September 5th 2026 is the 50th anniversary of the original UK Broadcast of the first episode of The Muppet Show, and to commemorate the occasion, Ben and Pete are revisiting the episode from five years ago. As the podcast has continued, their focus and technique has changed, so they asked: what aspects of the episode would they concentrate on if they were to look at the proceedings now? Combined with Pete’s utter lack of memory, it’s a fresh look at a classic show.

 
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Ben and Pete mention that this episode is largely structured around the podcast Scott Hasn’t Seen. Because that’s an exclusive show behind a paywall, many of you might not have heard of it, so here’s the structure: Scott, the host, gets a chance to watch a film or television episode he hasn’t previously encountered but might have heard of. He starts off by saying what he thinks he knows about it, based on it’s reputation, and then watches the title in question. He then rejoins his co-host (and a guest) and talks about what they’ve all just seen. Because Pete famously can’t remember anything, we thought it would be fun to watch something he had seen, but had inevitably forgotten, to see how it stood the test of time and what came back as he re-watched it.

ERRATA: Speaking of failed memory, Ben is a mess this episode with regard to what is and isn’t actually on the Muppet Show cast album from 1977. Most of his failed recollections have been excised from the episode, but lets cover the scraps that remain. The most major of which is “Pachalafaka“. Appearing on the album Terribly Sophisticated Songs (A Collection Of Unpopular Songs For Popular People), the titles of the various tracks combines with the parenthetical to give an idea of the kind of satire of the overall project. One can assume that “When The Crab Grass Blooms Again” is a faux pastoral love song, and “I’ll Never Forget Those Unforgettable Never To Be Forgotten Memories” a pastiche of those lush romantic songs where one swears that the thoughts of this person will never, even leave one’s mind. Genre parodies of the sort that Tom Lehrer was expert at. “Pachalafaka” is harder to pin down, conceptually. Were there scads of pop tunes about exotic encounters with mysterious women in foreign climes? It’s a film and fiction trope, certainly, but if it was a musical sub-genre, it seems largely extinct now.

Regardless, the song that plagues both Ben and Pete — and anyone who hopes punchlines from fifty years ago won’t age like a fine glass of milk — is stated on the podcast that it appears on the The Muppet Show record. This is both true and untrue. The song is not on the US edition of the record, which is missing both “Pachalafaka” and “Hugga Wugga” — a track from each side of the disc. (Also of note: the back cover of the international edition, while more visually boring than the lovingly staged photo of Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, and Gonzo all out in the alley behind the Muppet Theatre — in their second-season puppet builds — does give more equitable prominence to Muppet performers Eren Ozker, John Lovelady, and Fran Brill, who all are definitely given secondary status in the US billings.) Is Ben’s memory of having heard it on the album because he had an international version of the LP? Probably not. The track is on the CD of Muppet Hits, Take 2 and therefore was part of a digital jumble of Muppet tracks on iTunes and WinAmp. So, while Ben may have assumed anything he had listened to on his computer was from either The Muppet Show album or The Muppet Show 2, this is simply untrue. Furthermore, the inclusion of “Pachalafaka” and “Hugga Wugga” on the UK, French, German, and Australian editions of the album absolutely puts paid to the baseless speculation that they would have made decisions to keep the masters simple and release only one version. Because they sure didn’t.

In fact, the liner notes for the French and German editions include translations of the songs and sketches in those languages, implying that the entire albums would have been non-English recordings. As of this writing, we could only find the title track from the German LP, which is auf Deutsch — something that seemingly could have appealed to Joel Grey, seeing as he only got to perform the German sections of Cabaret‘s “Wilkommen” on the show. Relatedly, a super-cut of the five season openings to Die Muppet Show can be watched here to get a glimpse of what Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Statler and Waldorf sounded like there. And you can also check out a parallel collection of the French openers — and if you want to get on Pete’s side and criticize all things French, the way they decide to have Kermit laugh instead of saying “YaaAAaaAAaayy!” will provide you with plenty of ammunition.

Joel Grey’s past roles that Pete couldn’t remember, as well as his “Top Four” films came from his IMDb page, and the passages that might have been — but weren’t — about his time filing the Muppet Show came from his memoir, Master of Ceremonies. The New York Times coverage of The Greys should all be accessible through gift links: The 1967 profile of Joel that features mention of “his children: Jennifer, a fragile-looking beauty of 7, and Jimmy, a heart-snatching two-and-a-half-year-old” and the 1968 follow-up feature that has an even greater home-and-family focus. Articles that referred to a post-fame explosion Grey included his comment on turtlenecks, his participation in a school fundraiser, and his name-check in a “travel notes” column that highlighted his Atlantic City revue with Barbara Eden after first comparing regional laws surrounding hitch-hiking. Unfavorable reviews of his early appearances in a theatrical adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk and a compressed, one-hour musical adaptation of Little Women can also be perused.

His grid of Henson Connections has also been updated from the podcast’s first examination of his appearance on this episode in order to better reflect the conversation Pete and Ben had this time around and also to reinforce some connections that could help Pete if he ever made an effort to remember the way actors from the ’70s popped up in films more from his era: