Watching The Muppet Show With the Kids

I took them back to experience some fond memories from my childhood

Image by Walter Rhein

When my kids got old enough, and I got sick of watching the ponies, I went out and got a copy of The Muppet Show on DVD.

“What the heck is that?” said my wife who grew up in Peru.

“Didn’t you get The Muppet Show?”

“No, we got The A-Team.”

“Ah, let me show you what you’ve been missing all your life,” I said as I popped the disk into the player.

From the moment the kind of obnoxious music began to play, I found myself transported back to the little log cabin in Northern Wisconsin that my parents built. I expect I’m one of the last people you’ll ever meet who grew up in a homemade house.

We had this tiny little television that used to take a few minutes to warm up, and we’d crowd around it to watch the antics of the Muppets. This was before the Muppets really knew what they were. They thought they were a variety show for adults, and some of the humor would be considered “inappropriate.”

But back then adults assumed children would just completely forget about their childhoods. So we sat back and laughed and watched the ridiculous colors.

“What the heck is this?” my wife asked.

“Isn’t it great?”

I took her silence as agreement.

My kids found the humor in it, at least for a little while. Or perhaps they found the humor in me. I always particularly liked the sketches of The Swedish Chef. Once, I’d left the Muppets playing and went into the other room. A moment later, I heard the pounding of stockinged feet.

I turned to see my daughter come charging up to me. She was wearing the little red dress like you see on children in Christmas cards. She had on white stockings and her pudgy legs were churning.

“Daddy, daddy, it’s the greatest chef! The greatest chef!”

She’d come to alert me that the Swedish Chef had just begun. I was reminded of the era before the pause button where we all had to run through the house screaming at each other to come so we could celebrate together because there was no way to stop the television broadcast.

I dropped what I was doing and went with her. “The greatest chef? I’m there!”

Then we watched and laughed as he tried to make a chocolate moose out of an actual moose. Come to think of it, I think the kids enjoyed watching me more than they enjoyed watching the Muppets.

Over the weekend, I put in the episode when Mark Hamill came dressed as Luke Skywalker. When he appeared as Luke Skywalker, he remained in character. When they asked Luke to do something ridiculous, he ran off to get his “cousin” and then Mark Hamill would appear. He’d throw himself into absurd routines that left Kermit shaking his head in disgust.

My wife wasn’t all that excited about the show, but she likes Miss Piggy who doesn’t take any crap and isn’t afraid to “Hi-Ya” somebody across the room. The world needs a little more of that right now… a LOT more of that.

When the pressures of the day get to be too much, it’s good to know you can turn to the early Muppets in the evening. On YouTube I found a collection of Professor Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. He’s not very nice to Beaker. My eldest is in high school now, and she’s come to enjoy the Muppets more.

But I’ll always remember them flying up to me in identical red dresses that made them look like Christmas ornaments crying out, “The Greatest Chef! The Greatest Chef!”

Go give it a watch, remember better times. Smile!

WalterRhein.com