"My Favorite Item" Celebrating The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary - Part 4!

To celebrate The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary we conclude our look at the Muppet communities favorite Muppet Show related items.

Rachel Herrick (Adorkable Rachel)

My favorite Muppet item is my copy of Imagination Illustrated: The Jim Henson Journal. 

I was really lucky to visit the set of Muppets Most Wanted when they were filming in 2013. 

While there, I got all of the Muppeteers on set to sign my book, including Steve Whitmire, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel, Eric Jacobson, David Rudman, Bill Barretta, Peter Linz, and my friend Kevin Carlson. That was one of the best days of my life, and now I have proof that it happened.

Austin M. Costello
I’ll start with two honorable mentions and then a real favorite…

The Statler and Waldorf Igel figures (with their sofa): I originally purchased them from FAO
Schwarz in New York City as a kid for $35 each and the couch later on eBay. They’ve sat atop a bookshelf in my room ever since.

The “It’s The Muppets” VHS series: I have SO many fond memories of watching these tapes with my family, plus it was my first exposure to The Muppet Show.

And now they are on Youtube!

It's the Muppets! - Meet the Muppets!

It's the Muppets! - More Muppets Please!

And finally,

The Playhouse Video series!

This set of 10 VHS tapes was a “best of” compilation of The  Muppet Show by theme. Rock Music, Country Music, a Fozzie collection, and 7 others were  among this ‘80s roundup of clips from our favorite show hosted by an amphibian. “Children’s Songs and Stories” was the first of these that I watched, having had rented it so many times from a local Blockbuster. 

“Muppet Weird Stuff,” hosted by The Great Gonzo from his trailer park mansion, was the next one I caught from eBay, and then the rest came over time. They’re super sweet and fairly hard to find compilations of the show with new footage of the Muppets to wrap around the clips. Each VHS has a gatefold cover with goofy Muppet facts on the inside (“Did you Know? Kermit The Frog’s middle name is actually THE, and Miss Piggy’s first name is actually MISS!”). 

Part of the fun of collecting these videos was the trailer at the end of the tape which announced each of the other videos in the series… for a teenage Muppet fan in the 2000s, this was a real hunt to find them all!

Here’s one of the videos from the collection! (Editor's Note: My favorite from the series) 

Rock Music with The Muppets
Stay tuned at the end for the trailer of other video features! 

Noel MacNeal (Bear in The Big Blue House)

The Muppet Show Game by Parker Bros:

I got it at the Lampson's (the other store that was not Woolworth) in our neighborhood. I loved playing with it and rediscovered it when I was cleaning out my mom's apt and my old room. It was in a box filled with my "Muppet collection" including my membership to the fan club!

Chris Stulz (Muppet Stuff)

Whenever people ask me what my favorite Muppet Show item is it's really hard to narrow it down to just one. But I'd have to say it's The Muppet Show album. 

You see kids, before the internet, DVD, and even before home video became popular, this album was one of the only ways of experiencing some of The Muppet Show's best segments over and over again. And boy was this record played over and over again at my house!

You can listen to the whole thing below:

Well that's gonna wrap up our look at the Muppet communities favorite Muppet Show related items, but before we go we'd like to thank everyone who shared their stories with us! 

Here's to the next 40 years of The Muppet Show! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!