It's The Muppet Show

Last week I received my copy of the newly-released DVD The Muppet Show Season One. And yes, Debbi and I watched thirteen episodes of the show over the weekend!

The Muppet Show, for those who don't know (which hardly seems possible!) was the last great TV variety show - with puppets! It ran from 1976-1981 as a half-hour series. Kermit the Frog was the primary holdover from earlier Muppet ventures as the emcee of the series, though other characters such as Rowlf had also appeared before. The show was and is witty and charming, mixing the Muppets' back-stage drama with their wacky on-stage performances, and, of course, Statler and Waldorf.

The series holds up astonishingly well 30 years later, only feeling dated in the sense that variety shows in and of themselves seem like a dated concept. Yes, the guests are the stars of the seventies, but enough time has passed that they fulfill a nostalgia trip rather than seeming quaint or outmoded. Heck, the guest on the second of the two pilot episodes was Connie Stevens, who started her acting career in 1957 at the age of 19, so there was a bit of a nostalgia trip built right into the series when it was first run!

The episodes are uneven, but always fun. The two pilots - featuring dancer Juliet Prowse and then Stevens - are both excellent. The Prowse episode opens with the landmark "Mahna Mahna" and closes with one of my favorites, "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear".

Some guests seem more at home working with puppets than others. Joel Grey brings a level of dignity and respect to his episode which seems almost hard to believe as you're watching it. At the other end, Peter Ustinov hams it up more than any other guest - and that's saying something since Harvey Korman appeared two episodes earlier. Paul Williams - a singer I've never heard of - doesn't have many acting chops, but he's enjoying himself so much that his enthusiasm makes it work. Bruce Forsyth brings both acting talent and enthusiasm to the table.

On the other hand, Jim Nabors seemed like he was going through the motions. Charles Aznavour (who?) didn't have much to do. And Prowse is more beautiful than comfortable (though her dance number is a lot of fun).

The DVD set has a comment mode which presents many cool bits of information. I wish they'd trimmed it down a bit since many of the bits are not relevant to the episode in question, but I guess they figured better too much information than not enough.

And, of course, there are those Muppets. Fozzie Bear quickly develops from a stiff funnyman into the warm-hearted bear we know today. Zoot is not quite the stoner sax player I remember (lots more dialog than I'd recalled). And of course Kermit goes nuts trying to hold everything together. But I think Statler and Waldorf are my favorites, just for the great one-liners they bring to every episode.

All things considered, the DVD set is a very nice package, and I haven't even gotten to some of the other extras, like an apparently unbroadcast pilot episode. If you have any fondness for the Muppets at all, I highly recommend it.

The past two evenings I've camped out on my patio to work on my fiction writing. I'm trying to do a final revision of my novelette which I wrote last year (yes, yes, no comments please). On the recommendation of Stephen Leigh I've started using Nisus Writer Express for my writing, since I decided it was time to move away from slow-as-a-dog Microsoft Word. So far, I like it. I plan to buy a license later this week.

Anyway, I bought a fold-up table a couple of months ago at an art fair, and have set it up on the patio with a chair. Then I've gone around and lit the candle trees I bought around the same time which live in my yard, and sit and work outside by candlelight while listening to either the baseball game or music coming from my stereo indoors. Here's what my set-up looks like, as seen from my porch upstairs:

It's been pleasant, not at all chilly, and I've been making progress on my revision. I finally got past one of the hardest parts of the story and it's gotten me thinking of approaches to take when revising some later scenes. I think it will be a better story all around.

But, I really need to finish it and get it sent around to the magazines.