Random Thoughts: Season Two of TMS

[minor muppetz]

Do you think that "hatless" was improvised? I think it must have been. You can hear Jim's laugh in Rowlf's voice when he sets Frank up for the obvious joke. Fozzie going "what?" as if Frank was giving himself time to come up with the proper response. It's brilliant either way, of course. I'm a sucker for the old jokes.

You know, The AV Club just recently reviewed that episode, and the writer there was wondering whether it was improvised or not.

 

[Borples]

You know, The AV Club just recently reviewed that episode, and the writer there was wondering whether it was improvised or not.

One of the great questions of our time, apparently! Probably, I should go add it to the thread about what we would ask Jim if we had the chance. I just had to go read the AV Club's take on it, since you mentioned it. They say the joke was too good to be improvised; I disagree. It's such an old joke, in various forms. And there was a big pause between "My hat! What do I do?" and "Can you play hatless?" like Jim was figuring out how to phrase the question to lead into the joke, and deciding whether to do it. I think it was off the cuff. Again, it doesn't really matter--I don't know why the question intrigues me so much. I guess it's like a peek into their fascinating, muppeteering minds.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I honestly never felt like it was improvised, the give and take between them is too perfect.

But I could always be wrong, hehe.

 

[PanthraDion]

I love seeing Robin's character get expanded in the Bernadette Peters episode, mainly because "Just One Person" is so pretty and hearing him belt out "They Call The Wind Maria" is hilarious. I like how he goes from sensitive to fame-hungry in a matter of minutes, lol.

I love the song Just One Person. It is so sweet in the way that the song says that if others believe in you, you can believe in yourself.

 

[minor muppetz]

You know, a month ago I wrote a series of articles for The Muppet Mindset on my top 40 favorite Muppet Show segments, and after posting the article I realised that most of my favorite Kermit segments from the show come from season two. My list included Kermit's interview with the Koozebanian Phoob, Happy Feet, and Ukelelee Lady (as well as Just One Person, but he wasn't a major character in that), but there's also a lot of great Kermit segments from the second season I did not list but would have been worthy, like Bein' Green (I like the version from the Peter Sellers episode better), Kermit's interview with the Koozebanian Spooble, and Waiting at the Church.

That's not to say that the second season is the only season of great Kermit segments. That list does include Kermit segments from other seasons (though most of them feature him in cameos or as part of the gang as opposed to the main character), in fact that list has more clips with Kermit than any other character. And there are Kermit segments from other seasons that are worthy of that list but didn't make the list, like Gene Kelly giving Kermit a dance lesson, Friendship, Octopuses Garden (though that's more of a Robin number), Disco Frog, and many of the first season talk spots and panel discussions.