Top 60 Muppet Moments

[minor muppetz]

It's the 60th anniversary of the Muppets (or should be, but there's no official celebration), so I thought I'd make a list of my top 60 Muppet moments. I had wanted to do this as a Muppet Mindset article, but I kept debating over whether to limit the moments to ones featuring the Disney-owned Muppets, or to include the Muppets, Sesame Street, and all productions from The Jim Henson Company, or if it should be limited to Muppets, Sesame Street, and anything that The Jim Henson Company considered Muppets before 2004 (well, whether it's this or the previous my list wouldn't include any of the company's CGI stuff). I also kept debating over to put the moments in chronological order or in a more ranked order.

But I decided instead to do a series of articles about the history of the Muppets and The Jim Henson Company,but still wanted to post a special list for the 60th anniversary, so I decided to settle on just the Muppets. So here is my list:

1. Sam and Friends - Visual Thinking

2. Purina Commercial – Asparagus

3. The Muppets on Puppets – Rowlf reads a story

4. The Frog Prince – N’im Einteen

5. The Muppet Musicians of Bremen – A Family Together

6. Cher Show – Bein’ Green

7. The Muppets’ Valentine Show – Real Live Girl

8. Sex and Violence – Agression sketch

9. The Muppet Show – Mahna Mahna

10. The Muppet Show – Good Grief, the Comedian’s a Bear!

11. Muppet Labs: Gorilla Detector

12. The Muppet Show – Ethel Merman Medley

13. The Muppet Show – The Swedish Chef: Lobsters

14. The Muppet Show – John Cleese Closing Number

15. The Muppet Show – Octopuses Garden

16. The Muppet Show – Star Wars Cast lands on Koozebane

17. The Muppet Show – Blue Bayou

18. The Muppet Movie – Moving Right Along

19. The Muppet Movie – Can You Picture That?

20. The Muppets Go Hollywood – Hooray for Hollywood

21. The Tonight Show – Kermit’s opening monologue

22. A Christmas Together – Twelve Days of Christmas

23. The Muppets Go to the Movies – Silent Stawberry’s

24. The Great Muppet Caper – Happiness Hotel

25. Rocky Mountain Holiday – Gone Fishing

26. The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show – There’ll Be Some Changes Made

27. The Muppets Take Manhattan – The Wedding

28. The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years – The Rainbow Connection

29. A Muppet Family Christmas – Carol Sing

30. Wow, You’re a Cartoonist – To Be a Cartoonist is Fun

31. The Jim Henson Hour – My Dinner with Codzilla

32. The Jim Henson Hour – Sweet Vacation

33. The Jim Henson Hour – Just to See Her

34. The Jim Henson Hour – Digit rewinds Gonzo

35. The Jim Henson Hour – Our Love is Here to Stay (Miss Piggy’s Hollywood)

36. The Jim Henson Hour – The Muppets meet their performers (Secrets of the Muppets)

37. The Muppets at Walt Disney World – The Muppets Meet Mickey Mouse

38. The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson – Just One Person

39. Muppet Vision 3D – Bunsen and Beaker invent Waldo

40. Good Morning America – Gonzo gets elected

41. The Muppet Christmas Carol – Bless Us All

42. Muppet Classic Theater – Gotta Get That Name

43. She Drives Me Crazy Music Video

44. Muppet Treasure Island – Gonzo and Rizzo get tortured

45. Muppets Tonight – Muppet Match Up

46. Muppets Tonight – Seinfeld Babies

47. Muppets Tonight – Seyour and Pepe’s “Elefino” Joke

48. Muppets Tonight – Cindy Crawford and Bobo’s dance

49. Muppets Tonight – Johnny’s Pasta Playhouse

50. Muppets from Space – Brick House

51. It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie – Everyone Matters

52. Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody

53. Dust with the Wind

54. OK Go – The Muppet Show Theme

55. The Muppets – Man or Muppet

56. The Late Show – The Weight

57. Lipton – City of Animal’s

58. Muppets Most Wanted – I’ll Give You What You Want

59. Pure Imagination

60. Bunsen and Beaker recite A Pirates Life for Me


And for fun, here is the highest-ranked moments from productions not represented on this list:

