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The Very Best of the Muppet Show UK DVD

Warrick Brownlow (3-24-2002) - I got this DVD on the first day of it's release, and it is great.

The DVD sleeve is gold with blue edging and features "The Muppet Show" logo in blue. It has Kermit coming out of the "O" like the new 25th anniversary logo. Under the logo are Gonzo, Kermit, Piggy, Rowlf, Scooter and Fozzie bursting out of the cover.

The DVD is a fifty-minute compilation of the funniest moments from "The Muppet Show". It features Miss Piggy as wonder-pig, the Swedish Chef making his chocolate moose and some great musical numbers like "Let's Go to Rio". It is put together like a Muppet Show, only it runs for fifty-minutes and there is no guest star.

The 50 minute Muppet Show includes:

1. Opening Titles

2. "Let's Go to Rio"

3. Motorbike Madness (Gonzo flying into the balcony)

4. Veterinarian's Hospital (Kermit)

5. The Daffodils (Piggy and Rowlf)

6. Pigs in Space (Meteor Storm)

7. Stopping by the Woods (Fozzie with Gonzo interrupting)

8. Muppet Labs (Teleporter)

9. Melodrama Casting (Piggy, Uncle Deadly and Wayne)

10. Swedish Chef (Chicky in the basket)

11. Mahna Mahna

12. Gonzo's Cannonball Act

13. We Got Each Oother (Robin and Sweetums)

14. Muppet Labs (Honeydew Shrinking Pills)

15. Memory Act (Fozzie and Annie Sue Pig)

16. Veterinarian's Hospital (The Sinking Patient)

17. Muppet Newsflash (Airmail Delivery)

18. Bein' Green

19. Swedish Chef (Chocolate Moose)

20. Muppet Labs (Turning Gold into Cottage Cheese)

21. Glady's Sandwich (Gonzo's Walnut Lima Bean Sandwich)

22. Wonder Pig (Miss Piggy as Wonder Woman)

23. Muppet Newsflash (Gold-finger)

24. Muppet Labs (Edible Paperclips)

25. Pigs in Space (End of The Universe)

26. Beaker's Solo ("Feelings")

27. Memory Lane (Gonzo)

28. End Credits (With additional band footage)

At the end of many of the skits, Statler and Waldorf heckle. Did you think that they would miss this show?

It is also interesting to see that it looks like they have made a new "Kermit in the O" for this program. It is because the name is changed to "The Very Best of The Muppet Show" from "The Muppet Show". The ending credits have a lot more names in them during the closing theme which made the ending sequence longer. This extended closing theme included clips from the band's number in the Shirley Bassey episode.

It also has two whole episodes of "The Muppet Show" as extras. The first episode is the Star Wars episode and next is Elton John. Both episodes include introductions by Brian Henson and include the UK Skits, "Three Little Fishies" and "Any Old Iron".

Extra Features

"Of Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show" is also on the DVD as an extra feature. It is a great special especially on DVD. It's really nice to be able to see minor details like a woman wearing a Kermit shirt in the "I Get Around" number. It shows a lot of the taping of some of the later fifth season episodes. We get to look around in the workshop where the Muppets are made. If you look close enough in the background you can see posters, Muppet heads, and even a Kermit cup!

There is also a quiz on the DVD. The questions are about Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, Kermit and Miss Piggy. Some of the questions are really good like, "What was Gonzo when he first debuted on TV?" Once you answer the two questions about each Muppet you get a prize which is a Muppetism about the character that the questions were based on. The Muppetisms are short little commercials originally produced for the Odyssey Channel.

The Muppetisms on this disc are: Kermit (The Frog), Fozzie (Da Bear), Miss Piggy (The Diva), Gonzo (The… ???), and Animal (The Percussionist). The same Muppetisms are also accessible under character profiles on the disc.

The Muppet character conceptual drawings are great to see. There are drawings of the Swedish Chef, Animal, Statler and Waldorf, Angus McGonagle and Beaker. Most of the drawings you would have already seen if you have "Of Muppets and Men", "The Works" and 'The Art of The Muppets' books. But the Animal picture actually shows more than just Jim's drawing, it also shows a version of Animal that Dave Goelz designed and later built for "The Muppet Show".

The Muppet character facts part of the disc tells us about Rowlf's debut on the Jimmy Dean show, Gonzo starting out as a Cigar Box Frackle and how a recording of Pigs in Space was actually taken into orbit twenty years ago. There is also an "Access to Muppet World" extra which allows you to go to Muppet World by clicking a link on the DVD (if you have that capability built into your system). It would have been nice to have different surprises for winning the quiz. Instead of the same Muppetisms being included in both the profiles and the quiz.

Hopefully we will see the second "The Very Best of The Muppet Show" DVD with more of the great stuff that was included here! I give it four and a half out of five Kermit heads!

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