Muppet Show Watch-along Season 1 Part 1
My friends and I are watching the Muppet Show on Wednesdays and I guess I’ll do a quick review and watchalong. But first, I guess we should talk about the thing about watching the Muppets in the year of our Luigi 2026.
The Muppet Show is a beloved institution, and everyone loves it. So you’d think it’d be super easy to watch today, right? It is NOT. It’s been re-released a bunch of times, but due to the nature of what the Muppet Show IS, the re-releases keep shifting and cutting things all over the place. So if you want the FULL experience, it’s pretty impossible. But you can do your best.
ANOTHER thing is, what is the order? If you ask Wikipedia, you get a specific answer. If you ask the Muppets wiki, you get another. We’re just… gonna do our best to watch them all in whatever order we can, alright? At least it’s obvious where the seasons begin and end.
And finally… the whole point of the Muppet Show is about the human guest stars who star alongside the Muppets. These are all the most famous stars of the 70s, so I know like, MAYBE five of them. Obviously, I’m gonna like an episode that stars Vincent Price, who I love, a little more than one that stars Sandy Duncan, who I do not know at all. There might be some jokes and commentary about those guest stars I just flat out do not get. I’m doing my best, but this isn’t like, a retrospective. This is a nerd who grew up watching random Muppets content who wants to watch the Muppets Show and the only way she can really connect to media is if she orders and ranks it all or some shit. So yeah, let’s do that.
Episode 101: Juliet Prowse 8/10
This one starts off real strong, with Mah Na Mah Na, one of the most beloved and well known musical numbers from the Muppets history. Did you know that it was originally from an Italian movie, and this rendition of it is what made it actually well known? Yes, in the movie Sweden: Heaven and Hell, the song “Mah Na Mah Na” plays over a scene of lesbians in a sauna. Yes. Mah Na Mah Nah is lesbian culture.
Beyond the classic that is Mah Na Mah Na, we have some good jokes and skits and a good throughline of Scooter’s famous uncle’s dog wanting to be top billing and annoying poor Kermit. Here’s an image of Kermit drinking milk. Way better than tea Kermit.
Now, I don’t really know who Juliet Prowse is, but she’s pretty good here. She’s a dancer, and we do get some dancing scenes. I’m not really into dancing. But she has some scenes where she flirts with Kermit and gives him a kiss. Lucky Juliet.
The weirdest thing about this episode is beta Ms Piggy, but its a good one.
Episode 102: Connie Stevens 6.5/10
This one doesn’t start quiiite as well, with Kermit singing to a tattooed pig who is kind of horrifying. And Kermit, of course, isn’t the beeeest singer. At least Ms. Piggy punches him after.
As someone who only watched SOME Muppets Show as a kid, and mostly watched the movies and specials, there’s lots of weird things in season 1. Like Hilda, who just stopped existing after this season ended.
She looks like that meat worm you sometimes see in memes.
I dunno who Connie Stevens is, some pop singer from the time, but she sings a rendition of “Teenager In Love” with “The Mutations” and it’s pretty good. They do a “Close to You” cover too with her serenading both Kermit AND Fozzy. Holy shit Connie, leave some for the rest of us.
She’s a fine enough guest but they also got the REAL guests, Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street!
Noseless Bert is real and he can hurt you.
The throughline for this one is Gonzo has a ratty old bear stuffy that he loves and wants to keep, and everyone else tells him it sucks ass. Fozzy keeps mishearing it and thinking they’re about him. It’s alright, I do love Fozzy, but this is just an okay throughline.
Episode 103: Joel Grey 5.5/10
This one is fine. The jokes and skits are fine, nothing super standout or interesting.
The guest this time is Joel Grey, who I also don’t know, but I know he was in Cabaret, and they do, in fact, just do Wilkommen from Cabaret. But with Muppets. I’m honestly surprised they got away with just doing Cabaret with the Cabaret guy, that’s great.
