It’s a show about a show, and also the show the show is about. It’s television and theater — a variety show and a vaudeville revue with musical numbers, sketches, blackouts, hecklers and backstage drama. It’s “The Muppet Show,” which ran in syndication from 1976 to 1981 and is now on offer from Disney+, joining the early 1990s satirical sitcom “Dinosaurs” and the new “Earth to Ned” in what feels like a Jim Henson Moment. It’s a good feeling.
When “The Muppet Show” debuted, it had been more than 20 years since the Muppets first raised their heads, or had their heads raised for them, on “Sam & Friends,” the Washington, D.C.-area show that Henson, still in college, created with future bride Jane Nebel. It was also a new beginning. To start, “The Muppet Show” is where Kermit — who had first appeared in “Sam & Friends,” made significant appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and had been serving as a Muppet-at-large on “Sesame Street” — turns into the Kermit we know.
By dint of seniority, he was already the company’s figurehead. Here he becomes a character, with continuity and a community, skeptical but also excitable: the arm-flapping, head-bopping, cheerleading Kermit; the boss — though not bossy — others look to when things go wrong. (And things will go wrong.)
He gets a love interest in Miss Piggy — well, she’s interested in him — and a foil in Fozzie Bear, both pairs partnering Henson with longtime collaborator Frank Oz. This is where we meet Dr. Bunsen and Beaker, Statler and Waldorf, Sam the Eagle, Scooter, Gonzo, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, with Animal on drums, and the Swedish Chef, which Henson and Oz performed together, throwing each other curveballs as they did. Rowlf the philosophical piano-playing dog, a regular on “The Jimmy Dean Show” in the 1960s, is brought out of mothballs. More than a cast, they’re a stock company able to take on many parts. On “The Muppet Show,” Miss Piggy is always Miss Piggy, but she is also Miss Piggy as Nurse Piggy in “Veterinarian Hospital” and Miss Piggy as First Mate Piggy in “Pigs in Space”; she is never not herself, even when she’s playing someone else.