The Muppet Show Season 7

[WolfofWords]

S07e01 Peter Falk

Peter Falk had a long career as an actor, a profession he kind of fell into and ended up flourishing in. Falk served in the Merchant Marines, something he was proud enough to reference later in his career. After he finished his service, he tried to get a job with the CIA. They turned him down because he was part of a Merchant Marines union that had been loosely associated with communists. This was a union he was forced to join. He instead worked for the government in Connecticut and decided to get into community theater on the side. He enjoyed the experience and was encouraged to make a career of it. He took acting classes and then was off to New York where he started a career on stage. When he started trying to make the jump to film, he was told that he would have a tough time due to his glass eye. Despite this (and maybe a little because of it) he instead flourished as a film actor. In the seventies, he struck upon his most well-known character of Lt. Columbo who he kept performing for decades. He kept performing until his death in 2011.

I actually first became aware of Peter Falk in the movie The Princess Bride in which he plays the kindly grandfather who serves as the narrator. My family definitely watched quite a bit of Columbo over the years as episodes often came on at night on weekends. Falk is truly a human muppet and every time I look at his face, I can’t help but smile. I have recently become reacquainted with Columbo and am a little bit obsessed.

Cold Open: Falk shows up at the back door of The Muppet Theater and checks in with Pops. He rattles off a bunch of requests and Pop asks if that’s all. Falk says it is but then comes back with “one more thing”.

Guest Arc: Gonzo wants to get into acting but keeps getting turned down because he looks weird. Falk talks him up and gets him back in the game based on his own experience.

Guest Acts:
- “Bye Bye Blackbird” A softer song with Falk leaning on Rowlf’s piano
- A tense negotiation on behalf of Gonzo with a gruff casting director.
- “Anything You Can Do” A duet with Gonzo allowing them both to be goofy.



S07e02 Tina Turner

Tina Turner is one of the preeminent divas in the history of music. By the way, I am using the word ‘diva’ in the most positive way I can. Her nickname of “The Queen of Rock N’ Roll” definitely suited her as she was and still is a powerhouse as a performer. Her love for music and her charisma bleeds heavily into her performance and makes it all the better. She also has a heck of a set of pipes. She was born in Tennessee, one of the biggest hotbeds for country and rock and roll at the time. In the late fifties, she met and joined Ike Turner’s band The Kings of Rhythm. She and Turner got married. It was not long before she turned herself into an accomplished singer and songwriter. The Kings of Rhythm became the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Ike Turner turned out to be a very bad man and his physical abuse of Tina led to her leaving him and striking out on her own. She has had a long and successful solo career, proving without a doubt that she never needed a lowlife like Ike Turner. She still performs but infrequently as health problems have led to a forced retirement of sorts.

I first knew of Tina Turner through her solo version of the song “Proud Mary” originally performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I would have loved to think that she could sing this song on The Muppet Show but she originally sang it with Ike and would not release her own recording until 1993 (10 years after this episode would take place). I also was acquainted early with Tina Turner through the trailers for the semi-autographical movie “What’s Love Got to Do With It”. She also tried her hand at acting and I think of her performance in Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome fondly. There is also a musical about her life called Tina which is also very good. She is currently a Swiss citizen.

Cold Open: Tina Turner is in her dressing room when Scooter comes in to give the warning. Animal pops up out of nowhere proclaiming “Woman!” as usual but Tina sets him straight.

Guest Arc: After a tiff with Kermit, Ms. Piggy enlists the aid of guest Tina Turner to make her into the diva she knows she is.

Guest Acts:
“Music Keeps Me Dancing” rocking out with the Electric Mayhem and dancing joyously with several muppet back up dancers
“Night Time Is the Right Time” Tina celebrates with a bunch of nocturnal animals having a dance
“Under My Thumb” with Ms. Piggy, showing her how to deal with a man who won’t treat her right


S07e03 Tik and Tok

Frankly, I do not know much about this duo but I do know that they became famous around 1982 as a mime act. I came upon them in my research of the early eighties. They were heavily involved in the burgeoning New Wave music movement. They worked with such acts as Vangelis and Depeche Mode. That electronic sound matched their robotic mime act. I became enamored of this group from some of their videos on YouTube. They are trippy and imaginative and have great comedic potential. The reason why I include them here is that I loved earlier weird episodes of The Muppet Show headlined by mime acts Mummenschanz (Season 1) and Shields and Yarnell (Season 4). The show did well with these strange episodes and I always wanted more of that. Those are also examples of performers that I probably would have never heard of without The Muppet Show and I love that.


Cold Open: Huge wooden crates show up at the back entrance of the theater and Bunsen and Beaker appear to sign for them. Pops asks what is in the boxes and Bunsen declares that they ordered the show’s hosts.

Guest Arc: Bunsen and Beaker try to study Tik and Tok but Tik and Tok only want to perform

Guest Acts:
Whatever Tik and Tok want to do

[WolfofWords]

S07e04 Lucille Ball

Lucy was born in Jamestown, New York but her father’s career working for Bell Telephone had them moving around a lot, exposing her to a lot of different places. She caught the showbiz bug when she auditioned to be a chorus girl at the local Shriner’s club. She went to drama school (with Bette Davis) but she faced harsh criticism which only strengthened her resolve. She became a model to support herself and to stay in show business. She got some work in the chorus on Broadway for a bit but it was not stable work. She then landed in movies, working as a contract player for RKO. At this point, she even got to work with the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers. She got a lot of work in Ginger Rogers movies as Ginger was a distant maternal cousin. She continued to work on stage and film, hoping to break into a leading role in film or on Broadway. She signed with MGM and starred in plenty of movies but often because the first actress choice turned a movie down. Her movie career was good but she was not getting the leading lady roles.

Her expressive acting style landed her on a successful radio show (My Favorite Husband) which allowed her to show more of her comedy chops. This stint in radio allowed her to land her own television show along with then-husband Desi Arnaz. I Love Lucy and its spinoffs were juggernauts on television and that alone cemented Lucy’s place as a legendary comedian and performer. The deal with CBS also allowed Lucy and Desi to buy RKO Studios and rename it Desilu Studios. As a producer and studio head, Lucille Ball championed a lot of now-classic properties like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. Eventually, I Love Lucy and her marriage came to an end and she moved on. With her newfound fame she finally starred on Broadway in the musical Wildcat. She had accumulated a legendary circle of showbiz friends like Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Jack Benny, and so many more. She returned to television comedies and kept going, a victory lap at the tail end of her career.

