“The Muppet Show” special is mediocre. This is as it should be: good and right.
The beloved show Jim Henson created 50 years ago, after leaving “Saturday Night Live,” made flappable imperfection its governing ethos. The goal wasn’t to create a flawless night of entertainment; it was to mine the chaos of a production, especially backstage, for joy and laughs. Bad, on the Muppets, has always been good: That Fozzie has terrible punch lines is exactly what made his sketches fun. Miss Piggy’s insistence on her talent is marvelously undercut whenever she actually performs.
