kathryn mullen

Muppet Show Viewing Guide: Season 5

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

Season 5 is probably the best The Muppet Show has to offer. If the DVD releases had been based on merit rather than chronology, it should have been the first. Then everyone could enjoy it without having to offer up a pound of flesh to Disney per month in perpetuity.

It makes me a little sad that Henson and Co. stopped making The Muppet Show just as they got really good at it. Nevertheless, this season has its uncomfortable moments just as the other ones do. Furthermore, ceasing production on the Muppet Show freed them up to do Fraggle Rock. And as good as The Muppet Show can be at times, (the original) Fraggle Rock is infinitely better. Yeah, I said it, and I’ll stand by it.

I’m classifying The Muppet Show Season 5 episodes according to the same system that I used in my Season 4 Viewing Guide:

  • Delightful
  • Mostly Harmless
  • Cringeworthy
  • Horrific

However, because there are a couple of episodes not readily available for viewing, I’ve had to add a couple of special categories. 

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Reflexive Jim Henson

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

Today, of course, is not only Steve Whitmire’s birthday, it is also Jim Henson’s birthday. 

I was thinking about what I wanted to do to mark the occasion of what is apparently known on Twitter as “#JimHensonDay,” and I wasn’t sure what I could say that I haven’t already said. 

Then I started to think about all the ways that Jim Henson and his characters have burrowed their way deep into my subconscious, to the point where certain words or phrases will always evoke knee-jerk Muppet references from me.

It’s a topic that I’ve mentioned occasionally but never explored at length, so it seems as good a way as any to celebrate #JimHensonDay. 

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Fraggle Friday: Fabulous Funkos

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments

FUNVPO15044_1

 

It’s strange how every time I post answers to a Muppet-related survey, something comes along almost immediately thereafter to change my answer. Recently I posted updated answers to The Muppet Mindset’s “Great Muppet Survey” and listed my favorite Muppet merchandise as DVDs and plushes.

Well, all that has changed again, because I recently received the Wembley and Cotterpin Funko Pop figures as a birthday present, and I find them more delightful than I would have thought possible.

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Fraggle Friday: “Tree of Life”

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

“Beyond the Pond” is an underrated episode of Fraggle Rock that had the misfortune to fall between two exceptionally memorable episodes: “River of Life” and “Gone, But Not Forgotten.”  Having a similar theme to “River of Life,” but a considerably lighter touch, I think it tends to get lost in the shuffle.

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Fraggle Friday–“Why?”

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

In my opinion, this beautiful song from Mokey is one of Fraggle Rock‘s most underrated.

This song is from the episode “The Preachification of Convincing John,” which I always think is something of a misnomer.  I mean, obviously Convincing John is in it, and he does preachify (or whatever the verb form would be), but it’s really a story about Mokey, and Convincing John is pretty incidental it.

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Fraggle Friday: Episode 207: “Mokey and the Minstrels”

Mary A. Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

What follows is an open letter to Steve Whitmire:

Dear Steve,

Although I am a child of the ’80s, Fraggle Rock was, regrettably, not a significant part of my childhood.  I saw bits and pieces of it back in the day, but I never got to watch the series in its entirety until 2013–although I’ve been trying to make up for lost time ever since.  In a way, though, I think I’m kind of lucky because I think that maybe I get more out of watching Fraggle Rock as an adult, bringing my education and life experience to it, than I would have as a kid–a relatively blank slate.

Be that as it may, I identify strongly with Mokey.  Her abstract, fanciful, introspective approach to life, and her idealistic worldview, remind me a lot of myself.  In particular, however, I relate to Mokey in this episode of Fraggle Rock, in which she attempts to discern her vocation.  I’ve been trying to discern mine for 37 years, and I still haven’t quite figured it out.

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