Cold Open: Lucy makes her grand entrance through the back door, talking briefly with Pops. She starts walking toward her dressing room and hands Piggy her coat, maybe mistaking her for a backstage worker.

Guest Arc: Miss Piggy is concerned that the famous spotlight stealer Lucille Ball is coming to the show. Throughout the show, Piggy tries to rile up her fellow female co-stars like Miss Mousey, Wanda, Janice, and even Camilla. She wants their help to outshine Lucy but in the end, Lucy lets Piggy know that she is trying so hard because Lucy is only there for one show while Piggy gets to be there every week.

Guest Acts:
“Fancy Pants” (Jay Livingston/Ray Evans) - Allowing her to mock Sam Eagle
“Jitterbug Bite” (Edward Ward/Chet Forrest/Bob Wright) - With a bunch of long-legged muppets to help her with the dancing
“Hey Look Me Over” (Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh) - With a huge marching band and a whole crew of Muppets



Tim Curry

Tim Curry was born in a small town in England, his family eventually moved to South London when his father died when Curry was at a young age. Curry wanted to focus on acting so he graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BA in acting. Curry worked in the London theater scene where he met Richard O’Brien early on. O’Brien wrote the role of Doctor Frankenfurter in The Rocky Horror Show and personally asked Curry to come aboard. The show opened in London and the character evolved over time with Curry eventually using a voice similar to Queen Elizabeth’s speech patterns. Even as he continued to perform the role in London and New York City, he took part in the movie version called The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cult classic. Although the show and the movie had underground popularity, it would take some time for Curry to gain more momentum. He went back to the theater and performed in many shows on Broadway including starring alongside Ian McKellan in Amadeus.

Curry’s film career started to pick up in the early eighties as he got a role in the film adaptation of Annie. He started to fully cement his spooky reputation when he played the villainous demon in Legend, fully transforming himself. He starred in the ensemble comedy film Clue allowing him to play off of many comedy legends in a fast-paced script. He also moved into television, largely as a voice actor as his distinctive voice was in high demand for villains and eccentrics. He carved out a huge voice acting career. He continued in movies and television, landing the role of Pennywise in the television miniseries IT in his scariest performance to date. His voice acting also continued as he worked on cartoon shows for Disney, Nickelodeon, and Warner Brothers among others. He voiced the villain in the otherwise forgettable film Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. He started to work in video games, lending his voice to even more weird characters including his much-memed role in Red Alert 3. Unfortunately, Curry suffered a stoke in 2012 which has left him wheelchair-bound. He still works as a voice actor and singer and makes appearances at fan conventions.


Cold Open: Curry enters through the backstage door with his deep and rich voice and scares everybody away, including Pops. “Was it something I said?”

Guest Arc: Scooter and Robin have trouble because they are so scared of Halloween stuff. They are scared of Curry who is nothing but genial with them and everybody. Eventually, Tim is able to teach them to get over their fears by becoming what they fear the most.

Guest Acts:
“I Put a Spell on You” (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins) - With the Electric Mayhem, dressed like a warlock.
“Werewolves of London” (Warren Zevon) - with Rowlf and a bunch of dogs and wolves
“Monster Mash” - With a bunch of monster muppets




Billy Dee Williams

Billy Dee Williams was born in New York City, specifically growing up in Harlem. His mother was an elevator operator but aspired to be a performer. Williams had decided that he wanted to be a painter and eventually graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (the school from Fame) with a focus in visual arts. As he continued to study, he was heralded as a great painter. However, he was having trouble making ends meet. He turned to acting to pay for his paints. He gained more and more interest in acting and eventually went to the Harlem Actors Workshop to study the Stanislavsky Method. He struggled to get work as an actor but eventually made it to Broadway. His foray on Broadway was short-lived but impactful.

He then started to break into film and television. He was frustrated at the time because most of the roles he wanted went to Sidney Poiter as there were not a lot of good roles for black men in the 1960s. At this point, he discovered LSD which he used to “get inside of himself”. He eventually had his big break starring in Brian’s Song opposite James Caan. He was then touted as the “black Clark Gable” which is a fairly good description of how smooth and easy his demeanor was. It also described his sex appeal. He worked with Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany. Then the 1980s hit and he got a role in Star Wars as Lando Calrissian, possibly his most mainstream role. He also got the role of Harvey Dent in 1989’s Batman (a film I am obsessed with) and was slated to become Two-Face in a later film. Alas, it was not to be. He continued to make guest appearances on television shows, keeping him in the public consciousness and reminding people of how good he could be. Eventually, his acting career started to wind down (although he still makes sporadic appearances) and he returned to his first love: painting. His goal now is to paint and act until he dies.


Cold Open: Gonzo is in Williams’ dressing room, getting his advice on how to get the ladies. Billy tells him he has to be smooth and Gonzo touches his nose and says that is going to be a problem.

Guest Arc: Gonzo and Miss Piggy compete for Billy’s attention as Gonzo wants friendship and advice and Piggy has a crush. Piggy even sabotages Kermit so that she can duet with Billy instead.

Guest Acts:
“Let’s Misbehave” - with the Electric Mayhem, a funkier version of his jazz song
“Hard to Get” (Rick James) - With Gonzo teaching him how to be smooth
“You’ve Got What It Takes” - With Miss Piggy

[WolfofWords]

S07e07 Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton was born in a little cabin on the river in Pittman Center, Tennessee which definitely inspired her later country style. She was the fourth of twelve siblings, her father was a farmer and a construction worker. Her musical education came from her mother who often sang to Dolly and her siblings. It was a mix of stuff from the Smoky Mountains and songs from the old country of Wales where her family came from. She started her career on the radio during her childhood. When she was a teen she started to appear on television. She recorded her first single at age 13 (“Puppy Love”). She appeared on the Grand Ol’ Opry where she met Johhny Cash who inspired her to carry on. She moved to Nashville where her singles started to chart. She then got a regular record deal and her career kicked into a higher gear. She eventually broke into the greater mainstream and became a crossover sensation. Her sound got a little more pop but it still had that same Dolly style to it. She was absolutely famous now.

