Muppet Show, season 1, Stevens, Grey
I had about an hour after I finished writing last night, so I watched two more episodes of The Muppet Show.
I find myself laughing a lot more at Statler and Waldorf than I remember doing as a kid. I guess now I get more of their jokes! Incidentally, if you leave the DVD sitting on the menu for a while, they will comment on how wonderful it is that if you don't press a button, they don't have to see the show!
First the Connie Stevens episode. As a guest star, she didn't do much for me, but the other guests were Ernie and Bert! Bert's solo turn with "Some Enchanted Evening" is very sweet. I really liked Kermit's rendition of "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (Lydia was a pig muppet), but my favorite was Floyd's number, "Ain't Misbehavin'." Jerry Nelson really can sing, can't he? It was interesting that, in his lower range, he didn't sound as much like Floyd; probably he can't distort his voice into the muppet sound down there.
Statler: "Do you think this show was educational?"
Waldorf: "Yes, it will drive people to read books."
Then Joel Grey, one of the ones I remember very clearly from childhood. I must have been impressed, though at the time I had no idea who he was. It was this episode that, years later, made me watch Cabaret when it came on television. Some 70s tv effects (kaleidoscope-style split frame and rotation, etc.) on his rendition of "Razzle Dazzle" are still amusing.
I also tried the special feature for a little bit--you can turn on pop-ups of information about the skits, guest actor, etc. as they appear. The information was interesting, but the text remains on screen for a while, I guess because they are assuming some children are slow readers.
I find myself laughing a lot more at Statler and Waldorf than I remember doing as a kid. I guess now I get more of their jokes! Incidentally, if you leave the DVD sitting on the menu for a while, they will comment on how wonderful it is that if you don't press a button, they don't have to see the show!
First the Connie Stevens episode. As a guest star, she didn't do much for me, but the other guests were Ernie and Bert! Bert's solo turn with "Some Enchanted Evening" is very sweet. I really liked Kermit's rendition of "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (Lydia was a pig muppet), but my favorite was Floyd's number, "Ain't Misbehavin'." Jerry Nelson really can sing, can't he? It was interesting that, in his lower range, he didn't sound as much like Floyd; probably he can't distort his voice into the muppet sound down there.
Statler: "Do you think this show was educational?"
Waldorf: "Yes, it will drive people to read books."
Then Joel Grey, one of the ones I remember very clearly from childhood. I must have been impressed, though at the time I had no idea who he was. It was this episode that, years later, made me watch Cabaret when it came on television. Some 70s tv effects (kaleidoscope-style split frame and rotation, etc.) on his rendition of "Razzle Dazzle" are still amusing.
I also tried the special feature for a little bit--you can turn on pop-ups of information about the skits, guest actor, etc. as they appear. The information was interesting, but the text remains on screen for a while, I guess because they are assuming some children are slow readers.