The Muppet Show: Season Two

[August 8th, 2007]

"I think they were trying to make a point with that sketch," says Statler, the curmudgeonly heckler who sits with buddy Waldorf and bitches about The Muppet Show. The pair attends and dumps on every show, and has just witnessed Madeline Kahn's battle of wits with a giant gray monster.

"What was it?" asks Waldorf.

"I don't know."

It's difficult to find any point to The Muppet Show. It had no lesson plan or agenda. Despite the backstage antics of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzie, there's no plot stringing the sketches—from piano-playing chickens to dancing cheese to "Pigs in Space"—together except gleeful lunacy. Like the vaudevillian shows being satirized, there's considerable rhyme, but no reason. But with its scatterbrained chaos, The Muppet Show provided a worldwide jolt of imagination when it began its five-year run in 1976. The first season was good, but with its lack of guest stars (Twiggy was one of the biggest), it hadn't blossomed.

Season two, which hit DVD shelves Tuesday, is the benchmark for all-ages entertainment. Like The Simpsons' fourth season, the Muppets' second act turned a decent shtick into pure magic. Creator Jim Henson, along with puppeteers, writers and voice performers Frank Oz, Dave Goelz and others, went balls out for the sophomore year, crafting some of the best writing and most brain-meltingly absurd characters in small-screen history.

Some of the Muppets' greatest moments are contained on this 24-episode anthology. Steve Martin, at his wild and craziest, shows up to host only to find the show has been canceled so Kermit can audition new acts. What follows is such insanity as Martin Sugg's all-fruit glee club, human cannonballs, and Martin performing "Dueling Banjos" with an all-Muppet jug band. Other highlights include a pitch-perfect Peter Sellers as a bearded Queen Victoria and a sadistic German chiropractor, as well as appearances by Elton John (backed up by house band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem), George Burns, John Cleese, Julie Andrews and Milton Berle.

The four-disc set's special features are slim. There's a music video for Weezer's "Keep Fishin'," ho-hum "Muppets on the Muppets" interviews and the cheeseball Valentine's Day special. A few of the shows are also duds. Episodes featuring Bob Hope and Cloris Leachman are particularly disappointing.

But that's nitpicking. Season two is a landmark of inspired lunacy. If anything, the Muppets—in their days before becoming a Disney commodity—taught us how to embrace our inner weirdness. Maybe that's the point after all. .