The Muppet characters are so beloved that it's hard to picture a time where there wasn't some form of Muppet media in our lives. With The Muppet Show being that popular of a show that alot of the time they made fans out of the people the guest stars that worked on the show with the same thing being true for the episode that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today as the guest star for this episode built up a really good working relationship with the muppet crew and cast and so the join me as I review the episode that depending on where you first saw the episode had two slightly different introductions to it with the episode in question being called simply just "John Cleese" enjoy.
The plot of this show is when he is booked to be the guest star on the show John Cleese doesn't want to do the show with Kermit having to try and convince him to do the show. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with it being very refreshing to see a guest star be so openly opposed to appearing on the show that he will do quite literally anything to get out of appearing in the show and while this plot line does kind of get resolved by not even the half way mark it was still a really interesting plot and one that could have carried the whole episode as there are room for lots of jokes about John not wanting to be on the show in the first place with this episode even kind of having a subplot with Gonzo as well as when one his stunts goes right Gonzo ends up with a really long arm and has to try and figure out a way to shrink it back down to size with the episodes main plot being the more interesting of the two plots just due to the fact that it does give us something new as all of the guest stars on The Muppet Show are always happy to be there that it does make it refreshing to see someone that wants to be anywhere else but on The Muppet Show with the only thing that does hold the main plot back is that it does not only get resolved quite early on in the episode but it does also get forgotten about quite quickly when they could have spent the entire episode just on that one plotline alone with the plot of this episode being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is this episode co-writer Jim Henson as Kermit The Frog , Link Hogthrob , Rowlf , Waldorf , The Newsman and Zeke and Frank Oz as Fozzie Bear , Miss Piggy , Whatnot Dancer and Gramps. Also starring in this episode is Jerry Nelson as Slim Wilson , Floyd Pepper , Crazy Harry , Robin , A Waiter , Eric The Parrot , Whatnot Dancer and The Announcer , Richard Hunt as Scooter , Statler , Sweetums , Bubba , A Waiter and Pig , Dave Goelz as Gonzo, Koozebanian Spooble , Marvin and Lubbock Lou , Louise Gold as Lou and Sir John Cleese as Himself.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With this being something that does make alot of sense as all of the Muppet performers are a bunch of really good actors in there own right a while yes there just playing with puppets basically they still have to turn in a performance and that is something that they always manage to do and do well with this episode being of no exception to that as they all work really bouncing there already manic and chaotic energy off of John Cleese who himself turns in a manic and chaotic performance with it being quite hard to say just who the best actor is in this episode as alot of the Muppet performers do a good job with there characters as you'd expect from them John Cleese is also really good as someone who just wants to get out of this mad house whilst he himself is trying to keep his own sanity but if push did come to shove the best actor in this episode would have be Dave Goelz really just due to the fact that Gonzo gets alot more screen time in this episode then what he usually really gets and therefor Dave gets more of chance to show us just what it is that he can do as an actor with the acting that's in this episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
As was mentioned this episode does give Gonzo not only his own subplot in the episode but also more screen time so much so that you could consider him a co-leading character in the episode. With this being odd as he doesn't usually take a lead role in alot of Muppet productions with his only other leading role really being the film Muppets From Space and that's really it and yet here him being being in a co-lead role oddly works as we get to see what happens when one his stunts does work with him catching a cannonball with one hand which has the adverse effect of making the arm that he caught the ball with longer then the rest of his body and while the episode doesn't really take the time to explore what this could do to Gonzo as a character as he was always full to the brim with confidence it would have been interesting to see him become more big headed because of it only for the other characters to remind him of his longer arm but for whatever reason the makers of this episode instead go the opposite way and have the character become more despondent not because of the fact that the stunt was a success but it's rather because of the fact that both Fozzie and Floyd keep on making jokes about his long arm which does feel true to there characters but at the same time it would have added to Gonzo's character if we got to see him be this big headed person who now thinks that he can do anything like how funny would it be to see him act like a diva to someone like Miss Piggy or something like that as that would have felt like a natural extension of his character given the fact that he's meant to the groups everyman and alot of people when they do a small amount of success do nine times out of ten get a big ego because of it.
This episode does technically have two introductions to it depending on where you saw the episode as in the USA John Cleese is introduced as being someone from Monty Python which makes sense as Monty Python And The Holy Grail was a big film. However over here in the UK he is introduced as being one of the stars of Fawlty Towers which again makes sense as that was his latest show to air at the time and while nothing is lost in the two intros as all they are is a way to introduce just who John Cleese is it does feel odd that they would film two completely different introductions for the same person when it would have made more sense for them to just us the Monty Python one as Monty Python was the bigger name at the time and yet in saying this tho it does make sense for them to use different intros as alot of people outside of the UK to this very day still don't know about Fawlty Towers this is despite the fact that it's one of the UK's most well known sitcoms and heck it could be argued that John in this episode is playing himself more like he plays Basil in Fawlty Towers as he is constantly stressed out and is always trying to impress people even when it all comes crumbling down around him much like what Basil would do whereas John in real life is actually a pretty smart and well educated person who actually knows that he's talking about but with the show having two different introductions for him there is a good chance that it will make people who haven't heard of Fawlty Towers to go and look up the twelve episodes and even if they have heard of it then it might make them want to go and check out his work with Monty Python either way it will result in a good time and having him work with The Muppets was always going to be good time for us the audience.
