Muppet Show Watch-along Season 2 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 201: Don Knotts 7/10

Our first season 2 episode, and hey, I know Don Knotts! Honestly, for a season 2 episode, it’s not THAT different from anything you’d see in season 1, no massive changes in design yet. Some muppets are now gone, that’s the main different for now.

The running joke is Fozzie plans part of the show, and gives the band a song they wanna play, so Floyd gives him some shades. He then wanders into stuff all day.

This one was alright. Don was really get up there in years, he looks like Lance Boyle.

Episode 202: Zero Mostel 7.5/10

I didn’t know who this guy was but when I said his name out loud my boyfriend went on a giant tirade about him and how he’s a fantastic Jewish actor. He seems cool at least!

The running joke here is it’s gonna be payday soon and Kermit needs like 25 bucks to pay the band. That’s like, 100 in today’s money. Damn, cheap band. The owner of the theater offers to spot them, if they put some entertainment back in the show, that entertainment being female wrestlers. Hell yeah! Sam does not take it well when he finds out. Sam has his normal head! :D

Zero does “What do the simple folk do” and it feels like it goes on for a million years. I do like the poem he does later, though!

FIRST BEAKER!!! THE BOY, HE IS HERE!

The story ends with Kermit finding a single lady wrestler but being unable to find another. When he offers it to Piggy she almost murders him. Ms. Piggy is seeming more herself here! She’s got a new puppet and says “moi” now! Anyways Kermit has to do it herself, I mean himself.

Episode 203: Milton Berle 7/10

Milton Berle was a very classic comic, even at the time. He’s fun, I like him trying to do a comedic monologue but getting heckled by The Boys. He doesn’t handle em well. If I’m being real, the Statler and Waldorf heckles are already better this season.

Our running plot is that Fozzie is afraid to talk to Berle, so he keeps trying to hide from him. Every other muppet treats him with basically no respect. Eventually Berle manages to coax him out of hiding and they do a big vaudville act.

First Pigs in Space segment! If we’re giving Ms Piggy top billing, we should give her MORE skits!

Episode 204: Rich Little 7/10

Rich Little’s thing appears to be impressions, which they lean on a lot. He opens up with impressions of W.C. Fields and Humphrey Bogart. I HAVE seen Casablanca, and uh, I mean, I guess it’s an okay impression? I feel I could do one of the same quality, I dunno. But then he does a bunch of impressions of Muppets and it’s loads of fun.

One of the best parts of moving past season 1 is Gonzo will become an actual character and not a background side character. I love Gonzo. Our running skit is that Gonzo is trying to do a dancing chickens act and it’s not going amazingly. They are, in fact, chickens. They use ACTUAL chickens here, not Henrietta.

The chicken he eventually gets up on stage is named Lolita. Not the name I’d choose for the chicken.

Episode 205: Judy Collins 5.5/10

We start this episode with Crazy Harry blowing up Judy Collins. Lots of Crazy Harry so far this season! They have her doing things like “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly” while feeder kink happens behind her. Feels like a waste of your Judy Collins. She later does “Send in the Clowns” which might be even more upsetting. What a weird song.

The running throughline here is that Scooter’s uncle is here. We finally get to meet him! He’s a piece of shit! He’s here to look at the theater so he can sell it to turn it into a junkyard, because “real junk is better than the junk you put in here!” This is eventually resolved just… cause. He decides not to cause it’ll just fall apart anyway.

Episode 206: Nancy Walker 6/10

Poor Kermit is sick today so Fozzie is taking over. He is Bad at this :) Poor Fozzie.

We get some fun gags out of this, like them accidentally doing At The Dance and Veterinary Hospital at the same time.

This doesn’t exactly take AWAY from Nancy Walker, but it does feel like they under use her.

At least she gets to suit and tophat dance iwth sweetums!

It’s all a long set up to a shaggy dog joke about how it’s Swine Flu. Ms Piggy is not happy.

Episode 207: Edgar Bergen 8.5/10

This is actually a two parter for guests, cause Edgar brought a bunch of his ventriliquist dummies, and they are of course treated as characters, being puppets. I know some people find them creepy, I like em. For some reason. Fozzy also tries to get into it, too! Keep your day job, Fozzie. Which is this.

Fozzie don’t got the sauce. This is actually the first time that the running skit is actually tied in to the guest, I think.

This is also the episode with the amazing cover of “Time in a Bottle”.

Episode 208: Steve Martin 9/10

The show starts with Kermit cancelling the show cause of a calendar snafu. Steve does not handle this well. As such, the entire premise is completely different. This is them putting on auditions for new acts. Fozzie is worried that he’ll be replaced.

Steve starts to audition as well. Just cause. He’s got an EXTREMELY chaotic energy, it’s fun to watch. He goes up three times to do random acts like balloon animals or juggling.

I also like Gonzo and his dancing cheese.

We end with Steve doing dueling banjos, and I like that song. This was a fun one.