The Muppets Movie appreciation post💕🌈🐸🪕🎥😂 “The Muppet Show” was a combination of variety show and sketch comedy for younger viewers that brought in prominent and diverse comedians and performers in the arts, theater, music, television and film industries. Actors like Lynda Carter (star of the “Wonder Woman” TV series), Christopher Reeve (“Superman”) and Mark Hamill (“Star Wars”) were guests and they talked backstage about their famous roles and then also interacted with their Muppet co-stars in staged roles. In the episode with Hamill, Anthony Daniels (the actor behind the droid C-3PO in “Star Wars”) and R2-D2, the actors re-create their roles and join in with the “Pigs in Space” crew for an adventure. The genre-mixing and character-crossing into different universes made for creative sketches, but also encouraged the idea of crossing worlds. The audience/viewers were able to see the behind-the-scenes action as Kermit managed all the crises that went on with putting on a show; there wasn’t another series that focused on what goes into managing a show and all the things that go wrong. Even though there were critics in the theater such as the old white men, Statler and Waldorf, characters like Fozzie the Bear kept trying his best and were supported by Kermit. There was always an element of events not going as planned and despite this, Kermit and his gang and sometimes the guest stars were always able to rally and create something special, so it was an example of the mantra, “The show must go on.” But more than that, the show was teaching examples of resilience and recovery in the wake of disaster.” -UVA assistant dean and media studies assistant professor: Shilpa Davé