In what was a really shocking move it turns out that Sir John Cleese actually had a hand in writing alot of his scenes for the episode more specifically he either wrote or helped to write the Pigs In Space sketch , the scene backstage with Gonzo where he refers to him as the ugly one and the episodes finale. With John bringing his own manic energy and writing style to the show and whilst that could be seen as being a negative due to the fact that The Muppets themselves are pretty much just chaos in felt form here it oddly works as John is portrayed as being someone who has enough of The Muppets and there kind of chaos and will do just about anything to get out of the show and while it's not obvious that he and the rest of the episodes cast and crew struck up a good working relationship so much so that they had him do a cameo in The Great Muppet Caper it is something that does help as it shows that he is in on the joke and doesn't have to be to be convinced to go as over the top as the other guests do as he already knows The Muppets style of humor due to the fact that it's close enough to the style of humor of both himself and the rest of the Monty Python team with Jon being a very good fit for this show because of his expirence with Monty Python and while it would have been more funnier if John was the more manic one and The Muppets were the more calm ones in this scenario that would also go against just who they are as characters as well as the guest host should compliment The Muppets style and not do something that works against it Roger Moore works as he gets to be charming and calm whilst this whirlwind of chaos is happening all around him and John works because his actively encouraging the chaos to happen.
The Muppets have always ben known for innovating and for pushing just what it is that you can with a puppet. With oddly enough the same thing being true for one single shot in this episode as in what shot during a song that's sung by Miss Piggy we see the full Muppet Theater stage with the camera then slowly moving back in on Miss Piggy with that one shot being something that makes you wonder just how it is that they did it as with the movies you could very well argue that they had the budget to try out these new things that might or might not work but with a TV show where every single is a special effects shot and the budget has to be spread out across several episodes that's just not something that you can do ad yet in this episode they do pull off a shot that is hard to work how they did it as it could have been a remote control Piggy which is something that would make sense as there's not a really a way to fit the puppeteer in the shot but on the other hand it very well could have been the traditional Miss Piggy puppet being controlled as she normally would have done which is something that does make sense as this scene was a UK spot and therefor wouldn't really need that much effort put into it but at the same time tho it does look like a really hard shot to pull off with a traditional puppet and therefor there very well might have been a remote control puppet used to make the shot either way it is something that does highlight the fact that the makers of this episode really were some creative people and it's something that the makers of the 2026 The Muppet Show special should try to be if they want to do The Muppets any kind of justice as The Muppets were always creative and where always trying to do new and exciting things.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty six minuets and thirty seconds. Which is pretty much the exact running time for alot of this shows other episodes as well with this episode having just about the right of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place as while the main plot is more then enough to cover that amount of running time it really makes it when you add in the subplot with Gonzo as well and while this episode doesn't really use it's running time all that wisely as the episode doesn't develop either of it's plots it really doesn't need to as the main focus of this show has always been and will always be the episodes sketches and that's really it with this show being one that doesn't really require a deep and thought provoking plot in order to make it work as all it needs is good sketches and that's really it with this even being true for the episodes characters as well as The Muppet characters have several other episodes to get across just what there character is and get there development in those other episodes and therefor it's not really needed in an episode like this where they don't have that many backstage segments with the ones that do have being there to push along both the main plot and the episodes subplot which does leave very little room for character development and while it would have been nice for there to be some form of character development as characters like Gonzo very rarely is ever get the lead role and therefor he could have done with getting character development it also wasn't need as his character in this episode works just as fine without it but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With this episode having alot of really funny jokes in it all of which play to both the strengths of The Muppets and to John Cleese and all of which work really well because of it and while yes this episode does have a few bad jokes in it those jokes are very few and far between as the episode has that many jokes in it that by the time that it's told a bad joke it's busy telling you one that will make you laugh with the best joke in the whole episode being the backstage segment where Gonzo is trying to get John to make his arm normal length again with the only thing that John does to help him is pull his other arm to make it the same length and when Gonzo then complains that he can't tie his shoes John then pulls his legs to make them the same length but in doing so he then makes Gonzo's arms smaller so he has to pull both of Gonzo's arms at the same time with the thing that makes that joke work being the psychical comedy from John as he really is great at that kind of silly slapstick comedy and while the episode really does have a lot of really funny jokes in it all of which play to the strengths of both The Muppets and there guest star the episode really plays to it's strengths when the jokes are more slapstick based as that's what John Cleese is more known for and that's when we get to see true comedy gold and that's when the episode becomes alot more funnier in this episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this is one of the more better episodes of the show due to the fact that we get to see just why both Sir John Cleese and The Muppets are really funny with them both really working off of each perfectly and being a match made in comedy heaven as that's just how good that they both work really together in this episode and in The great Muppet Caper as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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