Thursday, March 20, 2014

THE MUPPET SHOW: Every Episode Ranked - The TOP TEN (Part A)



THE MUPPET SHOW
EVERY EPISODE RANKED
PART I     PART II     PART III     PART IV
PART V     PART VI     PART VII     PART VIII

#'s 10 - 7
10. ELTON JOHN
Season 2, Episode 14 - Scooter's Song
First of all, Elton John is one of the greatest pop-rock songwriters of all-time.  His appearance on The Muppet Show is quite possibly the best episode as far as use of Music goes.  He sings four of his biggest hits on the show: "Crocodile Rock" (seen below), "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Bennie and the Jets" and "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" (in which Kiki Dee is replaced by Miss Piggy!).  The only qualm I have about this episode is Sir Elton's acting.  It is just this side of atrocious, but at least he tries (and I have to say, in his many TV appearances as himself over the years since, he has gotten much better!).

9. BERNADETTE PETERS

Season 2, Episode 12 - Just One Person
I have been privileged enough to see Bernadette Peters live on Broadway twice and she was nothing short of phenomenal both times.  On this episode, she sings two absolutely charming songs (one with the Muppet Monsters and the other with Jug Band).  But the biggest highlight of the episode comes thanks to the littlest Muppet, Robin the Frog.  Robin, Kermit's nephew, is frustrated that no one pays attention to him because he is so small.  He decides to run away from home and goes to Ms. Peters to say "Goodbye."  In response, she (with help from some of the other Muppets) sings what has since become one of the most iconic and most touching songs in Muppet history, "Just One Person" (which first appeared in a flop Broadway Musical based on the Peanuts cartoons entitled Snoopy!).  The episode is filled with other great things, but the song (seen below) is so beautiful and powerful that you could read the phone book afterwards and it would still be a great episode.

8. BROOKE SHIELDS

Season 5, Episode 6 - Brooke In MuppetLand
Brooke Shields was indeed the youngest guest star in Muppet Show history.  In honor of her youth, the Muppet writers decided to have the Muppets perform Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland with Brooke cast as Alice.  With her wide-eyed innocence, Brooke Shields is the perfect choice and she willingly plays along with the zaniness of these disarming Muppets (she even helped build some of the puppets during her breaks from filming!).  Of course, being the Muppets, not everything goes so smoothly.  Miss Piggy believes that she is perfect for Alice (not Miss Shields!), Floyd has a hard time getting around in his caterpillar costume, the special effects of shrinking and growing cause alarming problems for the guest star, the White Rabbit is not as sweet and cute as Mr. Carroll originally described him and even Fozzie Bear dresses as the Tin Woodsman because he mistakenly believes they were performing...wait for it..."Peter Pan!"  It is silly, zany, all-over-the-place and quite possibly one of the cleverest ways they've ever performed a story on The Muppet Show.

7. RAQUEL WELCH

Season 3, Episode 11 - What a Woman!
Probably the sexiest guest star to appear on this show was the actress who gained fame in cult films like One Million Years B.C., BedazzledMyra Breckinridge and Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers: Ms. Raquel Welch.  And in addition to being drop dead gorgeous, she is quite the dynamic musical performer.  She sings Diana Ross' hit "Baby, It's You" and dances with a large Muppet spider (see below).  She sings a beautiful seduction song ("Confide in Me") to a rather flustered Fozzie Bear.  And she tops it off with a sexy rendition of the rock classic "Woman" with help from the fantastic (if not a little jealous!) Miss Piggy.  Frank Oz really does deserve an MVP award for the work he did in this episode as Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal and the lesser known Marvin Suggs who shows off his abuse of the poor little Muppaphones.

Later Today: More of the TOP TEN!

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