Product Description

Mark Hamill: Luke Skywalker, C-3P0, and R2-D2 hijack the crew from "Pigs in Space" to rescue Chewbacca, then join in a big "star" tunes finale in a galaxy far, far away. Paul Simon: The popular singer-songwriter has a run-in with the law while performing "Scarborough Fair" with Miss Piggy and joins the Muppet band for a rollicking "Loves Me Like a Rock." Raquel Welch: The international sex symbol goes prehistoric to sing and dance with a giant spider and teams with Miss Piggy for a show-stopping "I Am Woman."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18346 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-03
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Live, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Customer Reviews

Good disc -- could have more on it
If there's any complaint to be made about the Best of the Muppet Show DVDs, it's that they really could give you more than three episodes per disc. You feel a little like you're getting gouged. However, the stuff you get is great.

Specific to this disc, you've got three of the best episodes of the Muppet Show. The Mark Hamill episode looks like everybody on that set was having a sheer blast. Hamill plays himself AND Luke Skywalker, and C-3PO, RD-2D and Chewbacca all join him. Paul Simon is as good as always (and he hold the distinction of being the only Muppet guest to ever compose all of the music for his episode) and Raquel Welch's duet with Miss Piggy is a classic.

As for the series as a whole, you get some great extras. Brian Henson provides an introduction to each episode, spilling a little info (hence the Paul Simon tidbit above). You also get production sketches and new Muppet shorts (at least, I've never seen `em before) at about two per disc. Each disc has one "Muppet Screen Test," in which the Muppets do TV and movie parodies, and one "Muppetism," which is the TV equivalent of those posters with a kitten dangling from a clothesline that read "Hang in there!" Silly, upbeat messages presented in a cute manner.

Like I said, the discs are a little pricey for what you get, but it's worth it for the hardcore Muppet fan. Like me.

Best TV ever made!
This DVD contains 3 episodes of the Muppet Show TV series from the 70's. It is no exaggeration to say that this was the best TV ever produced, chock-full of humor and inspiration.

Each episode consists of a series of muppet skits, tied together with a weekly celebrity guest-host. In addition to Mark Hamill (mentioned in the title), this DVD contains episodes hosted by Paul Simon and Raquel Welch.

Before the release of this DVD series, the shows were available only from Time/Life, under a monthly-subscription-type arrangement or as boxed sets (at premium prices). The open release of the DVD is something muppet fans have anticipated for a long time. Wakka-wakka-wakka!

Like a time machine to your childhood.
It's amazing. When I put this DVD in my player, I become 6 years old again.

I can see my parents next to me on our old couch, telling me I can stay up to watch the Muppets, and then it'll be time for bed. (Mommy's grown-up Muppets, my mother used to say, as opposed to the ones on Sesame Street.) And I watched, with joy but also a slight sense of dread, as each skit would bring me that much closer to the end of the show, and to bedtime.

I settled into the couch, and then, suddenly -- CRASH! What was that? Luke Skywalker! C-3PO! R2-D2! The Star Wars guys were on the Muppet Show! I could barely handle the sheer coolness of it all.

Watching the same episode on DVD now, of course, different things stand out. How lousy Mark Hamill is as an actor. His 70's argyle-sweater-vest style. The pathetic sight of Chewbacca and R2-D2 being made to dance, once a cause for childish glee, now seems a spectre of the slow decline of the Star Wars franchise.

On another level, it occurred to me that the Muppet Show, taking place in the pre-MTV era, was really the forerunner of the music video. Each episode presents at least 3 or 4 songs with some sort of visual interpretation of the music. If there's a difference, it's that the Muppet Show lacks the hyperactive editing style of today's videos, so you can actually focus on what's going on -- you're not barraged by disjointed stimuli. It's almost quaint. The gentleness of the songs also struck me as a sign of an era that has passed us by. Would there be a place for the Muppets on television today? Who would the guest stars be? Eminem? 50 Cent? Lil' Kim?

But enough of such worries. I'm watching Luke Skywalker and the Muppets, and it's just too amazing for my six-year-old brain to process. I wriggle my toes inside my Cookie Monster pajamas with the feet on them, and as Zoot blows that last, sorrowful note into his saxaphone, the credits roll up the screen, and I know it's time for bed. But I'm not even tired! Goodbye, guys... until next week.