This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

I finished writing pretty promptly last night, so had time to watch two episodes of The Muppet Show.

I wasn't all that impressed with the Sandy Duncan episode. She was all right, but didn't light my fire for watching her over and over. The best part was the "At the Dance" skit, which this time was a tango version of the show's theme. And I don't think they could get away with Duncan's opening number today, on a kid's show--it takes place in a bar, and she's fake-drinking the whole time. The running gag about "the legendary banana sketch" was pretty cute; I love it when Kermit freaks out.

The Avery Schreiber episode was one of the better ones. My favorite number was Schreiber's last one, in which he demonstrated his wild vocal talent in a song with no words, accompanied by a host of muppets, including some adorable orange baby Koozebanians.

DR. BUNSEN HONEYDEW: "Think of the safety! Think of the sense of well being! At last your family can be protected from the heartbreak of gorilla invasion."

One thing that's sacrificed by having more episodes on each disk is that you can't skip from scene to scene within an episode. The chapters are all one episode long.

The "Muppet Morsels" glosses on my season one Muppet Show DVDs are sometimes only loosely related to the episode, so it's hard to remember where this one came from.

I paraphrase: "every skit ends with either an explosion or a digestion." Something blows up, or somebody gets eaten.

It seems to me this could be generally applicable.

I watched a lot of episodes of The Muppet Show over my three-day weekend. Some quickie comments follow.

( Lots and lots. )

I had about an hour after I finished writing last night, so I watched two more episodes of The Muppet Show.

( Connie Stevens and Joel Grey. )

My DVDs of first season Muppet Show arrived yesterday.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I watched the extras first--the pitch reel, a gag reel, and the pilot, then went on to a few episodes on the same disc (4) that I remembered very little or not at all. I used to watch the series every week when it aired in the U.S., but am not sure when I began watching, or how many times I missed it, given that I was eight years old in 1976, when the show first aired. My memory blurs a bit from the passage of time. Also, I saw some of the episodes again (such as the one with Ethel Merman) when I was writing my Master's thesis and they were airing on A&E, adding to the confusion.

( Some comments, with spoilers. )