Do the words, “It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights,” mean anything to you? How about, “It’s not easy being green?” If you answered yes, then you, like so many others, probably have a soft spot for Jim Henson and the Muppets.
The Muppets are more than just nostalgia for me. Watching a Disney cartoon from my youth is good for a smile, and I can even tolerate the occasional episode of “Perfect Strangers” or “Growing Pains.” Even “Full House” is made somewhat watchable by virtue of the fact that I spent many years of my life following the exploits of the Tanner family. But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can compare to the feeling I get when I watch the Muppets.
Last year, I had something of a rediscovery. The summer before college was one of those filled with deep, “Wow, I’m going to college, but remember when … ” moments. On a regular basis, I raided my old stacks of videotapes and books in search of remnants of my youth. At one point, I was having a conversation with some friends about a little Muppet sketch called “Manah Manah,” a favorite oddity from the first season of “The Muppet Show” first season. One friend had never seen it before, so without thinking, I ran upstairs to search through a stack of poorly labeled videotapes in search of the episode. To my shock, none of the tapes had it. For the next week, several friends and I searched countless Internet databases for information of where the skit could be found. We went from video store to video store, shocked at the lack of Muppets they stocked. Finally, I arrived at the store I used to rent from when I was four, the store from which I purchased my first VCR. And there they were, about seven “Muppet Treasures” tapes, the original “Best of the Muppets” series released on home video.
My initial impulse was just to pop each one in and fast forward until I found the sketch I was looking for, but it wasn’t that easy. I wound up having to remove my finger from the fast forward button about as quickly as I put it on. Almost every single sketch on the tape triggered a memory; not one was unfamiliar. For several hours that night, I remembered what it was like to be little. I just sat there smiling and laughing at the jokes I doubt I even got back then, blown away by what I saw.
It was with a heavy heart that I eventually returned the tapes a few days later. I’d found “Manah Manah,” but I’d also found countless hours of other crazy Muppet memories: the guest hosts, the subversive wit, the general weirdness of it all. It just all hit me at once how much I truly missed the Muppets.
I was raised at the height of Muppet mania. Born in 1982, I had plenty of access to episodes of the “Muppet Show,” the Muppet movies, Muppet videos and those great HBO Muppet programs like “Fraggle Rock.” As important as the golden ages of Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel were to my impressionable young mind, I hasten to think of a television show that taught me more about, well, everything than “Sesame Street” or that entertained me more than the “Muppet Show.”
Since Jim Henson’s death in 1990, the Muppets have sadly drifted away into pop culture past. Recent attempts to bring the Muppets back in film (“Muppets From Space”) and TV (“Muppets Tonight”) have been enjoyable, but unsuccessful commercially. Sadly, it seems unlikely that any new Muppet production will be able to equal any of the old Henson output. But what never ceases to amaze me is just how good the old Muppets still are.
I can only hope that I’m not the only one who feels like this; I almost feel as if the Muppets are prime to reenter our collective conscious the way the children of the ’70s brought Star Wars back from the pop culture wasteland in the mid-90s. Perhaps some hotshot filmmaker will have a Muppet reference in one of his movies the way Kevin Smith did with “Star Wars” in “Clerks.” Or perhaps the growing number of Muppet DVDs will remind people just how much the Muppets meant to them.
If you still don’t believe that the Muppets deserve a comeback, just rent the original Muppet Movie. For an hour-and-a-half, let yourself get sucked back to a time when Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem were the first and last name in rock and roll, Fozzie was the embodiment of comedy, Piggy was the ultimate diva and Kermit was the every-man who reminded us all how to follow our dreams. Just try not to get choked up when you first see Kermit sing “The Rainbow Connection” after all these years. It’s not as easy as you’d think.
“Someday we’ll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me.”
– Kermit
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