Phantom of the Paradise

It was 20 years ago today…when we started recording this episode. Look, some of us have a lot of opinions about The Beatles! It’s possible the people who made this movie have no opinions whatsoever about The Beatles? Certainly very little understanding of the meaning of most of their songs. But hey, there are bright colors and Bee Gees and Peter Frampton most certainly not coming alive as an actor! Somehow there’s a character named Strawberry Fields but not one named Penny Lane or even a meter maid named Rita. What are we even doing here? Listen and find out, with our very special guest start, Patrick Cotnoir! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/sgt-pepper

The Phaaaaaaaaantom of the Paradise is here inside…The Portrait of Dorian Gray? Sure, why not? Muppet Show guest star and Christie’s president Paul Williams stars and composes the most bag of cocainey movie yet in the bag of cocaine season. With our very special guest star, Amy Spalding! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/phantom-of-the-paradise

Welcome to our new season, all about movies that appear to have been greenlit by a bag of cocaine! We’ve mentioned a lot of these in passing before but now we’re taking a deep dive into the shallow end, starting with The Apple, one of the most WTF films ever made! Is it a cautionary tale about the corrupting influence of fame? An allegory for totalitarianism? A retelling of Genesis? Yes, and so much less! We’ll try to make sense of it all with our very special guest star Amy Spalding! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/apple

It’s America’s 250th birthday! We’d sing it a song (it took two people to write it!) but we’re…ambivalent at best. So instead we’re looking back 50 years to when patriotism felt less fraught (but not as much as you might think!), the centennial was bi, and the culture was mono. We watched an assortment of artifacts of varying levels of interest and weirdness, and we made you a playlist so you can too (though we don’t really recommend it). There are even some Muppets! From 1982. Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Anyway we hope you have a great holiday weekend however you choose to celebrate, or ignore, or protest, and to our non-American listeners have a great day and we’re sorry we’re like this. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/bicentennial

Remember back when we did the Star Wars Holiday Special and were sad it didn’t include the commercials? Well thanks to two lovely listeners who shared that we are bad at searching YouTube, we can now be completists and talk about the commercials? Was that a good idea? Is there a government publication that can tell us? Will a neutron bomb take out anti-regulation eagles? Is our pantyhose union made? What will cure our headaches? And most importantly, what is Tobor?? !tuo dnif dna netsiL https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/swhs-commercials

If we could turn back time, we’d somehow insist that Cher be a guest on The Muppet Show. But we got you (babe) the next best thing: The Muppets being guests on Cher’s show. Do you believe in life after love? What about frogs who are horny for the bicentennial? Will love keep Cher and Sweetums happy together? Is Ray Charles — brilliant entertainer, great humanitarian, and close personal friend — worth the full concert he gets here? We probably haven’t seen the last of Cher, but for now let’s enjoy peak variety show! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/cher

Our friends at Kermitment said they wanted to watch some non-Henson stuff and we didn’t want to suffer alone, so we all decided it was time for a crossover episode!!! Join us as we explore the tedious nightmare that is The B.B. Beegle Show, a failed pilot for a Hanna-Barbera puppet-based variety show, featuring stars from Three’s Company and Laugh-In (no, not the ones you’re thinking of…no, not those ones either). Are we nuts for doing this? Listen and find out! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/bb-beegle

Won’t you let us take you on a sea cruise with multiple Muppet Show guest stars, some grumpy old men, Broadway and Hollywood legends, a Golden Girl, and a famous singing android? Break out all five of your mambos and get ready to sway with us as we head out to sea!(When we recorded this, Out To Sea wasn't included with any streaming services but now it's on Prime in the US and Disney+ in Canada if you want to watch along.) https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/out-to-sea

Muppeturgy — here we go again! I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. To Summer Night City, where you won’t get two for the price of one but you will get a bonus co-host, our very special guest star Amy Spalding! Shine your super trouper on and on and on us and we’ll gimme gimme gimme a man (Dick Cavett) awkwardly interviewing one of our favorite bands (ABBA) after (probably not actually) midnight. Knowing me, knowing you, knowing us, it’s going to go to some weird places, and mamma mia will we talk about musicals! Thank you for the music! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/abba-dick

It’s The Mup-pet Show! No, really! It’s back! For one episode, at least. Can four fans who’ve been marinating in the original show for nearly 5 years be objective about “new” performers and writers? Can the modern, corporate Muppets capture the organic magic of the shaggier original? Will Sabrina Carpenter release our inner manchild or leave us floating like islands in the stream? Would it be enough to just have Gonzo yelling the names of Best Supporting Actress Oscar winners? (We’ll give you that one now: Yes.) Watch the new special now and then listen as we roll out our new old formula, Muppeturgy Classic! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/sabrina-carpenter(Photo credit: Disney/Mitch Haaseth)