Growing up, Britain’s three TV channels showed mostly news, horse racing, and comedy shows. Slim pickings. On a day home from school, I would often take a nap to while away the day since there was nothing good on TV.
But, weekend evening TV was another story. The dearth of choice during the day was not a problem on Saturday or Sunday nights. My family always watched The Muppet Show on Sunday night, for instance.
I can still hear “It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights…it’s time to put on makeup, it’s time to dress up right, it’s time to raise the curtain on The Muppet Show tonight!” as if it was yesterday.*
At 7 p.m. on Sunday night, my family including my grandmother would gather to watch The Muppet Show….family time at its best! My grandmother, who we were living for a time, would bring a tray of sandwiches, potato crisps, orange drinks, and candies in to the living room. We munched. We laughed. We had so much fun as a family those Sunday evenings during my childhood.
The Muppets have always been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My then-boyfriend/now-husband and I even saw The Muppet Christmas Carol one night when we were dating. My children love watching this movie as part of our countdown to the holidays. I love sharing beloved characters with my children.
Recently, I was invited to a screening of the new Muppets movie. To say I was excited would be putting it mildly. I was thrilled. Couldn’t wait to bring the kids. My teen had too much homework that day, but my husband, tween, kid, and I ventured out to a local mall to watch the movie.
The movie was AWESOME. We laughed. The audience around us — old and young — were completely engaged in the antics of Kermit and the old gang.
What are the old gang up to in this movie? Well, uber Muppets fan Walter sets off with his twin brother Gary and Gary’s girlfriend Mary for LA. While Walter is Muppet-sized, Gary and Mary are average sized and played by Jason Segel and Amy Adams. Let the sight gags begin!
Once in LA, Walter and Gary discover that an evil tycoon has decided to use the Muppet Theater for something other than the reviving the Muppet Show. Walter must stop the evil tycoon from destroying the Muppets forever.
There are too many gags to list. Suffice it to say, there is enough going on in The Muppets to keep old and new fans entertained. One particularly funny gag involved Kermit’s butler — a robot — connecting to a mainframe computer via an ear-splitting dial up to find an address of a Muppet they needed to find. My husband and I well remember the days of noisy dial up and internet handshakes. We roared with laughter while our kids looked on with puzzled expressions!
Find out more about the new movie: The Muppets:
- The Muppets is now available on Blu-Ray ($24.99) and DVD ($22.99) on amazon. You can go to the Disney site and click on links to buy the DVD at Target, Walmart, amazon, Best Buy, and Toys R Us.
- Like The Muppets on Facebook.
- Follow @MuppetsStudio on Twitter.
* Thanks to STLyrics.com for reminding me of the exact working of the lyrics to the Muppets theme song.
I was given tickets to take my family to see a screening of The Muppets. The views expressed in this post are my own. I follow the tenets of Blog With Integrity.
