The Muppet Show is a British and American television program featuring a cast of Muppets which was produced by Jim Henson and his team from 1976 to 1981. The show stars Kermit the Frog, who was also a regular on Sesame Street. Whereas Kermit was a happy, perky and somewhat avuncular character on Sesame Street, here he is trying to keep control of the varied, outrageous, kinetic Muppet characters (and his temper), as well as keep the human guest stars happy and secure, an aspect of his personality that made it into his Sesame Street character following the start of The Muppet Show. The television show depicted a vaudeville- or music hall-style song-and-dance variety show, as well as the backstage antics involved in putting the show on.
The show was known for outrageous, physical (slapstick), sometimes absurdist comedy, and particularly for using its puppet characters to create humorous parodies. Each show also featured a human star; after the show became popular, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in film. By the end of its run, over one hundred guest stars had appeared on The Muppet Show.
Muppet performers over the course of the show include Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, Kathy Mullen, Eren Ozker, and John Lovelady. Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns were two of the show writers.
History,
Since 1969, Sesame Street had given Jim Henson's creations exposure; however, Henson began to perceive that he was pigeonholed as a children's entertainer. He sought to create a program that could be enjoyed by young and old. Two specials were produced and aired that are considered pilots for The Muppet Show. Neither led to the sale of a prime-time network series. However, the prime-time access rule had just been enacted, which took the 7:30 to 8pm ET slot from the networks and turned it over to their affiliates. CBS suggested it would be interested in Henson's proposal as a syndicated series it could purchase for its owned-and-operated stations, to run one night a week in that time slot.
Lew Grade, head of the British commercial station ATV, offered a deal to Henson that would see his show produced at the ATV studios in Elstree, England. ATV would network the show to other ITV stations in the United Kingdom, and its syndication arm, ITC Entertainment, would sell the show in the United States and around the world. Henson put aside his misgivings about syndication and accepted.
At first, signing guests was a challenge and producers had to call on their personal contacts. The breakthrough was the appearance of the ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. His appearance on such an unusual show generated such positive publicity that the series became one of the sought-after productions to appear in. The Muppet Show premiered in 1976 and finally, after five years and 120 episodes, it went off the air in 1981 because of Henson's desire to move on to other projects and changes in the structure of ATV and ITC Entertainment.
As the show was produced in the United Kingdom it was recorded onto 2-inch videotape using the European industry standard PAL 625-line colour system. For transmission in the United States it had to be converted to NTSC 525-line system. The reason for this has never been explained as ATV's Elstree studios were the only facilities in Europe capable of recording simultaneously in both and had done so many times as ATV/ITC had a track record for exports to American television
(read less)The Muppet Show is a British and American television program featuring a cast of Muppets which was produced by Jim Henson and his team from 1976 to 1981. The show stars Kermit the Frog, who was also a regular on Sesame Street. Whereas Kermit was a happy, perky and somewhat avuncular character on Sesame Street, here he is trying to keep control of the varied, outrageous, kinetic Muppet characters (and his temper), as well as keep the human guest stars happy and secure, an aspect of his...
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