Just a reminder, too-oft overlooked & a vital component most certainly missing when modern Muppet content is conceptualized, is that these characters could go to deeply sincere, beautifully emotional places... And were allowed to do so. If you ignore the heart - You don’t get it.

And here’s a segment from the very first season of The Muppet Show, featuring the mighty @IMPaulWilliams, again showing how sincerity and genuine emotion was given room to breathe amidst the Muppet chaos...

Another secret of The Muppet Show’s success & resonance? Booking guests that the folks making the show were genuinely enthused, interested, & inspired by - Not dictated by an executive or network chasing a rating. That’s how you get a Disney parks legend like Wally Boag...

Yes, I could talk Muppet Theory all night.

Season 1 of The Muppet Show is still very much finding its footing, particularly in developing new characters like Piggy, Fozzie, & Gonzo, but the @IMPaulWilliams episode really crystallized the exuberance the Muppets could bring to musical numbers w/ guests. I love this version.

Not enough has been said or celebrated about the group of musicians that would bring The Muppet Show musical numbers to life. A truly phenomenal group that injected a tremendous energy into dozens of pieces over the course of the show’s 5 seasons.

I am forever fascinated by comedy process, and Muppet comedy process even more so...

“It seems like a scenery joke...”

To appreciate the alchemy of the Muppets in their prime it helps to get a sense of the unseen craft that went in to making every bit you’ve seen... The timing & synergy of a group of creative folk working toward common purpose & genuinely enjoying that process & each other...

Was it work? Sure. Was it stressful? Undoubtedly. Schedules and budgets were tight. But there was fun, and it was permeated by Jim Henson’s own innate sincerity & understanding that you can be corny & funny & sad - And it all works if you’re genuine about it & wholly self-aware.

Season 2 of The Muppet Show. An early example of Gonzo walking a razor thin emotional line between sadness & comedy (brilliantly performed by Dave Goelz) that clearly sets the stage for Gonzo being handed a number like “I’m Going To Go Back There Someday” in The Muppet Movie.

When The Muppet Show would feature guests riding high in the zeitgeist, they always asked them to just come & play. I remember Muppet performer Jerry Nelson telling me what a joy it was doing this number w/ @HamillHimself. The Muppet Show was a safe space to have fun & be goofy.

Speaking of the late, great Muppet performer Jerry Nelson, his performance here always floors me. And, again, these moments of genuine emotion were a regular feature of The Muppet Show. It wasn’t all wacky. It wasn’t all chaos. And that matters. Profoundly.

By the 3rd season of The Muppet Show, we’ve got a fully formed Gonzo performing what, for me, is almost a mission statement of a song for the entire Muppet Show. Again, Dave Goelz just sparkles in his performance w/ every little nuance he throws in to the vocals & puppeteering.

Another look behind the scenes of what it took to execute the filming of a single Muppet Show production number. The coordination of so many moving parts/elements consistently over a hundred episodes is astounding. When art meets craft...

Jim was never precious about showing process.That desire to hide process came post-Jim. Henson wanted folks to see the art being made & know how it was done, because he knew he could sit on a talk show performing Kermit in plain sight & people would ignore him & look at the frog.

This entire duet featuring Muppet Show guest Pearl Bailey & Muppet performer Jerry Nelson as Floyd just exudes buckets of charm. And I’m pretty sure the vocals are live, because you can hear Floyd’s arm rod slapping against the prop guitar, picked up by Jerry’s mic.

Quintessential Muppet Show - “Let’s have Miss Piggy as Marie Antoinette, the production number is ‘Stayin’ Alive’, and it ends on a shot of a guillotine.”

Conceptually, the comedy could go anywhere with the show’s vaudeville premise. Good, bad, weird.... Anything goes!

The problem w/ attempts at modern Muppet resuscitation are that they try SO HARD to be funny, & not nearly hard enough to be *fun*. They start with a premise & shove the characters into that box, rather than concentrating on the *characters* driving the premise. Zero confidence.

