Original air date: September 14, 1985
We’re just a couple of days away from the 40th anniversary of Little Muppet Monsters. Can you believe it? Forty years of Tug, Molly, and Boo! Here at Tough Pigs, we’re commemorating the occasion with reviews of every episode, but first I’d like to share some history, both Muppety and personal.
When the first season of Muppet Babies aired in 1984, it was a big hit. Kids everywhere loved seeing their favorite Muppet characters, but smaller, and wearing different clothes, and supervised by a lady with striped socks and no head. The following season, the Muppet people decided to expand their presence on Saturday morning with another half-hour show: Little Muppet Monsters. Alas, the new show only aired three episodes, with lots of material going unused, and as time went on it became infamous among Muppet fans as a rare failure in Jim Henson’s career.
When I was a kid, my parents taped the TV special The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years for me, and I watched it over and over again on our VCR. I loved it, but I was puzzled by one montage introduced by Big Bird. The Muppets have done great stuff for kids, he says, starting with Sesame Street… and now, he says, “there’s Muppet Babies, Little Muppet Monsters, and Fraggle Rock too!” I knew about the babies and the Fraggles, but who were those guys talking about making their own TV show and dancing with a Muppet carrot?
The reference became less mystifying when I read Jim Henson: The Works, which devotes two and a half paragraphs to summarizing the show, and which quotes Michael Frith explaining that the goal was to “imagine what kids’ fantasies might be in a world where electronic toys can become creative tools.”
A few years later, something remarkable happened. I was now a teenage Muppet geek, and my friend Justin found a tape of stuff his mom had recorded from TV one Saturday morning in the ‘80s. The tape was labeled “Saturday new premiere – excellent.” We put the tape in my friend’s VCR, pressed play… and there it was: The Wuzzles!
Half an hour later, there it was: Little Muppet Monsters!
I couldn’t believe it. By that time, I knew that the show had a very short life on the air, so it felt like a miracle to have access to an episode of it. (Remember, this was before everything ever made could be found at the click of a few buttons!) We watched the episode, which turned out to be “In the Beginning,” the series premiere. I thought it was a fun, entertaining show… or at least, I think I did. I’m actually not sure how much I liked it, although I do remember liking it more than Justin, who was unimpressed.
You know what? Justin was more correct than I was. Yes, it was exhilarating to view a “lost” Muppet show back then, but I’m afraid I can’t say Little Muppet Monsters is a hidden gem. It’s more like an old bookmark you find when you open a book for the first time in years and you go “Huh, this is kind of a cute bookmark!” and then you forget about it.
Anyway, about the episode. The title “In the Beginning” invokes the Biblical creation story, and there are some similarities. Tug, Molly, and Boo find themselves in their own personal Garden of Eden, where they live alongside animals (specifically, penguins and rats). But unlike Adam and Eve, who were banished from the garden for breaking the rules, the Little Muppet Monsters are banished to their new paradise by an angry Scooter for committing the sin of playing water polo in the living room. (Hmm… I’m not sure this analogy is tortured enough. Oh well!)
See, on this program, the Muppets we know (Kermit, the Electric Mayhem) live in either a house or an apartment building with a basement, and on a dark and stormy night, Scooter tosses the three titular little Muppet monsters in said basement so he can clean up their mess. While the monsters are exploring their new surroundings, lightning strikes, and a contraption that looks like a washing machine suddenly lights up. It’s a TV! And do you know what it means when you have a TV in your room? You can produce and broadcast your own TV show!
If that doesn’t make much sense to you, I don’t blame you. The logic is not exactly airtight. Even more curious are the animated segments, which make up about half the episode and which star cartoon versions of the familiar Muppet Show characters. Some of them arbitrarily appear on the monsters’ monitor without any effort on their part, but others (like a “Pigs in Space” short and a detective story starring Kermit) are presented as projects the characters are working to create.
And what is the monsters’ relationship to the classic Muppets, anyway? Why do they live in this building? They address Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo as “Uncle,” which might suggest that they’re the children of one of the Muppet monsters. But they just call Scooter “Scooter,” which suggests that either that theory is wrong or they’re mad at Scooter for throwing them in the basement so they’re insulting him by not using his title.
