DVD Review: Muppet Show Season 2
Set Features Elton john, Julie Andrews, Rudolf Nureyev, John Cleese
Muppet Show Season 2 shows how Jim Henson's series broke through to become one of the most popular shows of the 1970's. This DVD is a must-buy.
After almost two years, The Muppet Show Season 2 has finally come to DVD. Was it worth the wait? Hugh betcha!
Season 2, which ran from 1977 to 1978, was a massive growth spurt for Jim Henson's show. The first season's success meant that The Muppet Show now had a bigger budget. This was reflected in the opening sequence, which featured now full-size Muppets (snaggle-toothed Sweetums, and big blue Thog) and a more elaborate staging. As before, hapless performance artist Gonzo the Great provided the gag ending, but this time he blew a trumpet to comedic results. However, Henson re-used a couple of Gonzo's mishaps during the season, perhaps as a cost-saving measure.
Guest Starring Candice Bergen, Jim Nabors and Twiggy!
The biggest change in Season 2 was the quality and profile of the guest stars who appeared on the show. Season 1 featured performers whose careers were beginning to rise (actor Candice Bergen), major talents who weren't household names (ballet dancer Juliet Prowse) or stars who were well past their prime, such as actor Jim Nabors and aging supermodel Twiggy.
However, Season 2 featured bigger names: names like actor/singer Julie Andrews, rocker Elton John, jazzer Lou Rawls, Broadway singer Bernadette Peters, and comedians John Cleese, George Burns, Don Knotts, Rich Little, Peter Sellers and Milton Berle. These performers were either in the first flush of stardom, or were carving out careers that made them legends in their fields.
Unfortunately, Henson and Company started playing it safe in the beginning of Season 2. In the first several episodes, it looked like the writers had toned down some of the manic humour that made the first season such a bolt from the blue. Even an appearance from then-rising comedy star Steve Martin couldn't pull The Muppet Show out of its first-half slump.
Rudolf Nureyev Dancing with a Giant Pig
However, that changed when The Muppet Show convinced ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev to mock himself in one episode. Whether it was dancing with a gigantic pig in a spoof of Swan Lake (guess what they called it?), getting chased around a bathhouse by Miss Piggy (the Russian dancer would've given Kermit the Frog a very different reception), or mocking Sam the Eagle's cultural pretensions in a tap-dance sketch, Nureyev made it de rigeur for celebrities to have fun, and make fun of themselves, on the show. After that, Jim Henson never had any problems booking celebrities on his variety show.
Nureyev's appearance also marked a return to form for The Muppet Show's writers. Things got crazier in subsequent episodes: Elton John was fed to crocodiles (while singing his hit "Crocodile Rock" natch), Muppets were shot out of cannons around and over Julie Andrews, and singer/breast-baring Gong Show panelist Jaye P. Morgan was dressed as a muppet and had bombs hurled at her from all sides, including one in her hat.
That manic inventiveness was what made The Muppet Show such a massive hit during the 1970's, to the point that it the most widely-viewed television program in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. It had an estimated audience of 235 million in 106 countries in August 1989.
Smashing 70's Fashion
The best thing about The Muppet Show Season 2 is seeing how well much of it holds up today. Obviously the 1970's fashions are a scream (I'm sure Lou Rawls thought he looked pretty stylin' in his disco duds, but they're a pimp-daddy joke today), and the writers never saw a joke they didn't like. However, the sheer comic energy Jim Henson and company brought to the proceedings forgives a lot of the groaner jokes, and that's why The Muppet Show Season 2 holds up today. It's subversive, occasionally lysergic and very, very funny.
The extra bits are hit-and-miss: the 1974 Valentine's Show only gives a hint of the mayhem to come, the "Muppets on the Muppets" featurette is hit-and-miss but the Weezer video for "Keep Fishing" is a nostalgic tribute from a bunch of guys who obviously watched and loved The Muppet Show back in the day.
If you, like the Weezer gang, were a 70's child who sat in front of the TV and giggled at Kermit trying not to lose his mind, or at Animal savaging Cleo Laine, you want to buy The Muppet Show Season 2 DVD. Unlike many shows from your childhood, it still holds up today.
