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| With a cast of a hundred. |
Dear Internet,
"The
Muppet Show" has an easy to guess premise if one knows at least knows what
exactly a Muppet is. Case in point, "The
Muppet Show" is a show with the Muppets starring in it. But what exactly is a Muppet? Unless one had grown up some 50 plus years
ago and never had kids of their own or one belongs to the Millennial Generation
and was raised on cable television like MTV and such rather than public
broadcasts like "Sesame Street," there is really next to no excuse to
not knowing what a Muppet is. The term
is something that has had a global reach, much because of "Sesame
Street" fame. They are felt puppets
put simply. Put more complex, they are a
type of puppet designed with certain aesthetics that all come from a specific
company. However, it must be remembered
that the Muppets are a completely different entity from that of the education
program, despite the two having much in common like Jim Henson, their
creator. There is a slew of media that
has been made with just the Muppets in mind with "Sesame Street" as
not part of the equation. It might seem
strange that I say all this, especially if one knows the wide history of those
felt friends. I do this because of how
"Sesame Street" is usually one's first experience to the characters
because that show aims at pre-schoolers.
Afterwards, if one is lucky to have grown up at the same time of some of
the revivals of the franchise, one might become exposed to other shows and
films. However, there is just as likely
a chance that one can grow up having watched "Sesame Street" and by
the time they grow out of that show, never get a good chance to see the menagerie
of lovable characters that abound. I for
one only saw "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and "Muppet Treasure
Island" for years until I could hunt down a few other films and TV
spots. There seemed to have been a
drought of Muppet material right after Jim Henson's death. Nevertheless, "The Muppet Show" is
something that occurred prior to all that, back in the hey-day of sorts.
"The
Muppet Show," aired from 1976-1981, is a variety show. You ask what is a variety show considering it
has become a dead genre where the only show that can still claim title to it is
"Saturday Night Live"? Well, like
"Saturday Night Live," "The Muppet Show" consists of a
variety of sketch comedy scenes, musical numbers, and a guest appearance from a
star or starlet that participates in a scene or two. Unlike "SNL," "The Muppet
Show" is still funny. I am probably
going to get a lot of beef for that statement, but I say it for a specific reason. A large quantity of "SNL" skits are
pop culture references and topic of the week jokes. Unless the topic is big enough to be
remembered after a year, the jokes fall flat on an audience that does not know
what is being made fun of. The jokes have
an expiration date on them. Only the
jokes and skits that are not about the hot button of the week end up lasting to
the test of time. "The Muppets
Show" does not rely on comedy that cannot last longer than the milk in the
fridge.
I would
say the show is based on about three types of comedy. To begin with, there are the one liners. These kinds of jokes are witty remarks based
on the situation or upon another character's line. There are characters dedicated specifically
to this kind of comedy, but I will get into examples in another post. Then there are the puns. My gosh, are there puns. There is a particularly great pun that the
show gets Peter Ustinov to tell a long story for. The last kind of comedy would be
slapstick. Between Miss Piggy delivering
Karate chops to Kermit and Crazy Harry setting off the odd explosion, there is always
someone getting an injury for our laughs.
These three major types of comedy are all well balanced out. They almost cycle to prevent one from
dominating the other too much. What they
aim to do is to constantly keep the motion of the show going.
The
pace of the show is surprisingly fast. Skits
and segments only last a few minutes, at about three minutes average or
max. I was amazed at how quickly each
episode progressed and ended up finishing before I realized it. I was amazed even more at this when I
realized that the episodes run approximately 25 minutes each. Compare that to episodes now-a-days that last
for little over 20 minutes and have lengthy opening and ending sequences. The time really flew by today because the
episodes made it such an enjoyable time.
On top
of the comedy skits are the musical segments.
The songs range from comical little ditties like "Does Your Chewing
Gum Lose It's Flavor" to serious ones like "Being Green." The songs are sometimes sung by only the Muppets,
but when a musical guest makes an appearance, they will sing something for the
audience. The song selection, even in
the limited amount of episodes that I have seen today, are wonderful. "Cottleston Pie" and "Halfway
Down the Stairs" are two songs that I found to be worth mentioning and
remembering, even outside the realm of Muppets.
They are songs that can stand on their own merit, but that might be more
praise for A. A. Milne than the Muppets.
However, the songs are definitely deserving of praise.
I think
I will stop here, Internet. With another
108 episodes to get through, I will have to pace myself to prevent repeating something
and becoming stale. That might happen,
but I still have plenty more to say even after just one day.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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