The Muppet Show : Season 2 DVD
07.28.07By Collin DavidIt’s been two years. Two whole years since the release of the first season of the Muppets - all 24 inaugural episodes wrapped up nicely in their charming green, flocked package. As a DVD collector who is obsessive-compulsive enough to both need to complete entire sets of things and also collect them in order, the release of season two is like a gentle sigh of relief from between two nerdy lips. Goodness knows that ‘nerdy lips’ don’t get much action besides that.
I think that you’d be hard pressed to find a living human being who wasn’t at least partially charmed by The Muppets in some form or another, and if you do meet one, please introduce me - I’d like to test a theory I have about soullessness and buoyancy. This second season of The Muppet Show, packaged in a fuzzy pink Miss Piggy theme, includes the 24 episodes that comprised the second season of the show, spanning 1977 to 1978. The Show would ultimately last for five complete seasons of 24 episodes each, with a few specials thrown in here and there for good measure. Whereas the first set included un-aired pilots and pitches, this set includes a rarely-aired special, ‘Valentines Day Special, The Muppets on The Muppets’ pseudo-interview feature, and the ever-popular Weezer & The Muppets Keep Fishin’ video.
The Valentines Day show is actually similar in appearance the theme to the pre-Muppet show pilot episodes - Kermit isn’t much more than a supporting character, and the whole show seems to take place in a bed and breakfast (or possibly a boarding house) with highly developed environments, and without the typical laugh track that accompanies the later episodes. It’s a completely different creature when it’s not being presented as a live show, and it definitely has its own charms, and it’s definitely a great surprise for any Muppet fan who’s seen it all. Similarly, the ‘Muppets on Muppets’ feature is a series of a dozen or so minute-long interviews with Muppets (or pair of Muppets) that seem largely ad-libbed and are fairly hilarious. All of them are obviously recently taped, and I’m not certain if they’ve ever aired anywhere before.
Each season of the original Muppet show inevitably presents me with guest stars that were simply before my time, as well as jokes that are bizarrely dated - but that’s a great deal of the appeal. The idea of a show involving puppets being so firmly contemporaneous at the time, as well as incorporating musical bits from well before their OWN time, is pretty neat to witness. Season Two has a few indelibly classic episodes, always defined by their notable guest stars : Steve Martin, Zero Mostel, Peter Sellers (who was the only guest star to always be in a character, and refusing to appear as himself), George Burns and John Cleese among them. Sorry, nerds, the amazing Star Wars episode doesn’t happen until season four.
I spent many, many years collecting the complete set of Muppets action figures and displaying them around my room. Indeed, a Statler and Waldorf still reside in their comfy balcony chairs and critique my questionable television choices. There’s an extremely rare Jim Henson action figure (in puppet form) around here somewhere, a kind of demigod to all of us puppetry and art enthusiasts. It might be silly, but there’s a true sense of reverence for the show and the man alike. So, my heart is really in the Muppets. I think that any one of would happily spend a day hanging out with them. While it pains me severely to admit this, I actually borrowed the Muppets’ ‘Time in a Bottle’ sketch and decided to perform it for my classmates in Elementary School, complete with tape player and props. I don’t
know what compelled me, and these were the days where I was still outgoing and had not yet been destroyed from the inside-out by the ravages of humanity… but I did it. And I can’t think about it without feeling slightly nauseated. But that’s how much I loved the Muppets, learned from videos borrowed from my local library on hot summer days, and watched repeatedly on our prehistoric VCR and wooden TV. You remember those. Those guys were stylin’.
As far as recapturing the Muppets on DVD, I cannot attest to the completeness of the discs, since the first season had to drop about six musical numbers with Jim Nabors, Vincent Price and other guest stars due to licensing rights. I’m not expert enough to know what might have been omitted, if anything, but some of these missing bits can always be YouTubed, or pieced together from the original release of the randomly assorted Time-Life discs from many years ago. This second season set will be released on August 7th, and it’s a gem, coming with my highest recommendation. It’s fun, it’s all-ages, it feels nice, it’s well assembled, and it looks great on a shelf.
