Breaking the Thunder Barrier

Whoa. The thunder I heard an hour ago was so deafening, I screamed in surprise! I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack. Thought it still raining, the worst of the storm seems to be over. Other than the storm has possibly been making my Internet slow, I don't mind. Hopefully, Yahoo!Weather is right and temperatures and humidity will drop once the storm passes. It's too early for that.

Other than the weather, I had a rather uneventful day. Spent most of it baking bread and finishing up The Muppet Show: The Complete Season Three. The Muppet Show was at the height of its popularity when this season ran in 1977-1978, and it shows. We get three new characters (Beauregard the none-too-bright stagehand, Annie Sue Pig the young singer, and Lew Zealand the boomerang fish-thrower), one new major skit (Fozzie and Link Hogthrob's "Bear On Patrol"), and far more assurance, both in the wonderful, zany numbers and the actual onstage effects. We also have more recognizable guest stars. In fact, the only third season guests I'd never heard of before I bought this set were country singer Roy Clark and eccentric British comedian Spike Milligan.

Ironically, Milligan appeared in one of my favorite episodes of the season, the hilarious spoof of all-star International specials and programs. (I loved the "It's a Small World" number at the end - that song drives me crazy!) Other favorite episodes were Gilda Radner (always happy to see my favorite early member of Saturday Night Live - she was really stuck on Beaker), Pearl Bailey and the "everything but Camelot number, the sweet western-themed show honoring King and Queen of the Cowboys Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Sylvester Stallone and his groupies, Alice Cooper trying to get the Muppets to sell their souls (lots of fun with Cooper's spooky image there), and Miss Piggy and Charlie's Angel Cheryl Ladd beating up on Kermit as they "Enjoy Being A (Liberated 70s) Girl."

The extras were equally fascinating, if too brief. There was a short featurette covering the Muppeteers, a reel of early 60s Purina Dog Chow Commercials featuring Rolf and Baskerville the Dogs, and a really cool black-and-white special from 1968 featuring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, writer/Muppeteer Jerry Juhl, Muppet builder Don Solin, and several early Muppets, including Rolf and Kermit. The educational special was made for the ancestor of PBS and looks and sounds it (the copy Disney dug up actually had missing audio), but was still very informative and fun to watch. If nothing else, it was neat to learning about puppets around the world and see a side of the Muppets that isn't often shown today.

Work was busy and short on help; two kids called out, both too busy with school sports and events to work. One called out an hour before her shift! They did manage to find at least one replacement, but I really wish they'd emphasize the need for these kids to learn to manage their schedules better. If you want to work, work. If you want to do sports and after-school activities, do that. If you can't do both at once, don't. Either drop the sports and after-school events, or drop work until the summer. That's really why I never worked in high school. I wasn't sure if I could handle it. (That and I couldn't find a job.)