Gorgon Heap
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Messages
- 1,613
- Reaction score
- 134
When I was growing up, my local video rental had the Playhouse "Muppet Home Video" series, which were one-hour 'greatest hits' compilations of sketches and songs from TMS. This gave me a big build-up for certain bits I had a fondness for, dreaming of the day I'd see that episode (and all the others, for that matter). Certain episodes didn't live up to my expectations:
-Zero Mostel: I loved his "Fears" poem, but he just seemed so distant and uninvolved throughout, it was easy to forget he was there. Also, the triple story threads of Statler & Waldorf watching TV, Sam trying to make the show cultural, and Kermit being forced to book lady wrestlers- I think it was handled well enough but coupling it with the disconnect between the backstage and onstage happenings, it leaves the show feeling splintered.
-Cheryl Ladd: I always see that picture of her and Sweetums in front of that blue background, she's in her red outfit with her hair up just like in her number with Piggy, and I ask myself "where did this come from? It's not in the show!" I used to ask myself, "Boy, I wonder what happens in THAT number?" Aside from that, the show has one plot in the first half (Fozzie's self-improvement kick) and a different one in the second half (Gonzo's hypnotism act), but neither one is complete, so the episode itself feels incomplete (to me, at least).
-Mac Davis: it would be one thing if the Beaker clones did something other than chase Bunsen around for 20 minutes and invade the stage every few minutes. If it actually informed the relationship between Bunsen and Beaker, or in some way comprised an actual story rather than just a running gag, then I think the episode would be more satisfying. As it was, it wasn't.
-Leo Sayer: this one takes the cake. I loved his two numbers featured in "Rock Music with the Muppets": "When I Need You", with Leo up a tree and woodland creatures trying to get him down"; and especially "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", featuring Leo, Fletcherbird and the Bird Dancers accompanied by the Electric Mayhem. I thought "man, that's one GREAT closing number!" Turns out, it was the opening number. One of the most energetic numbers in the show's history, and it's spent in the first five minutes, leaving the rest of the show to suffer in comparison. And suffer it does, because the rest of the show (UK Spot and Leo's dressing room scene excepted) features a TOTAL of FIVE characters. In each of the production numbers, we saw twice that many. With Leo's scene, the show total's 7 characters outside of Leo's acts and the UK Spot. The (slow-paced and frequent) backstage scenes feature the central 3- Kermit, Piggy, and Annie Sue- with short appearances by the other two. Where'd everybody go? On top of that, the sketches that populate the non-guest star numbers are rickety, antique-y solos by Annie Sue (a song-and-dance #), Piggy (a poetry recitation), and a memory act (by Fozzie). There's nothing to bridge the modern rock numbers with the old-fashioned vaudeville acts (bridging being something that TMS is usually brilliant at). The addition of a regular sequence, like Muppet News or Vets Hospital, could've worked wonders here. For that matter, it feels like two shows: the first a very energetic, colorful, big-scale third season episode; the second, a small, lurchingly-paced, early second season episode that hasn't got it's footing.
What are yours?
David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
-Zero Mostel: I loved his "Fears" poem, but he just seemed so distant and uninvolved throughout, it was easy to forget he was there. Also, the triple story threads of Statler & Waldorf watching TV, Sam trying to make the show cultural, and Kermit being forced to book lady wrestlers- I think it was handled well enough but coupling it with the disconnect between the backstage and onstage happenings, it leaves the show feeling splintered.
-Cheryl Ladd: I always see that picture of her and Sweetums in front of that blue background, she's in her red outfit with her hair up just like in her number with Piggy, and I ask myself "where did this come from? It's not in the show!" I used to ask myself, "Boy, I wonder what happens in THAT number?" Aside from that, the show has one plot in the first half (Fozzie's self-improvement kick) and a different one in the second half (Gonzo's hypnotism act), but neither one is complete, so the episode itself feels incomplete (to me, at least).
-Mac Davis: it would be one thing if the Beaker clones did something other than chase Bunsen around for 20 minutes and invade the stage every few minutes. If it actually informed the relationship between Bunsen and Beaker, or in some way comprised an actual story rather than just a running gag, then I think the episode would be more satisfying. As it was, it wasn't.
-Leo Sayer: this one takes the cake. I loved his two numbers featured in "Rock Music with the Muppets": "When I Need You", with Leo up a tree and woodland creatures trying to get him down"; and especially "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", featuring Leo, Fletcherbird and the Bird Dancers accompanied by the Electric Mayhem. I thought "man, that's one GREAT closing number!" Turns out, it was the opening number. One of the most energetic numbers in the show's history, and it's spent in the first five minutes, leaving the rest of the show to suffer in comparison. And suffer it does, because the rest of the show (UK Spot and Leo's dressing room scene excepted) features a TOTAL of FIVE characters. In each of the production numbers, we saw twice that many. With Leo's scene, the show total's 7 characters outside of Leo's acts and the UK Spot. The (slow-paced and frequent) backstage scenes feature the central 3- Kermit, Piggy, and Annie Sue- with short appearances by the other two. Where'd everybody go? On top of that, the sketches that populate the non-guest star numbers are rickety, antique-y solos by Annie Sue (a song-and-dance #), Piggy (a poetry recitation), and a memory act (by Fozzie). There's nothing to bridge the modern rock numbers with the old-fashioned vaudeville acts (bridging being something that TMS is usually brilliant at). The addition of a regular sequence, like Muppet News or Vets Hospital, could've worked wonders here. For that matter, it feels like two shows: the first a very energetic, colorful, big-scale third season episode; the second, a small, lurchingly-paced, early second season episode that hasn't got it's footing.
What are yours?
David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole