I've always been a big fan of the Muppets, and The Muppet Show, in particular, is deeply dear to my heart, being one of those rare pieces of beloved childhood nostalgia that's actually still just as delightful to me now as it was when I was nine. So I was very happy when a fellow Muppet-loving friend of mine offered to lend me this book, a coffee table-sized volume published in 1981, when The Muppet Show was filming its fifth and final season.

I have read some other books about the Muppets, including Jim Henson: The Biography, so I did wonder if much of this was going to be a rehash of stuff I was already familiar with, and maybe to some extent it was, but its looks behind the scenes (including a detailed play-by-play about the filming of one particular musical number) were fun and offered a lovely little glimpse at what was obviously a truly amazing place to work. I also like that we got some commentary from various guest stars about their experiences working with the Muppets. And the author's discussions of the individual Muppets as characters, and the writing and performances that go into building those characters, were really quite charming. There are a lot of pictures, too, which was nice, although I do maybe wish fewer of them had been in black-and-white. ( )

When the Muppets joined Saturday Night Live, the SNL writers were most unhappy. Nobody wanted to write for what John Belushi called the 'Mucking Fuppets'.

One of the writers stormed out of a meeting angrily declaring 'I won't write for felt'.

Oh to be able to use that line.

When the Muppets joined Saturday Night Live, the SNL writers were most unhappy. Nobody wanted to write for what John Belushi called the 'Mucking Fuppets'.

One of the writers stormed out of a meeting angrily declaring 'I won't write for felt'.

Oh to be able to use that line.

When the Muppets joined Saturday Night Live, the SNL writers were most unhappy. Nobody wanted to write for what John Belushi called the 'Mucking Fuppets'.

One of the writers stormed out of a meeting angrily declaring 'I won't write for felt'.

Oh to be able to use that line.

This book is great. It provides a rare backstage view of the Muppet Show and how it was created. There's a section that goes through the steps of creating an episode, and the rest of the book contains photographs and anecdotes about the puppets and puppeteers contained in the 5 seasons of the show as well as a little bit about the show's beginnings. It's full color, though there are a lot of black and white photographs given the timeframe the show aired. The only problem is that this book is hard to find at a reasonable price. My copy is former library because of its rarity. ( )