The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a variety sketch comedy family television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with running gags taking place backstage and in other areas of the venue.
The Muppet Show is known for its uniquely designed characters, burlesque nature, slapstick, sometimes absurdist and surreal humour, and parodies. Within its context, Kermit the Frog acts as showrunner and host, who tries to maintain control of the overwhelming antics of the other Muppet characters as well as appease the rotating slate of guest stars. As The Muppet Show became popular, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in subsequent films.
Henson produced two pilot episodes for ABC in 1974 and 1975, but neither went forward as a series. While other networks in the United States rejected Henson's proposals, British producer Lew Grade expressed enthusiasm for the project and agreed to co-produce The Muppet Show for ATV, part of the UK ITV network. The Muppet Show was produced by ITC Entertainment and Henson Associates with programmes produced and recorded at the ATV Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
The series was premiered in the UK on 5 September 1976 and ended on 23 May 1981. Five seasons, totalling 120 episodes, were broadcast on ATV and other ITV franchises in the UK and in first-run syndication in the United States from 1976 to 1981.
The cast of performers over the course of the series included Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Fran Brill, Eren Özker, Louise Gold, Kathryn Mullen, Karen Prell, Brian Muehl, Bob Payne, John Lovelady, Jane Henson, Peter Friedman, Betsy Baytos, and dancer Graham Fletcher. Many of the performers also worked on Sesame Street, whose characters made sporadic appearances on The Muppet Show. Jack Burns served as the head writer for the first season, before Jerry Juhl became the head writer from the second season. The music was performed by ATV's musical director Jack Parnell and his orchestra.
The rights to the series have been owned by the Muppets Studio since they were acquired from the Jim Henson Company in 2004.
History
Since its debut in 1969, Sesame Street had given Jim Henson's Muppet characters exposure. However, he began to perceive that he was becoming typecast as a children's entertainer. Subsequently, he began to conceive a programme for a more adult audience. Two television specials, The Muppets Valentine Show and The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, were produced for ABC and are considered pilots for The Muppet Show. Neither of them were ordered to series. However, the prime-time access rule was recently enacted, moving the 7:30 to 8 pm ET slot from the networks to their affiliates. CBS became interested in Henson's series proposals and expressed intent to broadcast it weekly on its owned and operated stations. According to Henson's pitch reel, George Schlatter was originally involved.Lew Grade, the proprietor of the British commercial station ATV, was familiar with puppet television programmes, having underwritten the various works of Gerry Anderson, while also producing two specials with Henson: Julie on Sesame Street and a special on Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Grade offered Henson a deal that resulted in the latter's programme being produced at the ATV Elstree Studios. ATV, as part of the ITV network, would broadcast the programme to other ITV stations in the United Kingdom, and its distribution arm, ITC Entertainment, would handle international broadcasts. Henson set aside his misgivings about syndication and accepted.
Meanwhile, Henson's Muppets were featured in The Land of Gorch skits during the first season of the American comedy television programme Saturday Night Live. Although they lasted for only that one season on Saturday Night Live because of conflicts with that show's writers and producers, Henson and his team learned a great deal from being involved with the production. They gained institutional knowledge about adapting and quickly creating a television programme within a seven-day period. Henson also gained valuable friendships with multiple celebrities through his work on Saturday Night Live. Henson and his team were later able to use these skills and relationships on The Muppet Show.
The Muppet Show was first aired in September 1976 in the UK and by December the series had around 14 million viewers tuning in on Sunday evenings. In January 1977, over 100 countries had either acquired the series or were making offers, which had resulted in over £6 million in overseas sales and by its third season in 1978 it had a weekly worldwide audience of 235 million.
Overview
Opening and closing sequences
"The Muppet Show Theme" is the show's theme song. While the opening sequence changed from season to season, the overall concept remained the same. Each episode began with "The Muppet Show" logo on a title card. The centre of the "O" then opened to reveal host Kermit the Frog, who announced, "It's The Muppet Show, with our very special guest star, !" usually cheering afterwards.During the first season, the theme song contained a joke from Fozzie Bear and featured Kermit introducing the guest star. At the song's end, Gonzo the Great appeared in front of the "Muppet Show" banner, attempting to play the "O" in "Show" like a gong, with various comical results.
From the second to fourth seasons, the joke and Kermit's introduction were replaced by a short quip from Statler and Waldorf, then a shot of the audience singing "Why don't they get things started?" The fifth season version had an extra verse from the hecklers. At the end of the song, Gonzo appeared inside the "O" in "Show" to play the final note on a trumpet; again, with various comical results.