Her star kept rising as she became a staple of country music and the music business in general. Her career choices were always measured and made with kindness. She even turned down letting Elvis sing her song “I Will Always Love You” because his sleazy manager Colonel Parker tried to scam her out of a huge percentage of the royalties. In the early eighties, she started acting in movies. She starred in the movie based on her hit song “9 to 5” which helped make that song timeless. She starred in the movie musical Best Little Whorehouse in Texas alongside Burt Reynolds. She acted in Steel Magnolias, a popular film, especially among southern women. In 1986 she bought an amusement park and turned it into Dollywood which became a place for her legions of fans to visit and have fun. Her career continued to flourish. The world at large noticed her charity efforts especially when her money helped to fund research for a vaccine for Covid-19 and its variants. This may be one reason why she was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame despite her never writing a rock song. She was voted in despite her protests and she has now sworn to write some rock music. She has since produced a cover album of classic rock songs.


Cold Open: Dolly Parton and Miss Piggy are talking when Annie Sue walks by and Miss Piggy informs Dolly that they have to do something.


Guest Arc: Miss Piggy wants to join forces with Dolly Parton after Annie Sue gets a makeover and is suddenly more popular.


Guest Acts:
“Love is Like a Butterfly” with the Gogolala Jubilee Jugband
“Jolene” with Miss Piggy
“9 to 5” As a Muppet office descends into chaos around her


S07e08 Andy Kaufman

Andy was born in New York City to a jewelry salesman father and former model mother. He started to entertain at birthday parties when he was nine years old by singing songs and showing cartoons. He was creative at a young age as he was constantly writing. He eventually went to a two-year college for television production where he obviously decided that he wanted to be a performer and creator. He started to work at coffee houses and comedy clubs to hone his act. It was around this time that he created his first hit character “Foreign Man” who was awkward but enthusiastic. He wowed audiences by subverting their expectations. He was a prankster and was constantly looking for ways to fool and delight audiences. It was that led him to Saturday Night Live where he got television time to show off parts of his act. This led to Foreign Man to be honed into the character Latka on the sitcom Taxi. Being on television constantly raised his level of fame and mainstream exposure. It also allowed him to play some different characters as Latka had multiple personalities.

He continued to push boundaries. He created the character Tony Clifton, a lounge singer who liked to abuse his audiences. The character was so different that it turned some people off until they understood the joke. On both Saturday Night Live and the sketch comedy show Fridays, he broke the fourth wall and challenged the format of those shows. Andy continued to perform live but he also performed on pretty much every television show imaginable. He became a true Hollywood star. Around this time, he decided to get into the world of professional wrestling. He began by challenging the crowd at his own shows where he would crown himself the "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World". He would put up $1000 as a prize for any woman who could pin him but he always managed to win. He moved on to Memphis Wrestling where he touted himself as a Hollywood genius as opposed to all of the yokels in the audience. His abuse of women and his haughty behavior eventually drew the ire of Jerry “The King” Lawler. The two eventually had an angle that ended with Andy’s kayfabe neck injury and even a live appearance on Letterman. Unfortunately, Andy died before his time due to cancer.


Cold Open: Pops is manning the desk when Andy Kaufman comes in followed by Tony Clifton. Pops says there is only supposed to be one guest but Andy says Tony has to come too.


Guest Arc: Andy Kaufman has been booked on the show but his contract makes it so he has to bring Tony Clifton along. Everybody loves Andy but everybody is thrown by the abrasive Clifton.

Guest Acts:
Andy leads a chaotic performance of one of his nonsense scat songs
Tony Clifton insults a nightclub full of Muppets until Fozzy stands up to him
"Hound Dog" (Elvis) with the Electric Mayhem


S07e09 Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan. He was a premature baby which eventually led to his blindness from infancy. His mother divorced his father and moved the family to Detroit, Michigan where Wonder started to sing in the church choir. He learned how to play the harmonica, the drums, and the piano and started to perform on street corners with his friend John. The two also played at parties and dances. Wonder then went on to get signed to the legendary Motown label at age eleven as “Little Stevie Wonder”. He started with Ray Charles covers but he was soon writing his own songs with Clarence Paul. He joined the Motortown Revue and started touring in theaters that accepted black acts. He eventually married songwriter Syreeta Wright and the two brought Wonder’s career to a higher plane. He resigned to Motown Records in an unprecedented contract that allowed him much higher royalties. In the seventies, he toured with the Rolling Stones which won him more crossover appeal. He continued to produce albums and tour during the seventies.

In the eighties, he started to have even more commercial success. Many of his most famous songs came from this period. In the nineties, his fame opened doors into other arenas. He wrote music for the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. He sang at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He sang during the halftime show of the 1999 Super Bowl. In that year he also got an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts from my alma mater Rutgers University. He went on to write for Spike Lee’s Bamboozled soundtrack, once again working with the famed filmmaker. He went on to get into collaborations in the rap world with artists like Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg. He sang at Obama’s first inauguration. He sang at the funerals of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston. He continues to tour and make music to this day.

Cold Open: Pops asks Stevie if he can show him to his room, Stevie says he’ll find it eventually.

Guest Arc: Gonzo specifically requested Stevie to come in for Valentine’s Day as he is Camilla’s favorite singer. He ends up spreading the love with more than just that couple.


Guest Acts:
“Never Had a Dream Come True” - Slower piano duet version with Rowlf
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” - with chicken backup singers, Gonzo, and the Electric Mayhem
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” - With Ms. Piggy and Kermit

[WolfofWords]

S07E10 Charlemane, Kukla, Ollie, and Lambchop

Burr Tillstrom was born in Chicago, Illinois and stayed in town for college at the University of Chicago. While still in college he worked for the WPA to build a marionette theater which started what would end up being a legendary career. In the late 30s he came up with his most famous character, Kukla, a little clown doll. (Kukla is Russian for doll). He hit it big and Kukla and Tillstrom’s other characters became nationally known. They really hit it big in the late 40s with the arrival of the television show Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. The combination of Tillstrom’s puppets with human cohost Fran Allison seems like an early version of what The Muppet Show and The Muppets in general would turn out to be. After several television shows, Tillstrom toured live shows until his death in the late 80s. He was a legendary puppeteer and is listed by Jim Henson as a dream guest. He must have inspired a younger Henson and his work definitely shares some DNA with The Muppets.

