Muppet Show Sequence Confusion

[muppetperson]

With not much on the TV, I decided to watch my season 1 Muppet Show DVDs.It starts off with Juliet Prowse, which I read in Of Muppets And Men, was the first Muppet Show made.Yet Kermit says welcome to another Muppet Show, and Scooter is in it and yet at the end of disc one is Jim Nabors, where Scooter seems to have never met Kermit before and introduces himself.Also at the end of Jim Nabors, all the Muppets say who they are, which gives me the impression that this was the first Muppet Show?
It was also strange that on the Rita Moreno episode, Miss Piggy changes from Richard Hunt to Frank Oz on the same show.One would think that to do a change like that, you would have the same person for a whole show, then not have the character in the next show and do the swap the show after!
Does anyone know the actual filming order of The Muppet Show?

 

[Super Scooter]

I'm pretty sure the DVDs are presented in order of how the episodes were filmed. And, often Richard and Frank switched the Miss Piggy role based on whether or not Frank would have a different character to play in the same scene. I suppose they thought the voices were close enough (and the character not really well established yet) that they could get away with it.

 

[David French]

I'm pretty sure the DVDs are presented in order of how the episodes were filmed. And, often Richard and Frank switched the Miss Piggy role based on whether or not Frank would have a different character to play in the same scene. I suppose they thought the voices were close enough (and the character not really well established yet) that they could get away with it.

Not all the episodes are presented in the order they were filmed - Connie Stevens recorded her episode before Juliet Prowse ever did.

With regards to the original question - the Juliet Prowse episode was originally recorded in January 1976, but was re-worked at a later date prior to transmission (my guess is September 1976). The original version didn't feature Scooter at all, and I think he probably was meant to be introduced proper in the Jim Nabors episode.

Check the TMS episode guide on this very web site for the differences between the original Juliet Prowse episode and the one that was transmitted.

 

[muppetperson]

Just watched my Muppet Show Season 1 again, this time with Muppet morsels trivia subtitles activated and it says that the order of the set is indeed the production order.It gives the dates that each show was made and aired.Although there appears to be some errors as it says Juliet Prowse was first, recording the week of Jan 29th, 1976.Then it has Connie Stevens at second, but with the date Jan 19th, 1976! Then Ruth Buzzi and Rita Moreno have the same date of May 25-27, 1976.Still, some of the facts are quite interesting.

 

[David French]

Just watched my Muppet Show Season 1 again, this time with Muppet morsels trivia subtitles activated and it says that the order of the set is indeed the production order.It gives the dates that each show was made and aired.Although there appears to be some errors as it says Juliet Prowse was first, recording the week of Jan 29th, 1976.Then it has Connie Stevens at second, but with the date Jan 19th, 1976! Then Ruth Buzzi and Rita Moreno have the same date of May 25-27, 1976.Still, some of the facts are quite interesting.

The notes on the order are misleading to some extent; production order gives the impression that this is the order that the episodes went before the cameras. In fact, from the info I've gleamed from other members of this forum, the order the original production code order and the Jim Henson Company's official order.

Nevertheless, Connie Stevens did record her episode first, with Juliet Prowse second. With regards to episodes where they give the same dates, the notes indicate that the episodes were recorded on the weeks of those dates, and I suspect that some episodes were (probably) being recorded at the same time.

 

[muppetperson]

The double dates were May25-27,1976-only 3 days! I know "Thunderbirds" recorded 2 episodes at a time using recorded dialogue and replicated puppets and sets but I have never heard this technique being used with The Muppets, although they had the resources as they had more than one of each character and was also financed by Lew Grade's ITC.But personally I think it was a typo!!

 

[David French]

The double dates were May25-27,1976-only 3 days! I know "Thunderbirds" recorded 2 episodes at a time using recorded dialogue and replicated puppets and sets but I have never heard this technique being used with The Muppets, although they had the resources as they had more than one of each character and was also financed by Lew Grade's ITC.But personally I think it was a typo!!

Not a typo as the dates come from the JHC's official historian. Remember, they were recorded the week of those dates and not necessarily those particular dates in question.

 

[muppetperson]

From what I read, the 2 pilots start off saying recorded the "week" of...., but after that, it gets specific and lists them in 3 day groupings.I will email Karen Falk and see what she says.

 

[muppetperson]

I got a reply back and just as I thought, it IS a typo.Ruth Buzzi is correct at May 25-27, 1976 but Rita Moreno should be filmed the week of June 3, 1976.I thought it would be nearly impossible to rehearse and film 2 Muppet Shows in 1 week with the amount of effort needed with such a show.

 

[David French]

I got a reply back and just as I thought, it IS a typo.Ruth Buzzi is correct at May 25-27, 1976 but Rita Moreno should be filmed the week of June 3, 1976.I thought it would be nearly impossible to rehearse and film 2 Muppet Shows in 1 week with the amount of effort needed with such a show.

Thanks for that, my bad it would seem. I will correct my list as such.