Watching The Muppet Show again after so many years, I was surprised to see the heavy-hitting talent that guest starred on the show in Season Two. The guest stars in Season Two included: Don Knotts, Zero Mostel, Milton Berle, Rich Little, Judy Collins, Nancy Walker, Edgar Bergen, Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, George Burns, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters, Rudolf Nureyev, Elton John, Lou Rawls, Cleo Laine, Julie Andrews, Jaye P. Morgan, Peter Sellers, Petula Clark, Bob Hope, Teresa Brewer, John Cleese and Cloris Leachman
The caliber of the guest stars wasn't all that took me by surprise. I hadn't made the connection, back when I originally watched the show, that the Muppet Show was patterned after a vaudevillian theater. There were several musical acts in Season Two which were pulled straight out of Vaudeville and performed by Muppets. It's fairly easy to identify these, by the way... just watch for a musical number that the two old guys in the balcony not only enjoy, but sing along with. There is typically a shot of the audience singing along as well during these skits. Another thing that had flown right over my head when I first watched the series was a number of double entendres and adult situations. In one skit, Miss Piggy is in a sauna wearing a towel when she is joined by Rudolph Nureyev, wearing the same. Miss Piggy tries to seduce Rudolph in a musical number that ends with her ripping his towel from him, as he simultaneously grabs and covers himself with a robe and then escapes the sauna by running through a brick wall, leaving a man-shaped hole in the wall. There was also a Muppet with cleavage that took me by surprise. She wasn't a main character, just someone in one of the skits, but Miss Piggy is the main female star of The Muppet Show, and she doesn't have visible cleavage... or at least, I've never seen it. What she does have in Season Two, however, is a skit where she shows up in a bikini. You might be surprised... although her dresses never betray it, she evidently is shapely... in this skit she has quite a well-defined waist.
There are several skits which are recurring, variations (or episodes) showing in pretty much every episode, such as "Veterinarian's Hospital," starring Miss Piggy, Rowlf the Dog and Janice, "At the Dance," "Pigs in Space," starring Miss Piggy, Doctor Julius Strangepork and Link Hogthrob and "Muppet News Flash." Also featured in Season Two, though not as frequently, were "Muppet Labs," featuring Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker, and Fozzie's comedy act.
I found it interesting to note that "Pigs in Space" typically carried a theme of sexual discrimination; Link Hogthrob and Doctor Strangepork were always treating Miss Piggy as an inferior because she was a woman, while Miss Piggy would show how preposterous that was. Unfortunately, she was the one female on a three person crew and, as such, was outnumbered.
In the episode with Milton Berle, "Uncle Milty" tries to perform a comedy act on stage, but ends up in a heckling competition with the two old guys in the balcony, Statler & Waldorf. Milton Berle challenges them to come down and try to perform and they retaliate saying that they can't sing or dance or tell jokes, but they could get on stage and do what Milton was doing.
Steve Martin's appearance on The Muppet Show was, according to the script, canceled, as Kermit was having auditions for new talent on the show, causing a heated discussion between Martin and Kermit that ended with Steve's characteristic, "Excuuuuuse Meeee!" Not to be put off easily, Steve Martin performs in three different skits, done as if he were auditioning to be new talent on the show. At the end of the episode, Steve Martin thanks Kermit for not having him on the show. As a side note, in this episode, Statler & Waldorf actually do get up on stage and audition with a song and dance number.
John Cleese has problems right off the bat, as his contract explicitly states that he is not to work with pigs. He points this out to Kermit, but his contract gets eaten by a monster. He tells Kermit that he needs for him to talk to his agent, but when he motions to where his agent had been, we see nothing but a large monster with English-looking shoed legs hanging out of his mouth. Cleese's answer to that, "What exactly do you want me to do with the pigs?" Classic.
In addition to the Second Season, there are some nice extra features. "The Muppets On The Muppets" Featurette is actually a series of 13 short interviews with various members of the Muppet Show cast, including Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Rizzo, Pepe and many others. Nothing is off limits; these interviews pose hard questions such as what Jim Henson was really like, and interesting questions prying into relationships between cast members, including the smoldering on-again-off-again (depending on who you ask) relationship between Kermit and Miss Piggy. "The Muppets Valentine Special" is just that. Weezer & The Muppets: "Keep Fishin" Video features the band members in Weezer and the Muppet's in a video that has the typical hi-jinks expected from The Muppet Show. Miss Piggy is infatuated with the Weezer's drummer and has him tied up in her dressing room. The show must go on, however, so Animal fills in on the drums. The drummer gets away and is chased around a bit, but finally makes it onto the stage, jumping on his drum set, which is set up next to Animal's. Miss Piggy finds her way to the stage, but becomes more interested in hogging the limelight than pursuing the drummer, and so the song continues.
I found The Muppet Show: Season Two to be a wonderful and nostalgic glimpse back at a piece of my childhood, but with built-in extras; watching now, with a more adult mind, I find myself more interested in the guest stars than I had been previously, as well as finding more jokes that were above my head last time I watched. Anyone who watched The Muppet Show as a child, owes it to themselves to watch it again, now.