Each episode ended with an extended instrumental performance of "The Muppet Show Theme" by the Muppet orchestra before Statler and Waldorf gave the last laugh of the night, followed by Zoot playing an off-key final note on his saxophone. Some last-laugh sequences had other Muppets on the balcony. For example, in one episode, the Muppets of Sesame Street appeared behind Statler and Waldorf, who told them, "How should we know how to get to Sesame Street? We don't even know how to get out of this stupid theatre box!"
Every season, the TV version of the song was presented with re-worked lyrics. While the opening sequence evolved visually over the show's five seasons, the musical composition remained essentially the same. Over the years, the song has become a staple of the Muppets franchise as a whole.
Muppet Theater
The Muppet Theater is the setting for The Muppet Show, a grand old vaudeville house that has seen better days. In a 1976 episode guest starring Jim Nabors, Kermit identifies the name of the theatre as The Benny Vandergast Memorial Theater, although other episodes identify it as "the Muppet Theater". It is also identified as "Muppet Theater" in the 2002 television film It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. It is in this film that the theatre becomes registered as a historical landmark. In the film, the theatre is shown to be in New York City.According to the 1991 picture book The Phantom of the Muppet Theater, the theatre was built by a stage actor named John Stone in 1802. An alternative exterior is also shown in the book.
Locations seen in the Muppet Theater include backstage right, the dressing rooms, the attic, the canteen, the prop room, the stage, Statler and Waldorf's box, the auditorium, reception, the recording studio, the stage door lobby, the boiler room and the back alley. Some of these sets were later re-used as the Happiness Hotel in the 1981 film The Great Muppet Caper. A replica of the theatre was once used as the setting for the Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction formerly located at the Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney California Adventure theme parks.
Scooter's uncle J.P. Grosse owns the theatre and rents it to the Muppets. In a deleted scene from It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Kermit reveals that J.P. has died and left the theatre to the Muppets in his will. This would have taken place some time after 1996, as J.P. can be seen in season 1 of Muppets Tonight, the 1990s reworking of The Muppet Show.
In the 2011 film The Muppets, a badly deteriorated version of the Muppet Theater is located next to Muppet Studios in Los Angeles. The Muppets reunite in hopes of raising enough money to buy the theatre.
Characters and performers
Many of the characters who appeared on The Muppet Show have appeared in previous and subsequent Muppet productions.Guest stars
No guest star ever appeared twice on The Muppet Show, although John Denver appeared both on the show and in two specials, while Dudley Moore reappeared in the special The Muppets Go to the Movies. Additionally, several guest stars from the series had cameos in the first three Muppet theatrical films, and the season four guest Alan Arkin had a cameo in The Muppets. Originally, the producers had to call on their personal contacts to appeal to them to appear, especially considering that doing so required an overseas trip to Britain. However, the situation changed when the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev offered to appear; his performance on this unusual TV programme produced so much favourable publicity that the series became one of the most sought after for various celebrities to appear in.Many episodes featured actors, such as Gilda Radner, Steve Martin, Harvey Korman, Sylvester Stallone, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Liza Minnelli, Christopher Reeve, Raquel Welch, Joel Grey and Dom DeLuise; some had veteran performers like Ethel Merman, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Don Knotts, Liberace, Peter Ustinov, James Coburn, Lena Horne, Zero Mostel and Vincent Price, and others had well-known pop singers, including Elton John, Diana Ross, Harry Belafonte, Kenny Rogers, Linda Ronstadt, Alice Cooper, Paul Simon, Helen Reddy, Twiggy, Debbie Harry, Buddy Rich, and Leo Sayer. Sayer's show used his hit song "The Show Must Go On" with slightly changed lyrics in the second verse, from "I wish I could tear down the walls of this theatre" to "I wish I could tear down the walls of this Muppet Theatre". Some guest stars, such as the Monty Python star John Cleese, co-wrote much of their own episodes. The second-to-last episode, in 1981, had the then-James Bond actor Roger Moore, while the final episode to be taped guest-starred the actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Mark Hamill appeared in one episode as both himself and Luke Skywalker, his role in the Star Wars film series. Two of Henson's childhood idols, Edgar Bergen and Milton Berle, also guest-starred during the second season.
In 1977, Rita Moreno won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for her appearance. The next year, Peter Sellers — who chose not to appear as himself, instead appearing in a variety of characters — and Bernadette Peters earned nominations for the same award. One 1981 episode had the staff writer Chris Langham guest-starring when Richard Pryor was unable to make the taping of the episode at the last minute.
An early tradition was to present the guest star with a Muppet likeness of themselves as a parting gift at the end of the show. This lasted for the first two episodes produced, with Connie Stevens and Juliet Prowse. The high cost and effort of creating these unique Muppets, scheduling conflicts, and potential legal issues contributed to the decline of this practice, although Muppet caricatures and parodies continued to appear. The practice did, however, take place for actors Michael Caine and Tim Curry, who were the lead performers in the films The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, released in 1992 and 1996 respectively.