Halloweird

Halloween is nearly upon us!  For Henson and his crew, Halloween seems like the perfect holiday.  It's the day to let your imagination run wild, have fun, and most importantly, be different.  Last year, we took a look at Vincent Price's appearance on The Muppet Show, but for a truly spooky experience, look no further than "Episode 307: Alice Cooper."

It's a graveyard smash!

Alice Cooper was famous for his offbeat persona that he used to separate himself from his rock and roll contemporaries.  His performances were very reminiscent of horror movies, bringing in violent props and creepy monsters.  So of course, Alice brings along his own crew of Muppet monsters known as "The Vile Bunch."

Appearing for one night only!

Alice and his monsters set the mood for the show, resulting in a lot of "scary" and supernatural moments that leave everyone on edge.  He even offers to arrange a meeting with Kermit to sell his soul to the devil for fame and glory.

Just sign the contract.

But behind the black makeup and demonic associations, Alice Cooper is just a regular nice guy.  Despite the horror theme of the episode, the characters are never truly in danger.  At one point, Sam the Eagle confronts Alice, decrying his freakish ways, and Alice of course takes it all as a warm compliment.

Can't a guy just put on his eye shadow in peace?

See, Alice knows that he is being weird and he celebrates it.  And what are the Muppets, if not an endorsement for embracing your weird side?  With the creepy musical numbers, the Muppets are still able to show their softer side, like when Robin sings "Over the Rainbow."  But it's just as much fun letting loose and not worrying about looking strange.

In fact, one sketch is quite similar to Henson's earlier experimental films.  A stalactite complains about a toothache while the rest of the cavern echos his thoughts.  It is bizarre and introspective about the nature of thoughts and it becomes a repetitive cycle by the end as it seems the pain will never truly go away.

I didn't even know that rocks had teeth.

This is just a brief overview of the episode because I feel that this is best experienced as an entire entity.  It is one of the best episodes due to its more-surreal-than-average nature and it's willingness to not be constrained by society's limitations.

If you are looking for some great Muppety Halloween entertainment this year, look no further than the Alice Cooper episode of The Muppet Show.

It's a scream!

The Unfinished Halloween Specials

The Muppets endured a great many holiday specials, but for some reason, their Halloween specials never seemed to get off the ground.  It was as if that day were cursed.

The first attempt at a special was entitled "Johnny Carson and the Muppet Machine."  It was to air in 1969, as a tie-in with The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which had featured many Muppet sketches over the years.  The premise was that Carson would enter a strange machine filled with ghouls and monsters and a swindler who kept trying to sell him useless junk.  As a comedy special, it was not intended to be scary, but it was based around Carson's fears.  A group of creatures known as "Groans" would appear whenever Carson made a joke that didn't land and he would have a final confrontation with a beast known as "Fearzog."

Henson's concept art featuring Carson, the Groans, and Fearzog

Ultimately it was decided that Carson couldn't be the straight-man to a bunch of Hollywood puppets for an hour, so it was dropped for being too similar to his regular duties (Zing!).

But don't worry, Fearzog lives on in a series of figurines based on Henson's doodles (which is an amazing thing that exists).

After that came a test pilot for The Muppet Show known as "The Muppet Halloween Show."

With your favorite characters That Guy and That Other Guy!

This also never got far and was reworked into "The Muppets Valentine Show" since Halloween was no longer relevant in February when it premiered.

Other specials came and died as time passed and favor was given over to other projects.  A full length movie known as The Muppets' Haunted House was put into production and then scrapped for being too awesome a concept(?).

Because of this, we do have as wide a selection of Halloween goodies to choose from.  But isn't the fact that all this potential went to waste the scariest thing of all and really the true meaning of Halloween?

No.  So here's a spooky Muppet Show clip to tide you over for tonight.