Most disappointing episode of The Muppet Show

[Winslow Leach]

I don't know if the writers were running out of ideas and figured that theme-based episodes would help them out with ideas, but all but two MuppeTelevision segments from The Jim Henson Hour were based around themes.

I'm not sure about this, but didn't everyone involved know TMS would end production after the fifth season? I remember reading somewhere that Jim himself pulled the plug on the series, that it could have gone on, but he wanted to go out while the show was still on top. So perhaps the writers wanted to do theme-based episodes, and Jim gave them free reign. "Jabberwocky" from the Brooke Shields ep. is as great and as strange as anything from the previous seasons. In fact, I think that whole particular episode is quite clever.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Speaking of the final season, I quite like the Tony Randall episode. Tony recites a magic spell and turns Piggy to stone. There are a lot of great "stone Piggy" jokes courtesy of Floyd, Fozzie and Gonzo. At first Kermit tells the guys to lay off, but even he can't resist cracking wise at the pig's expense. It's also got the great "A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," and Dr. Teeth singing, and eventually engulfed by, "Poison Ivy."

 

[minor muppetz]

Yeah, despite all the themed shows, there were still plenty of last season episodes that didn't have any major theme, like the episodes with Gene Kelly, Roger Moore, Linda Ronstadt, Melissa Manchester, Shirley Bassey, and Loretta Switt. But many of the non-theme episodes did have really weird plots.