That Lame Puppet Show
I had high hopes for the new Saturday night prime-time show ‘That Puppet Game Show’, which is trying to follow in the footsteps of the legendary ‘Muppet Show‘. They’ve both been filmed in the same studio – but alas, that’s where the similarities end.
I love ‘The Muppet Show’. It still stands, nearly 40 years later, as a shining example of how to produce comedy with a broad appeal. Kermit and Miss Piggy. Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. Piiiiigs iiiiiin Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace!!!! Ahem.
Unfortunately, the producers of this new show have simply forgotten what made ‘The Muppet Show’ a classic – the Muppets themselves.
If you watched the first in the series of ‘That Puppet Game Show’, you would have seen a quiz show host puppet, 7 ‘expert’ puppets and a host of other characters, two of which were a crab and a bull. But if you ask me how they relate to each other, I wouldn’t be able to tell you a thing. Because they’re not ‘real’; they don’t have strong identities and relationships with each other. They’re not fully-rounded characters.
With Miss Piggy and Kermit, the relationship was one of unrequited love.
With Statler and Waldorf, the relationship was of a mutual joy of criticism.
Fozzi Bear craved success, as did the ‘Great Gonzo’. Beaker was hilariously bullied. Scooter was the sane voice in a world of craziness. The Swedish Chef was… well, he was just bonkers.
In ‘That Puppet Game Show’, the crab told poor jokes. The bull was in charge. There was a female show-runner who had long hair. The host was Northern. And that’s about all I can remember.
The best characters were sausages. Scottish sausages. And they were memorable because they were funny, and – within the constraints of the game they were in – each displayed their own character. But they were only around for a couple of games. There were no strong characters in the main cast.
The second problem was the ‘back-stage’ element, which in the original series was driven by a sense of impending doom. Kermit and Scooter were permanently worried that the show was awful; that there was no-one on stage, or that an act had refused to go on, or the celebrity was having a diva moment. On this new show, there was no jeopardy, no drama – just a series of weak jokes that failed to engage because they were going nowhere. Someone was getting the sack, but it was difficult to care because of the poor characterisations.
It’s a shame, because I’ve said for years that we need another ‘Muppet Show’. Dark comedy dominated the schedules in the last decade, but there has been an upsurge in recent years in old-fashioned ‘family’ fayre, which admittedly has divided audiences. With ‘That Puppet Game Show’, the BBC has tried to continue with this trend, and scheduled a show with much potential in the right slot. But it’s let itself down in the execution.
‘That Puppet Game Show’ is not only inferior to the original ‘Muppet Show’, but it also doesn’t hold a candle to the 90s follow-up, ‘Muppets Tonight’, my over-riding memory of which is Pierce Brosnan dressed as a prawn. Although, worryingly, I may have dreamt that.
Either way, I’d say that a repeat of either series is long overdue. Preferably starting next week, in the same slot as a certain puppet game show.
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Worth a Look?
I love discovering comedy that was ‘before my time’ and so when I saw a DVD of Harry Worth the other day, I had to buy it.
‘Thirty Minutes Worth’ is a sketch-based series featuring Harry always in his same, bumbling persona. As the opening titles roll, we’re treated to a couple of ‘quickie’ sketches, after which Harry emerges from behind a Morecambe & Wise-style curtain with a stool, and does a short monologue to camera.
The settings for the sketches that follow are varied – a Star Trek spoof, Harry visiting a sick friend, Harry getting locked out of his house with a neighbour, and so on. All of them feature Harry being Harry, and all of them feature Worth’s trademark, which is the sort of daftness and confusion that made Frank Spencer so popular, albeit without the slapstick.
The series was made by Thames, and it’s here where alarm bells started to ring when I first pressed ‘play’ on the DVD. ITV comedies, particularly those from the 70s and 80s, were often weakly written and a mere shadow of their BBC counterparts. There were exceptions of course – ‘Rising Damp’, Kenny Everett’s Thames show and, if you liked your humour bawdy, ‘On the Buses’ also had its moments – but overall, the standards were low.
I’m sure that someone must have written a book analysing why the BBC managed to get it so right with comedy while the ITV companies got it so wrong. Contemporary to this series of ‘Thirty Minutes Worth’ were ‘Dad’s Army’, ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ and ‘Are You Being Served?’ – all top BBC shows which proved that material could be produced then that still amuses today.
Unfortunately, ‘Thirty Minutes Worth’ does not stand up well today. While Harry himself does his best with the material he has, the writing is just too weak to raise many laughs at all. Over-long sketches bumble on, with the audience laughing weakly, until the clock runs out and the sketch ends, often with little or no pay-off.
It’s still good to see Harry’s persona that, in his heyday, must have delighted audiences. Glimpses of his magic can still be seen – there are some wonderfully inventive ideas in some of the sketches, and his word-play is often extraordinary, but it falls flat much too often to sustain the show.
How sad that his earlier shows are missing, and we are left with recordings of a man who is past his best and is not being well-served by his post-BBC employer. All I knew of Harry Worth beforehand was his signature arm-and-leg-in-the-shop-window gag. I can now appreciate that he offered much more than this, only echos of which can be glimpsed in this series by Thames.
‘Thirty Minutes Worth Series One (1972) – a Thames Television production released by Revelation through Fremantle Media.
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