Carstairs Considers....: TV Show Review - The Muppet Show

Friday, May 24, 2013

TV Show Review - The Muppet Show - Season 3

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Laughs and silliness reign

Cons: A few of the musical numbers are slow

The Bottom Line:

Silliness and puns

Make for entertaining shows

All these years later

"Am I Crazy, or Was That Good?" "You're Crazy." "I Thought So."

The mayhem and fun of The Muppet Show is back for season three. And the laughs and jokes are just as plentiful as ever.

In case you have miss the fun that is this show, The Muppet Show was created during the late 70's and the early 80's, the era of the variety show. And that's exactly what you get here. The big difference is that the normal stars of the show are The Muppets, big puppets. Each episodes features one or two human guest stars. Depending on the star and the episode, some do more than others. But most of the show is carried by The Muppets.

The show tends to shift between the acts on stage and various antics backstage, where emcee Kermit the Frog is trying to keep everything running smoothly. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast doesn't keep things easy for him. There's Miss Piggy, who thinks she should be the star and resents new female pig Annie Sue. Fozzie Bear tries to come up with a funny act, only to continue to fail. Speaking of failing, there's Gonzo who tries to do the impossible and finds out that, well, it's impossible.

Several sketches pop up multiple times over the course of the season. The most frequent is Pigs in Space, a Star Trek spoof with hilarious results. My favorite is the less frequently scene Veterinarian's Hospital. That show puts the pun in anything over and over again. There's Muppet Labs, where Dr. Honeydew and his assistant Beaker show off the latest and greatest inventions. Okay, the latest inventions anyway. We get treated to the latest breaking news and some of the weirdest sports you've ever seen. And we also find out the Swedish Chef's real language (hint, it isn't faux Swedish).

And there are the guest stars. Since these episodes are from 1978, many of them are no longer household names. I was left scratching my head at the likes of Leo Sayer or Elke Sommers. However, others I did know like Lesley Ann Warren, Helen Reddy, or Sylvester Stallone. Quite often, if I know the guest star before the show, I find the jokes funnier. That's not always the case, however, because I found the episode with Irish comedian Spike Milligan, a man I'd never heard of before, to be one of the funniest.

The show takes a few liberties with the format in this season. They do one complete episode at a train station (while the theater is being fumigated). In the Lynn Redgrave episode, they put on a production of Robin Hood. One episode features a salute to all the countries that air the show. That one ends with a spot on production of "It's a Small World" that even had this fan of the song and ride laughing. These types of things keep the show entertaining.

Not that they need the help. This show continues to put out some of the funniest stuff, even all these years later. Okay, it does help if you are a fan of the silly. Some of what happens is downright strange. But if you can get into the right mindset, you'll be laughing your head off. And if you can't? Well, there are always Statler and Waldorf, the two gentlemen in the balcony who constantly heckle and put down the show. I'm sure you'll agree with their comments. (Or you can be like me. I love their heckling even if I've enjoyed the act we just saw.)

Because this is a variety show, you'll find they don't just do comedy sketched but also include music and dancing. Some of these are played for laughs (Harry Belafonte gets one of the funniest songs of the season), while others are played straight, like when Liberace guest stars. Occasionally, I find that the songs slow things down, but I usually enjoy these more mellow interludes.

There were 24 episodes in season three, and all of them are here on four discs. The last disc in the set includes an hour long presentation on puppets and how they create and perform as the Muppets, a few commercials that predate the show, and interviews with some of the Muppeteers talking about their time on the show.

All in all, The Muppet Show continues to entertain with its third season. Now that I'm finally caught up, I hope they release a new set very soon.

Season 3 Guest Stars:

Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge

Leo Sayer

Roy Clark

Gilda Radner

Pearl Bailey

Jean Stapleton

Alice Cooper

Loretta Lynn

Liberace

Marisa Berenson