Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78525 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 68 minutes

From the Back Cover
Long before America came to appreciate the talents of Jim Henson and his brilliant creations, The Muppets, Ed Sullivan had the foresight to identify with Henson's enormous creativity and provide him an opportunity to introduce his unique characters to the American public. With Henson's first appearance on September 18, 1966, The Muppets began to capture America's imagination, breaking down our old conceptions of what could be done with puppetry, challenging us to embrace these creatures as living and thinking beings. Not only does this program introduce us to Kermit, we can also see the beginnings of other Henson characters we've come to know and love, including reindeer discussing Christmas deliveries, singing cows, a monster engulfing a computer, and Kermit swallowing a worm. The charm and warmth that captured children and adults with these inventive segments first aired are just as powerful and compelling today. As you will see...The Muppets' charm and lore are timeless!

Customer Reviews

Rare and Classic Muppet Moments
Okay, we all know that the cover to this thing stinks. But let's be positive, at least it's colourful.

I can't believe how good these sketches look. The colours are bright and vibrant, and the sound quality is excellent.

It is very nice to be able to see the original versions of some of the sketches made better known on The Muppet Show. "The Computer Dinner" is one of these sketches and it is much better here in its original form. It also stars the Muppet monster who eventually became Cookie Monster.

All of these bits are good, some better then others. My personal favourites are "The Computer Dinner", "InchWorm", and "Rock and Roll Monster".

If I had to pick a sketch that was the worst of the bunch, I'd probably have to say it's(I know some my fellow hard-core Muppet fans are going to hate me for this) "I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face" with Kermit lip-synching to Rosemary Clooney's classic crooner. It's funny, but also somewhat amateurish. The audience loves it though. Oh well, If it ain't broke don't fix it I guess.

There are 20 of the Muppets original 25 Ed Sullivan appearances included on this program.

The missing sketches are worth finding if you can. Especially "Music Hath Charms" from 1967 which shows our hero Kermit, trying to make various monsters dance with some great saloon-style piano playing.

All in all though, I am soooo glad that this has been released. I hope that other vintage Henson works eventually get this same type of treatment (only with better cover art). I would love to see "The Great Santa Claus Switch" or the unreleased 1962 pilot "Tales of the Tinkerdee".

If this release proves to be successful, I hope this will encourage both the Henson and the Ed Sullivan people to continue issuing this older, rarer material from the vaults.

Best Muppets DVD available!
Don't let the ugly cover fool you. This DVD is amazing. Before Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, Jim Henson's Muppets made it big on network variety show appearances. This DVD shows you early incarnations of Kemit, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Fan Favorite Mahna Mahna in great Henson sketches. Jim Henson was way ahead of his time, and this DVD shows it. From a 3 Headed Monster singing rock music to a bunch of singing reindeer, this DVD covers almost every Ed Sullivan appearance the Muppets Made (a few could not be shown due to copyrights). The video and audio are superb. The colors are very vibrant (especially on sketches like Scrap Flyapp and Santa's Workshop). Here is a list of the sketches you will see:
Rock 'n' Roll Monster 1966, September 18
The Art of Visual Thinking 1966, October 2
Monster Family 1966, October 23
Inchworm 1966, November 27
I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face 1967, February 5
I Feel Pretty 1967, April 30
The Computer Dinner 1967, October 8
Santa Claus Routine with Arthur Godfrey 1967, December 24
Business Business 1968, February 18
Java 1968, May 26
The Monster Trash Can Dance 1968, October 13
Sclrap Flyapp 1968, November 24
Christmas Reindeers 1968, December 22
A Change of Face 1969, March 30
Beautiful Day Monster 1969, May 11
Mahna Mahna 1969, November 30
Big Bird's Dance 1969, December 14
Octopus's Garden 1970, March 1
The Wild String Quartet 1971, January 17
The Glutton 1971, February 21

This DVD will not dissapoint. For 10 dollars, it is a steal. This is classic muppets and Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Juhl, Jane Henson, etc at their best. Please support this DVD and get it. There may be another release for The Great Santa Clause Switch (a Muppets and Ed Sullivan special, only aired once) if this one does well. Way to go, Good Times video!

Unbridled Henson
Most people think of the Muppets from Sesame Street or their successful 70s TV show, where "Entertaining the Family, especially the kids" was the point.

Few people remember that when Jim Henson first started appearing on TV with the Muppets, the humor was very much more adult-oriented--not "dirty" adult, but slapticky adult. Things exploded. Creatures were devoured by other creatures. Still others died comically. (Remember the black and white coffee commercials, where a Muppet is asked how he likes a certain brand of coffee? He says he doesn't like it and the interviewing muppet promptly blows him away with a cannon. Then he turns the cannon to the camera and says to the viewer, "Now, what do YOU think of (NAME) coffee?")

Well, that sense of humor is prevalent on the bulk of this DVD and it's marvelous. Henson's appearances on Ed Sullivan are compiled in chronological order, starting with "Instant Rock Band," where a small furry thing expands into a full garage band before your eyes.

From there, we are treated to an early version of what would become the Cookie Monster, gleefully devouring a talking machine that gets the last laugh after it's been swallowed.

The Muppets' first performance of "Ma Nah Ma Nah," which actually became a hit record for them during the 70s after this skit was resurrected on their TV show, is here and is remarkably funny. (When the guy looks down the horn-like noses of his bovine background singers, the look on his face is hilarious.)

Of course, once Sesame Street showed up, Sullivan HAD to have Big Bird on, and it's those "crossover" skits that suffer the most. But you can skip over them.

Definitely get this. It's worth every penny. And it's worth looking into the mind of Jim Henson and what he could do when we was told he could do whatever he liked.