Dear Internet,
So, I
have finished the first season of "The Muppet Show." And so far so go. The jokes have not repeated much, although I
did notice a recurring of "Do you need a hand?" here and there. The songs cover a wide selection and continue
to entertain. The guest stars come from
a variety of fields like films, music, Broadway musicals, and stand-up
comedy. Overall, I find the show very
enjoyable, and if that is all you want to know, you can stop reading right
here.
The
variety show genre, as I said yesterday, is practically dead. With only a single show being representative
of a far gone show type, it is even sadder considering that the one show is
often a complete hit or miss. Between making
the guest star host the show and unrecognizable bands making appearances, it
relies on its sheer quantity of a library and history to keep going. If a new variety show were to try and make it
on the scene, it would be booed off the air before it got a chance to run. "SNL" continues to last not because
it still entertains on a regular basis, but because it has lasted so long and
people are unwilling to say "Just finish already." But this is neither here nor there concerning
"The Muppet Show" other than the fact that the two at one time air
within the same years and during "SNL"s Golden Era, or
something.
The
real reason I bring up "SNL" again, is that I want to address the contrast
of live verses pre-filmed variety shows.
"SNL" is broadcast live.
This means that every scene has to be rehearsed so that the cast can do
the scene perfectly in one go. The best
"SNL" skits are the ones that never show that the cast is doing it in
one go or are being fazed by the studio audience. However, there is always the odd skit where
the cast are constantly holding back a barrel of laughs because someone has
forgotten their lines or the scene itself is too funny for them to hold
back. It then, of cores, ruins the skit
because the scene has fallen apart. This
is not like the way that "The Carol Burnett Show" laughed at its own
jokes. That was because the comedians on
the show were trying to get each other to laugh by delivering extra lines or
making the scene divert from the original script, which one can tell is
occurring by the side comments of the cast.
When one cannot even get through the scripted scene without boggling it,
it shows inability. When one is thrown a
curve ball and needs to react for the sake of the audience, talent is being
showcased. "The Muppet Show"
is smart by avoiding all these problems.
Instead
of having a live performance, the scenes can be shot until they are
perfect. A number of the jokes are impossible
to be done if the show was live. Kermit
could not be thrown around like a ragdoll if the camera did not have a chance
to stop and let him change positions.
Nearly half of the explosion jokes would have to be canned since they
rely on a camera trick. For example, if
someone blows their top, they can literally blow their top. This requires the show to stop filming,
remove the Muppet's head, begin rolling and have an explosion come from out of
the character's neck. In post-production,
the two shots are spliced together to make it seem that the character's head
exploded. Then there are scenes where a
Muppet is eaten by a much larger Muppet.
The shot changes angle to allow a third shot to show the eaten Muppet's
feet being gobbled last. The top half
and bottom half of the Muppet are never seen in the same shot. This cannot be done in a live show, lest the
audience realize how the joke is being done.
There are a number of other special effects that could not be done in a
live setting at the time, but can be relatively easy now-a-days.
On the
matter of the audience, "The Muppet Show" actually has one. It was made up of Muppets, too, but it nevertheless
had one. In the very least, Kermit jokes
about the laugh track that is used in one episode. I do not mind laugh tracks. I think if they are used correctly can be a
nice touch. Comedy shows now are
awkwardly quiet when the joke is delivered.
That quiet is unsettling. It is
like a hole in the show that makes you wonder if there was a joke in the first
place. In any other setting, a joke is
followed by laughter. Go to a comedy
club, people laugh. Tell a joke to a
friend, he laughs. Hear a joke in a
theater, everyone laughs. The point of
canned laughter was two-fold. One was to
highlight the jokes, but that is more secondary than primary. The primary reason is to simulate that
communal atmosphere that is synonymous with variety shows of old. It is the Vaudeville show. It is when people went down to their local
theater to see a comedy/musical troupe perform and call out jeers and cry alongside
your neighbor while sad songs are sung.
A laugh track is meant to help you laugh, not because the jokes themselves
are not funny but because it is meant to loosen you up to actually laugh. Thankfully, the laugh track in "The Muppet
Show" does not overstay its welcome, unlike an unmentionable modern sitcom about "nerds."
 |
| This audience of puppets has got more personality than a modern studio audience. |
That
will be it for today, Internet.
Tomorrow, onto season two, but I suspect I will really touch more upon
the topic of Muppets in general than anything specific about the episodes being
watched. I will try and not digress so
much.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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