The Jimmy Dean Show - Jimmy Dean helps a sick Rowlf (I haven't actually seen the whole sketch)
Hey Cinderella - The King tells Featherstone what to write on the invitations
The Ed Sullivan Show – The Muppet String Quartet
Muppet Babies – You’re Special to Me
Little Muppet Monsters – On TV
Tale of the Bunny Picnic - The dog gets a name
Hey You're as Funny as Fozzie Bear - Monster Jokes
Muppet Treasure Island Sing-Along - There Was an Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fly
Kermit's Swamp Years - Life as a Pet
The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz – The Witch is in the House
From the Balcony – Superman returns a movie to the video store
Studio DC – This is Me
Letters to Santa - My Best Christmas Yet
The Muppets Kitchen – FrankfurterStein
The Muppets Pilot – The Muppets spend money they don’t have on nonsense

This list was limited to moments from the Disney-owned Muppets, but in another post I'll list what I would have included if this list included productions owned by The Jim Henson Company (and maybe some Sesame Street moments).

 

[minor muppetz]

Here's a second list, top 60 Henson Company (including Sesame Street) moments.
1. Wilkins Coffee – Wontkins likes the coffee (and asks for his bribe)

2. La Choy – supermarket

3. Time Piece – painting the elephant

4. Sesame Street Pitch Reel – Kermit comes up with the shows title

5. Sesame Street – Henson #3

6. Sesame Street – Rubber Duckie

7. Sesame Street – Eleven Cheer

8. Sesame Street - C is for Cookie

9. Sesame Street – Bert’s Bust

10. Sesame Street – Super Grover: Telephone

11. Saturday Night Live – Ploobis and Scred meet Raquel Welch

12. Sesame Street – Kermit and Grover: earmuff salesman

13. Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas – Bar B Que

14. Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas – Riverbottom Nightmare Band

15. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street – Cookie Monster eats the typewriter

16. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street – I Hate Christmas

17. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

18. Sesame Street – This Frog

19. Sesame Street – Monsterpiece Theater: Chariots of Fur

20. Fraggle Rock – I Seen Troubles

21. Fraggle Rock – Traveling Matt’s rollercoaster ride

22. Fraggle Rock – Convincing John

23. Fraggle Rock – Let Me Be Your Song

24. Fraggle Rock – Friendship Song

25. Fraggle Rock – Traveling Matt at the video arcade

26. Fraggle Rock – Gobo and Matt discover the T. Mathew Fraggle room

27. Fraggle Rock – The Children of Tomorrow

28. Fraggle Rock – Doc sees Gobo

29. Follow That Bird – Grouch Anthem

30. Follow That Bird – Grouch diner scene

31. Labyrinth – The Four Guards

32. Labyrinth – Chilli Down

33. The Christmas Toy – Meteora

34. The Christmas Toy – Together at Christmas

35. Puppet Man – Gary’s puppet Candle talks to his son

36. Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting – Herry and John-John reunited

37. Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting – Look Through the Windows

38. Dog City – Ace Yu introduces himself to the bartender

39. Song of the Cloud Forrest – Munching Forrest

40. The Story Teller – The giant makes up places where his heart is hidden

41. The Story Teller – The soldier plays cards with the devils

42. The Story Teller – Sapsorrow “you must obey the law/you cannot marry your father”

43. Sesame Street – Do De Rubber Duck

44. Sesame Street – The Word is No

45. Sesame Street – Monster in the Mirror

46. Dinosaurs – Baby hatches

47. Dinosaurs – The categories for The Family Challenge are read off

48. Dinosaurs – Baby tries to eat his tail

49. Dinosaurs – Promo for “Way Too Complicated”

50. Dinosaurs – “why is our metric system based on ten, when we only have eight fingers?”

51. Dinosaurs – “I’ve got a present for you… In my diaper!”

52. Dinosaurs – Earl complains about Mr. Lizard having to use safety goggles

53. I’m the Baby music video

54. Sesame Street All-Star 25th Birthday – Sing/Our Favorite Street

55. Sesame Street – Things That I Remember

56. Elmo in Grouchland – Welcome to Grouchland

57. Cinder Elmo – Everybody’s Doing This Dance

58. Sesame Street – Spider-Monster: The Musical

59. Ben Folds Five music video – Do It Anyway

60. Sesame Street – Birdwalk Empire

I regret that I had trouble deciding on any Dark Crystal moments.