
It's time to start the music, it's time to light the lights -- it's time to get things started on the Muppet Show: Season One DVD tonight! Yes, children big and small will be able to enjoy the entire first season of Jim Henson's wonderful Muppet Show, thanks to Buena Vista Home Entertainment and newly founded Muppets, Inc. Twenty-four episodes are packed onto this set, with over ten hours of Muppetdom waiting for you to dive into. With colorful menus and pristine presentations, the discs shine with goofy delight as Kermit and friends ham it up through a wacky and wild first season. Whether it's Frank Oz working his way though Fozzie's voice or Piggy slowly blossoming into one of the main characters, it's fascinating to see the creators work the kinks out as each episode goes along. Even more interesting is the original Muppet Show pilot from 1975, a failed experiment that saw a very different setup, with Kermit as a background player and a bland host named Nigel running the show. The best is The Original Muppet Pitch Reel, an unseen gem made especially by Henson for the suits in charge at CBS. Also included is a promo gag reel that spotlights the various promotional clips and a subtitle track called Muppet Morsels, a fun feature that dishes out running trivia throughout each episode. With over ten hours of Muppetdom awaiting your DVD player, this set is too good to be missed. It is a bit sad that the chapters have been dropped from the previous best-of discs and it would have been nice to have had some air dates added to the booklet, but with four more seasons on their way, there's plenty of time to refine the sets and hopefully include a documentary or two along the way. For now, rejoice for the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational show in history has finally made its way to DVD. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide