It’s February when this drops, late from a January anniversary airdate, featuring footage from Spooky Season and an featured skit that takes place on New Year’s Eve. And that doesn’t even include the number of moments that Ben and Pete feel are out of order within the episode itself! Join them to untangle the chronology and to figure out how much Vincent Price is too much, not enough, or too obvious.

Sources and References:

A biography about Jack Parnell, providing some of the context for his long career can be found in an archived issue of Sounds On. The encyclopedia entry attributing the popularity of “Auld Lang Syne” to bandleader Guy Lombardo is here.

While the trivia track claims that the arrangement of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is inspired by Stan Freberg’s earlier adaptation, what they actually meant was that when the Hensons previously did that song on Sam & Friends, they lip-synced to Freberg’s recording. The Muppet Show adaptation and the Sam & Friends version are actually very different.

The A.V. Club covered all of the Muppet Show episodes many years ago, and their columnist was particularly cheesed off by the excised Vincent Price cover of Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend” and linked to a YouTube video in their online column.

Price’s appearance on Johnny Carson to demonstrate that one could cook fish in a dishwasher took place on November 21, 1975, and the joke that Peter found particularly edgy takes place approximately at 16:45. Enjoy! Additional commentary about Price and The Tonight Show can be found in the online version of Henson’s Red Book.