Bil Baird was born in Nebraska but grew up in Iowa. His first encounter with puppets was when his father made him a string puppet while Baird was a little child. By the time that he was 14, Baird was putting on his own puppet shows. After he graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, he got a job working with his childhood hero Tony Sarg who was also a legendary puppeteer. After this apprenticeship, Baird created his own company and started to create his own characters, the best known being Charlemane the Lion. He worked with Yul Brenner on the show Snarky Parker, a parody of the Western genre. His puppets made it to Broadway as part of the musical Flahooley. Like Henson, he did some work in educational television. His most famous claim to fame was when he and his wife, Cora, did the marionette sequence “The Lonely Goatherd” in Sound of Music. Throughout his career, Baird did a lot of work for commercials (like Henson). He designed stage shows and ran his own theater. He was another of Henson’s dream guests and it is clear why.

Shari Lewis was born in New York City. She was encouraged by her parents to perform from a young age. Her father was named New York City’s “Official Magician” by Mayor La Guardia and passed along some of his tricks while she was in her teens. Lewis began to get into puppetry and appeared on television and won a televised talent show in the early 50s. She went on to host several television shows during that decade. She became the new host of the Kartoon Klub, a local Chicago kids show where she largely worked with ventriloquist dummies. The show slowly reformatted to fit Shari’s personality and she created many memorable characters including her most well known character, Lamb Chop. Lamb Chop actually first appeared when Shari was a guest on Captain Kangaroo. She went on to get her own show on NBC and was suddenly known more nationally. After that she ended up on PBS with Lamb Chop getting a more central role. Lewis was an accomplished musician and songwriter even beyond her puppet shows and even conducted orchestras. She was also a prolific writer and wrote 60 books for children. She is another of Henson’s most wanted guests.

Cold Open: Gonzo, Harry, and Lew Zealand watch the guests come in the stage door. “Look at these little weirdos”.

Guest Arc: Three other acts from around the world have agreed to visit and put aside competition to try and learn things from each other. The Muppets and the visiting puppets decide that they are not so different afterall.


Guest Acts:
“The Song That Never Ends” (Shari Lewis) - Lambchop teaches Muppet misfits Gonzo, Fozzie, and Lew Zealand to sing her favorite song.
“If I Were King of the Forest” (Arlen/Harburg) - Charlemane sings with Sweetums
“Friendship” (Cole Porter) - Kukla and Ollie sing with Kermit and Fozzie




S07E11Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa. Carson began performing at a very young age, mostly starting with magic tricks. After his mother sewed him a cape, he debuted as the “Great Carsoni” at age 14. Carson joined the Navy and served in the later years of World War II. He also had an undefeated amateur boxing record while in the service. Carson never saw combat, en route to enemy territory just as the war ended. Carson parlayed his service into getting a degree in speech and drama from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the intention of becoming a radio performer. He graduated after only three years after delivering a thesis on comedy in radio. Carson got his first break as the host of a morning show in Omaha where he got to show off his comedy stylings. He was then hired to be a writer on the Red Skelton show and even filled in for Skelton when he was injured. That led to working with radio legend Jack Benny who Carson had modeled part of his delivery on. Johnny then got his own shows on daytime television which he felt would tank his career but he actually thrived.

Johnny’s career became legendary when he took over for Jack Paar on The Tonight Show for NBC. His long stint as host of that show helped define what that show was and would inspire a ton of late night hosts. Carson was worried that he would not do well interviewing celebrities as he had little experience doing so. He ended up conquering his fears and succeeded at being a very entertaining interviewer, known for making his guests look good. The show started in 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City but moved to Burbank later to be closer to celebrities (a journey that would later be mirrored by Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien). Carson is known for performing as very silly characters in skits during the show, many of which are still referenced today. On a personal note, my favorite Johnny Carson moment is when he and the Amazing Randi flummoxed known fraud psychic Uri Geller live on television. He eventually fully retired from entertainment in the early 90s leaving behind an impressive legacy.



Cold Open: Kermit meets with Johnny in his dressing room where the two share a special connection with them both being hosts. Johnny is just glad that this is Kermit’s circus and not his.

Guest Arc: The Muppets put on auditions for Carson, trying to get on his show. Carson also connects with a frazzled Kermit who is feeling down about his own hosting skills.

Guest Acts:
A lot of Carson commenting on various acts
Carson dueling with Statler and Waldorf
“Side by Side” - Kermit and Johnny sing together


S07E12 Frank Zappa

Zappa was born in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland to Italian-American parents. Part of his childhood was spent living near the infamous Edgewood Arsenal in Aberdeen, Maryland where his father worked as a chemist. He was often sick as a child which was treated with unproven radium treatments. He also played with mercury a lot as a child. Zappa had a strange yet loving childhood. When the family moved out to San Diego, California, Zappa became enthralled with music. He drank heavily from many different genres but seemed to gravitate toward the guitar. By his senior year in high school he was already composing music. He was a class clown since his military family moved a lot and he found himself bored by school. Zappa was a man who did not fit into traditional roles. After a short career in advertising, Zappa decided to try and make it as a musician. He eventually found his way to briefly running a studio where he would often work twelve hour days experimenting with his sound. Frank then joined The Muthers which eventually renamed to The Mothers of Creation and put out several albums. Eventually renamed to The Mothers, the band kept recording and touring.

Even while he was still with The Mothers, Zappa released his own solo albums, starting to create his own legacy. He continued to experiment and became known for being out there and strange. Zappa fed into this and many of his songs were unplayable on the radio but he developed a cult following. Zappa was never boring and continued to innovate and put out exciting and interesting music. I think he would have really gotten along with Henson’s crew as he was also strange and exciting. I imagine him working similarly to Alice Cooper’s appearance on The Mupper Show.

Cold Open: Frank is hanging out in his dressing room when the Electric Mayhem crowds in to greet an old friend. However, the mood soon sours when old wounds get brought up.

Guest Arc: Frank and the Electric Mayhem have a lot of history together going on tour and that history is both good and bad. Frank spends the episode trying to patch things up with the band, slowly winning them over.


Guest Acts:
“Dancin’ Fool” - Frank is supposed to play with the Electric Mayhem but has to settle for a makeshift monster band
“Valley Girl” - Frank wins over Janice who joins him in a rare chance for her to sing a bit
“Tell Me You Love Me” - The Electric Mayhem and Zappa finally get to jam together

[WolfofWords]

S07E13 Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr aka Richard Starkey was born in the inner city of Liverpool to a pair of confectioners. Ringo’s parents enjoyed singing and dancing as a hobby and they passed that love of music on to their child. It was not long until his father left Ringo alone with his mother who struggled to keep up with the bills. Childhood sicknesses caused him to miss school and lag behind academically. However, he joined the hospital band where he found a lifelong love for drumming. Later, Ringo’s stepfather introduced him to big band music. Due to ongoing sickness, Ringo never returned to school but kept drumming. He joined a pair of skiffle bands and had some moderate success in Liverpool as he continued to improve. The Beatles then fired Pete Best and hired Ringo as their new drummer. He did not fit in at first but soon found himself on the same wavelength as the rest of the lads. Fans were supportive of Ringo and were clambering for more. We all know the story of The Beatles and their rocket to success not long after Ringo joined up. Ringo eventually got to write and sing some of their songs, showing that he was not just a drummer. Ringo was the first person to quit The Beatles but came back long enough for them to complete two more albums before they broke up.

During this time, Ringo had started to get more into acting as he was friends with Peter Sellers, Frank Zappa, and Harry Nilsson.

Ringo was now free to strike out on his own. While The Beatles would never reunite, Starr remained on good terms with the others. George Harrison was a frequent collaborator and Lennon and McCartney also helped out here and there. Ringo was always the happy-go-lucky member and he seemed to hold no grudges. The death of John Lennon put an end to any talk of a reunion. Ringo kept going on his own and kept cranking out albums and touring. While he never reached the heights of the other Beatles’ post-breakup offerings, he could always be relied upon to put on a great show. Ringo grew into a great educator, helping to bring up the next generations of musicians. He became friends with great musicians like Dave Grohl, Sheryl Crow, and Lenny Kravitz. Ringo continues to tour and has an album coming out next month (October 2023).


Cold Open: Ringo enters backstage just as a group of monsters run over Robin. “Tough Crowd, huh?”

Guest Arc: Robin is getting bullied by a group of big monsters and Ringo helps stand up to them

Guest Acts:
“Back Off Boogaloo” - Protecting Robin from the monsters
“Act Naturally” (Johnny Russell) - with Lubbock Lou and his Jughuggers
“It Don’t Come Easy” - With Robin and the Electric Mayhem


S07E14 Gina Lollobrigida

Gina was born as Luigia Lollobrigida in Subiaco, Italy into a family of furniture makers. During her youth, the family moved to Rome after World War II ended where she had singing lessons, did some modeling, and participated in beauty contests. She eventually made her way to the Italian stage which led to Howard Hughes discovering her. She was close to working for RKO pictures but she disagreed with the contract. This prevented her from appearing in movies filmed in America for quite some time. However, this did not prevent American directors from filming with her in Europe, much to Hughes’ annoyance. She became a huge box office draw in her native Italy but was also noticed throughout Europe as a white-hot movie star. She could also sing and did so in several of her motion pictures. She continued to work all over Europe in England, France, Italy, and more and found success in each country. She was performing with superstars like Tony Curtis, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, and Rock Hudson. She continued to be an advocate for her own career as she was able to turn down films when she had conflicts with various Hollywood directors. Her career could not be killed at this point and it continued to flourish.

She eventually turned to other pursuits than film as she appeared on television in America. She also created a successful career in the seventies as a photojournalist. This serious profession probably helped lead her into the world of politics and charity where she spent most of the latter part of her life. She stopped filming in 1997 and focused on Italian and European politics. She became an advocate for LGBT rights and the rights of Italians. She says that she was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. She ran for office several times (the last time when she was 95) but never succeeded in getting elected. She died this year on January 16, 2023. She was one of the people listed on Jim Henson’s dream guests list and for good reason. She was a charismatic and passionate actress and singer.


Cold Open: Kermit tries to keep Piggy out of Gina’s dressing room but is surprised when Piggy is actually nice.

Guest Arc: The Muppets have managed to snag the famous Italian singer and Kermit is worried about Piggy getting jealous. Surprisingly, Piggy is thrilled as she is a big fan.

Guest Acts:
“Mambo Italiano” (Bob Merrill) - A rock arrangement with the Electric Mayhem
“That’s Amore” (Warren/Brooks) - A duet with Rowlf at the piano
“La Spagnola” (Di Chiara) - On stage with Piggy and plenty of flamenco-dancing muppets.



S07E15 Shirley Bassey

Shirley Bassey was born the sixth and youngest child in Cardiff, Wales. It was clear to teachers and fellow students in Bassey’s youth that she was a great musician. She had a great voice that people were strangely intimidated by. They were always telling her to tone it down and back off instead of shining as they knew she could. She quit school at age 14 to work at a factory but also supplemented her income by singing at pubs and clubs. In the 1950s, Bassey signed her first professional singing contract. She was billed as an African American from Harlem even though she had been born in Wales. She signed with a manager and recorded her first single “Burn My Candle” which was later banned by the BBC for being too suggestive. Clearly, there is no such thing as bad publicity as her career continued to take off and she soon placed on the UK Singles Chart. She began to perform at some of the best venues in England and also was invited to perform in Las Vegas. She continued to chart in the UK. Bassey then made her television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Her success continued to snowball and she was selected to sing two different James Bond themes (Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever).

A tax exile from England landed her in the US where her career continued to flourish before she was able to return home. At this point, she was cranking out albums like crazy and appearing on television regularly. She returned to James Bond when sang the theme for Moonraker. She eventually went into a sort of semi-retirement but continued to be an incredibly successful singer. She was still producing albums albeit at a slower rate so that she could take it easy and also focus on charity work. She kept performing but usually only at high-profile events such as the Queen’s 50th Jubilee, 60th Jubilee, the Rugby World Cup, and various charity or grand concert events. At present, she is forty years into her “semi-retirement” and is still producing albums and singing in public. She continues to be a powerhouse singer.


Cold Open: Shirley is talking with Kermit in her dressing room when they notice Piggy fuming as she spies on them. Kermit tells Shirley to just ignore that.

Guest Arc: Shirley Bassey agreed to go on the show because she has a crush which worries Ms. Piggy. It turns out to be Gonzo instead.

Guest Acts:
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” (Crewe/Gaudio) - Shirley sings with the Electric Mayhem
“The Magic Is You” (Vlavianós/Rupen) - Singing with Rowlf at the piano as she struggles with rejection.
“All By Myself” (Eric Carmen) - Shirley tries to sing this alone on stage but people intruding on her moment of solitude.

[WolfofWords]

S07E16 Gregory Hines

Gregory Hines was born in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem, a hotbed for good jazz and Black entertainment in general. Hines started tap dancing when he was only two years old which obviously led to him being a master at it when he had gotten to his adult years. He and his brother Maurice studied tap dance together and became a duo. They studied under Henry LeTang, Sandman Sims, The Nicholas Brothers, and Cab Calloway, growing as entertainers. Eventually, Gregory moved on by himself and continued as a dancer. He combined new and old traditions of tap dance to create a new improvisational style of his own. He met and worked with Sammy Davis Jr. who took the young Hines under his wing. Throughout his career he continued to be an advocate for tap dancing and taught many people himself including Savion Glover.

Gregory made his film debut in Mel Brookes’ History of the World Part I as a last-minute replacement for Richard Pryor. Obviously, he knocked the part out of the park and his film career was off and running from there. His next role was in the horror movie Wolfen, an adaptation of a book about werewolves in New York City. He got to act in a movie with his brother in The Cotton Club, portraying old school dancers like those they had studied under. He worked with Billy Crystal in an underrated buddy cop film called Running Scared where he got to show off more of his comedy chops while also getting to show off an action side to him. He worked with Whitney Houston in both Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife the latter of which also had Denzel Washington. He ended up on television in his own short-lived sitcom and also had a recurring role on Will & Grace. Hines said that he always sought out parts written for white men because they were usually better written at the time. He passed away in 2003.


Cold Open: Gregory Hines tap dances through the back door of the theater and just keeps tapping along. Pops comments that Hines will fit in nicely.

Guest Arc:
Robin has a crisis of courage and Hines is there to show him that sometimes the cure is just to get out there and do it again.

Guest Acts:
“Fascinating Rhythm” (Gershwin) - Hines is supposed to perform with Robin but gets Fozzy instead who can’t keep up
“Fit as a Fiddle” (Freed/Hoffman/Goodhart) - Gregory does a little tap next to Rowlf’s piano
“It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)” (Ellington/Mills) - Hines, Kermit, and Robin perform together



S07E17 Mary Tyler Moore

Moore was born in the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. When she was eight, her family moved to Los Angeles, California. She got her start in show business as a dancing elf model who did commercials for appliances. She then went on to have a sexy secretary role in the detective show Richard Diamond, Private Detective. This put her in a major role and got a lot of eyes on her despite the fact that her face was usually partially hidden. She continued to appear in film and television in a ton of roles. She landed the main female role in the sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show which led to fame and an Emmy Award. Around this time she made her debut on Broadway, originating the role of Holly Golightly in a musical based on Breakfast at Tiffany’s. She appeared opposite Elvis in the movie Change of Habit. She then got her own show called The Mary Tyler Moore Show which did a lot for her career and for women in the workplace. The show won 29 Emmy awards throughout its run and three of those were for Moore’s main character role.

Moore continued to make plenty of appearances on television but her stage career also flourished. She returned to Broadway again and again in shows like Sweet Sue and Whose Life Is It Anyway? She got into a conflict with Neil Simon and quit Rose’s Dilemma because of it. She eventually formed her own stage production company and produced several plays. She also formed her own television company with her husband called MTM Enterprises. Through it, she produced tons of television shows that are now deemed classics. MTM produced all of the spinoff shows from her own show but it also produced The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, St. Elsewhere, and Hill Street Blues among others. She continued to work in television almost up to her death in 2017. She remains a legend in the comedy world and inspired so many to follow in her footsteps.

Cold Open:
Scooter goes to give Mary her five minutes and she is delightful. He remarks that if she were any sunnier, he would need shades. He is blinded by a bright light.

Guest Arc:
Mary is a huge Miss Piggy fan and Piggy is strangely put off by how clingy she is but finally accepts Mary as a fan and throws her a bone.


Guest Acts:
“Grade ‘A’ Treatment” (Albee/Merrill) - Mary with Sweetums
“With a Little Luck” (McCartney) - with Fozzie, Robin, Gonzo, and the Electic Mayhem
“Bosom Buddies” (Herman) - Finally performing with Miss Piggy



S07E18 Diana Rigg

Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg was born in Doncaster, England. However, she lived in India until she was eight years old because her father worked for the railroad in that country. She was sent back to England to attend boarding school which she found difficult as she felt like an outsider. In her twenties, she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where tons of legendary British actors learned their craft. Through RADA she also appeared in a lot of theater productions. It would not be long until she made her Broadway debut and earned the first of three Tony nominations. It was also during this time that she got her first memorable television role as secret agent Emma Peel in The Avengers. She played the role of James Bond’s wife in Her Majesty’s Secret Service opposite George Lazenby. Among her other movies, she also appeared in the horror movie Theatre of Blood which I loved. She acted opposite Maggie Smith in Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun. She also appeared in The Great Muppet Caper as Lady Holiday.

Her film and stage credits were too many to list them all but suffice it to say she showed great skill in everything she did. She took over hosting of the PBS show Mystery! from Vincent Price. In her later years she continued to act with little signs of slowing. She appeared in the revived Doctor Who. She acted in the wildly popular Game of Thrones as Olenna Tyrell which earned her two Emmy nominations. It also turned her into a meme using her memorable line “I want her to know it was me” which showed off what a badass she could still be at age 75. She became Dame Diana Rigg in 1994. Her final role was in the psychological horror film Last Night in Soho and then she died shortly after. She was a brilliant actress and singer who never stopped showing what a classically trained performer can do.

Cold Open:
Scooter meets Diana at the back door and explains that Kermit has been called away and he is in charge. Fozzy is hosting.

Guest Arc:
With Kermit missing in action, Diana Rigg causes chaos with no firm leadership but ends up apologizing to Kermit and Scooter.

Guest Acts:
“Let’s Misbehave” (Porter) - A mischievous Diana convinces the Muppets to misbehave
“Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” (Sondheim) - Diana sings about having a maid while making various maids clean up after her while she trashes the place
“I’m Sorry” (Brenda Lee) - Diana apologizes for letting things get so out of hand

[WolfofWords]

S07E19 Cher

Cherilyn Sarkisian was born in Centro, California. Her father was a truck driver with substance and gambling problems but her mother was a former model and actress named Georgia Holt. Her paternal grandparents were survivors of the Armenian genocide. Her father was not long in the picture as her mother had divorced and remarried to an actor named John Southall by the time Cher was 10 months old. Georgia went back to acting when the family moved to Los Angeles. At this point, Cher started to do background extra work as a child. Her mother kept divorcing and remarrying giving Cher a taste of being really poor and also being rich. She was born with dyslexia. She was always a misfit, singing songs during lunch periods and being ahead of the curve when it came to fashion. This unconventional nature served her well as an entertainer.

Cher dropped out of school at sixteen and took acting lessons and tried to network her way into show business. It was during this time that she met Sonny Bono and agreed to become his housekeeper. Sonny also helped connect her to backup singing jobs for Phil Spector. Her debut single did not go well because of her unique deep contralto voice made people think that she was a man. Over time, Sony and Cher fell in love and got married. Sonny wanted to launch Cher as a solo act but Cher’s extreme stage fright led to the two becoming a duo. The two struggled at first as a duo named Caesar & Cleo but eventually, they started to find success with Cher’s solo career after all. Cher struggled in her career because she stuck to folk-pop instead of changing with the times.

Eventually, Sonny and Cher made a deal for their own television show which led to them becoming a mainstream success. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour allowed Cher to work on her acting in comedy sketches and also let audiences hear her music. She also became a fashion plate by wearing Bob Mackie designs. After the show was canceled, Cher signed with a new record company. When she was assigned a new producer who seemed to get her more than Sonny did, her career started to take off again. During another down period in her career, she and Sonny divorced.

In the late seventies/early eighties (the time during which this episode would be filmed) her career took off again. She continued to evolve her sound and formed the band Black Rose with guitarist/lover Les Dudek. This musical fame led to a resurgence in her acting career. She moved to New York to study under Lee Strasberg. and she acted in a lot of well-received movies like Mask, Silkwood, The Witches of Eastwick, Mermaids, and Moonstruck. Her musical career continued to have ups and downs as she reinvented herself. She eventually reinvented herself to sing dance pop with the album and song Believe, a huge hit in the late nineties. Her music career kept steaming along. She kept acting in films such as Burlesque and Mamma Mia 2. She had a second Las Vegas residency. She began to be honored by her peers. She has a number one hit in six consecutive decades (1960s - 2010s). Cher was once announced as a guest for The Muppet Show in the Fan Club Newsletter but never actually guested.

Cold Open:
In her dressing room, Cher asks for a cold glass of water. Miss Piggy blasts her with a fire hose.


Guest Arc:
Everybody seems to think that Cher is auditioning for a new singing partner but it’s just a rumor.


Guest Acts:
“Pirate” (Dorff/Herbstritt/Harju) - Cher leads a muppet crew on a pirate ship
“Hell on Wheels” (Etsy/Aller) - Miss Piggy and Cher heat up this song wearing their roller skates
“Dead Ringer for Love” (Jim Steinman) - A rock duet with Sweetums



S07E20 Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg was born in Pasadena, California the son of a housewife and a baptist minister. He was drafted into the US Army as part of Special Services which gave him his first taste of entertaining. He was hired by Capitol Records' new spoken word division. He developed many comedic and satirical comedy bits. Nobody was safe from his talents. He did not make a lot of friends by parodying many musicians like Harry Belafonte, Laurence Welk, and The Platters. Still, he grew in popularity as he made people laugh. He also parodied shows like Dragnet. He was always topical and also did a lot of political satire and commentary. He kept putting out record albums with great success.

His success as a comedian led to a career in radio as well. He worked for CBS first as an actor in a sitcom called That’s Rich. This led to him becoming a replacement for Jack Benny after the legend’s retirement. His refusal to shill for tobacco or alcohol companies hampered the show’s success since they found it hard to find a sponsor. He also clashed with CBS over their notes for the show which led to the show’s cancellation. One of the actors he worked with was the legendary June Foray who voiced characters for Rocky and Bullwinkle and Disney animated films. He moved from radio to television where also worked a lot in advertising, his comedic sensibilities leading to entertaining commercials.

Stan was a dream guest listed by Jim Henson when trying to find guests for the Muppet Show. In fact, Henson credited Freberg with inspiring his own chaotic sense of humor. In fact, Henson had his puppets on the earlier show Sam and Friends lipsync to Freberg records. Freberg got a kick out of this but never appeared on The Muppet Show.

Cold Open:
We hear Freberg start to sing “The Banana Boat Song” before he comes through the backstage door and sings it past Pops, accompanied by dancing bananas.


Guest Arc:
Stan Freberg is embraced as just as silly as the Muppets even as Kermit tries to get him to be serious for once.


Guest Acts:
“C’est Si Bon” (Betti/Homez/Freberg) - Freberg gives a french lesson in front of Rowlf’s piano
Dragnet parody of The Gingerbread Man story
"Sh-Boom" (The Chords) - With a Muppet doo wop backup group



S07E21 Burl Ives

Burl Ives was born in Hunt City, Illinois. His uncle overheard him singing in the family garden which led to his first performance for an audience. Ives dropped out of college suddenly when he felt that he was wasting his time. That college would later name a building after him. After dropping out, he became a traveling itinerant singer traveling and living by doing odd jobs and playing a banjo. He started performing on a small radio station which led to him returning to school with him ending up at Julliard in New York. This in turn led to a Broadway career. He was then given his own radio show where he introduced people to a lot of old folk tunes. He joined the singing group The Almanacs which also (at different times) included Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. He was drafted into the US Army during World War II. Even during his service, he kept playing music and once he got out he had a country and folk music career.

In the Fifties, he ended up named as a possible Communist sympathizer and was blacklisted from show business which made continuing his music, broadway, and film career impossible. He appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee which lifted his blacklisting but soured his relationship with fellow folk musicians like Seeger who thought he had named names. He went on to appear in films such as Big Country, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and East of Eden. He also appeared on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Paint Your Wagon, and The Boys from Syracuse. He started singing more country music at this point. He became part of Christmas legend by singing two songs in Rankin-Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, “Silver and Gold” and “Holly Jolly Christmas”. This is how a tiny Wolf of Words was introduced to the man. He also lent his voice to an animatronic (Sam Eagle, no relation) for Dinsey’s America Sings. It seems that Ives was never on Henson’s radar but he was a well-rounded performer who could have done well on the show. Ives died in 1995, a decade after this episode would air.


Cold Open:
Robin walks into the backstage entrance and everybody cheers but he does not see Burl Ives behind him.

Guest Arc:
It is Robin’s birthday but people seem to have forgotten about it. Of course, it’s a surprise party.


