Today, we’re looking at something that both brings me joy and makes me feel old. Last week was the 50th anniversary of The Muppet Show. I so vividly remember sitting in our tv room (on the floor – the adults got the furniture) on Sunday nights, watching the Muppets with my family. Other than The Lawrence Welk Show, I can’t recall another program that we all watched together regularly. It was a weekly event to which we all looked forward. Even in my (sulky) early teenage years, I remember feeling happy anticipation as the opening credits played each week.

Reading up on the show, I was shocked to learn it ran only 5 seasons and totaled 120 episodes. It feels like it went on for so much longer! Of course, we all knew about Jim Henson’s puppets from Sesame Street, but as the story goes, he realized he was being typecast as a children’s entertainer. He wanted to do something that would appeal to adults, while keeping it family friendly. Thus, The Muppet Show was born. Interestingly enough, Henson’s Muppets were featured in a few recurring sketches during SNL’s first season. While Henson and the SNL staff weren’t a fit, he did learn quite a bit about how to create a new variety show every 7 days from being on the SNL set.

You can watch The Muppet Show on Disney+. and if you don’t have Disney+, at the bottom of this post is the first video in a playlist that includes all the episodes in their entirety. Since Disney owns TMS and they’re notoriously litigious, it’s likely that the playlist will disappear soon, so if you want to watch them, I recommend you do it soon… Oh, and you can also follow The (verified) Muppets on the Disney website, and on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

And because I can’t resist it, even though it is a remix and was never on the Muppet Show, here is God’s Away on Business by Tom Waits and Cookie Monster.

And speaking of things I can’t resist, here’s my darling OK Go with their version of the Muppet Show Theme Song.

Here’s the first video in the full-series playlist. Enjoy!