charlietheowl's Random Thoughts: Season Three of TMS

[charlietheowl]

Finally finished season three, so thought I would get some discussion going. Any thoughts presented here will hopefully make sense.

• Season Three appears to extend upon the confidence gained in Season Two. The backstage plots are more expansive, the show plots use extended themes at times, and even the shots used are different.
• I love seeing Rowlf's expression when he plays the piano during the closing credits. He just looks like he's having such a good time.
• Kris Kristofferson looks like he is about to burst into laughter in all of his numbers. It's good to see guest stars obviously having such a good time while filming.
• I'm probably in the minority on this, but I thought Annie Sue was a cute character. She was obviously designed to look young, fresh, innocent and eager to please, and it was fun to see Piggy react to that.
• Leo Sayer's mime makeup was horrifying.
• Fozzie doesn't really have a future career in stage management if comedy doesn't work out.
• The Camelot number from the Pearl Bailey episode is probably my favorite from the season. She does a great job singing, the costumes are excellent, and the choice of songs in lieu of the Camelot numbers were excellent. It really shows the writing staff and production team were feeling real confident.
• It's funny to think that people thought Alice Cooper was a subversive, scary act, when he was will to sing with the Muppets. (And this is coming from a fan of his.)
• The stalactite sketch wins the award for biggest snooze of the season.
• Robin's version of "Over The Rainbow" is heartbreakingly cute.
• Why does Sweetums sit in the background of "When You're Looking At Country"? He just sits there and vibes out to the music, like there was no other room for him in the train station.
• Liberace's episode is nearly a disaster because his concert left no room to interact with the Muppets, which is against the whole point of the show. He takes up half the show for some piano doodlings. I'm not entirely sure how this made him famous.
• Lew Zealand's voice is perfect for someone who throws fish for a living.
• Was "You're Always Welcome At Our House" supposed to be creepy or funny? Or both? I thought it was creepy.
• Beauregard definitely makes for a better janitor than George, because his enthusiasm is contagious and he is willing to do whatever it takes how many times it takes to get it right.
• Wayne and Wanda must have split up, what with all his solo appearances this season. But he clearly didn't learn how to avoid accidents.
• Fozzie doesn't really have a future career in scriptwriting if comedy doesn't work out.
• The Lesley Ann Warren episode is probably my favorite one so far. Her numbers are funny- I thought the "Beauty and the Beast" number was going to be a total snooze until the punch line, and she gave Link the dance of his life- and seeing Dr. Teeth and Sam the Eagle come together for a sketch is priceless.
• The "Aquarius" sketch seems like one of the simple gags that would have fit in with the first season, but it's still pretty funny.
• Danny Kaye looks creepy as all get-out when dressed up in Swedish Chef gear.
• Spike Milligan might have been the only guest who was too out-of-control for the Muppets. I did not understand a single thing he said or did in his episode, culminating in the brotherhood sketch which I don't think was even done in English.
• Gonzo deserved a Grammy for his song to Camilla, such a tender expression of love has rarely ever been sung before.
• Those dog puppets at the end of the Roger Miller episode looked like rats to me, but evidently they are possums? Weird.
• Beauregard looks priceless in his cowboy getup, and he plays a mean harmonica to boot. Who knew!
• The costumes in the Lynn Redgrave episode are awesome. Beauregard makes a perfect joker, Scooter a great balladeer, and Piggy a great friar.
• The Newsman can't even get a break in the medieval ages.
• Wait, I take back what I said about the stalactites. Cheryl Ladd's number with the clodhoppers was the worst sketch of the third season.

See you in a couple months for season four!

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I thought Annie Sue was a cute character. She was obviously designed to look young, fresh, innocent and eager to please, and it was fun to see Piggy react to that.

I don't think she's a bad character, but not too special. Her personality almost seems like Bean Bunny's, only she's a girl and isn't obsessed over her cuteness.

• Fozzie doesn't really have a future career in stage management if comedy doesn't work out.

I wonder if Kermit would have fired Fozzie over the fire if Kermit had known earlier on. He was really mad at Fozzie at the time he threatened to fire him if anything went wrong, but the fire obviously wasn't Fozzie's fault (judging from where the smoke started to appear I'm guessing it came from the canteen). Of course at the end when Fozzie was begging not to get fired he apologized for the hole in the floor, which was Gonzo's fault.

• Why does Sweetums sit in the background of "When You're Looking At Country"? He just sits there and vibes out to the music, like there was no other room for him in the train station.

I was watching that number recently and wondering the same thing.

Wayne and Wanda must have split up, what with all his solo appearances this season. But he clearly didn't learn how to avoid accidents.

Though Wayne did get through "Dog Walk". He may have struggled with the number, but at least he completed it.

The Lesley Ann Warren episode is probably my favorite one so far. Her numbers are funny- I thought the "Beauty and the Beast" number was going to be a total snooze until the punch line, and she gave Link the dance of his life- and seeing Dr. Teeth and Sam the Eagle come together for a sketch is priceless.

I agree, this is such a great (and underrated) episode. I also find the Elke Sommers episode underrated.

Those dog puppets at the end of the Roger Miller episode looked like rats to me, but evidently they are possums? Weird.

I don't think they were supposed to be dogs. I think Statler barking was just supposed to be a joke.

 

[charlietheowl]

Though Wayne did get through "Dog Walk". He may have struggled with the number, but at least he completed it.

He barely scraped through that one, hahaha.

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing I noticed about this season is that many of Kermit's intros to the opening numbers tend to get interrupted or take up a bit of time before the opening numbers. When introducing Kris Kristofferson, Miss Piggy peeks from behind the curtain to try to make Kermit jealous. Fozzie comes on-stage to tell everyone to go to the country, a rock gets offended when Kermit says they need some good rock, Miss Piggy and Scooter both interrupt the opening number for Raquel Welch, Scooter and Leslie Ann Warren interrupt, the railroad episode has quite a few things during the intro... So much interrupting.

Not sure if this was intentional or not, but I find it ironic that James Coco praises the show for it's pace, as that seems to be one of the slowest-pacing episodes ever. This episode doesn't have back-to-back on-stage acts, there's either a backstage scene or a commercial break between each act. The use of so many backstage scenes between the acts makes the episode seem kind of slow, though the sketches seem to be the average length of a Muppet Show sketch.

It is a little funny how James Coco keeps ruining several acts because he wants them to have more razzle-dazzle, but then when Kermit informs him that they've got a big closing number planned he wants to do a small closing number. In fact, that seems similar to the Jean Stapleton episode where Kermit describes an elaborate closing number before the guest star decides she'd rather do something else... And in both cases Kermit tells them what the closing number is right before they go on. Shouldn't they have already known in advance what they'd be doing?

And they had Wayne singing poorly right before his number, only for him to sing better when he's actually on-stage.

 

[dwmckim]

And they had Wayne singing poorly right before his number, only for him to sing better when he's actually on-stage.

Well, when he was onstage, he had the benefit of the musical intro to help him start off in the right key...