All the Muppet performers had multiple characters. For example, Jim Henson had Kermit, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef, Waldorf, Link Hogthrob, The Newsman, Nigel, Mahna Mahna and many others.
Taken quite literally in the "At the Dance" sketches, as each Muppet performer portrayed two characters at once, with one on each hand (some character voices would be dubbed in later if the performer did not regularly portray one of the characters). According to the Muppet Morsels on the season one DVD, Dave Goelz did not like performing two characters at the same time because his nose would often itch.
In the case for the Swedish Chef, Jim Henson performed the voice and head, while Frank Oz performed both of the Chef's live hands.
All-Star Cast: The puppeteers themselves were mostly only famous for this and other Henson projects, but the guest star list reads like a who's who of '70s talent. From established actors and singers such as Bob Hope, Milton Berle, and Lena Horne, to up and comers like Elton John and Steve Martin, by the third season everyone in Hollywood was seemingly trying to get on the show.
Banned Episode: When the show was added to Disney+ in 2021, the episode guest-starring staff writer Chris Langham was omitted due to his 2007 conviction for unspeakable sex offenses (Brooke Shields' episode has also yet to surface on the service, but for music-related reasons).
Breakaway Pop Hit: "Halfway Down the Stairs" was a Top 10 UK hit in 1977 for Robin the Frog. The two tie-in albums also were big hits in the UK (with the first album hitting #1), though none of the tie-in recordings charted in the U.S.
The Cast Showoff: On many occasions. Celebrity guest stars were basically asked what they would like to do and had a large influence on the content of their appearances. Many who were not otherwise widely known for their musical and/or dancing talents were given a chance to showcase them with the Muppets. And if the guest of the week also happened to have a particularly odd or obscure talent, well...
The Character Died with Him: In a non-fatal version, the character of Annie Sue was retired when her performer, Louise Gold, stopped performing regularly with the Muppets. Ironically, this makes her less likely to reappear than the characters whose performers have died. However, Gold returned to perform her in Muppets Most Wanted.
Content Warnings: When the show came to Disney+, they added content warnings before a few episodes (like Jim Nabors' turn) that they contained ethnic stereotypes.
In the John Denver episode, Denver explains the dangers of camping in the swamp to Piggy, who lets out a high-pitched nervous whine. He absolutely loses it at this point.
Kris Kristofferson also cracks up when an overly enamored Miss Piggy gets to her part of "Help Me Make It Through the Night".
During the cold open of the Roger Miller episode, Miller asks Scooter when things are going to start jumping. They do in short order. Miller barely is able to get out a question as to when they'll stop before cracking up. He also has a hard time keeping a straight face when he muffs a line in the final number, a medley of his songs, and replaces "You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd" with "you can't buffalate in a rollersko herd".
It evidently took Rita Moreno several attempts to get though her rendition of "Fever" with a misbehaving Animal playing the drums. In the final version you can still see her struggling to keep a straight face.
During the "Swedish Chef vs. Japanese Cake" segment, when the Chef haphazardly throws spice over his shoulder, an offscreen performer (believed to be Richard Hunt) bursts out laughing; this was left in as opposed to playing a laugh track.
Indeed, this show was unique that the puppets were allowed to laugh at their own jokes, and when they did, the jokes were funnier.
In Brian Henson's introduction for the John Cleese episode (as seen on The Odyssey Channel and the Time-Life video release), he says that the more John Cleese stretches out Gonzo's arms and legs, the more he likes it. However, in the episode, he is never shown to like having his limbs stretched out, though he would go on to like it when that happens to him again in the Lynn Redgrave episode as well as Muppet Treasure Island (which Brian directed and likely confused with this occurrence from his father's oeuvre).
On the Time-Life video release of the Peter Sellers episode, the description mentions that he plays a weird doctor in Veterinarian's Hospital. Not only is his sketch as a doctor not a Vets Hospital sketch, but the sketch itself is completely absent from the episode.
Creator Backlash: Henson mentioned in an interview that he was very embarrassed by some of the early episodes.
The writing staff really liked Gonzo's Cloudcuckoolander sensibilities and bizarre stunts, so they gave him lots of spotlight scenes as the show progressed.
J.P. Grosse, Scooter's uncle who owns the theater. Head writer Jerry Juhl once claimed that the character worked well as The Ghost, but when he started to actually appear in the second season, he was too harsh to have around and was dropped from the show altogether.
Fleet Scribbler. Like J.P., once the cast and crew began to work with him, they found him way too aggressive and awful, so he only appeared a few times. They had to use him in the show because when Fleet was introduced in a press conference, the reporters loved him and gave him huge publicity.
The writers quickly grew to hate the "At the Dance" sketches which simply featured a collection of lame puns, resulting in those sketches occurring less and less frequently after the first season. That didn’t stop them from making the Carol Burnett episode one big "At the Dance" sketch with extra segments in between.
Most prominently, Frank Oz as Miss Piggy, Richard Hunt as Janice, and Jerry Nelson as Camilla.
Another of Jerry Nelson's characters, Robin, was dubbed by a woman in Japan (Miyuki Ichijou, better known as being the Japanese dub voice of Marge Simpson).
Each episode had an additional two-minute segment seen in the United Kingdom broadcasts but not in the original United States broadcast. The Nickelodeon reruns usually included these extra segments, but to save room, had some scenes cut from the episode's original broadcasts, such as the Swedish Chef making fish chowder using a live fish (Don Knotts) and Sam the Eagle's editorial on nudity (NancyWalker).
Following the Jim Henson Company's purchase of the distribution rights, the first season opening was replaced with the second season's (a handful of first season episodes were shown with the fifth season opening), which wouldn't be seen again in an official capacity until the first season came to DVD.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Thanks to the myriad of rights issues involving celebrities and licensed music, the show hasn't been respected well on home video.
Most of Seasons 4 and 5 remain unavailable on video; a few episodes from these seasons did appear on the Time-Life best-of compilations at the Turn of the Millennium but are now out of print and unlike seasons 1-3, no DVD box sets were ever released for 4 and 5. In addition, a few Season 1 episodes lost segments in the DVD box set due to music rights issues. Season 4 was going to have a DVD release in 2010, but was cancelled.
Late Export for You: The Muppet Show didn't reach Japan until 1981, when it was aired as a summer special on TV Asahi, with only 15 episodes dubbed. Although considered a flop in the U.S., Spiritual SuccessorMuppets Tonight would fare better in Japan, where the complete run aired on NHK.
Live on Stage!: There were two of these that premiered not long after ceasing its original run. Both of them were created by VEE Corporation. As for later Muppet inspired "live shows", those are more strictly concert based and feature the actual puppets instead of costumed performers.
For the show's 25th anniversary celebration back in 2001-2003, the Henson Company released a collection of "Best-of" DVD compilations featuring the show's best episodes, a 25th anniversary album composing of songs from both the show and even the films up to that point and plenty of merch to celebrate it. They also hosted a one-time special fan convention called Muppetfest to celebrate the anniversary, all culminating in a live performance of the show.
The Disney+ release coincides with the 45th anniversary of the show, and the 40th anniversary of its finale. Disney+ acknowledged the former by posting this clip reel onto YouTube on the exact date of the anniversary.
Missing Episode: The episodes with Chris Langham (due to his sex offenses conviction) and Brooke Shields (due to the music rights issues) are missing from Disney+. In addition, when the show premiered on the platform, for unknown reasons, the Kaye Ballard episode was unavailable, but would be by the end of the premier date. In Europe, the John Denver and Spike Milligan episodes are also not available.
It aired on Nickelodeon for a few years in The '90s, giving the older millennials their own time to catch it. This did seem to create a new set of fans alongside the newmovieinstallments.
Disney+ has made the show easily accessible for the first time in many years (it was last shown on television in 2000 and the last home video release was in 2008), creating a wealth of interest and new fans.
Angus McGonagle is one of the series' few examples, though you could hardly classify it as "singing"; his gargling is provided by Richard Hunt instead of Jerry Nelson.
In her first singing appearance, Miss Piggy's singing voice was provided by Richard Hunt, while still being puppeteered by Frank Oz. Starting with "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song", Oz did both the speaking and singing for the pig.
Janice is a strong contender for most-recast Muppet ever. She's gone through three official "main" performers (Eren Ozker, Richard Hunt and David Rudman), and has had four alternate performers (Fran Brill in the original pilot and the Muppet Meeting films, John Lovelady in the Julie Andrews: My Favorite Things TV special, Brian Henson in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and Tyler Bunch in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. And that's not counting Matt Vogel voicing her in the Muppets Race Mania video game, or Baby Janice being voiced by Dave Coulier in her one appearance on Muppet Babies.
