Muppet Show, The [TV Show] [Season 2]

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This is the season that Miss Piggy gets a trophy for her efforts. No, not Kermit. An Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series that she had to share with executive producer David Lazer, Muppet creator Jim Henson, and Muppeteers Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz.

And they had to share it with the Muppets they created and gave life to, because it was these freaky furballs that kept audiences coming back for more--lovable critters like Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem (with psychedelic pink-haired Floyd on guitar and Animal on drums), Rowlf the dog, Rizzo the Rat, Sam the Eagle, Scooter the whatever, and the quasi-human Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, opera-box hecklers Statler & Waldorf, and The Swedish Chef.

Watching the show almost 30 years later, it's even more apparent that Henson & Co. were doing a straight vaudeville show with all the schtick and only a fraction of the humans. So if you appreciate the old variety shows, you'll get a kick out of seeing the same sort of things performed by puppets, because most of the songs are, in fact, taken from vaudeville or the British music halls. If the old shows bored you to tears or seemed as corny as Kansas AND Iowa in August, then you won't find them all that appealing. What's more, the guest stars this year really date the production. Of the group, younger viewers may only recognize Don Knotts (from "The Andy Griffith Show" and Disney live-action comedies), piano man Elton John, comedians Steve Martin, John Cleese and Peter Sellers, Julie Andrews ("Princess Diaries" and "The Sound of Music"), and Cloris Leachman ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), who's found new life as an old character actress in big-screen comedies.

But new viewers probably won't know impressionist Rich Little, singers Lou Rawls, Judy Collins, Teresa Brewer, and Petula Clark, singer-actress Cleo Laine, blonde bombshell Jaye P. Morgan, or actors Nancy Walker, Dom DeLuise, and Zero Mostel.

For fans of old-time vaudeville, radio, and TV, this season features some real gems. Comedian and early TV pioneer Milton Berle guests, as does ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, cigar-chomping comic George Burns, and that grand old hook-nosed funny man himself, Bob Hope. It's bittersweet, of course, watching performers who are no longer with us. In fact, Mostel died just months after filming his segment, and though his King Henry VIII costumed rendition of "What Do the Simple Folk Do?" is fairly straightforward, even sedate, there was no indication that he was in ill health.

Because of "Sesame Street," Henson's Muppets have found a new audience, and the corny vaudeville gags certainly speak to that age level. Each guest star is subjected to some manner of mild abuse or embarrassment, while some segments get a little rowdier than others.

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