Quick Review: The Muppet Show, Season One
Aug. 15th, 2005 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalSummary: It's the freaking Muppet Show. Do you really need a review? Okay, okay...
Review: Okay, this is the Muppet show in it's first year, and it does show a few teething pains. Fozzie's voice and personality aren't quite what I remember, and Piggy is definitely off as for many shows Frank Oz hasn't even started voicing her yet. But we've got Kermit, and we've got Rowlf, and we've got Statler and Waldorf, and we've got worldplay, and puns, and imaginative musical numbers, and Crazy Harry blowing whatever bits of set he can get his hands on.
The shows have been digitally remastered, and haven't looked this good in decades, but there are serious lapses. Most notably five musical numbers are missing from various episodes, since the right to them could be secured (the one I miss the most is Jim Nabor's rendition of "Gone With the Wind" done in the middle of a building hurricane). But that's five missing clips from a total of twenty-four episodes, so you'll get over the pain quickly. To make up for it, each episode includes short two-minute musical numbers originally only seen in the British airings of the show, to make up for the BBC's lack of commercials. Also included is a subtitle track that includes much production trivia, which is fun, but marred by an anoying Kermit pop up graphic that takes up half the screen just before the trivia appears. [1]
On the final disc we also get several extras. Most intriguing is the "pitch reel" made for CBS, to convince their execs to show The Muppet Show in prime time. Fortunately it was rejected and the show was picked up by Lord Gray, and the rest is history. Also included are several short ads for local statiosn advetising the week's episode, and the only-aired-once Muppet Show pilot "Sex and Violence."
"Sex and Violence" is the most intriguing item. I remember watching it when I was six, and strangely recall it being a two-hour show, even though it clocks in at about 25 minutes. Bits of the Muppet Show we know are there, notable the Swedish Chef (subtitled in Chinese!), the "At the Dance" number, a space show with pigs (A parody of the Planet of the Apes films called "Return to Beneath the Planet of the Pigs), and various goings on backstage. Notably missing is Kermit, who only appears as a secondary cahracters, his MC duties taken up by a muppet that we'll eventually recognize as the Muppet Show's orchestra conductor. There are some backstage antics, but they seem to be there to give viewers a respite from some of the surrealism on the screen, and are rather slow (mostly it involves the MC and Sam the Eagle playing various board games, while the Seven Deadly Sins arrive for a planned pageant). Also notably missing are any human guest stars. The whole cast is Muppets, and like a certain other all Muppet film called "The Dark Crystal" that seems to disengage the audience from what's happening rather than draw them in.
In conclusion, Season One isn't quite the Muppets as We Know Them, but it's darned close. Buy it.
[1] Worth it though, just for the running tally of how many times Piggy karate chops someone. :)
Review: Okay, this is the Muppet show in it's first year, and it does show a few teething pains. Fozzie's voice and personality aren't quite what I remember, and Piggy is definitely off as for many shows Frank Oz hasn't even started voicing her yet. But we've got Kermit, and we've got Rowlf, and we've got Statler and Waldorf, and we've got worldplay, and puns, and imaginative musical numbers, and Crazy Harry blowing whatever bits of set he can get his hands on.
The shows have been digitally remastered, and haven't looked this good in decades, but there are serious lapses. Most notably five musical numbers are missing from various episodes, since the right to them could be secured (the one I miss the most is Jim Nabor's rendition of "Gone With the Wind" done in the middle of a building hurricane). But that's five missing clips from a total of twenty-four episodes, so you'll get over the pain quickly. To make up for it, each episode includes short two-minute musical numbers originally only seen in the British airings of the show, to make up for the BBC's lack of commercials. Also included is a subtitle track that includes much production trivia, which is fun, but marred by an anoying Kermit pop up graphic that takes up half the screen just before the trivia appears. [1]
On the final disc we also get several extras. Most intriguing is the "pitch reel" made for CBS, to convince their execs to show The Muppet Show in prime time. Fortunately it was rejected and the show was picked up by Lord Gray, and the rest is history. Also included are several short ads for local statiosn advetising the week's episode, and the only-aired-once Muppet Show pilot "Sex and Violence."
"Sex and Violence" is the most intriguing item. I remember watching it when I was six, and strangely recall it being a two-hour show, even though it clocks in at about 25 minutes. Bits of the Muppet Show we know are there, notable the Swedish Chef (subtitled in Chinese!), the "At the Dance" number, a space show with pigs (A parody of the Planet of the Apes films called "Return to Beneath the Planet of the Pigs), and various goings on backstage. Notably missing is Kermit, who only appears as a secondary cahracters, his MC duties taken up by a muppet that we'll eventually recognize as the Muppet Show's orchestra conductor. There are some backstage antics, but they seem to be there to give viewers a respite from some of the surrealism on the screen, and are rather slow (mostly it involves the MC and Sam the Eagle playing various board games, while the Seven Deadly Sins arrive for a planned pageant). Also notably missing are any human guest stars. The whole cast is Muppets, and like a certain other all Muppet film called "The Dark Crystal" that seems to disengage the audience from what's happening rather than draw them in.
In conclusion, Season One isn't quite the Muppets as We Know Them, but it's darned close. Buy it.
[1] Worth it though, just for the running tally of how many times Piggy karate chops someone. :)
