MY TOP 9 FAVORITE SKITS FROM THE PILOT EPISODES OF "THE MUPPET SHOW"

The Muppets created by the great puppeteer Jim Henson. While being fun for kids, they were also fun for adults and they were actually meant for adults. Their humor, characters, guests that appeared with them, songs and skits are unforgettable. I know their now part of the Disney company but they'll always be part of Jim Henson, like how Star Wars will always be a part of George Lucas. To show my enjoyment of the Muppets, here are...

MY TOP 9 FAVORITE SKITS FROM THE PILOT EPISODES OF...

Some of you are probably wondering why I'm not reviewing the show. Well it's not really a show with a story, it's more of a variety show with different skits. So instead of reviewing a variety show, I'm going to pick my favorite skits from a variety show that I enjoy. Kind of like what I did for my "Top 12 Favorite Moments From "The Best Of The Dean Martin Show: Special Edition DVD". So expect a list when I talk about a variety or sketch show such as SNL, Monty Python's Flying Circus, In Living Color, All That, Amanda Show, Robot Chicken etc etc, even Sesame Street and The Mickey Mouse Club unless if it's a film, special or has an on going short show in that variety show. Now "The Muppet Show" has two pilot episodes. The first one is called "The Muppet Valentines Day Show" which celebrated the month of Valentines Day and gave a kid friendly approach while having their first special guest star Mia Farrow. The second one was called "Sex And Violence" which was more for adults then kids and was full many hit and miss sketches, like "Robot Chicken" and Cartoon Networks "Mad". So as you probably know I'm going to my favorite skits from both episodes. So without further delay let's get on with the list...

NUMBER 9

THE SWEDISH CHEF: SUBMARINE SANDWICH

I love the Swedish Chef, in fact when I first saw him as a kid, I thought he looked like my Dad (Who by the way is a great cook). He's not only a fun character with a funny Swedish accent but he's also one of the few Muppets to actually have human hands. The show he stars in is called "Järnvägskorsning" (Railway Crossings) and throughout the skit we see foreign subtitles as he talks. He goes from putting normal food on this big sandwich, to putting a napkin on it, taking a full dead chicken, hammering it, putting the full chicken on the Sandwich and when the Sandwich is complete it flies away and the Swedish Chef shoots down the Sandwich a gun and the sandwich becomes a mess of scarp food. I love the Swedish Chef, this skit is funny but I wish that they could of had him do more comical things then what we were given. Still a fun skit.

NUMBER 8

LOVE IS A SIMPLE THING

This is the first skit in the two pilot episodes of the show. Our host is Wally and as he writes what love is,  Mildred Huxtetter tells him "Love Is A Simple Thing" and after Wally types the words, we go into our first number on the show. The song is really nice and sets up the episodes Valentine feel. I also enjoy watching and listening to the Muppets in the song which are Wally, Mildred, George The Janitor, Crazy Donald before he was called Crazy Harry, Droop, Brewster, Kermit and the Frogs popping out of the piano. The highlights in the song that I enjoy are George singing the lyrics"Better than a puppet show" while a shocked Kermit asks "Better than a Puppet Show?" considering that they are puppets, special guest Mia Farrow's solo as she sings inside the heart that had the episodes title and of course Crazy Donald blowing everything up in the end. A great start and opening number for the beginning of this classic show.

NUMBER 7

AT THE DANCE

This is the first of the recurring skit on the show "At The Dance" that is similar to the Ballroom skit in "Rowan And Martin's Laugh In". The skit is just Muppets waltzing around saying some really funny one liners to each other. My favorite parts in this skit is when a Muppet couple criticize their dates looks, Kermit is dancing with a female whatnot, Sam Eagle and Mildred dancing together and the before named Dr.Julius Strangepork wanting to literally cut in with a Muppet couple. As you look around in the background, you'll also notice the many Muppets who appeared in the first pilot episode. While being an incredibly funny skit, the real reason why it's on my list is the Bert and Ernie joke. Bert looks at his dance partner and says she "Looks familiar", the girl turns her face to the audience to having a face that looks like Ernie's and she has the same laugh that Ernie has. When I first saw this, I laughed really really hard. This short appearance raises the question if it's a girl who looks like Ernie or if it's Ernie in a wig, you decide.

