Juliet Prowse

We tried to game the system (we tried to light the lights?). We over-thought everything and recorded a bunch of episodes, guessing at which order Disney+ might choose to post The Muppet Show in. And we were right to do it! When the show went up last week it was in the New York air order, which makes a lot of sense because that’s how people first saw it and while there’s not a ton of continuity, the Muppet People did go back and add scenes to episodes so that characters are introduced in the right order and what-not (and What-Nots). And then this week, for reasons known only to them, the Disney+ order changed to the production order like it was on the DVDs we’d been watching before February 19. We know it doesn’t really matter but we figure you’re watching along and we want it to make some kind of sense so we’re following Disney’s lead, which means we’re back where we started recording with Juliet Prowse! Yaaaaaaay!

This was the first episode of The Muppet Show made but actually the last of the season aired in New York, on April 23, 1977. It’s definitely piloty, but for an episode that’s a little off, this has a ton of Muppet hallmarks, including Mah Nah Mah Nah, Muppets making jokes about being puppets, Kermit hitting on a guest, Gonzo bombing, a dancing bear, and a glee club made up of frogs, pigs and chickens. Lea Michele could never. We sort of weren’t sure what to make of it, but we think we mostly liked it. Bear-and-frog with us as we, too, are a little piloty, and are figuring out what we’re doing.

The very first Mah Nah Mah Nah, on Sesame Street in 1969: