Fozzie's joke: "My house is so dirty that my dog buries his bones in the living room carpet. (I don't understand it either.)"

STAGE CURTAIN

Kermit gets ready to start off the show with a high note as a trumpet player blares a note in his ear.

BALCONY

OPENING NUMBER: "LOVE YA TO DEATH"

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem perform a rousing song as pyrotechnics explode around them. Animal, of course, is delighted! [The Electric Mayhem also performed this song in the pilot, The Muppet Show: Sex & Violence.]

PROFILE

Kermit interviews Animal and talks to him (as much as he can) about his love of drumming.

TALKING HOUSES

STAGE CURTAIN

Kermit introduces the most dangerous animal act (No not the drummer again!) in the entire world.

SKETCH

Harvey Korman as Maurice the Magnificent prepares his animal taming act and urges the audience to remain silent or the beast will go berserk. The "blackhearted" creature turns out to be the gentle Thog (from "Great Santa Claus Switch"). Harvey's tricks include getting the monster to speak ("I hardly know where to begin, I was rereading Balzac the other day, only in translation...") and to dance ("I wanted to ride a pony around the stage but Maurice is afraid of ponies.")

CONVERSATION PANEL

Panelists Kermit, Harvey, Miss Piggy, a male pig, and a whatnot discuss the issue of "What is the meaning of Life" (Harvey: "I have the last issue of Life before they stopped publishing.")

[The Whatnot's lines in this scene were originally written for Scooter, however he may have been replaced with a generic Whatnot in order to create some more episodes without Scooter that could be aired before the Jim Nabors episode.]

BALCONY

AT THE DANCE

BACKSTAGE

Rowlf and Muppy try to engage a hurried Harvey in a discussion about ecology (Rowlf: "If all those trees go, we're in big trouble.")

UK SKETCH: MUSICAL NUMBER: "JAM"

The Electric Mayhem take to the stage again for a jam session - it rocks so much even Zoot lets out a yell. [This song appears on the rare Muppet Show Music Album simply entitled "Jam". It is also included on Muppet Hits Take Two with the new title "Sweet Tooth Jam".]

The real fun is watching the Muppets play their instruments as the puppeteers are at their best; when one imagines the band playing, the images here best represent what comes to mind: Dr. Teeth be-bopping around and moving back and forth from the keyboards with outstretched hands, Animal throwing himself into his drums and yelling, Zoot squeezing every note out of his sax, Floyd grooving, and Janice's hair flying all over as if she's absorbing the electricity of her guitar.]

TALK SPOT

Harvey complains about being the "token person" on the show. (Kermit: "Gee, we've never had that complaint before.") Kermit's solution is to stuff Harvey in a large chicken suit.

BALCONY

Statler responds to Waldorf's laughing that he doesn't find chickens funny. A chicken enters the theater box and pecks at him.

VETERINARIAN'S HOSPITAL

Facing his tenth operation of the day, Dr. Bob is too stressed to perform. He seems ready to explode but his hiccup-suffering patient beats him to it.

CURTAIN

Sam Eagle gets a tear in his eye as he introduces Wayne & Wanda.

Wanda gets a kick out of Wayne, especially after upstaging him.

ONSTAGE

T.R. Rooster (from "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen") leads a procession of marching chickens brought up in the rear by Harvey. ("How do you get out of this chicken outfit?")

STAGE CURTAIN

Kermit introduces Fozzie's comedy spot.

FOZZIE'S COMEDY SPOT

Before Kermit can leave the stage, Fozzie tells him the two are going to perform the world's funniest joke (apparently putting the Telephone Pole Bit fiasco of working with a partner behind him). All Kermit has to do is rush up to Fozzie declaring, "Good grief, the comedian's a bear!" when Fozzie says the word "hear". Unfortunately, Fozzie's set-up contains a couple "here" and "hears" leading to an Abbott and Costelloesque argument. [This Muppet classic appears on the original Muppet Show soundtrack, Muppet Hits Take 2, and The Muppet Show: Muisc, Mayhem and More.This routine is so funny that Richard Hunt can be heard laughing in the background.]

BALCONY

NEWSFLASH

The Newsman interviews middleweight champion Carl Boomer (Korman) who after defeating all his opponents, plans to battle himself.

MUSICAL NUMBER: "HALFWAY DOWN THE STAIRS"

Robin the Frog (from "The Frog Prince") sings the poignant A. A. Milne song perched halfway down a flight of stairs. This song was re-recorded for an appearance on Top of the Pops. Some alternate versions with different colored backgrounds have been spotted in different countries. [The song appears on the original Muppet Show soundtrack and a re-recorded version is on Ol' Brown Ears Is Back. Although later Robin is cast as Kermit's nephew, no reference as such is made yet here.]

STAGE CURTAIN

Kermit thanks tonight's special guest star, Chicken Little.

CLOSING THEME

Guide Written by
D. W. McKim and Phillip Chapman

With contributions from
Jogchem Jalink and Dave Ebersole