The throughline gag here is that Fozzy is too self obsessed and is doing a new act where someone says something and he does a standup line about it off the cuff, so people keep telling him to stop or asking him to do something and he just goes into an act and annoys them. Not really interesting. At least the payoff is good with Statler and Waldorf stumping him.
It’s ended with another classic musical number, with Joel teaching Gonzo about the ol’ Razzle Dazzle. I don’t dislike any of this, but for some reason none of this really sticks with me. I’m not really a musical person.
Episode 104: Ruth Buzzi 6.5/10
This one has some alright bits. The throughline gag is that there’s a windup frog gifted by Scooter’s uncle that harasses poor Kermit the entire time. They even do the ol’ mirror bit, a good bit.
Ruth Buzzi was a lot of things, but especially a comedian, so while a lot of the other women guest stars don’t really do much more than go up and sing or dance, Ruth goes WILD, doing prat falls in a duet with Sweetums. She’s a pretty good guest, and she’s clearly having loads of fun being here.
Other than her though, there’s nothing here super standout.
Episode 105: Rita Moreno 10/10
Now THIS is what I’m talkin’ about! Rita is fantastic here, I love all of her skits. The one where she’s dancing with a muppet that she just fucking tosses around is so funny. Not to mention her section in the panel discussion, where she just threatens Miss Piggy in Spanish. She’s perfect. I love her. And it’s not JUST her that stands out in this episode, of course.
We’ve got the first Veterinarian’s Hospital, with Dr. Bob “taking care” of Fozzy. The jokes are actually pretty good. The throughline gag here is Fozzy answering the phone, weird things coming out, and he says who it was. Like, water pours oh, “it’s the water department.” Simple, cute, funny.
And the Swedish Chef gag! God I love Swedish Chef. Basically all of these skits are bangers actually. This isn’t the first Chef gag, but it is the 2nd, and a very good one. There’s lots of other firsts here though. We’ve got the first Muppaphone, the first Country Trio. But everything is just leading up to the very important finale.
Rita tries to do a rendition of “Fever” but it’s occasionally ruined by Animal’s drumming and sassing. She sasses RIGHT back, and it’s fantaaastic. It ends with her slamming Animal between two cymbals, as he goes “DAT MY KINDA WOMAN”. Hell yeah it is.
Episode 106: Jim Nabors 6/10
This one shows a problem with the weird episode ordering problem. Scooter is hired and introduced in this episode, even though he’s been in a lot of the previous ones. It doesn’t really matter much, but it’s a LITTLE annoying. THat’s the throughline gag here, Scooter is a big of a mess but Kermit does whatever he wants just because he’s the owner’s nephew. I think Scooter works much better as an occasional gag character rather than being like 40% of the gags.
Jim Nabors is alright here. He’s got a few good skits and gags but for the most part I feel he doesn’t quite fit in. He’s kinda goin’ hard on that “just an ol’ country boy” energy, but also doing like, opera, it’s kinda a weird combination. It’s not that he’s BAD or anything, but I don’t really love his songs. Some of his jokes and gags are good though.
….I don’t have much more to say about this one! It’s fine.
Episode 106: Florence Henderson 6/10
This one takes a bit to get going. It’s fine, nothing special, but I like the talk spot. We get some early Miss Piggy stuff, with her being all over Kermit. And Florence tries to help Miss Piggy get with Kermit. It fails. This is the first HIIIIYAH! we hear. The runninbg gag here is just all about Miss Piggy… I think. She shows up a lot. Is that a running gag? A minor character showing up a lot?
Florence is fine here. Nothing super breathtaking, but she’s fun and gets kinda into it at points. I like her singing alongside a bunch of random muppets who are super into her. I’m into the Florence and Random Monsters Polycule.
It goes a bit down though when it gets to the talk segment and seems to make jokes about slurs? It’s not uh, very good. Though it DOES have Miss Piggy say “PIGS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!” Shout outs to communist Miss Piggy.