Original air date: October 5, 1978
It’s hard to tell who’s having a better time in this episode – Jean Stapleton or Louise Gold.
One of the best things about The Muppet Show is that gave its guest stars the chance to show off talents that they couldn’t use anywhere else. This week’s guest, Jean Stapleton of You’ve Got Mail fame, is one of the best examples of this in the entire series. She was amazing as Edith on All in the Family, but Edith is such a specific character that she didn’t get to show off a ton of range.
That changes here. Stapleton gets to sing two very different songs – the laid-back “Play a Simple Melody” with Fozzie and the frantic “I’m Just Wild About Harry” with Crazy Harry. She gets to confuse Sam the Eagle by speaking fluent Mock Swedish. It’s a showcase like she’d never had before.
And she is loving it. She seems delighted every single moment she’s on screen. A giant smile beams from her face. She giggles early and she giggles often. When she tells Kermit that Crazy Harry is her favorite Muppet, it’s clearly true. She can barely contain the excitement over getting to sing with her favorite little pyromaniac. I don’t know how she developed this love of Crazy Harry, but she definitely comes by it honestly. She’s having a blast.
You know who else is having a blast? Annie Sue Pig.
Louise Gold joined the team of Muppet performers in the middle of season 2, but she didn’t get any regular characters that year. That changes now, with Annie Sue Pig, an idealistic young singer. This isn’t her debut (that will come in an episode we haven’t seen yet, because we review these episodes in some crazy order that only our Editor understands) but it is one of the only times she’s featured so heavily.
When people talk about Annie Sue Pig (and by people I mean hardcore Muppet fans, the only people who remember Annie Sue Pig), they remember her as Piggy’s rival. This episode shows that she could have been so much more than that. While she and Piggy do share a brief scene, mostly she just gets to be a star in her own right. Annie Sue gets to sing two songs here, and they show off her versatility (and Louise’s, obviously).
First is the opening number, “Tico Tico” a fast-paced Brazilian song. What’s striking about this song – or at least the arrangement of it here – is how specifically well-suited it is to Louise Gold’s voice. The Muppet Show had two prominent female characters before Annie Sue, but both of them were played by men. Frank Oz’s falsetto is very impressive, but it doesn’t have the same punch as Gold’s clear, vibrant soprano voice. She speeds through these tricky lyrics without missing a beat, and it’s a highlight of the episode.
Her other number, the UK sketch “Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow Wow,” shows off her ability to work well in a comic scene. She doesn’t actually get laughs herself, but she makes an excellent foil for Rowlf, who gets increasingly indignant about being called “a bow wow.” Annie Sue’s dedication to using that silly term – even in the face of adversity – really sells the comedy. And once again, Annie Sue’s gorgeous singing voice is always a joy to hear.
Annie Sue would show up many more times over the next three seasons, but the show never quite figured out how to use her this well again. Instead of becoming a beloved part of the gang, she mostly disappeared after The Muppet Show. Now she’s a footnote, a character often mistaken for “Piggy with an afro for some reason” by casual viewers.
This is a real shame, because she’s wonderful. Just like Jean Stapleton.
Musical Highlight: Jean sings “Play a Simple Melody” with Fozzie on ukulele. Eventually they both take separate parts, and then Jean leads the crowd in a song-along. It is a delight.
Best Joke: Before Fozzie and Jean sing “Play a Simple Melody,” the band accidentally starts playing “Elaborate Pretentions for Orchestra.”
Lamest Joke: In At the Dance, a man with a Herring Aid (fish in his ears) is asked by his date if it’s transistorized. He replies “No, marinated.”
MVM (Most Valuable Muppet): Annie Sue Pig, like I said in all those words up there.
Most Classic Moment: The Muppets acknowledging that the Swedish Chef doesn’t speak real Swedish. Eventually that joke would get tiresome, but here it’s worth it because Jean Stapleton is taking a correspondence course in Mock Swedish.
Should-Be-Classic Moment: Fozzie’s “I don’t wear jeans, and I certainly wouldn’t want them stapled on” is beautifully terrible, and Kermit’s disgusted reaction makes it even better.
First Appearance Of…: Muppet Melodrama, a sketch that only appeared twice but feels like a popular and beloved bit to me. For pity’s sake, it teams Piggy with both Uncle Deadly *and* Wayne – all the stars in the Muppet firmament!
Most Dated Joke: There’s something very ’70s about Gonzo’s lunch order of a Walnut Lima Bean sandwich.
Missed Opportunity: The missed opportunity is that Annie Sue Pig didn’t become a big star who hung around for decades. Is her design too close to Piggy’s? Is that the problem?
Obscure Character Watch: I don’t know if Crazy Harry quite counts as obscure, but he rarely gets this kind of showcase. He gets to do the closing number with Jean, and he shows up backstage just to foreshadow it. And then he’s all over the good nights. It’s a buffet of Crazy Harry!
One More Thing…: In the Muppet Labs sketch, Bunsen invents shrinking pills. Just a few months later, he would introduce the opposite: Instagrow Pills in The Muppet Movie.
Okay, One More Thing…: In the cold opener, Jean Stapleton grows a third hand and then says, “Jean, get a grip on yourself!” Finally, one of the hands starts to strangle her. This is insane and terrifying. It’s easy to imagine this as a cold opener to an episode of a sci-fi or horror series where the whole episode is about growing new appendages that attack you. But this is The Muppet Show, so it’s just a joke that never comes up again.
What a great show.
Click here to spit out the words “Musical numbah!” like Crazy Harry on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Anthony Strand