NUMBER 6

WE GOT LOVE

The song "We Got Love" is the finale to the first pilot episode and boy is it a fantastic finale. It takes place after George The Janitor discovers that he loves his Mop and revealing his love to the Muppets, all the characters then start singing. The song "We Got Love" is very catchy and toe tapping and just like the song "Love Is A Simple Thing" it really brings out that Valentines Day feel. Every Muppet that appears in this episode (Except for the giant mouse) along with their special guest star Mia Farrow sings the song and each of them do a tremendous job singing and performing. Some of my favorite moments in the number is, the frogs popping out of the piano holding mops, Droop appearing with Miss Mousey and Thog's reaction to Crazy Donald's explosion. As Wally closes the show, Mia says goodbye to each and almost every Muppet as the credits roll. The funniest bits as the credits role is when Mia says goodbye to every Frog except for Kermit which results to another funny reaction by Kermit, Brewster repeatingly cutting in front of everyone to get a kiss and the random appearances of Rowlf and the "Sesame Street" duo Bert and Ernie. As Mia leaves, Rufus The Dog waves goodbye to the viewers and the episode ends. It's a really cute and great finale to the episode and proves that everybody has love whether it's a person or an item.

NUMBER 5

FROGGY WENT A COURTIN

 The skit takes place after an explosion caused by Crazy Donald (Who else) and while everyone's shocked about the explosion, Kermit tries to tell the story about his love experience to a crowd that's not paying attention to him except for Droop. Kermit decides not to talk about it resulting to George and Droop saying "Good" but instead Kermit tends to sing about it which results to Droop and George moaning. Kermit summons the Frogs that were in the piano in the opening number and they start playing a country tune of "Froggy Went A Courtin" which leads us into the skit. Out of all versions of the song, this is my favorite version. While the Muppets bring their own take on the story, it still stays with the songs memorable tune. While the skit is mostly sung there are a few lines in the skit as well. My favorite lines are "How come you didn't say  uh-huh, uh-huh" (Which is the repeated lyric in the song) "I never missed an episode of Kung Fu" (As Kermit is about to fight the giant Mouse) and my all time favorite line in the skit "Come on Frog, I'll buy you a beer" and Kermit response to the offer by saying "uh-huh,uh-huh", the stuff they got away with at the time even though the Muppets were mostly targeted towards adults and believe me they were, epically in the second pilot episode. Aside from the dialogue the skit does have some really funny moments. Mine are when Kermit crashes his bike inside Miss Mousey's house, Kermit's reaction to the giant mouse he has to fight and when Droop appears on the motorcycle looking cool and badass at the end, resulting on winning the heart of the lady. Aside from Kermit being funny in the skit, I also loved and laughed at the characters in the skit as well. I also love how the skit ends. We see Mildred crying at how sad it is, the frogs in the piano decide to go back to the pond and as they go back inside the piano water splashes out making Mildred realize why the piano is out of tune. The skit has everything I love in a Muppet skit. A catchy song, a funny story with funny characters, fun and quotable lines, funny moments and humor for both kids and adults.

NUMBER 4

FILM FOCUS:RETURN TO BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE PIGS

 

Being a film critic with a big love for films it's pretty obvious why, I put it on my list. So what makes it funny? First we have a Muppet version of film critic Gene Shalit (Which already made me crack up) and he pans a film called "Return To Beneath The Planet Of The Pigs" and in the end of his review he is replaced by a pig who looks like Gene Shalit ending the review with a big praise, calling it realistic and rating the film with 5 Oinks. The film Shalit is reviewing is of course a parody of "Planet Of The Apes" by having Pigs instead of Apes and yes the title itself clearly satires the sequel to the first "Plane Of The Apes" film "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes". As we see clips of the film, we see characters such as Hudson playing the astronaut who gets trapped in the world, Dr.Julius Strangepork who is called Dr.Nauga in the film and an early design of Miss Piggy. The film parody mocks scenes in the "Planet Of The Apes" films such as the humans being prisoners, our lead characters first words and when the humans are being operated. There's even a funny moment when Hudson disguises himself as a Pig waiter. The Muppets really pull this film parody off really well, it's good seeing two characters in their early drafts, I love the Gene Shalit Muppet and if it were a real film starring the Muppets, I'd defiantly see it.

