The Muppet Show

[TheMonk]

All 5 seasons of The Muppet Show are now up on Disney Plus. Just a few missing and cut scenes due to music rights apparently.
Oh and the Chris Langham one.

Haven't seen some of them for years, looking forward to digging in.

[Cerys]

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!

Nostalgia infusion awaits.

[TheMonk]

Had a quick look. It'a actually great. So damn far ahead of it's time.
Fast paced and eclectic. It's like it's designed for the YouTube generation.

[Magnum Valentino]

Ah deeeeeadly. I watched a few of these last year but they were VHS rips. Love the idea that there was a show on TV that could build episodes around Vincent Price and Buddy Rich (when I play a theater, I PLAY the theater!).

Auld boys, like. A camp horror movie star and a fucking jazz drummer starring in a sketch show for children. I'm nostalgic for a time I didn't even live in.

[Jake Thingray]

It would appear that Milligan going tee-hee-nicky-nacky-noo has also been omitted, no great loss in my view.

[neveragain]

Episodes that are missing: Kaye Ballard**, John Denver*, Spike Milligan*, Brooke Shields and of course Langham.
*just in Europe

Plus various songs throughou- oh I should just post the link.
https://whatsondisneyplus.com/muppet-show-disney-plus-missing-episodes-songs/

Edit: **Ballard was missing in the US but not anymore.

[Pete23]

There was a long warning in front of one of the early episodes about changes in cultural attitudes etc that appeared to be tied to a throwaway gag about Asian flu. To be honest I was more surprised by Rita Moreno and the muppet beating each other up in episode 1 and Sandy Duncan getting pissed in episode 2!

Also weird how Miss Piggy's voice takes a few episodes to settle down, and how early Scooter appeared (I thought he was series 2 at the earliest).

[Phil_A]

Ah deeeeeadly. I watched a few of these last year but they were VHS rips. Love the idea that there was a show on TV that could build episodes around Vincent Price and Buddy Rich (when I play a theater, I PLAY the theater!).

Auld boys, like. A camp horror movie star and a fucking jazz drummer starring in a sketch show for children. I'm nostalgic for a time I didn't even live in.

The Muppets was never specifically intended to be aimed at kids, in fact that was a hurdle Henson had to get over when he was pitching it, as the networks associated him exclusively with kids programming. The series was originally going to be called "Sex And Violence", just to make it absolutely clear it wasn't supposed to be another Sesame Street.

[neveragain]

Odd. It's clearly family-friendly, and would appeal to kids as much as adults.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Well, yes, a family friendly show, rather than exclusively for children. A lot of the jokes are extremely corny, and would only appeal to kids, though.

[TheMonk]

Well, yes, a family friendly show, rather than exclusively for children. A lot of the jokes are extremely corny, and would only appeal to kids, though.

Oh I dunno, Tim Vine seems to do quite well with similar jokes.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Well, yes, a family friendly show, rather than exclusively for children. A lot of the jokes are extremely corny, and would only appeal to kids, though.

The corny jokes are deliberately corny, they hark back to vaudeville. That material is there for the adults. Kids dig the sillier stuff.

You've got The Muppets wrong. Sorry.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

To self: Oh, Lisa, you Muppet!

[bgmnts]

Fucking loving this.

[TheMonk]

Making my way through Season One. Fascinating.
The structure of the show was set right from the get go but it's so interesting watching the central characters develop from being fairly vague and quite one dimensional with ill defined voices to the characters we know so well.

What's really noticeable though is what a warm spirit the show has- something so rare in today's TV.  It's like getting into a nice bath.

[Dayraven]

ill defined voices

Biggest example being how Piggy repeatedly switched between two performers in Season 1.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Making my way through Season One. Fascinating.
The structure of the show was set right from the get go but it's so interesting watching the central characters develop from being fairly vague and quite one dimensional with ill defined voices to the characters we know so well.

What's really noticeable though is what a warm spirit the show has- something so rare in today's TV.  It's like getting into a nice bath.

Absolutely. The genuine warmth and sincerity is what - in my opinion, anyway - was completely botched by the 2011 'relaunch(?)' where it was somehow interpreted as being ironically quaint and hyper-twee.

[RetroRobot]

Finally Season 4 & 5 are easily found in a decent quality. One of my favourite comedy series ever and it's a massive shame how watered down the characters have become under Disney.

[Jockice]

Bread advertising sell-outs.

[TheMonk]

Absolutely. The genuine warmth and sincerity is what - in my opinion, anyway - was completely botched by the 2011 'relaunch(?)' where it was somehow interpreted as being ironically quaint and hyper-twee.

Yes and the fly on the wall style reboot after that was one of the worst series of anything I can recall. How dare they do that to the characters.

[bgmnts]

Still fucking loving this, there's no malice in it just shit jokes and a good time.

[phantom_power]

Absolutely. The genuine warmth and sincerity is what - in my opinion, anyway - was completely botched by the 2011 'relaunch(?)' where it was somehow interpreted as being ironically quaint and hyper-twee.

I think the latest reboot was pretty good and captures the spirit of the original series

[bgmnts]

Okay the Rachel Welsh episode is a bit odd.

[bomb_dog]

I've seen three of the latest reboot series and it's like Zombie Muppets. The occasional smile passes my lips but it's not a patch on The Muppet Show. The reboot is like a series of poor YouTube clips running sequentially, where they've taken an idea like the Swedish Chef doing some head-to-head cookery like some awful magazine show, added a US celeb and then forgotten to write any material. I did wonder if Paul Feig was involved in that the editing tries to make up for the lack of preparation in its writing.

[Magnum Valentino]

Is that a Paul Feig "thing"? The preparation for how Freaks and Geeks was written was exhaustive and collaborative and paid off beautifully.

[phantom_power]

I would say it is more an Apatow thing than a Feig thing