You Bloody Muppet

What?


So anyway, I've been working my way through some more season two Muppet Show episodes and in episode 7, guest starring Edgar Bergen, I had another misty-eyed childhood regression thanks to this:



*sniff*

Also, in the following episode starring Steve Martin I had an entirely different kind of childhood reverie.


The set-up for the epsiode, y'see, is that the show has been cancelled for the evening and Kermit is auditioning new acts. Which made me think back to sitting on our lounge floor when I must've been around 6 or 7 I guess (maybe even younger), all excited about watching the Muppets. The very start is a sequence where Kermit comes out and announces that, bad news folks, there's no show tonight. At which point my dad got out of his chair (no remote control!) announcing "Oh well, it's not on tonight. Let's see what else is on."

I was distraught and disbelieving. "No, wait," I whined "It must be on!" At which point it cut to a shot of all the audience getting up and leaving the theatre. "There you go. They're all leaving. It's not on."

chuk chuk chuk *

Well, I cried, I'm not ashamed to tell ya. And even though years later (and while still a child) I got to see that episode, I learned two valuable lessons:
a) Contrary to my warm view of the Muppets as something we shared and enjoyed as a family, my dad did not, in fact, actually think too much of the Muppet Show, and
b) What a dick! (err...God rest his soul...)

"Heh heh heh...too easy...."

*Picture, if you will, a chunky analogue dial, thunking its way around a series of preset tuning positions.