NUMBER 3

MIA FARROW SINGS "BELIEVE ME IF ALL THOSE ENDEARING YOUNG CHARMS" TO RUFUS

Out of all skits in the pilot episodes, this is the cutest. Others would say the number with her and Thog is the cutest skit but to be honest I kind of found it a bit boring and less enchanting for my taste. So why is this the cutest skit. Well it starts out with Mia and the dog Rufus, and Mia tells Rufus that she wants a Dog but doesn't know what kind to get. She starts talking about various types of dogs and Rufus tries to impress her by acting like those dogs but often mistaking of what she meant. Those moments of Rufus trying to impress her are enormously cute and funny and always gives me a giggle. Mia decides she doesn't want a dog...unless if the dog were like Rufus. This then leads to her singing the song "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" as she hugs and pets Rufus while Rufus cuddles with her. The music and Mia Farrows performance is so sweet and touching that it just makes the skit beautiful, absolutely beautiful and cute as well. If you're a dog person, you'll without a doubt love this skit.

NUMBER 2

DR.TEETH AND THE ELECTRIC MAYHEM "LOVE YA TO DEATH"

 

I love the Muppet band Dr.Teeth And The Electric Mayhem and boy do they rock out in this number while also marking their first appearance. The song they play is called "Love Ya To Death" sung by Dr. Teeth himself. First off, let me just tell you all that I really adore these characters and I enjoy each and every one of them epically Animal. The song they play has a groovy tune, nice harmony and excellent solos. Dr.Teeth's singing voice is very hardcore and so are the lyrics. I also love looking at the lighting for this number, it's really really cool. This is a great and outstanding start for this awesome Muppet band as well as fitting to the episodes adult themes.

AND MY  NUMBER 1 FAVORITE SKIT FROM THE PILOT EPISODES OF THE MUPPET SHOW IS...

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS CHARACTERS


As a kid being afraid of the Seven Deadly Sins from the Bible I couldn't find any parodies that mocks it. Now that I'm older and with my fears behind me, I came across these characters in the second pilot episode and not only were they funny but if I was a kid watching it, I'd probably laugh at this then fear it. What also makes this my number 1 favorite skit is that these characters are definition of Muppets for adults. The topic and idea of having these characters represent a comedic look on something religious is very ballsy, the characters look to frightening for kids and on top of it, they carry a lot of adult humor that isn't for kids. Let's now talk about the skit and the characters.

Instead of Kermit being the host, it was actually Sam Eagel, Nigel and Floyd Pepper who were the hosts. Throughout the show we'd see them backstage in the conference room waiting for the sins to arrive while playing games. The chemistry between these three characters is really funny but the best scenes with them is when Sam and Floyd are together. Floyd's talking in his hippie language and Sam wonders what he's saying half the time. Oh and by the way, they keep Animal in a cage and Brewster is a wise old man. I do prefer Kermit as the host but these three characters are good too.

Our first sin is Avarice, who is so greedy, so in love with money that the word greed is written all over him.

Next is Envy, who has arrows all over her that points to what she wants. If you think Verruca Salt was a pain, Envy is actually worse.

Then there's Vanity who's so full of himself that I don't know any other character that can beat him. By the way, isn't his design funny, he looks like a rich Humpty Dumpty that got his face stuck in a mirror.

Gluttony is a character who loves to eat food so much that he wears food on his head and constantly talks about his love for food. He even tries to eat a cute life size talking leafy green vegetable who went to the wrong studio.

Lust has to be the most (And probably only) horniest Muppet I ever seen. He's so horny that he hits on Nigel and we actually hear him having sex with a secretary and leaving her with a inappropriate remark. This defiantly shows why the Muppets weren't originally intended for kids.

Anger is the only sin to not get an introduction but boy does he look angry.

When the Pageant for the sins start the show is out of time. After that, the Muppets start causing chaos and the Muppetters are revealed, yeah bet you would be disturbed by that if you were a kid watching this. Sloth appears after the credits and wonders if he's on time.

This whole skit and characters are so not kid friendly that this defiantly shows the adult side to the Muppets and I love it for it as well as making me love the Muppets even more.

Those are my favorite skits from the pilot episodes of "The Muppet Show", I hope you enjoyed the list and the next list I'm going to do, is going to hurt me.