Favorite Season of the Muppet Show

[Auberoun]

What is your favorite season of the Muppet Show? My would have to be season 3. The performers were in the groove, the guest stars were great. The writing superb...I can gush more about season 3, but I won't.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Yeah, sesaon 3 was great, and in my opinion, it just got better after that. So I have to say it's a toss between 3, 4, and 5.

 

[RichardHuntFan]

I especially like season 3 as well, since it appears to me as though around that period of time changes to segments and characters have improved by then, with the dropping of reoccurring segments that did not work very well, and adding and dropping characters to make segments more amusing( like the addition of Beaker to the Muppet Labs segments) and to create a group of frequently occurring characters that interact in the best way possible, considering the type of environment that the Jim Henson Company appears to have wanted to create in the theater setting of the show. It also seems that even though other seasons had truly exceptional episodes and guest stars, it seems like there was a higher concentration of them in season 3, in my personal opinion.

 

[MissMusical12]

I'm stuck between Seasons 3, 4 and 5......

 

[Vincent L]

I don't like seasons 1 and 5 so much, so I'm stuck between 2, 3 and 4.

 

[Auberoun]

I would have to agree, Season 1, the performers were still "geling" and Season 2, they started to develop better writing and favorite recurring sketches. Season 3, they were well known enough to get some better known guest stars. It just seems to me, that season 3 is when they hit their stride. I agree, while I like some of Season 5, some changes were so-so. I like seeing more of the theatre (stage door cold opens with Pops), but I missed Scooter's cold opens...there was something inherently "classic" about the Scooter's cold opens. "[Guest Star], oh [Guest Star]...'X' minutes until curtain!"

 

[Hubert]

Mine's a tossup between Seasons 2 and 3. Season 2 had so many great sketches and songs and comedy and even guest stars, and the characters and performers were so well figured out and rounded. Yet then in Season 3, though some things weren't as great as Season 2, it really did have more of a full, fleshed out concept at that point. Bigger plot lines, more extravagant scenes, lot's of great guest stars...

 

[charlietheowl]

Right now (and I haven't seen every season yet), I'd have to say Season Three. Season One had them working out a lot of the kinks in terms of humor and characters, Season Two was a big step forward as they figured out how to better use the backstage and certain characters (Gonzo, Fozzie, Piggy), and Season Three builds on Season Two but is more ambitious and self-assured (the Robin Hood episode, Cluckitis, the Harry Belafonte episode).

I'm going through season four right now, and though it's still early, it seems to be very similar to season three.

 

[zoebell]

i say season 4. for me that was the show at the absolute peak of its powers. the movie had come out and was successful, they had won emmys, they were this mass phenomenon....it was so funny, they just had so much confidence then and it showed. and they had great guest stars at that point too

 

[minor muppetz]

My three favorites are the first, third, and fifth.

I like the raw feel of the first season. In fact this is something I like about many first seasons. I guess I can see why others dislike it, probably for reasons I like. But it's so much fun, seeing less-than-perfect versions of characters like Fozzie, Miss Piggy, and Gonzo, seeing the things that made this season this season that didn't work out (making them sort of a rare treat, though not so rare in the context of the season). You could call this a guilty pleasure for me, except I don't feel guilty about liking this season.

The third season is a great improvement over season two. The writers and performers seem comfortable with the characters and the format, they start to have a good handle on episodes where the backstage conflicts interfere with the on-stage stuff, and we're introduced to great new characters like Beauregard, Lew Zealand, Gladys, Bobby Benson, and Louis Kazagger. One downside to this season is that some characters who appeared quite a bit in previous seasons (Dr. Teeth, Sweetums, Crazy Harry) start to appear less frequently on the show.

And the fifth season is really great. I don't see how anybody can dislike it. It has my favorite versions of the opening and closing theme (perhaps because part of this verison of the opening theme was the first version I saw, when a clip appeared in The Secrets of the Muppets, while this verison of the closing theme appeared in the 1985 compilation videos). This season includes the debut of Lips, Rizzo and Gaffer start appearing more, and there are a lot of great episodes and segments from this season (some of the best episodes include the ones with Loretta Switt, Shirley Bassey, Linda Ronstadt, Gene Kelly, Marty Feldman, and Brooke Shields). Maybe my opinion will change when this season finally comes to DVD and I see all the episodes (I know, I can probably watch all I haven't seen on YouTube...). The only problem I have with this season is that it seems to have too many themed episodes. Otherwise it's great.

Meanwhile, I feel seasons 2 and 4 are just in-between the better seasons (you could call season 3 an "in-between" season, but that's better than 2 and 4).