MuppetsTonight was a short-lived but fine addition to the Muppets canon. It gave unexpected pleasures like this random complete cover, and it also introduced Pepe the Prawn (okay?), who stands, to date, as the last breakout creation of the crew. If you’ve never seen it, my personal recommendation is the Jason Alexander episode. Alexander will always be best known as George on Seinfeld, but he’s surprisingly versatile when given the opportunity. Among the later sitcoms he tried to launch, my favorite was ListenUp, which ran for a single season in 2004/2005. The last episode feels like you’re watching a stage production. It’s Alexander stripped down to his most relaxed state, the total opposite of George Costanza. In the MuppetsTonight episode, the whole point of every sketch is him trying to avoid the famous histrionics, with the best one being him playing Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective (as recently portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in a rewarding series of films). All the Muppets keep calling him “Hercules.” He keeps setting them straight. They keep calling him Hercules. It ends with him ranting about the end of Superman (1978), the implausibility of the time travel gimmick…
Watching the actual Talking Heads video, listening to the song through that lens, it feels like a later generation’s conception of Buddy Holly (see also: Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” the video for which features the Fonz). But Buddy Holly was never a geek, to his fans. He was idolized by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. He was a pillar in the birth of rock. It probably doesn’t help that while a good experience for fans, Gary Busey’s portrayal in TheBuddyHollyStory leaves the geek impression very much in mind.
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