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 … Continue reading Guest-starring Joel Grey! Again!
Errata
Guest-starring Cheryl Ladd!
Pete and Ben talk about an episode where Cheryl Ladd and Miss Piggy demonstrate their martial arts skills, and then go hammer-and-tongs against each other about their wildly divergent opinions about a classic novelty song from the 1950s. They also establish two or three new pieces of head-canon for the show, stretch five moments out … Continue reading Guest-starring Cheryl Ladd!
Guest-Starring Liberace!
Ben and Pete are astonished by the unconventional structure of this episode, in which Liberace gets the lion's share of the running time to perform a concert "for the birds". Will a performer doing schtick ruffle Pete's feathers, or will he be hypnotized by Liberace's glitz and glamour? A larger than normal episode to encompass … Continue reading Guest-Starring Liberace!
Guest-starring Judy Collins!
Ben and Pete clash over what comes off more poorly in this episode: the newly corporeal figure of of Scooter's uncle or the folk music stylings of the guest-star. They also guess what segment of the show was produced months after filming and engage in a truly gross pun run. https://audioboom.com/posts/8243776-henson-perspective-guest-starring-judy-collins Sources and References: ERRATA: … Continue reading Guest-starring Judy Collins!
Guest-starring Nancy Walker!
Pete and Ben get a little loopy about whether Fozzie should have engaged in a little time travel in order to establish his famous catchphrase before he started using it in honor of this week's guest. Then they get loopier still about whether Pete's rating system is baseless and can't be trusted. Except, Ben's going … Continue reading Guest-starring Nancy Walker!
Guest-starring George Burns!
It's the Muppet Show! With our very special return to season two on the 45th anniversary of the original NYC broadcast. Ben and Pete continue their journey documenting what jokes land, debating which conceits confuse, and wondering from where some of these musical choices came. This week they discuss the show's secret Britishness, the worst … Continue reading Guest-starring George Burns!
Guest-starring Avery Schreiber!
Ben and Pete examine the career and appearance of Avery Schreiber, and the ties between his comedy partner — the key writer on The Muppet Show — and his manager — whom he shared with Jim Henson. And yet, they find that this show featured some of the best writing of the season and some … Continue reading Guest-starring Avery Schreiber!
Guest-starring Lena Horne!
Ben and Pete start down the winding, uncertain path of developing a grand unified theory of whether the Muppet Show is a filmed stage show, a television show within a show, and whether the viewing audience exists in the Muppet Show universe. Oh, and they also review the sketches, guest, etc., etc., per usual. https://audioboom.com/posts/7971616-henson-perspective-guest-starring-lena-horne … Continue reading Guest-starring Lena Horne!
The Machinations of Memory
In the episode focused on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Ben chastised Anna for her desire to describe the cloaked, hidden machine that produced the Everlasting Gobstoppers as "a Rube Goldberg device". Ben quickly clambered up on his high horse to disabuse her of that particular description, but in doing so forgot some of … Continue reading The Machinations of Memory
A Third of Your Monthly Penance
While searching for a blog entry that might reveal the name of the typeset that was used in The Apartment's main title sequence, I stumbled upon a lovely, stream-of-consciousness post by Janielle Kastner, a writer and podcaster out of Texas. She, like me, drilled down into the finances of C.C. "Bud" Baxter, since he is so … Continue reading A Third of Your Monthly Penance
Farced Perspective 