And why did their machine have to get struck by lightning? Why couldn’t they have just found some regular cameras and a monitor in the basement? Those sound like things the Muppets would have lying around.
Am I applying too much scrutiny to a silly kids’ puppet show? MAYBE! But the lack of coherence might just have something to do with the fact that it was reportedly Jim Henson’s idea to pull the show off the air. I’ve always had some questions about Muppet Babies — where are their parents? — but “The Muppets are babies hanging out in a nursery and using their imagination” is a much more straightforward concept than this one.
The episode ends with Tug, Molly, and Boo and their newfound rat and penguin friends doing a lovely musical number called “On TV,” in which they announce their ambitious plans for their new roles as television writers/directors/producers/stars. When I watch it, I can’t help but feel bad for them. They have no idea how quickly their small-screen careers are going to end.
But I’ll never forget that for one brief, shining moment, I was very excited to see them… “On TV!”*
*Via a decade-old home VHS recording.
Most Valuable Muppets: It’s not any of the monsters, or even any of the recognizable Muppets. It’s the rats! The rats hang around the basement adding visual interest, as they often do in Muppet stuff, and on a few occasions their antics made me laugh.
Best Animated Segment: “Muppet Sport Shorts.” This cartoon features Animal enthusiastically but clumsily attempting to use a gymnastics bar, which results in slapstick shenanigans. Tug narrates the whole thing, which makes it feel like a tribute to those classic Goofy sports cartoons (or a ripoff, if you’re less charitable). Animation allows Animal to do physical comedy stunts that would be much more difficult for his puppet self.
Dumbest Joke That I Laughed at Anyway: In that cartoon, Tug says “First, the athlete must address the high bar,” and Animal says “HELLO, BAR!” Heh.
Weakest Animated Segment: I regret to report that it’s “Fozzie’s Comedy Corner.” He tells us that he’s going to explain not why the chicken crossed the road, but how. Was it on roller skates? Or a stunt motorcycle? An animated chicken enacts these scenarios on a screen behind Fozzie, and then it’s over. Wait a minute… We’re watching a screen, and on that screen the Little Muppet Monsters are watching a screen, and on that screen Fozzie is watching a screen! It’s only 1985, and the Muppets are subtly commenting on the alarming ubiquity of screens in our lives. Hmm, maybe this show is more profound than I thought…
First Appearance Of…: Tug Monster! Molly Monster! Boo Monster! Nicky Napoleon and His Emperor Penguins! They’re all here!
Most Prophetic Cultural Moment: As the trio brainstorms ideas for their broadcast, Tug announces that he’s going to a feature on food. But “not cooking,” he clarifies. “Eating!” Molly protests: “You can’t just go on television and eat, Tug. It’s not entertaining.” Today there are hundreds of food-focused “content creators” on YouTube and TikTok with millions of followers who make money by eating various foods on camera, and the annual Coney Island hot dog eating contest draws big boffo ratings on cable. Tug was ahead of his time! I can only assume that, had this show been a hit, he would have appeared on Hot Ones by now.
Most Astonishing Cameo: In the animated detective story, a series of clues leads Kermit, Fozzie, and Miss Piggy to the South Pole, where they run into a polar bear. Kermit quickly deduces the bear’s true identity and unmasks the mastermind behind the scheme to steal Piggy’s piggy bank: Banana Nose Maldonado!
What?! Banana Nose Maldonado a Muppet who appeared in ONE episode of The Muppet Show, in ONE “Bear on Patrol” sketch! How in the world did he end up making his triumphant return on this show?
One More Thing: The animated versions of Kermit and Fozzie are voiced by the same actors who played Baby Kermit and Baby Fozzie on Muppet Babies. This wouldn’t be so distracting if not for the fact that Miss Piggy doesn’t sound like Baby Piggy and Animal doesn’t sound like Baby Animal. And in the “Pigs in Space” cartoon, Dr. Strangepork is voiced by Muppet Babies voice actor Greg Berg and it sounds like Baby Scooter doing an accent.
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by Ryan Roe – [email protected]
