The BEST episodes of The Muppet Show season 1
Every episode of The Muppet Show season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Muppet Show season 1!
The Muppet Show is a British-American television program produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on September 5, 1976, and five series were produced until March 15, 1981, lasting 120 episodes. The program shows a vaudeville- or music hall-style song-and-dance variety show, as well as glimpses behind the scenes of such a show. Kermit the Frog stars as a showrunner who tries to keep control of the antics of the other Muppet characters (and his temper), as well as keep the guest stars happy. The show was known for outrageous physical slapstick, sometimes absurdist comedy, and humorous parodies. Each episode also featured a human guest star. As the show's popularity rose, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in film.
#1 - Avery Schreiber
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 4/18/1977
Much is made in this episode about Avery Schreiber's being one half on the comedy duo Burns & Screiber. The other half? First season head writer Jack Burns. This would be the first of a few times when Scooter ends up assisting Miss Piggy in her wacky schemes.
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#2 - Juliet Prowse
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/25/1977
Kermit is pressured into allowing Scooter to do a musical number with Muppy the dog. Guest star Juliet Prowse dances to a Scott Joplin melody.
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#3 - Sandy Duncan
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/4/1976
Fozzie performs the famous “Banana Sketch” by Gags Beasley which everyone (including guest Sandy Duncan) has heard of. Everybody, except for Kermit.
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#4 - Paul Williams
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1976
Scooter talks Fozzie in doing “The Telephone Pole Bit” and Fozzie practices dutifully until he finds out what the bit is really all about.
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#5 - Bruce Forsyth
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/6/1976
Fozzie hatches a plan to get even with Statler & Waldorf when he does his act. But the bear becomes crushed when he gets replaced with guest Bruce Forsyth.
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#6 - Vincent Price
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/31/1977
In honor of guest star Vincent Price, the show is filled with monsters, ghosts, vampires and spooky sketches. Meanwhile, a three-headed monster tries to audition for Kermit.
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#7 - Peter Ustinov
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1976
Kermit becomes jealous when Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Hilda and Scooter rave about Peter Ustinov who later admits that he’s jealous of Kermit saying that he’s always wanted to be a frog.
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#8 - Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1976
Scooter’s uncle, J.P. Grosse sends a mechanical wind-up TV show host that resembles Kermit in every way. Soon, the duplicate starts harassing Kermit and flirts with Miss Piggy.
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#9 - Harvey Korman
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/13/1976
Kermit begins to worry that guest star Harvey Korman isn’t having a great time because he complains of being the “token person” on the show with all the dogs, frogs, pigs and chickens as well as the fear of hoof-and-mouth disease. So the rest of the Muppets come up with a solution: dress Harvey in a chicken suit.
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#10 - Ben Vereen
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/24/1977
Ben Vereen received a Tony Award for his role in "Pippen". Before he became a star in his own right, Ben was an understudy for Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964. A new version of Janice premieres in this episode. Janice has a new head sculpt. Sam also received a makeover. The builders revised his head and made him slightly bluer in color.
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#11 - Twiggy
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/7/1977
Kermit is skeptical when everyone backstage is terrorized by “the Phantom of the Muppet Show” aka Uncle Deadly, a monster-actor who performed in the theater years ago, got panned by the critics, and vowed never to perform there again, and not to let anyone else perform either warning the Muppets “Leave or be doomed!”
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#12 - Lena Horne
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1976
Lena Horne first performed with Kermit in the early seventies on Sesame Street. She sang a poignant version of "Bein' Green". She returned to Sesame Street about five years later helping Grover overcome his shyness in the song, "How Do You Do". (This song was released on the 1979 album "The Stars Come Out on Sesame Street"). In this episode, she demonstrates her natural rapport with the Muppets, most notably in her scene with Gonzo.
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#13 - Candice Bergen
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/29/1976
Fozzie brings a string of deliveries to Kermit which results in some real lousy gags driving the poor frog crazy.
