Muppeturgy: A "The Muppet Show" Rewatch Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

When Diana Ross smiles at us, we go to Rio! We’re holding up little cards to rate this episode — and the whole season — this week. Did season 4 give us a love hangover, or leave us deep in our (whoa whoa whoa) feelings? We’re taking a post-season break so this will be the last time we saw him for a while. Reach out and touch that subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss our triumphant return. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/diana-ross

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Listen to Adam on Again with This! (Episodes 204-206)

Seriously, subscribe so you don’t miss when we come back from our between-season break!

We learned a lot about Alan Arkin — and ourselves — this week, as very special guest star Chris Feil joined us to talk Jekyll & Hyde, potentially racist bunnies, devils going down to Georgia and letting people go, and Fozzie’s relationship to rhythm. Plus rearranging fat jokes on the Titanic. You’re no good if you don’t listen. (CW: Discussion of racist tropes such as minstrelsy.) https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/alan-arkin

And the winner is…Phyllis George! For the rest of us it’s a tie at best. We’re joined by Joe Reid to talk award shows, sportscasting, Miss America, and when a clip show isn’t a clip show. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/phyllis-george

The Muppets did a weird and sort of formless pilot episode so we did too! While we wait for the actual Muppet Show to drop on Disney+, here’s a podcast episode about The Muppet Valentine Show, a 1974 special that served as a sort of backdoor pilot for The Muppet Show. Head to http://muppeturgy.com for a ton of links, GIFs, and more info.

Hi ho! We thought we’d get things started by telling you a little about who we are, how we feel about The Muppets (spoiler: we like ‘em), and what we’re planning to do here. Welcome! muppeturgy.com

We’ve made no secret about being Liza Minnelli fans and now the episode is finally here! Were we right to look forward to it all these weeks, or will we drink ourselves half blind over losing our love? It’s a quiet thing, but don’t worry, everything’s coming up roses and it’s gonna be a great day. With our very special guest star, Matt Baume! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/liza-minnelli

It’s a jazzy good time of an episode, despite a guest star who appeared to only show up for half of it. But he has fun and so did we! We’ll talk about extremely glamorous fish, baffling Arabian numbers, bullfrog’s cheeks (that’s a myth! a myth!), the canonically important appearance of Waldorf’s wife Astoria, and the sadly less canonically important appearance of the Mayhem’s bongo player. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/dizzy-gillespie

Programming note: There’s a discrepancy between the Muppet Wiki episode order and the Disney+ episode order starting at this point. If you’re watching along, we’ll be sticking with Disney+!

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl...no, wait, that’s not right. I mean it is technically right but...you know what I mean. It’s Lola Falana! She does some disco! Chickens cluck Meredith Wilson and Rodgers & Hammerstein! Gonzo is sad because he’s leaving the show! In some ways it feels like they tailored this episode directly to our interests. In other ways...not so much. We’ll get into it, as well as what may possibly be the greatest New York Times article of all time. Oh what, oh wow! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/lola-falana

The oil crisis invades the Muppet Theater! It’s…not great! But Kenny Rogers is pretty great. (And is not Kenny Loggins, in case you were confused about that, which is crazy why would anyone be confused about that?) He knows when to hold ‘em, knows when to fold ‘em, knows when to walk away, and knows when to run, but we debate whether the puppets in the famous Gambler number are creepy, brilliant, or both. Along the way, we’ll put the lime in the coconut, fling some Muppets on trapezes, lift Mother Brown’s knees up, and of course, talk about chicken and (sigh) racism. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/kenny-rogers

It’s a Very Muppeturgy Chrismukah! To celebrate the Winter Solstice, we muddle through this legendary — but definitely not timeless — 1979 network television special. Join us for a journey the uncanny valley of puppets whose faces don’t move and the uncannier valley of John Denver whose face doesn’t move, with stops at Christian hegemony, crimes against lyrics, how religious was too religious for television and elementary school assemblies in the 70s, if it is in fact in every one of us, a songwriter whose name is NOT Hans Gruber, extremely excellent sweaters, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. Badum-bum-bum! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/denver-xmas