The Muppet Show in New Zealand

[David French]

Over the past four weeks or so I've been researching the original NZ air dates for TMS. This has been a pet-project of mine for some time only I've never been able to nail down the exact dates due to lack of access of resources. That changed when I stumbled across Papers Past, a web site from the National Library of New Zealand that has scanned copies of various newspapers, magazines, periodicals and books.

In terms of NZ television, the only publication that the National Library has that covers the years 1960 onwards is the Christchurch Press. Fortunately, they list the guest stars in their TV listings. So without further ado...

TMS came to New Zealand in 1977. Back then there were only two TV channels - Television One, the state broadcaster, and South Pacific Television (SPTV), which was independent.

The first mention of TMS comes from this article - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19770210.2.108 - which suggests that the show must have been purchased by TV-1 in late 1976. The series begins in June 1977 with Juliet Prowse. Yes, surprisingly TV-1 followed the "proper" order and not the UK or US orders. One of the other things they did was to show the series in "batches". The first batch consists of the first 12 episodes of season one - all screened in consecutive weeks from Saturday 18 June 1977 to Saturday 3 September 1977, all at 7pm.

These 12 episodes are then repeated over the New Zealand summer - two nights a week (Thursdays and Fridays at 6pm) from 29 December 1977 to 3 February 1978.

 

[David French]

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19770815.2.119

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19771229.2.87

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19771229.2.87.1

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19780527.2.93

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19780527.2.93.1

 

[David French]

The second batch of episodes began on 27 May 1978 and ended on 12 August 1978, consisting of the remaining 12 episodes of season one. This batch didn't air in the "right order" as Bruce Forsyth was episode 23 not 13. Again, all episodes aired on TV-1 at 7pm.

 

[David French]

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19780119.2.94

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19780119.2.94.1

 

[Grumpo]

Thank You for sharing!

The second article (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19770815.2.119), though short, is actually one of the best Muppets pieces it was ever my pleasure to read.
It just rings true -- unerringly catches the true muppet spirit and makes you feel the sheer excitement of the times when the world was young and the Muppets were just hitting the airwaves for the very first time.
Lovely!

"...but give me the wild, wild drummer!"

 

[David French]

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19780826.2.87.3

After a week's break following the transmission of the Mummenschanz episode, TV-1 began airing season two. This was a batch of 16 episodes, all airing Saturday nights 7pm from 26 August 1978 to 16 December 1978. There was no show on 25 November due to TV-1's coverage of that year's general election. The order was all over the place as the first episode was George Burns (same as the UK) and ended with Teresa Brewer.

The order was:

1. George Burns (26/08/78)
2. Zero Mostel (02/09/78)
3. Milton Berle (09/09/78)
4. Rich Little (16/09/78)
5. Judy Collins (23/09/78)
6. Nancy Walker (30/09/78)
7. Edgar Bergen (07/10/78)
8. Don Knotts (14/10/78)
9. Steve Martin (21/10/78)
10. Madeline Kahn (28/10/78)
11. Dom DeLuise (04/11/78)
12. Bernadette Peters (11/11/78)
13. Lou Rawls (18/11/78)
14. Jaye P. Morgan (02/12/78)
15. Cloris Leachman (09/12/78)
16. Teresa Brewer (16/12/78)

During the New Zealand summer TV-1 repeated the 12 episodes of season one that had aired between May and August. Again these were shown two nights a week (Thursdays and Fridays), 6pm starting with Bruce Forsyth on 28 December 1978.

 

[David French]

In 1979 there were two batches of episodes of TMS. The first was between May and August and consisted of the remaining eight episodes of season two and the first six episodes of season three. Again, Saturdays at 7pm although there's no show on 16 June and TV-1 instead airs a special entitled 'Disco in the Snow'.

1. Rudolf Nureyev (12/05/79)
2. Petula Clark (19/05/79)
3. Cleo Laine (26/05/79)
4. Julie Andrews (02/06/79)
5. Peter Sellers (09/06/79)
6. Elton John (23/06/79)
7. Bob Hope (30/06/79)
8. John Cleese (07/07/79)
9. Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge (14/07/79)
10. Leo Sayer (21/07/79)
11. Roy Clark (28/07/79)
12. Gilda Radner (04/08/79)
13. Pearl Bailey (11/08/79)
14. Jean Stapleton (18/08/79)

 

[David French]

The second batch began in October 1979 with Alice Cooper. The batch went for 12 weeks, although there was no show on 8 December, and instead TV-1 aired 'The Muppets Go Hollywood' instead. This was rather appropriate as at the time 'The Muppet Movie' was being shown in cinemas. The order was a bit over the place as you are about to see:

1. Alice Cooper (06/10/79)
2. Loretta Lynn (13/10/79)
3. Liberace (20/10/79)
4. Marisa Berenson (27/10/79)
5. Raquel Welch (03/11/79)
6. James Coco (10/11/79)
7. Helen Reddy (17/11/79)
8. Harry Belafonte (24/11/79)
9. Cheryl Ladd (01/12/79)
10. The Muppets Go Hollywood (08/12/79)
11. Danny Kaye (15/12/79)
12. Lesley Ann Warren (22/12/79)

There were no summer reruns after Christmas, and when TMS returned to NZ screens in August 1980, there had been a significant change within the industry itself.

 

[David French]

In 1980 both TV-1 and SPTV were merged into a new state broadcaster - Television New Zealand (TVNZ). The two channels were no longer in competition with each other and SPTV was rebranded as TV-2.

TMS returned in August of 1980; unfortunately the schedulers now aired the series on Wednesday nights, 7pm on TV-2. Each new episode was also repeated the following Saturday on TV-1 at 10:30am. The series also aired continuously and not in batches. The Saturday reruns began on 2 August with Danny Kaye. The new episodes began the following Wednesday.