24 Best Muppet Show Moments Of All Time

From Episode 305: “Pearl Bailey”

Tony award winning legend Pearl Bailey appears in a musical epic that takes place in Camelot. It features some of Bailey’s most memorable numbers, including “Hello Dolly!” as well as some harmonizing between Muppet personalities like Fozzie and Scooter.

From Episode 219: “Peter Sellers”

Peter Sellers, the enigmatic character actor, died young. Many biographies, documentaries, and films have been made about his life. Perhaps his most famous quote about himself was appropriately uttered to Kermit the Frog during the first season of The Muppet Show: “But that, you see, my dear Kermit, would be all together impossible. I could never be myself. You see, there is no me, I do not exist. There used to be a me – but I had it surgically removed.”

From Episode 304: “Gilda Radner”

Gilda Radner appears in what might be the greatest Muppet Labs sketch. It is one of those Muppet Show moments where the on stage sketch and the real world of the backstage transition together, after the sketch about super adhesive ends, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are still fighting amongst one another, while Gilda complains to Kermit about her hand being glued to her forehead.

From Episode 107: “Florence Henderson”

When the mother from The Brady Bunch seems a bit too flirtatious with Kermit, Miss Piggy does not just stand idly by. In fact, Piggy offers a key aspect of her personality as she let’s loose her iconic karate chop and those immortal words, “HI-YAH!”

From Episode 108: “Peter Ustinov”

Not every Muppet moment needs a guest star. I don’t often tear up when I see a singing frog, but when Kermit the Frog sings “Bein’ Green,” well, nobody will blame you if you weep openly.

From Episode 209: “Madeline Kahn”

In most modern day Muppet incarnations The Electric Mayhem house band almost always perform together, on The Muppet Show, it was actually just as common to see just a few of them together. There are plenty of examples of Electric Mayhem performances to choose from, but something about how successfully simply having Floyd Pepper sing what was then a pretty new pop song without any artifice or slapstick antics is as good as these performances come.

From Episode 318: “Leslie Uggams with Big Bird”

Rarely did Sesame Street characters show up on The Muppet Show, but when Broadway and television actress Leslie Uggams, now perhaps known best for modern roles in Deadpool and Empire, hosted, she had Big Bird right there with her. Their duet of “Love Will Keep Us Together” remains far more listenable than The Captain and Tineale’s original.

From Episode 223: “John Cleese”

Pigs in Space was a fun Muppet fueled riff on Star Trek. When John Cleese appeared on The Muppet Show he played a villainous pirate that would have made more sense in the 18th Century, but perhaps a future where pigs fly is also a future where a Muppet parrot is openly disappointed he’s not at home watching a movie with his pirate owner.

From Episode 201: “Don Knotts”

A lot of tender moments on The Muppet Show, Kermit and Rowlf were two of the earliest Henson creations, and sometimes their solo work in the Henson era had the sound of personalities in the twilight of life. Much like the somber “Bein Green,” Rowlf’s rendition of “What a Wonderful World” where he simply sings and strokes a non-muppet puppy is a truly sweet and somehow sobering in the midst of Muppet mayhem.

From Episode 511: “Paul Simon”

The Muppets can make anything seem a lot more wholesome. “Scarborough Fair” feels a lot different in the background of The Graduate than it does as Paul Simon sings it for a medieval village of Muppets with voices far less melodic than Garfunkle’s.

From Episode 306: “Jean Stapleton”

Sure, Kermit had Piggy… Gonzo had Camilla… but who did Crazy Harry have? Well, as luck would have it, he had All In The Family‘s Jean Stapleton all up in his business. Apparently she had a thing for guys heavily into explosives. It is a delight to watch her sing “I’m Just Wild About Harry” as Crazy Harry gets wild with his dynamite.

From Episode 318: “Leslie Uggams with Big Bird”

Everyone knows that the love of Gonzo’s life is Camilla the Chicken. But did you know their first date was ruined when Gonzo’s wandering fell upon the appealingly bulky Big Bird? Luckily love won in the end.

From Episode 303: “Roy Clark”

Among the great bromances in American History, Martin & Lewis, Obama & Biden, Lemon & Matthau… none is more bromantic than that of Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog… but in Season 3 of The Muppet Show Fozzie’s incompetence almost got him canned, and surprisingly this had nothing to do with his corny jokes. Fozzie sent stage hands home, wreaked havoc on the theater, and caused significant injury to Kermit… but in the end Kermit forgave.