The Muppet Valentine Special
The Muppet Valentine Special is the first pilot of the Muppet Show to be televised. The episode was produced for ABC in 1974 and aired January 30, 1974. The other pilot was The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence , which was shot earlier but didn't air until a year later.
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Thematically, the half-hour show revolves around Valentine's Day and thus love. Thog sings the song Real, Live, Girl with Mia Farrow , while Kermit the frog is courting Miss Mousey. Then Mia Farrow sings the song Those Endearing Young Charms for Rufus the dog, played by Frank Oz . Wally, played by Jim Henson , led through the show , while Kermit himself only has a supporting role. The character Wally did not reappear afterwards, Wally's doll became an arbitrarily changeable Whatnot doll in the production of the Muppet Show.
Even if the content of the Valentine Special is much further away than The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence from the later Muppet Show, there are elements here that merged into the Muppet Show. For example, in the Valentine Special, a guest star - Mia Farrow - appeared for the first time and remained present throughout the program. There was also the repeated interruption of a continuous framework action by elaborately staged stage plays. Some older characters from the Valentine Special such as George , Mildred , Droop , Miss Mousey and Thog also appeared later on the Muppet Show, but quickly got background roles there or disappeared entirely.
Remarks
- ↑ Jim Henson's Red Book: 1/30/1974 - 'Air Valentine Show.'
- ↑ The Muppet Valentine Special (1973) ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Henson.com
- ↑ Christopher Finch: Jim Henson. The Works - the Art, the Magic, the Imagination. New York 1993, ISBN 0-679-41203-4 , p. 42
