The Muppets

THE MUPPETS
Made by: Jim Henson Productions/ATV
Shown on: ?
Years shown: 1976-9, plus repeats

Theme tune: “It’s time to put on music, it’s time to light the lights/It’s time to get things started on The Muppet Show tonight!”

His creations on Sesame Street had been educating the pre-school American masses for seven whole years, before puppet-maestro Jim Henson unleashed The Muppets on a prime-time audience, to enormous critical and popular acclaim. The basic premise was a group of characters trying to put together a weekly theatre show, with the usual pressure of time, problems with temperamental divas, and comedians who fail to be funny - except that these characters were all puppets, of course. Still, The Muppets provided us with perhaps one of the greatest ensemble casts of all time. It was clever, it was subversive, but mainly it was just unabashed entertainment.

Kermit the Frog was the show’s perennially harassed producer and emcee, constantly trying to fend off the amorous attentions of Miss Piggy, the self-obsessed diva who was also the show’s main star. Miss Piggy, in turn, was relentlessly pursued by Gonzo, a blue, hook-nosed weirdo with a vast range of bizarre stage acts, including eating rubber tyres. Also causing headaches for Kermit was Fozzie Bear, a really crap stand-up comedian, with an endless line in lame puns, and the immortal trademark laugh, “Wocka, wocka, wocka!”

The show also featured a couple of long-running ‘drama’ series. Piano-playing dog Rowlf starred in the soap Animal Hospital (with not a Rowlf Harris in sight, heh heh), but the big draw was Pigs in Space, an inspired Star Trek ‘homage’. The Swinetrek was captained by the egomaniacal Link Hogthrob, with Dr Julius T. Strangepork as his Spok-like sidekick, and Miss Piggy as the swooning love-interest. Inevitably, a battle of the egos ensued.

Music on the night was provided by the multifarious members of Dr Teeth and The Electric Mayhem: Teeth himself played a funky piano, with Floyd Pepper on bass guitar, Zoot on the saxophone, Janice on lead guitar duties, and, doing his best Keith Moon impersonation, was the insuppressible drummer, Animal, a living embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll.

There was a cookery slot with the incomprehensible Swedish Chef, who was essentially a one-gag act (i.e. laughing at unintelligible foreigners); and over in the science corner was Dr Bunsen Honeydew (memorable for having glasses, but no eyes), and his fraught victim of an assistant, Beaker. Explosions and trips to the ER were routine.

Another brilliant addition was Sam the Eagle, a patriot of the highest order, who was very easily offended, and whose catch-phrase was, “Stop doing that, it’s un-American!” He was a great play on television censorship, and tried to patrol everyone’s behaviour, to little effect. Then there were the unforgettable Statler and Waldorf, the two cantankerous old men sitting in the balcony, heckling the show, who were like a Vaudeville act on their own.

The Muppet Show was absolutely crammed with characters, and even the small ones were perfectly formed. There was Rizzo the Rat; Kermit’s nephew Robin (who had a top ten hit in May 1977 with the tear-jerker ‘Halfway Down the Stairs’); security guard and food-obsessive, Bobo the Bear; Miss Piggy’s nephews, Andy and Randy; Scooter, the much put-upon gofer for the show; the intentionally over-cute Bean Bunny; Johnny Fiamma and Sal, a smooth Frank Sinatra-esque crooner, with his bodyguard monkey; Seymour and Pepe (loosely an elephant and a rooster), the bellhops who were desperate to break into showbiz; and, finally, Sweetums, a gigantic hairy beast who lolloped around in an ungainly manner, and took care of Robin.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 9/10

(Thanks to www.thegreatcurve.net for the borrowed pic)