Guest Acts:
“Funny Way of Laughin’” (Cochran) - Ives has a performance with Robin and the Gogolala Jubilee Jugband
“In Between” - (Lerner/Loewe) - Ives has a quiet moment with Robin
“I’m the Boss” (Ives) - Ives tells a boardroom full of muppets just who he is

[scooter]

I'd thought that Shari Lewis did actually appear with the Muppets at one point. Might have been a Mandela Effect thing.

[WolfofWords]

I'd thought that Shari Lewis did actually appear with the Muppets at one point. Might have been a Mandela Effect thing.

She and Lamb Chop appeared once on Sesame Street and also showed up for a song in tribute to Burr Tillstrom (along with characters from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Howdy Doody, and Life with Snarky Parker).

FYI Some of the guests I selected for seasons 6 and 7 had appearances on Sesame Street but the two shows are night and day and should have gotten a chance to be on both.

[WolfofWords]

S07E22 Kim Novak

Kim Novak was born as Marilyn in Chicago, Illinois. Novak is of Czech descent with her father working as both a history teacher and freight dispatcher for the railroad. Interestingly, though her parents were not in show business, they would both appear in a movie with Novak later in life. She got her start as a promotional model for a refrigerator and went by the name “Ms. Deepfreeze”. She then traveled with some other models to Hollywood to look into the exploding film industry. When Columbia Pictures hired her, she was offended when the head of the studio wanted her to change her name to Kit Marlowe because he claimed her “Polack” name. They compromised on Kim Novak. The studio wanted her to be the successor to Rita Hayworth and a counterpart of Mariyln Monroe. She was immediately cast in movies like Pushover, Phffft, and 5 Against the House. She had her first major success in the movie version of Picnic. She also took a sultry turn in The Man With The Golden Arm.

She continued to star in movies but had another mega-hit with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. She continued to work after that but her career did begin to decline. She starred in Bell Book and Candle, a movie where she had some agency for once. She worked less and less but not because Hollywood was done with her but rather she was getting burnt out. By 1966 (17 years before this episode would occur), she was pretty much done with the life of a Hollywood star. At that time she was able to pick and choose her films, though. In the early seventies, she took four years off and she had already moved out of Hollywood to Big Sur. She continued to act here and there with more and more time between roles. She lost her home in a mudslide which is why she probably kept working a lot. Her career came full circle when she guested on the soap opera Falcon Crest as a character named Kit Marlowe. She was a gorgeous and talented actress who was true Hollywood royalty.

Cold Open: Kim rushes into the back door chased by paparazzi but is blinded by flashes
Guest Arc: Everybody fawns over Kim being a big star but she is modest
Guest Acts:
Kim talks with Kermit about being in danger and Novak proves she can be dangerous too
Kim and a bunch of female muppets dance to “A Lot of Livin' to Do” (Schroeder/Weisman)
Kim is cast in a film noir sketch that devolves into competition with Ms. Piggy



S07E23 Mary Martin

Mary Martin was born in Weatherford, Texas to a lawyer father and a violin teacher. From an early age she was said to have a real ear for music. She began singing with her older sister and another girl on a bandstand outside of the courthouse where her father worked. She learned a lot of music by acting as a mimic and covering songs by artists of her day. However, she first started with an education in dance at the Franchon and Marco School of the Theatre before she opened up her own studio and taught dance for a while. Her studio was burned down by a man who believed dancing was a sin which spurred on both her divorce and her journey into show business. She auditioned so much in Hollywood that she earned the nickname “Audition Mary”. This actually led to her joining Broadway instead where she flourished. At the same time, she started a career as a singer on the radio.

She made her Broadway debut in Cole Porter’s Leave it to Me! where she was an instant hit. She moved on to the Kurt Weill musical One Touch of Venus. She then won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Nellie Bush in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. This led directly into the role she is perhaps most known for as she played Peter Pan on Broadway for quite a while. She was also in the first cast of the Sound of Music on Broadway as Maria. Notably, she originated a lot of famous roles in musicals but did not reprise them in film. She said that she did not like acting on film as she missed the connection with the audience but she did sometimes appear on television. She went on to play Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun. She was a legendary singer and a bright star on Broadway.

Cold Open: Mary walks through the back door and ducks as one of The Flying Zucchini Brothers flies past. Mary quips that she used to do that.
Guest Arc: Sweetums has a crush on somebody and Mary gets immediately sucked in
Guest Acts:
"Honey Bun" (Rodgers/Hammerstein) - Mary and Sweetums try to dedicate the song to Sweetums’ crush
“I’m Flying” (Charlap/Leigh) - Mary tries to show off by flying but can’t quite take off
"I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" (Berlin) - Mary sings with the cast



S07E24 David Bowie

Bowie was born as David Robert Jones in London, England. His mother was a waitress at a cinema and his father worked as a promotions officer for a charity. Everything changed for Bowie the day that he heard Little Richard sing “Tutti Frutti” and he is quoted as saying that he “heard god” that day. He was obsessed with music and had a lot of poise for a small child. Bowie lived his life with faulty depth perception due to a schoolyard injury brought on by a fistfight. He formed his first band (The Konrads) at the age of 15. Once Bowie had an agent, he joined a succession of bands trying to find the right fit for his sound. Bowie dreamed of being like Mick Jagger, something he definitely achieved as the two later became peers and friends (and maybe more according to legend). Bowie finally came into his own with the release of his self-titled album Space Oddity, a song that particularly endures in pop culture. He then moved into a more hard rock sound rather than his earlier acoustic sound.

Listening to proto-punk, he started to come up with the part of his act that was arguably the most famous. This was his glam rock movement where he worked to experiment and innovate musically. He also came up with different personas through which he performed songs. Ziggy Stardust was an androgynous rock star from outer space. The Thin White Duke was a more serious performer who dressed in a cabaret style. Halloween Jack was a little wilder. Aladdin Sane was kind of like a reincarnation of Ziggy Stardust. He continued to push the envelope of rock music and flaunted his sexuality and androgyny. Bowie released a lot of albums and even released one a few days after his death in 2016. He was the epitome of a rock star.

Cold Open: Bowie is putting on his makeup in the mirror when he sees monsters in the reflection. “I’m going to fit in here.”
Guest Arc: Bowie has an idea for a movie and wants to run it past the Muppets
Guest Acts:
“Space Oddity” - Bowie sings the song as the story is shown in muppet form
“Let’s Dance” - Bowie performs with the Electric Mayhem
“Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” - Bowie rocks out with a bunch of monsters