I want to illustrate the emotional range of The Muppet Show w/ a pair of bits from the same 3rd season ep feat. guest Harry Belafonte - one of the absolute high water marks of the show. The first bit is a comic sketch built around a performance of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”.

And the episode ends w/ an emotionally powerful piece of art, which I’ll split into Belafonte’s introduction to the piece, in which he consoles a disillusioned Fozzie, & follow it up with the song performance itself. The message, & its resonance, remains undiminished...

“Do you know who I am
Do I know who you are
See we one another clearly
Do we know who we are.”

Belafonte would later perform this song at Jim Henson’s funeral.

So powerful was the song & its sentiment that it broke the format, as they chose to close the show with it rather than do the established onstage goodbye to the guest which would cut to the stock end credits theme/sequence.

This song has been resonating in my soul for 40+yrs.

Thank you all for indulging me on my ridiculously plentiful Muppet thoughts, and apologies for the length of this thread. At the very least, I hope it brought a smile.

Remarkably, in 1979, Kermit & The Muppets actually guest-hosted Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, back when it was still in a 90min time slot. This clip from the monologue features not only Jim Henson & @TheFrankOzJam’s casual brilliance together, but also a great gaffe recovery.

And, oh boy, does this bit from Kermit’s 1979 Tonight Show monologue strike a much more awkward, and prescient, chord now... (And, again, watching Jim & @TheFrankOzJam play is just magical.)

And yes, it was a full-on episode of The Tonight Show, featuring guests that Kermit would interview, including Vincent Price...

(I love the little performance beat when Jim has Kermit “reading” the copy in front of him as he does the introduction...)

Bernadette Peters reuniting w/ Robin the Frog for a performance of “Just One Person” on The Tonight Show.

From a production standpoint, w/ Peters sitting, it’s incredibly difficult for the performers to contort themselves at floor level for this. Note Jim sliding in to frame.

Your night isn’t complete until you see Miss Piggy duet with Leo Sayer...

(Featuring another stellar in-the-moment and present performance from @TheFrankOzJam.)

And when the final guest on the Kermit-hosted Tonight Show is a veterinarian, all bets are off...

This bit contains one of @TheFrankOzJam’s finest rejoinders with exquisite timing...

“It’s your friends!”

This closing number - “We Got Us”, from The Muppet Show’s second season Dom DeLuise episode - is another that really captures the spirit of what made the Muppets special.

That sense of “We’re all in this together & we’ve got each other.”

I miss that focus.

Here’s a just-Muppets version of “We Got Us”, performed at the 1977 Royal Variety Show...

The unique blend of Muppet performer voices, absolutely saturated with character, never fails to send a visceral shot of joy to my brain.

Jim Henson’s early for-hire ad work was decidedly not what you’d expect from the era, & put him in the same rarified air as Stan Freberg when it came to pushing the envelope for clients who were willing to experiment w/ their brand. This would certainly get my attention...

For all of my Brit mates, here’s a bit of The Muppets on Parky...

And I’ll say it again - Jim & @TheFrankOzJam were lightning fast in these situations...

While Morley Safer’s copy is somehow both overboiled & undercooked, this is another little glimpse behind the scenes at The Muppet Show (including a look at the filming of the “Jamboree” number I posted earlier)...

To my earlier point about Jim Henson’s decided lack of preciousness about hiding process and comfort with revealing the underlying craft, here he is discussing it...

I should probably wrap this thread up (for now) as it’ll be dawn soon, but I’ll leave you w/ this thought:

The Muppets are not any one thing. When handled properly, they are capable of a rainbow of emotions. One day, I hope there are new creatives guiding them who remember that.

Oh, and one more thing - If you want to learn more about Jim Henson, check out @brianjayjones’ definitive biography of him...

Finally, a quick reminder that I do have a Patreon, if you decide you like *my* nonsense. *And* the $1 level gets you access to all of my exclusive content... http://Patreon.com/KenPlume 

Here’s @IMPaulWilliams & Kenny Ascher talking about the writing of “Rainbow Connection”...

It’s fitting that the Muppets Go To The Movies special, promoting The Great Muppet Caper, ends w/ this, as the special was also a send off for The Muppet Show,being the last thing filmed on the show’s sets after the series wrapped (And the only time you see the theater exterior).

I want to illustrate the vast tonal shifts the plasticity of the Muppet Show format could easily accommodate with a pair of examples from the 3rd season’s @alicecooper episode, starting w/ this opening number from Alice...

And in the same episode, this beautiful, & completely sincere, rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, performed by Jerry Nelson’s Robin The Frog.

The Muppet Show was comfortable w/ the “variety” aspect of the variety show format, investing equal weight to it all its “acts”.

While it’s certainly a licensing/rights nightmare, I’d love to have a collection of the guest star performances from The Muppet Show, because no corner was cut. The musicians were all top notch, & having those Muppet performer voices blend w/ hosts having a blast is infectious.

Often, when I’m tackling an artistic endeavor & get into a rough patch, I’ll think about @TheFrankOzJam’s, “In order to make it look good up there, it has to be uncomfortable down here.”

...

And his comment about buying beans. I think about that one a lot, too.

And this insight from legendary Muppet writer Jerry Juhl on the creative freedom The Muppet Show, & its production team, represented...

As a supplement to @brianjayjones’ must-read thread expanding on the importance of Sir Lew Grade to both Jim Henson and the very existence of The Muppet Show and first Muppet movies, I offer up this clip...

https://twitter.com/brianjayjones/status/1351585524293754881

“They love doing the show.”

Another element missing in modern Muppet projects that focus entirely on comedy w/ the character rather than the character in the comedy, is that the Muppets are not trapped where they are. This is the show they’re putting on, *for* an audience.

“It’s like a funny Eugene O’Neill story...”

There was a richness to the characters on The Muppet Show, infused with a relatability & humanity that welcomed audiences to connect to objects of felt & foam. You could feel the show’s emotional investment & responded in kind.

You may think me foolish to spend so much time trying to parse why these characters were able to become a *global* phenomenon 45yrs ago only to be barely relevant outside of a barely managed IP today, w/ a body of work largely unknown to modern audiences, but this is why I care:

I care because I’m a nostalgic fool who connected w/ these characters, & remain frustrated that they’re untended when there is still plenty of reason to do so. Was The Muppet Show perfect? No. Nothing is. But when it hit that sweet spot, it operated on a full spectrum of emotion.

I hope I haven’t left you feeling down, because that was never my intention w/ this thread. I hope it ultimately comes across as a celebration of creativity & humanity, and the happy intersections of those two forces in the creation of something that resonates.

And because I can’t help myself, I want to leave you with what I hope is a lasting appreciation, or at least piqued curiosity, of the artistry behind the art - Particularly after you’ve watched that previous clip of Kermit dancing to “Happy Feet”, as performed by Jim Henson...

(I promise I’m done for now.)

There were a few performers of the Muppet Show era that seemed perfectly attuned to The Muppets’ wavelength, & John Denver was one of them. Their frequent collaborations, including their Christmas album, bear that out. This performance, & its message, often comes to mind...

Hand in hand with the spirit of craziness & compassion, I adore that the Muppet Show’s driving narrative force, no matter the chaos, was that the show must go on - And that the best way to do that, ultimately, was by supporting each other to make it happen.

I can’t emphasize enough how much guests enjoyed doing The Muppet Show. And you can feel it in the episodes. Look at the positive performance energy in this bit with Kris Kristifferson & Piggy (and how @TheFrankOzJam rolls with & elevates it, playing with Kris). Artful absurdity.

