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The Best of Kermit Video

Phillip Chapman (9-1-98) - After waiting for several weeks, I was quite anxious to watch the "Best of Kermit" video from Sony Wonder.  Like all of us who have grown up watching Sesame Street, I had my own "criteria" of what skits and songs I thought qualified for this release.

Overall, I wasn't disappointed.  However the tape included mostly "entire" songs, and "clips" of various sketches.  Because most of the songs have been released on CD, I would have preferred seeing "clips" of songs, and more "unedited" sketches.  This tape is still very good, and it is a must for your collection, especially if you don't have all this music on CD.  The wonderful relationship between Kermit and Grover (respectfully Jim Henson and Frank Oz), is an underlying theme throughout this cassette.

Here is a run-down of the songs and sketches that are on this 30 minute video:

• Song - "I Love My Elbows"
• Sketch - Grover asking girl about frogs and elbows
• Song - "Caribbean Amphibian"
• Clips of Grover selling Kermit ears, a nose, and teeth
• Clips of Kermit "being calm."
• Song - "African Alphabet Song"
• Sketch - Kermit with girl, "Cookie Monster Alphabet"
• Song - "Do Op Hop"
• Song - "Bein' Green" (late 70's version, not original)
• Sketch - Grover asking girl about frogs and weather
• Sketch - Grover sells Kermit a weather machine
• Sketch - Grover telling girl about Kermit's award
• Song - "Tadpole"
• Sketch - Grover telling girl about Kermit's news job
• Clips of "Muppet Newsflash" sketches
• Song - "This Frog" (with original intro!)
• Song - "Frog of the Year"

So overall, I give this video a "Kermit rating" of 4.  It could have been even better, but Jim Henson had so many memorable performances, I'm sure it was a great challenge editing this video.  You can order this fine tape today from Muppet Central's Store for a significant savings along with many other CD's and Videos.

Danny Horn (9-30-98) - "Best of," "Top Ten," "Favorite Moments"... it's a dangerous game. As soon as you stick your neck out and compile "the best," you're setting yourself up for the inevitable criticism from disappointed folks who disagree with your choices. As I watched "The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street," I tried to avoid giving in to my Inner Editor -- a cranky version of the Inner Child who longs to re-edit other people's work to suit my own tastes.

As it turns out, it wasn't too hard to suppress the editor instinct. Even with a short 30 minutes to play with, "The Best of Kermit" presents a lot of really great clips.

In the framing sequence, Grover presents "Froggy" with the "Frog of the Year" award. The award show is livened up by a running gag with the three little pigs -- I found the pig material kind of distracting, but it was forgivable. The best thing about the award-show sequence was that it highlighted the Grover/Kermit relationship. I had forgotten that the two of them have been a comedy team throughout the years, another in a string of brilliant henson/Oz pairings. It was wonderful to see them together again, in the old clips as well as the new material, and their relationship really grounded what otherwise could have been a random selection of old clips.

The tape is heavy on the songs -- but the songs, for the most part, are excellent. There's no way to avoid "Bein' Green," of course, and I was happy to see my own favorite, "I Love My Elbows." There's one song that I don't remember seeing before -- "Tadpole," a wistful song about growing up from a tadpole into a frog, and I was very pleased to hear a sweet new Kermit song. "This Frog" was also a real treat -- I've heard this I'm-gonna-be-a-star anthem on records, but I don't recall seeing it on TV before, and it's quite an amazing old-fashioned production number. I was also really pleased with the new song, "Frog of the Year," a fun little tribute by Grover.

There aren't as many full skits on the tape, but the ones that are there are excellent. One old sketch with Grover selling Kermit a weather machine is classic Sesame henson/Oz material that hasn't seen the light of day in many years. Another -- featuring Kermit and a little girl saying the alphabet, where she inserts "Cookie Monster" instead of letters -- has been seen recently quite a bit, but it's so adorable that it's always worth another viewing, and it certainly belongs on a "Best Of" collection.

The quick clips of Sesame Street News reports and Grover/Kermit sketches just whets my appetite to see the full sketches -- I'd love to see another tape, maybe "The Best of Kermit, Sesame Street News Reporter"?

Because of his crossover Sesame/Muppet status, Kermit has long been the best-known Muppet star and the least-recognized Sesame star. I hope that Muppet Show fans who don't usually buy Sesame tapes pick this one up, and that Sesame fans enjoy seeing Kermit recognized as one of the great Sesame characters.