Muppeturgy: A "The Muppet Show" Rewatch Podcast

Drink every time we say “beautiful” or “socialite” and maybe Miss Piggy will be able to successfully trick you into marriage! This episode is a mixed bag but we’re all quite taken with its beautiful socialite guest, our first look at a certain boomerang fish act (they’re coming back!), some nifty Muppet choreography, and a fun twist on a musical theatre classic. Plus bad Zoom backgrounds, a rare c...

This week’s episode goes out to all the hatchlings and all the eggs. We go behind the Muppet candelabra for an in-depth look at the geography of the Muppet theater, Fletcher Bird’s possible side-hustles (as it were), new Popes, litigious homosexuality, incongruous cruising piers, and Gillian Lynne bird sex parties. And we swear, we’re still not a Little House on the Prairie podcast. https://muppet...

Muppvengers Assemble! Get ready for the most important summit of all time when worlds collide at a strangely rural train station. We’re joined this week by Matthew Gaydos and Sam Schultz from the Kermitment podcast to talk about the most awarded lady in country music, dogs with jobs, birth control, railroad logistics, improv games gone wrong, dancing hobos, fumigation, theatrical geography, and ho...

It’s a spooky, scary episode of The Muppet Show with demented, sick, degenerate, barbaric, naughty, doofy, moist weirdo Alice Cooper! Welcome to my nightmare: We’ll travel over the rainbow, all the way to Monkeypox, Tennessee, where school’s out forever, noted Joe Raposo stan Frank Sinatra’s recording history is disputed, and you and me can lounge on a bunch of pillows talking about Yip Harburg, W...

Jean Stapleton is just wild about Harry and we're just wild about...The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour, Little House On The Prairie, Pocahontas 2, Murder She Wrote, You've Got Mail, and the Good Neighbor Policy? Look, it was the 70s, those things were all in the family. On the actual Muppet front, we've got creepy two headed twins, a pig throuple, Mexican jumping beans, waltzing walnuts, some melodrama...

Hello, Pearlie, it’s so nice to be up to one of our all-time favorite episodes of The Muppet Show ! We’ve got the horse right here with more musical theatre shenanigans than you can shake a jousting lance from Camelot at, and a boy like that who’ll turn your avocado critic into guacamole for a picnic in the good old summertime, leaving no soul as a witness. Don’t be shellfish, put on your pantsuit...

The plot stickens, and you say ALLENTOWN?!? This episode has it all: Gilda Radner, Emily Litella, Bunsen Honeydew at his most patronizing, a truly horrifying Muppet Labs accident, Eskimo pigs, a penguin who’s going out there a youngster and coming back a star, Peter Friedman, the Milford Plaza (is the lullaby of all Broadway!), Gilbert and Sullivan, Aaron Sorkin, Kevin Kline’s mustache, Uncle Dead...

Hee-haw and hubba-wha, it’s the Roy Clark episode of The Muppet Show! It’s not going to set the world on fire but it’s a pretty fun time, with dogs and frogs and pigs and chickens and ducks and foxes and…mustachioed flutists and empowered sex workers? Throw in the Grand Old Opry, Fallout, and some serious concerns about fire code violations, and you’ve got yourself a Muppeturgy! https://muppeturgy...

We meet Annie Sue for real in this bird-forward episode that made us feel like dancing but also raised a lot of questions about the definitions of rock ‘n’ roll and disco, clowns vs. mimes, upsetting dwarves, unexpected Ghostbusters, and why a light rock hit that is definitely not not about masturbation is staged as a forest orgy with Emmet Otter. Oh, and Christie’s mom is here! Do you need us to...

We took a little break between seasons, just for the halibut, but we're so happy to be back. With a bit of a whimper of a Muppet Show episode to be honest, but if you've been dying to hear us talk about the 1978-79 TV season, A Star Is Born , A Joyful Noise , Disney's Pinocchio , terrifying Muppet eyes, salad cream, Danish butter cookies, protruding nipples, and, uh, Jonestown, you're in luck! Gra...

For the second time in a row, scheduling and technical issues delayed our season finale, but we hope we’re getting it to you just in time. We think it was worth the weight ($1.69 a pound at Zabar’s!) for the legendary Cloris Leachman and…a violent hostage situation led by revolutionary pigs? You know, for kids! Put on your best polka dot scarf (other clothing optional) and start marking the days o...