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#14 - Kaye Ballard
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/7/1977
Embarrassed at the “square” music that he and the others have to play each week on the show, Floyd announces that the band is quitting.
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#15 - Florence Henderson
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/15/1976
The Muppet Theater is plagued by pig-related problems with The Bouncing Borcellino Brothers flubbing their opening act and Miss Piggy throwing herself at an uninterested Kermit, then later gets jealous at guest star Florence Henderson who she thinks is gonna steal her frog away.
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#16 - Valerie Harper
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/22/1976
This is one of only a few Muppet Show episodes that open the show after the theme song with some kind of offstage scene. There's also a couple of scenes with the guest star in her dressing room conversing with Muppets instead of onstage in the Talk Spot. The dressing room would become more heavily integrated into the structure of the show in its second season. In last week's "At The Dance", Boppity danced in drag with another monster. This week Boppity appears as normal but his partner is in drag. In both instances, he ends up headless.
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#17 - Phyllis Diller
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/14/1977
Jim's love of jazz is evident in the performance of "Hugga Wugga". This sketch had evolved from a longtime favorite Henson sketch originally titled "Sclrap Flyapp" in the early sixties. It was originally performed on "The Today Show", "The Tonight Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show". Jim played with the idea of combining eerie music, visual imagery and special effects. He tied-in one of his favorite songs, "You Are My Sunshine" with this sketch. It was renamed "Hugga Wugga" for Nancy Sinatra's early seventies' Las Vegas show.
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#18 - Charles Aznavour
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/17/1977
When he’s unable to get a spot on the show, Gonzo asks Scooter to be his manager. Scooter thinks Gonzo should do a rock act by banging a large rock with a mallet. Later, Gonzo tries female impersonation in a dress and a blonde wig. But Scooter gives up managing when Gonzo eats his contract.
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#19 - Ethel Merman
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/21/1977
Fozzie’s agent, Irving Bizarre, arrives at the theater to negotiate Fozzie’s contract with Kermit who ends up offering Fozzie ten times as much money – despite the fact the bear made nothing before.
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#20 - Jim Nabors
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1976
A young kid named Scooter applies for a job as a gofer. When, Kermit tells him he looks nothing like a gopher, Scooter explains that he’ll go-fer coffee and sandwiches among other things he’ll go-fer. Kermit says he doesn’t have the money pay him, but then Scooter lets in that his uncle owns the theater.
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#21 - Connie Stevens
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/28/1977
When Fozzie overhears Hilda, Kermit, and Scooter talking about getting rid of “that bear” he thinks they’re talking about him when in actual truth it’s Gonzo’s teddy bear that is being badmouthed. Meanwhile, Sesame Street’s Bert & Ernie make a guest appearance in a musical number with Connie Stevens.
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#22 - Rita Moreno
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/20/1976
On stage, guest star Rita Moreno battles several Muppets including Animal who backs on drums in her closing number “Fever”. Backstage, Fozzie answers a string of rather unusual (and very funny) phone calls.
#23 - Joel Grey
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1976
Fozzie takes on a new act – jokes on any subject – which drives everybody crazy. When he takes the stage, he asks for any word. Naturally, Statler & Waldorf call his bluff by yelling out “Amoeba!”
#24 - Mummenschanz
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/21/1977
This episode marks the debut of one of Gonzo's trademarks. Him rapidly rushing on camera with a "WHOOSH" sound effect. This is John Lovelady and Eren Ozker's final episode. Only the core five of Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz will return for season two joined later in the second year by an uncredited Louise Gold. Behind the scenes, Jack Burns will retire from the show bumping longtime Henson Associate Jerry Juhl up to the position of head writer. We'll see the significant effects these changes have on the show when The Muppet Show Episode Guides returns with its look at Season Two. Eren leaves the show to have a child and John will resurface in the '80's as a puppeteer for a non-Henson puppet show called "The Great Space Coaster" along with some guy named Kevin Clash.