.
But glimmerings of the chaos to come are there. Oh yes.
Plus, it's just wonderful to see much-missed performers like Jim Henson and Richard Hunt at the height of their creative powers again.
Loved the set, and looking forward to Season 2...where the show truly came into its own.
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I'm so glad I live in the same reality where the Muppet Show existed. Muppets just make my life better. The commercial for this DVD set had everyone in our family room laughing like crazy. Just the commercial! Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Puffy -- which disc is the original pilot on? I've never seen that, and the Netflix description doesn't say which disc it's on...
Netflix has a disc that's got a bunch of Muppet skits from the Ed Sullivan show -- hoping to get that this week!
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Yes, it has a version of "Mahna Mahna" on the first episode.
The "original pilot" (really the second of two specials Henson made for ABC to help test the waters for a series) is on disc 4.
I won't kid you: It's very easy to see why this special didn't lead to the actual series.
With the exception of a musical sequence featuring birds with catch phrases there's not much of the imaginative production numbers the Lord Grade show was famous for.
And the main characters...urk. Nigel (he later was seen conducting the orchestra during the credits on The Muppet Show), Floyd, and Sam the American Eagle are the leads. They don't have much chemistry.
It makes me wish they had included The Muppet Valentine Show on this disc instead. It was funnier and more creative...even if its format was further removed from The Muppet Show.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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eeeheee!!! I just bought it tonight. We've been laughing ourselves silly ever since. Our favorite so far is the Muppet choir that sang "Temptation" with Piggy on the solo.
The Muppet Labs "Gorilla Detector" sketch is one of the funniest bits ever created in the history of television.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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It has a couple of moments, but it's not very good.
For one thing Ashanti (the singer who plays Dorothy) can sing...but she can't act or do comedy to save her life.
Potentially cool ideas (like having Miss Piggy play all four Witches) are put forth...then barely get any screen time.
The not-so-great "Muppets Tonight" writers and characters were favored while the classic Muppets writers (like Jerry Juhl) are apparently still alienated by Brian Henson.
I swear, if I never see that blasted prawn again...
I'm not against new Muppets being added to the "Core Group"
(Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, and Gonzo)
I loved Digit and Bean Bunny (from the sadly short-lived Jim Henson Hour)
But why can't they be funny and endearing instead loud and painfully unfunny?
Why do they keep cramming Pepe' into every new Muppet production?
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Yeah, I would definitely love to see the prawn go the way of the dodo, so to speak.
For what it's worth, I didn't enjoy Muppet Wizard of Oz, or Muppets in Space, for that matter; Muppet Treasure Island, however, ruled.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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"Muppets in Space" v. "Muppet Treasure Island" was my first serious artistic disagreement with bunbun.
I don't see how a movie with the line, "Look, he's only got one leg. Count 'em: one!" could possibly be considered inferior to a bad x-files knock-off.
But I love her anyway. Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Dag, I use the "Count 'em: one!" phrase all the time. For example, the other day, I had one student attend my class. Count 'em: one!
I also love the scene where they're going through the trunk looking for the map, and they pull out Kissinger's Diplomacy; Gonzo looks at it, shakes his head, and tosses it over his shoulder.
Incidentally, Dag, my man doesn't like the Muppets at all. Talk about a disagreement overcome by love!
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Coincidentally, a friend just loaned me a neat book by Alison Inches called Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles: A Muppet Sketchbook -- Amazon link
It's a really fun book -- it's sketches by Henson from the 1950s up until the start of the Muppet Show. Most of it's Muppet-related, though some of it's not (stuff from Henson's schooldays). The sketches are fun, even without being Muppet-related -- Henson's doodles have a great goofy energy to them -- but since they ARE Muppet-related, they're even more fun. So there's designs of Kermit before he became a frog... Ralph the Dog back when he was a character in a commercial (lots of Muppet characters started out as characters in commercials, I never knew that)... Oscar the Grouch back when he was purple... lots of neat info about Muppet projects from the 50s and 60s and early 70s that I'd never heard of... anyway, yeah, neat book, I totally recommend it!
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Whoever proofread the "Muppet Morsels" should either be fired or sent back to elementary school. Seriously.
An excuse is given that the rights to all of the songs used in the shows could not be secured, so several episodes are cut. This is most painfully felt in the Vincent Price episode, where the grand finale production number "You've Got a Friend" (featuring Price and a slew of Muppet monsters) is gone.
This sends up some warning flags.
1) Many of these cut songs were in the "Best Of" DVD release just a couple of years ago.
2) Disney couldn't get the rights to these? Disney? With their deep pockets and their lawyers?
3) Who would own the rights to these songs yet _not__ want the exposure of being on a DVD release of the one of the most popular TV series of all time?
This worries me.
Still, the majority of the set is golden.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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OK, clarifying the bit about Oscar the Grouch: Oscar was originally purple in the design stage -- the book has some sketches from 1969 that show him being purple.
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I had a feeling that Muppet Wizard of Oz wouldn't be very good, and I haven't seen MIS. Treasure Island was brilliant, and I think Muppet Christmas Carol is the best rendition of the Dickens Story to date.
I haven't seen too many of the original episodes (I was a bit young when they were around) but a friend and I are going to do Netflix pretty soon. Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ashley, you've seen the first three movies right? The ones that were made when Jim Henson was alive? They are so choice. I enjoyed the later ones too, but they just didn't seem to have some of the funny...or maybe it's just me. I alsom miss Jim Henson's voice.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I had a well-worn VHS of The Great Muppet Caper when I was a kid. I think it desintigrated. I've seen Muppets Take Manhattan (where they go to New York in a Stutebaker) but I might not have seen the other one...I should rectify that.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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It sounds like you've seen all three because you're getting them mixed up. The Stutebaker was in The Muppet Movie (where they painted it and were running from the frog legs guy?). Manhattan is when they try to get their show on Broadway. That's my favorite one.
They've just released all three on DVD, so you don't have to mourn the loss of your VHS. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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And who can forget Emmit Otter's Jugband Christmas? I loved that book as a kid, and the muppets' version was darn good.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I saw that on Nickelodeon once! They were on a muppet kick for a while. There was also a Christmas special with the Fraggles and the Sesame Street Crew in addition to the TMS crowd.
"Watch out for the icy patch!"
edit: Oh! And Jim Henson did a how-we-do-it special like a year before he died--I remember watching that in utter facination.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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And yes...one of the two "lost" Jim Henson Hour episodes were broadcast on Nickelodeon.
Along with Muppets go to the Movies,The Miss Piggy Show, The Frog Prince, Muppet Musicians of Bremen, The Christmas Toy, The Tale of the Bunnies Picnic, and The Muppet Valentine Show.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Did you notice that we get mentioned in the episode with Peter Ustinov (can't spell his name)? They say the show was written by a Hatrack. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I did notice that. I didn't post it right away though, because I was going to suprise the rest of the family by playing the dvd when they were over for dinner. (which I did yesterday. ElJay gasped.)
I'm almost through the whole set and I'm happy that most of my favorite sketches are in this season. I've gleefully squeeled when each of them has come on for the first time.
Manah Manah - Of course
Lydia the Tattoo'd lady
Hugga Wugga - I think this is one of my very favorites
"Java" with the florescent vacuum hoses
"Fever" with Rita Moreno and Animal
The "Rent a Face" vending machine sketch
Other Surprising and Fantastic bits:
Rowlf's "You and I and George" song
The Muppet Glee Club singing "Temptation"
The multi-duets with Ethel Merman
Harvy Korman's fierce animal trainer sketch
The Koosbanian mating ritual (Galleeeooooo! oooook ooooook!)
There are more...I'll think of them as they come.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Emmett Otter remains the most underrated (in terms of pop culture prominence) Muppet special. So far, we are almost all the way through, and are enjoying it immensely. Random notes:
1) Waldorf and Statler are funnier than they are now 2) The episodes with lesser known guests tend to be better than the more famous guests, IMO 3) They cut scenes? That explains why some episodes felt a lot shorter. Darn. 4) The. Swedish. Chef. Rules. 5) I was always a Kermit fan (and a closet Scooter fan), but I think I like Fozzie a little more* 6) I liked these the first time around when I was 3-4-5, and I like them now that I'm almost 30. We need more of this type of stuff on TV!
* Starting with the middle episodes, once they get Fozzie's voice down, I mean
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I'm just too young, i've only seen a few muppet eppisodes and one movie, though I forget which, it's old.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I've seen Muppets Take Manhattan (where they go to New York in a Stutebaker) but I might not have seen the other one...I should rectify that.
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