Muppet Season 2 released!
Disney finally announces when DVD will hit store shelves
After two years of rumours, The Walt Disney Company finally announces when they will release The Muppet Show Season 2 on DVD. Also, the complete guest star list.
(Source: muppetnewsflash.blogspot.com)
Make many people who were born in the 1970's, I jonesed for my weekly fix of The Muppet Show. Jim Henson and his gang of muppeteers made like an Aquarian Age Lewis Carroll, offering lysergic imagery, oddball guest stars, bizarre characters, and some of the worst one-liners ever committed to television. It was silly, weird, stupid and I loved it.
Fast forward to 2005: I borrowed a copy of The Muppet Show Season 1 box set from my good buddy Dominic (no relation), just before he loaned it to my other good buddy Dominic (also no relation). I popped the discs into the changer, warmed up the TV, and wondered how this relic from my childhood would hold up nearly 30 years later.
The answer? Oh baby, yeah! Within minutes, I was rolling on the floor, howling with laughter, just like I used to in my parents' basement. An added bonus was that now I knew who some of these guest stars were (I had no clue back in the day: I just wanted to see if Kermit the Frog got through each show with his sanity intact). Okay, so the 70's-era clothes and hairstyles look pretty ludicrous now, but that just adds to the silly fun.
This stuff is classic: I can no longer listen to Cole Porter's "(I Got You) Under My Skin" without seeing one muppet eat another, or The Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You" without imagining dancing ghosts.
As you can imagine, I've been jonesing even more for Season 2, as Jim Henson worked the kinks out of his show and kicked it to the next level. However, Disney's been taking their sweet time with this thing, dropping release dates like Hollywood marriages, with each deadline passing one another.
But now, with less than five days since my last missive bemoaning The Muppet Show Season 2 suckage, Disney finally gave us a solid release date: The Muppet Show Season 2 will hit DVD shelves on . . .
. . . (Drum roll please, Maestro) . . .
. . . (Can you handle the suspense?) . . .
. . . (Ain't I a stinker?) . . .
August 7, 2007!!!!! (five exclamation marks: a sure sign of a man who wears his underpants on his head).
That's right, this August 7th, four more discs of muppet goodness comes out. The guest star list (along with who the **** they are) is:
- Don Knotts (pencil-necked, bug-eyed comedian best known for The Andy Griffith Show and various Disney live-action movies)
- Zero Mostel (Borscht Belt comedian, and original star of Mel Brooks' The Producers)
- Milton Berle (legendary funnyman and transvestite)
- Rich Little (Canadian-born mimic who recently struck out at the White House)
- Judy Collins ("folk" singer. Remember the Crosby, Stills and Nash Song "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes?" That's about her)
- Nancy Walker (actor and Bounty pitchwoman)
- Edgar Bergen (ventriloquist)
- Steve Martin (famous comedian, and a real mofo on the banjo)
- Madeline Kahn (ridiculously talented comedienne: check out Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles for proof)
- George Burns (seemingly immortal comedian)
- Dom DeLuise (roly-poly comedian, had a small, memorable role in Blazing Saddles)
- Bernadette Peters (Broadway actor and singer)
- Rudolf Nureyev (legendary ballet dancer. His guest spot on The Muppet Show is credited with boosting its ratings into the stratosphere)
- Elton John (flamboyant rock singer. Back before his toupée and Princess Diana tribute)
- Lou Rawls (smooth soul and jazz singer)
- Cleo Laine (jazz singer and actor)
- Julie Andrews (legendary Broadway and movie actress. Now voicing role of Queen Lillian in Shrek the Third)
- Jaye P. Morgan (pop singer and notorious The Gong Show panelist
- Peter Sellers (man-of-a-thousand faces comedian. Check out the original Pink Panther movies and his three roles in Dr. Strangelove)
- Petula Clark (pop singer; "Downtown")
- Bob Hope (golf-obsessed comedian who did many shows for U.S. troops)
- Teresa Brewer (pop singer)
- John Cleese (Monty Python, baby! Voices King Harold in the Shrek movies)
- Cloris Leachman (another great comedienne. Check out Young Frankenstein)
Extras include the original pilot The Muppets Valentine Show, exclusive "interviews" with Kermit the Frog, Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat, a featurette detailing Weezer's music video with the muppets, and "much more!"
The MSRP for The Muppet Show Season 2 is $39.99.
