Friday, March 21, 2014

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



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

#'s 3 & 2

3. JULIE ANDREWS
Season 2, Episode 17 - Don't Have a Cow!
She twirled on mountaintops, flew over London with a carpetbag and an umbrella and was the undisputed "fair lady" of the Great White Way.  Julie Andrews was a marvelous guest star for The Muppet Show and her episode is "practically perfect."  Ms. Andrews performs two Rodgers and Hammerstein songs on the show: one from The King and I (with the Muppet monsters) and the other from The Sound of Music (the Musical to which she will forever be associated, below).  In addition to those fantastic numbers, she sings a song to Kermit which she actually wrote!  She also has one of the best "Talk Spots" in the history of the show (it's my brother's favorite!).  During all of this, Kermit is flummoxed to find a live cow backstage (not a Muppet cow and actual cow!).  He enlists Scooter to find out where it came from and figure out what to do with it (and he's not pleased when Scooter's solutions include the Swedish Chef and the Flying Zucchini Brothers!).  And of course, Gonzo falls for the cow!  I won't spoil for you where the cow came from (you do find out!) because its something that has to be seen in the context of the episode (cause its hilarious!).

2. JOHN CLEESE

Season 2, Episode 23 - Stop the Show, I Want to Get Off!
John Cleese is probably one of the funniest people on the planet.  Just watch him in things like A Fish Called Wanda or Fawlty Towers or anything with the Monty Python banner on it.  He is also a very creative and very involved performer; so much so that when he was asked to appear on The Muppet Show, he asked if he could sit in on the writers' meetings and actually work on shaping the episode with them!  And together they came up with (in certainly my brother's opinion, and I pretty much agree) what is the funniest episode in the show's canon.  According to the show's head writer, the late Jerry Juhl, it was Cleese who came up with the concept that he is the guest star who absolutely does NOT want to do the show.  And of course, this concept gave the writers some great leeway and hilarious material.  A major highlight is the "Pigs In Space" sketch where Cleese is "forced" to play a pirate who mistakes the Swinetrek for a ship on the sea.  But the funniest moment (quite possibly the show's funniest moment ever!) is the finale in which...well just watch it below!  Another highlight in the episode is the Great Gonzo's cannonball-catching act (and you can just imagine what that entails!).

Later Today: The Best Episode of All-Time!

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