This! Is an ex! …tremely funny episode of The Muppet Show! At least some of us thought so. As is so often the way with these things, John Cleese’s modern shenanigans have given us some mixed feelings about him, but he was at his prime here and his comic sensibility wasn’t at all a stretch for the Muppets, leaving no souls lost. You don’t have to pirate this episode, listen now! https://muppeturgy....

We sure hope you like our podcast episode better than we liked this Muppet Show episode, which had us shaking with rage at Kermit, Scooter, diet culture, and whoever thought this swill was a good idea, even in 1977. This backstage plot really takes the cake and you’re just going to have to lettuce workout our feelings about it. We promise to get back to less weighty matters less week. It's not all...

We’ve lost all hope…but we’ve found Michal’s sister! Also some hillbilly ding dongs, the components of a horse, an unusually prescient Muppet Labs invention, and a whole lotta puns. Stop! Hey, what’s that sound? It’s our podcast episode about the Bob Hope episode of The Muppet Show! Quit loafing around and give it a listen. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/bob-hope

When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always join the Mickey Moose Club and give your heart gladly to our Petula Clark episode! Will our rowboat sink or will the sun come out tomorrow? I’m tired already. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/petula-clark

We have questions about this episode. Mostly: Why? Peter Sellers famously said (to Kermit!) “You see, there is no me, I do not exist,” and it’s sort of fun to see him prove that by only appearing in character on The Muppet Show, we just wish those characters were less creepy and/or racist. When Kermit has a nervous breakdown in Muppet Labs, it’s easy to see why. Content warning: this episode conta...

We confess we didn’t know much about Jaye P. Morgan before (we definitely knew she was not a railroad heiress…definitely) but after watching this explosive episode we’re super into her! Come for the horny, chaotic Studio 54 energy, stay to hear us slander Morris dancers! Plus incredible hats, deeply weird birds, and Dr. Teeth bringing new meaning to The Gong Show. We know you won’t be really indif...

High on a hill was a lonely podcast…If you’ve ever listened to us before, you can safely assume we have positive feelings about Dame Julie Andrews. But have we loved this episode since it was a tadpole and we were a fish, or think it should be egregiously overlooked? Do we have beef with the live cow backstage, or will somebody dance to a happy tune? We have here a list of a few of our favorite th...

We’re down a panelist but up a puppeteer for the Cleo Laine episode of The Muppet Show. Yay? How low can you go? If depressing Japanese death puppet narration isn’t low enough for you, perhaps we can interest you in an extra helping of colonialism? Does Fozzie’s mom have that swing in her first appearance or does she not mean a thing? Is it weird that Fozzie is in drag in an episode featuring a ch...

Is Lou Rawls the one who’ll make us feel like groovy people, or did this episode have us saying “bye bye (blackbird)?” No need to be a pig, we will definitely say it all (Budweiser may or may not be involved) with our very special guest star, Tough Pigs’ Becca Petunia! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/lou-rawls

Hello, Yellow Brick Road! Did this episode go breaking our hearts, or did it…rock our crocodiles? Okay, that got very tortured very quickly. We know you lead elaborate lives so we won’t keep you in suspense: we didn’t really feel the love tonight for this episode, which was both a surprise and a bummer because we, like the Muppets, are fans of Sir Elton John! Sorry (seems the be the hardest word),...

Baby, it’s problematic outside…and we love it? Sam may not be happy about Rudolf Nureyev’s decision to mostly avoid classical ballet on The Muppet Show, but we think it makes him an all-time great guest…if maybe not an all-time great actor. Will he tap dance his way into your heart or is something missing? Put on your tux and listen to our latest episode! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/rudolf-nur...

If you’ve listened to our podcast even a little bit, it doesn’t take a little one step two step three step of logic to know that we’re pretty big Bernadette Peters fans. So did just four people believe in her Muppet Show episode? Grab some Apple Jack and your littlest frog and listen to find out! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/bernadette-peters

Hubba-wha?! A bonus episode? We couldn’t afford to get you a proper store-bought present but you know how we love a jug-band (which we’ve only just realized is spelled with a hyphen, apparently), so we’re here to remind you of the mess Pa left when he went away. Listen as we row our little boat down the long and winding river of our feelings about the classic 1977 TV special, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Ban...

No one had to pay us off to (mostly) like the Dom DeLuise episode! We’ve got a full backstage plot, a game guest star, a group singalong, some of our favorite monsters, and some of the best fashion of the season. Stick an apple in your mouth and listen! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/dom-deluise