And it was @TheRitaMoreno’s stellar turn in the very first season of The Muppet Show that secured the (much-deserved) Emmy win which elevated her to an EGOT - In an episode, much like @IMPaulWilliams’, that found the show settling in, shaking out, & building confidence...

Another digression on craft, to sing the praises of the Muppet Workshop, its designers & builders, over generations of Muppet productions. The complexity born out of simplicity is magical to me.

If you want to learn more about the Muppet performers, check out @TheFrankOzJam’s documentary Muppet Guys Talking, which is an intimate conversation between Oz, Dave Goelz, Fran Brill, Jerry Nelson, & Bill Barretta.

You can (and should) get it at http://muppetguystalking.com 

It was via the late Jerry Nelson’s kindness that I was introduced to the Muppet performers & brought behind the curtain, & I miss him deeply. Through his work on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street (The Count, Herry Monster), & Fraggle Rock (Gobo), he’s woven into so many memories.

Small digression on Jerry Nelson -

Over the years, he wrote a clutch of songs that he’d mainly perform at a local pub w/ mates.

Shortly before he passed, a recording session was arranged thanks to his Muppets family, & an album was recorded - Truro Daydreams. Go get it.

The late Richard Hunt who, in addition to Scooter, also performed Statler, Sweetums, Janice, & Beaker (& was also a performer on Sesame Street & Fraggle Rock). You may also recognize him for his small role as Wilson, the Duke Brothers’ harried trader at the end of Trading Places.

Dave Goelz, the only core Muppet performer still active w/ The Muppets on new projects. Not only is he immensely talented, he’s also just a nice guy. Of the characters on The Muppet Show, when it comes to pure emotional range,Gonzo is the most fascinating. An incredible creation.

The Muppet Show could take an obscure album cut by Harry Chapin & use it to explore character, here building on Scooter’s insecurity while also delivering the show’s persistent message about these characters having each other’s backs, & the unifying nature of art.

So much of what we see from the Muppets today is painfully superficial. They’re delivery systems, divorced of context. Ironically enough, merely puppets. That’s because there exists no protective, nurturing force for them at Disney. They’ve been downgraded to a managed property.

Is it fixable? Sure. Will it be fixed? Not unless there’s a corporate desire to do so, with a willingness to devote the time, resources, & trust to creatives who have a vision *for* The Muppets - Not a vision *with* The Muppets.

Belief is what held The Muppet Show together. Belief in the characters. Belief in the performers. Belief in the writing. Belief in the execution. Belief in the audience.

Genuine sincerity engenders belief.

And to make it happen takes investment - Emotional and financial.

Side note:

I should say, if you’d like to read the massive interviews I did with Muppet folk like @TheFrankOzJam, Dave Goelz, and Jerry Nelson (plus a lot of other folks), you can find them here:

http://asitecalledfred.com/vault 

Look at the density of visual gags & performer “business” in this Muppet Show number, and all of it elevating the central musical performance. It also is comprised entirely of one-off characters for just this bit. But it radiates effortless fun in a way few modern Muppet bits do.

And no, Muppets comedy doesn’t require a huge production budget. It also doesn’t have to be cranked to 11 to deliver solid comedy beats *if* you can deliver them through strongly defined characters. You can watch this & instantly know & laugh at these character types in a sketch:

Or just strip that back to a single character & set piece & let the performance take it away. What comes out in this performance, of a tune that is not a well-known Top 40 hit, is Jim’s affection for it. His affection for it transfers to the audience. It welcomes an audience in.

The Muppet Show really did come alive in those smaller moments. Particularly with guests...

And then could comfortably go big with the same material...

Sidebar on something rarely seen:

Produced as a one-off special a year after The Muppet Show wrapped, The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show acts as a bit of a coda to that whole period, in particularly the massive success of Piggy...

Perhaps surprisingly, the special also featured Tony Clifton... And it was one of the times it was actually Andy Kaufman under the makeup, rather than Bob Zmuda...

