Original Air Date: March 6, 1978
What’s missing from recent Muppet productions? Ask ten different people, and you’re likely to get ten different answers. Every fan and semi-fan has their own ideas about what should have been included to make the last two movies, the ABC series, and various TV specials and YouTube videos more Muppety.
More songs? More “Pigs in Space?” More Kermit & Piggy love? More Cookie Monster? Sure, any of those things might help. Although I think the guy who suggested that last one is a little confused. But after watching the episode of The Muppet Show guest-starring singer and Gong Show judge Jaye P. Morgan, I’d like to suggest another option: comedy explosions.
By the time of this episode, the Muppets had been around for more than 20 years, and Jim Henson and his collaborators were well aware that blowing stuff had become one of their go-to comedy devices. And in this episode, they lean into it like never before. In the first few seconds of the show, Jaye P. Morgan throws a bomb at Scooter, which explodes in his face. BOOM! A minute later, Gonzo attempts to blow the last note of the theme song on his trumpet, but instead gets blown up. BOOM! Then, after the opening number, there’s a Swedish Chef sketch in which the Chef cracks open a coconut to find a bomb inside. BOOM! And there are more explosions as the episode goes on. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Is it possible The Muppet Show was the most violent show on television during its five-year run? I can’t think of any other series that blows up three of its beloved regular characters in the first few minutes of an episode. Can you imagine if The Mary Tyler Moore Show had Murray, Phyllis, and Lou all get caught in separate explosions in the same episode? Not only would it seem incredibly violent, it would be extremely unoriginal to use the same plot twist three times in one show.
But the Muppets are puppets, and just like cartoon characters, they bounce back quickly from getting bombed. Nobody ever really gets hurt. And somehow, it’s funny every time. Especially when they shine a spotlight on it in this episode’s Talk Spot, which finds Kermit explaining to Jaye P. Morgan that “explosions are one of our trademarks,” and the blowing himself up. And then blowing himself up again. After which Jaye P. Morgan demonstrates her exploding hat.
Funny explosions are absolutely good for Muppets. Just look at Muppets Most Wanted, the best and most Muppety production of the last ten years. Within minutes of our introduction to Constantine, he blows up the gulag he just escaped from, then he blows up a pay phone for no good reason. Just like on The Muppet Show, nobody gets hurt, it’s just funny chaos.
Now, I’m not suggesting that every Muppet production ever should be full of explosions. But it seems to me that the cartoonish explosions are a great example of the kind of zany, anarchic comedy that most fans would probably agree makes the Muppets who they are. I’ve droned on and on right here on this website about how I don’t think the Muppets should keep doing the same thing over and over again. But wacky comedy — whether it’s explosions, monsters eating people, or talking vegetables — is one element from the Muppet tradition that should carried over to the present.
Speaking of which, this episode finds the Muppets gesturing toward their history more than once. In introducing the opening number, a song called “Tweedle Dee,” Kermit notes that it was the first piece of material the Muppets ever did, 23 years earlier. That means the song was performed on the first episode of Sam and Friends – or perhaps even earlier, on one Jim Henson’s first forays into television on Afternoon with Inga or Circle 4 Ranch!
The closing number, too, is tied to the Muppets’ past. It’s “That Old Black Magic,” in which Jaye P. Morgan sings her part relatively straight while Dr. Teeth, bursting with energy, hams it up on his part of the duet. That’s essentially the same setup the Muppets used when Kermit and Sam (not the eagle) did the song on Sam and Friends in the 1950s, and later when the proto-Miss Piggy and Hamilton Pig did it on The Tonight Show in the early 1970s.
Fortunately, Morgan and Dr. Teeth manage to get through the song without exploding.
Most Classic Moment: Without a doubt, it’s “English Country Garden,” this episode’s UK Spot. This segment, featuring Fozzie joining Rowlf on an instrumental piano number, is one of those bits you could show to somebody who had never seen The Muppet Show to illustrate what it’s all about.
You get a great example of the Jim Henson/Frank Oz chemistry. You get the thrill of watching puppets playing a piano. And you get Fozzie being hilarious while making it all up as he goes along. The moments when he loses his hat and then suddenly becomes fascinated with the inner workings of the piano feel genuinely spontaneous. I just love this number.
MVM (Most Valuable Muppet): Kermit the Frog! It’s so much fun to watch him joyfully exploding in the Talk Spot, and Jim Henson’s performance really sells a silly backstage joke involving confusion over Muppet Theater owner J.P. Grosse and guest star Jaye P. Morgan.
Best Joke: The Newsman announces that a plane carrying a symphony orchestra has been forced to jettison some musical instruments. At which point the viewer is expecting him to get pelted with violins or flutes or French horns… but then a piano falls on his head! Excellent.
Lamest Joke: “At the Dance” features a series of Muppets telling their partners what they like or don’t like about them. It starts with an exchange that is either not funny at all, or so smart and funny that it went over my head. It goes like this…
MALE WHATNOT: You know, the trouble with women is they always take things personally.
FEMALE WHATNOT: I don’t.
So… is the “joke” just that he’s making a general statement about women and she answers from her personal point of view? Is that really a joke?
Coolest Puppetry Effect: Morgan is essentially turned into a puppet in the opening number, which presents her as a bird with fluffy feathers, flapping her wings for the whole song. I bet her arms got tired.
Musical Highlight: “Big Noise from Winnetka” is so simple. It’s just Floyd playing the bass and scatting, while Nigel whistles along and wanders from the foreground to the background. That’s all it is… and yet, there’s something mesmerizing about it. And I can’t help but feel happy for Nigel that he actually got something to do.
One More Thing: Gonzo plays “Flight of the Bumblebee” on the trumpet while a bee buzzes around. Just last season, he ate a rubber tire accompanied by the same song. As you are no doubt aware, for 40 years now, Muppet fans have regularly engaged in knock-down, drag-out fights over which Gonzo “Bumblebee” act is the better one.
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by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
