My favorite Muppet Shows: Number 5

There is one caveat on this one: I only have the first three seasons on DVD and my memories of the last two seasons are fuzzy, at best. Now, the rumor is that Season Four is coming out sometime this year, so I'll update this as it whenever it comes out.

Oh, and if you go to visit that article, and you happen to live in New York, please feel free to make and send me a Muppet.

Anyway, Disney is currently ramping up exposure of the Muppets (if you want a free day pass to Disney, there are plenty of sports featuring Muppets and ABC show stars), because of a new Muppet Movie scheduled to come out next year. I must say I am very excited, as it is being written by Jason Segel. Yes, him. If the Vampire Puppet Musical at the end of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is any indication, it's going to rock.

But I think the best way to get excited about the Muppets being relaunched is to revisit some of the best episodes readily available on DVD. And some of the perhaps unintentional bests. And then the ones that freaked the carp out of me as a kid.

Here are my favorites, in reverse order: Elton John (episode 214), John Cleese (episode 223), Liberace (episode 309), Alice Cooper (episode 307), and Harry Belafonte (314). Now, none of these are from Season One. As much as I love many of the episodes and bits from Season One, the show really found its footing and its voice in the Second and Third Seasons, figuring out how to best use the stars in the grand scheme of each episodes. I am also evaluating on the basis of the whole episode; there are solid bits in just about every episode, but these five episodes stand out, to me, as being solid efforts for 30 full minutes.

Maybe this will spark some sort of debate in the comments section.

5) Elton John: One thing always struck me as hysterical about this episode; when Kermit pops out of the "O" in Muppet Show and announces that Elton John is the guest, canned screams are pipped out. The rest of the show, whenever Elton John shows up, instead of the usual canned applause, there are frantic canned screams. Now, was that part of Elton's conditions for appearing on the show? The guy is a diva, but it always struck me as funny that we're all screaming for Elton.

But, if there was anyone suited for the show at that time, it was Elton. They kept making the joke that he dresses like a car crash (what?), but the feathers, sequins, and big glasses just allowed him to fit in. Now, Elton wasn't an actor and was positively wooden interacting with the Muppets. But, they were smart about it, kept the banter to an absolute minimum, and just let him play four songs. Absolutely perfect songs: the opening number is Elton singing Crocodile Rock in a swamp with, well, crocodiles. He then sings a small part of Benny and the Jets in his dressing room backed up by various Muppets, moves on to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on stage later, and closes the show singing Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Miss Piggy ("Eat your heart our Kiki!"). The jumpsuit he's wearing is classic.

The rest of the episode is a solid mix of the Swedish Chef dealing with a chicken who will only lay ping pong balls (and any episodes that has that Swede is OK by me), a weird British song ("Any Old Iron"), Veterinarian's Hospital, and finally Pigs in Space, where we get a running gag of the Chef still chasing the chicken. It's funnier than it sounds.

This episode really hit all the right notes for me. Nonsensical, possibly contractually obligated screaming for the guest star; piano; flashy costumes; minimal forced Muppet-guest start interaction, thus more time for music; the Swedish Chef; a running gag; and, finally, Miss Piggy hamming (haha) it up. I guess it's also nice to see Elton in his prime, when he was at the top of his game, before he had to action off all of his outfits every five years, before he really started being a diva (or before we knew about it), and when he could still hit those high notes.

And really, when you're choosing an episode to show your kid who is too young to understand any of the adult jokes or double-entendres, you could do worse than a rollicking episode with a live Muppet playing the piano and a crazy chef trying to kill a chicken.

Tomorrow (or whenever): John Cleese. It's not one I get to watch very often, as my kids don't like it. And everything they don't like about the episode, I love.