And the special ends with guest John Ritter being forced to impersonate Piggy - much to his regret...

You may not be aware, but Jim Henson & The Muppets were part of the first season of Saturday Night Live.

The sketches were written by SNL’s writers, & featured new creations in “The Land Of Gorch”. It was a poor fit all around, & the SNL writers/cast resented their presence...

Henson (& the sketches) were gone before the season’s end, off to London to film the 1st season of The Muppet Show (to huge success).

But I relate all this as set up to tell you a story the late Muppet performer Jerry Nelson told me about a special moment from SNL’s 6th episode.

Jerry Nelson performed Scred, who it was revealed had a crush on host @LilyTomlin. In the episode, they perform a duet together. SNL does a full dress rehearsal in front of an audience a few hours before the live show. So Jerry & Lily did their number at dress,then went to break.

In between dress & the live show, Jerry went downstairs at 30 Rock & decided to purchase a rose.

So, for me, the magical intersection of performance & sincerity on live TV is played out in the moment Jerry Nelson surprises @LilyTomlin w/ that rose, & her genuine response...

In March 1978, @JulieAndrews had a prime time special on CBS, featuring The Muppets as guests. Andrews had been a guest in season 2 of The Muppet Show. In July of 1978, The Muppets team would begin filming The Muppet Movie...

Another look behind the scenes of The Muppet Show, focusing on the production design. One of the challenges of their variety/sketch format is - outside of the backstage area, guest dressing room, & handful of recurring bits - every sketch/musical number required a brand new set.

Cloris Leachman’s 2nd season appearance on The Muppet Show, when pigs had overrun the Muppet theatre to take over the show...

It really does seem you could drop Cloris Leachman into any scenario and she’d be brilliant.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t remark that Cloris Leachman returned to The Muppets family to play the gatekeeper to movie mogul Lew Lord in The Muppet Movie..

Its been awhile, but it seems like a good time to pick this thread back up.

It’s wild to see the emotional swings that The Muppet Show had the confidence to allow itself to take w/ its supremely flexible format. The same episode that had chickens performing “Babyface”... (cont)

...Also had this piece centering around Jim Croce’s poignant “Time In A Bottle”.

While much is often said of the vocal quality Dave Goelz could bring to a song, I want to point out that Jim Henson could also bring an affecting aching quality to his vocals that penetrates deeply.

This sketch perfectly illustrates a quality of Fozzie’s character that is both defining & almost wholly ignored in modern material.

He throws himself into his act, 1000%, & desperately wants it to work. He hopes that finally, FINALLY, it will land. And he’ll keep trying. 1000%.

I sincerely hope you all watch The Muppet Show on Disney+, & hopefully there’s a minimal amount of material excised due to clearance issues.

Some material is dated, particularly when viewed w/ modern sensibilities - What 45yo show isn’t? - but the great bulk of it is timeless...

There are so many levels to this number from The Muppet Show that endear it to me, from the choice of song (w/ a decidedly mature subject matter), to bringing in Peter Sellers’ actual skill as a drummer. And it features not a single member of what you’d consider the main cast...

And it’s related to this piece, hanging on my wall...

Disney+ is missing 2 episodes from The Muppet Show’s 5th season. I can understand the absence of one of them, but if I were to hazard a guess why the Brooke Shields episode, featuring a delightful Alice In Wonderland runner, is missing, it might be due to this closing song...

The Kaye Ballard episode is missing from Season 1, & some regions seem to be missing other episodes that the US has.

It was inevitable there’d be a few missing. I’m surprised they cleared as many as they did. I’m curious to see if there were any trims made within the eps...

Here’s an incredibly inventive number that sadly didn’t make it on to Disney+, for understandable reasons due to the episode it’s in. Henson and his team were true artists of the television medium, & Jim was playing w/ the tricks of the technology right from his start in the 50s.