Painful Moments

[Convincing John]

Nope, I adore that episode! Though a lot of people seem to hate it. But I really enjoyed seeing Mark Hamill demonstrate his off-beat silliness, something he was not able to do with Luke. Did you know he and Richard Hunt ended up being good friends after this episode?

"I have been watching them [the Muppets] since they were on The Ed Sullivan Show. And I got a lifelong friend, Richard Hunt, from them who has since passed away. He became one of the best friends my family has ever had. And we all miss him every day."

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_Hamill

Hey, I thought that episode was funny, too. Yeah, Mark was corny, but it was so over-the-top corny that it was funny. I thought his Kermit and Fozzie impressions were way better that Rich Little's! They should've saved that line "Who do you do?" for Rich's episode!

The Star Wars one is hated by many...why? Because there's a lot of Star Wars fans out there that, when they see their favorite Jedi gargling, the episode is immediately ranked alongside the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

I honestly thought it was a blast when I first saw it as a kid. Muppets and Star Wars together? Wow! My two favorite worlds combined! I can watch it now and just see Mark acting goofy and not being afraid to look silly.

That episode actually has a good family memory attached to it, but I should probably post it elsewhere. It's kind of a long story.

Painful moments? To me, it depends on when I would see the episodes. When you're a kid, some stuff both freaked me out and was painful to see. This Pigs in Space sketch made me run screaming from the room when I was 5. I loved Piggy! Why did that have to happen to her? What made it extra freaky was that I thought (as a kid) she was saying "chew, chew, chew" to the monster instead of "one and two, one and two" (as in the two step). Also, not seeing her at the end of the episode did nothing to reassure me that she was "okay". But that's 5 year old logic, I guess. Nevertheless, I was very cautious when the Pigs in Space music would start up after that. If I saw Big Mama...remember Wembley as he fleed from the Terrible Tunnel? Well, that's a pretty good description of what I did when I was little.

Now the episode holds one of my favorite (and funniest Animal moments).

I've read about where a lot of people were freaked out by the Kenny Rogers episode. Am I the only one that wasn't? The Gambler was a song my parents played on the car's 8-track player all the time when I was young. I like how Robin said "I'm not old enough to understand it." Well, I was too. I felt like I connected with Robin in that way back then. Still, the song was soothing to me. It meant that you were coming home from someplace, riding in the backseat all comfy and stuff, watching the shadows the streetlights made. Memories...

The Gambler (played by Jerry) dying and turning into a ghost didn't scare me. I knew that there were Muppet ghosts, and I just figured he was one of them. (shrug). Now? I just love listenin' to Jerry sing that song.

The Lime in the Coconut number I remember being a lot of fun as a kid. I knew that Muppets sometimes changed into weird shapes or other characters right on camera. They did it on SS, why not here? Besides, no one hurt Kermit in the sketch and he was okay. To me (as a kid) the doctor was just telling Kermit that to make his flipper better, he just had to drink some lime juice out of a coconut. "Oh good," I thought "Kermit'll be okay." The doctor even said he'd "be up and hopping good as new." Besides Zoot got to play a little, and I loved Zoot back then. Still do. Zoot's cool, man.

I remember Gonzo's head getting blown off in one of the intros (John Denver?) which perplexed and bothered me as a youngster. ("It's a camera trick." Mom said). Muppets getting blown up in a puff of smoke? Not scary to me as a kid. Muppets getting blown up and getting dismembered? (Floyd blink) "Freak City!"

As a kid, the eating stuff was sometimes painful to see, unless it was a character I didn't really know or care about. The Inchworm sketch from Rich Little? Meh. I didn't know who Lenny the Lizard was back then. He got ate up? Oh well.

Nowadays as far as "painful" in performances, I'd have to go with Rich Little's impersonations. He didn't sound anything like Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie or Statler! The only thing believable about that scene was Waldorf's line to Statler after Rich impersonated him

(to Statler): "Was that him or you?"

As a kid, I rolled my eyes and thought "duh." But then I remembered that Waldorf has bad hearing anyway and couldn't tell who was talking.

Bruce Forsythe. Yeah. The Muppet bits from that show were good, but why didn't Big Mama eat him?

"I know why! Because he's got no taste! Do ho ho ho ho ho ho!"

Convincing John

 

[peyjenk]

Hmmm. I like the Bruce Forsyth episode... I thought he seemed really natural with the Muppets.

 

[Drtooth]

Painful moments? To me, it depends on when I would see the episodes. When you're a kid, some stuff both freaked me out and was painful to see. This Pigs in Space sketch made me run screaming from the room when I was 5. I loved Piggy! Why did that have to happen to her?

I dunno... I was pretty desenitised to seeing Muppet Monsters eat everyone. Especially Kermit in the Glowworm skit.

 

[MrsPepper]

Convincing John, I agree with you about the Gambler, it's one of my all time favourite moments.

And you can all say what you want about Sylvester Stallone, but I happen to love it and I just laugh and laugh whenever I watch it.

I know I've said this before but the Harvey Korman episode from Season 1 is terrible and I never rewatch it when I take out my TMS dvd's. Especially that whole taming act with Thog. Everything about it is awkward.

 

[Drtooth]

And you can all say what you want about Sylvester Stallone, but I happen to love it and I just laugh and laugh whenever I watch it.

I gotta say about that Stallone one, I think that he must have had a real sense of humor about it, considerinf he used a clip of it in Rocky 3

 

[rexcrk]

I know what you guys mean about having cringe-worthy Muppet moments with your friends.

Like one time I made them watch Great Muppet Caper with me... that wasn't very much fun.

So yeah that's why they'll only watch the recent stuff like Muppet Treasure Island, Very Merry Muppet Christmas, Muppet Wizard of Oz, etc.

And for the record I think MWoO is better than most of us give it credit for.

 

[CensoredAlso]

My friends and I actually had to negotiate a bit, because I prefered not to see the more modern projects when they did, heh.

In the end, we've mostly watched the older projects (which we all like) and have decided to compromise with Muppet Christmas Carol, which I don't mind so much, it does have good songs.

 

[Drtooth]

. The big ones came in Muppet Show Season 1, mainly when some of those "At the Dance" jokes fell flat, lol. But you know, that's Show Biz!

That's the spirit of those jokes IMO... of course half of them should be groan worthy...

Personally, my all time favortie one was in the pilot, especially the Bert Dancing with the female Ernie, and Kermit saying "I could get you a part on a Children's educational show" (we all know what that means, giggidy goo!)

And for the record I think MWoO is better than most of us give it credit for.

Had the acting been better on the part of Dorothy (or at least the casting) and the script had one or two more revisions I would agree. I don't want to go into it too much.