Throughout the first season, Oz and Hunt alternated playing Piggy. Hunt would usually perform her whenever Oz was needed elsewhere in a scene, such as Fozzie. It wasn't until season two that Oz would become Piggy's permanent performer.
Out of Order: Episodes were aired willy-nilly on original broadcast, which explains why Scooter's introduction is after two episodes where he's already established. The Disney DVD sets put them back in production order but it was temporarily thrown askew once more when the series was released on Disney+.
The Pete Best: Two performers, John Lovelady and Eren Ozker, left after the first season (though they still did some future projects with Henson).
Dave Goelz was a relative newcomer to the Muppet organization in 1976, and his background was in puppet-building rather than performing, so he channeled his feelings of insecurity and being a misfit into Gonzo, which helped give extra dimensions to the character.
Richard Hunt was also a newbie, as well as one of the younger puppeteers (24 when the show debuted), and was often starstruck by the guest stars, all traits he channeled into Scooter
Jerry Nelson said he imagined Floyd as a beatnik who liked jazz and poetry, then became a hippie and then a mainstream rock and roller because he needed the money - a career path not dissimilar to Nelson's own.
The Red Stapler: Tickets to the Muppet Show were requested by fans during the show's original broadcast run. People actually believed it really was taped live in a theater because of the laugh track, applause and camera shots of the theater's audience.
The Resolution Will Not Be Identified: The last episode, aside from a few jokes about the end of the world, played out very much like a normal episode of the show, even ending with Kermit saying "We'll see you next time on The Muppet Show!".
Screwed by the Lawyers: Due to the heavy usage of licensed music, the show took years to receive any proper home video release, and the releases that did eventually happen (the Time-Life compilations, the seasons 1-3 sets, and the streaming release) have often cut certain sketches. Additionally, Disney+ omits the Brooke Shields episode entirely, presumably due to music rights in that episode making even an edit unfeasible.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: Miss Piggy's trademark karate chop was scripted on its first appearance as a face slap. Oz couldn't figure out a way to get the puppet to do the slap convincingly, and in a fit of frustration ad-libbed a karate chop. Everybody watching fell about laughing, and the rest is history.
Per the chaos caused by multiple puppeteers, many of the Swedish Chef's antics were improv-based. For instance, one episode had Henson, in-character, dare Oz to make a "chickee in du baskee" — throwing a chicken into a pot across the set. Oz made the shot, causing Henson to exclaim, "Tu points!" The exchange was entirely unscripted. The laughter of the crew during the taping of his sketches was also left in because it blended perfectly with the laugh track.
In the Rich Little episode, Goelz ad-libbed Gonzo saying "nice legs, though" regarding a dancing chicken he was auditioning. Naturally, this later helped develop the character's attraction to chickens.
In the Candice Bergen episode, Kermit was supposed to shove a pie into Fozzie's face in an attempt to get back at him for all the jokes he pulled earlier. Henson flubs it the first time, so he does it again, and part of the pie splats on to Candice, causing Oz to ad-lib, "Awww! Look what you did!"
In the Ruth Buzzi episode, Piggy was initially supposed to slap Kermit. However, there was no way to make the puppet slap without making it look stupid, so instead, Oz did a karate chop and went, "Hiiii-yah!" This soon became one of her trademarks.
Uncle Deadly was considered for a Muppet comedy-horror anthology called "Uncle Deadly's House of Badness" that, sadly, never got off the ground.
Richard Pryor was scheduled to appear until his notorious freebasing suicide attempt made that appointment impossible. Staff writer Chris Langham had to substitute for that episode, with the unfortunate result that the episode ended up banned from circulation after Langham's sex offenses. Pryor would later make a cameo in The Muppet Movie.
You Look Familiar: The same puppet used for Vendawish was also used for Vendaface in the first season largely because it was such an expensive build that they felt it was a waste to use it only once.
Assorted Trivia:
A Frenchparody of the show existed from 1982 to 1995, Le Bébête Show. It wasn't quite a Foreign Remake, rather a political satire that turned characters of the Muppet Show into French politicians.
that he was very embarrassed by some of the early episodes.