The creators of The Muppet Show were skilled at creating the illusion that the puppets were living characters. Still, occasional goofs slipped through, and made it onto the screen.
At the beginning of the show, Crazy Donald runs behind Brewster's chair and cackles. As the camera pulls away, he turns and runs behind the other side of the chair. The arm and head of Crazy Donald's performer can be seen coming from behind the chair as George the Janitor enters the frame.
During the closing song, Jim Henson's finger operating Wally's arm rods are seen as well as the top of his head can be seen as Wally moves from behind the couch to next to George. Also, Frank Oz's head pops up into the screen.
Crazy Harry is not in the orchestra pit during the opening wide shot of the opening, yet he quickly appears next to Zoot in the following close-up shot.
When it shows Animal on the drums, we see Frank Oz's head next to him, and the same is in the ending.
Also in the opening, when the wide shot occurs, Floyd is not in the orchestra; this is probably because Jerry Nelson was not available for filming the opening sequence, as he wasn't available for episodes 101-103 and 111-115. However, he is in the closing sequence of the orchestra and is audibly there in the opening.
Frank Oz's arm can be seen underneath Miss Piggy when the Muppets all agree they have a favorite song before "Temptation."
There is a visible rip in the back of Piggy's mouth, through which Frank Oz's hand can be seen while he puppeteers her during "Temptation." This tear inside her mouth would be fixed after the first episode.
As the glee club singers leave the stage, the left arm and black-covered head of a second performer can be seen underneath one of the chickens who moves off stage-left.
The bartender in the "Cowboy Time" sketch delivers the line "You're confused Kid, you ain't got no guns...those are pickles." in a different voice than what he uses in the rest of the sketch. In addition, the line doesn't fit with what the puppet is saying. [NB: In the original edit of this episode, the sketch went on a bit longer but ended up being re-edited for the transmission version. As a result, Richard Hunt dubbed this new line over the original "As a matter of fact Kid, you ain't got no guns! Those are pickles!"]
Frank Oz's head is visible when Kid Fozzie jumps away from the lit apple in the same sketch.
Fozzie Bear asks Kermit why he wasn't doing an act in this particular show, even though he had just been in the Cowboy Time sketch a few minutes earlier.
During the "I Get Ideas" number, the Bartender Pig has bushy eyebrows, but does not when he is backstage with Miss Piggy afterwards.
During the "Lady of Spain," Marvin Suggs hits a piece of the Muppaphone twice in a row and it speaks with a different voice the second time. Also, the black arm socks for the Muppaphone are occasionally visible (particularly at the very end, when one appears to float for a brief moment).
Henson's hand can be seen performing Kermit after Rita Moreno shouts at him for reading the cue cards.
After Dr. Bunsen Honeydew breaks the solid plate during the Muppet Labs segment, Honeydew's arm bends the other plate upward before he even tenderized it! A second later, a tip of Goelz's hair is seen behind Honeydew.
A puppeteer's head and the "sleeve" that is attached to the bottom of the Kermit puppet can be seen a few times during the I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog number.
During the song "Love Ya to Death", Jim Henson's head is visible several times underneath Dr. Teeth especially when he says "I'll break down your resistance..."
During the Veterinarian's Hospital skit, Dr. Rowlf screams, "Day in and day out, it's the same old routine!" you can see a puppeteer's head behind him.
At the end of the Veterinarian's Hospital sketch, Rowlf's hat falls in front of his eyes and throughout the rest of the sketch he can't get it to sit back on top of his head.
Dave Goelz's face can been seen puppeteering Muppy at the beginning of the credits.
After Rowlf sings "It's Not Where You Start" for the first time, Scooter says "Kermit says you sang the song too quick. You're going to have to sing it again, but you only have a minute." Rowlf then sings the song again faster, so Scooter should really have said "Kermit says you sang the song too slow." Also if you keep your eye on the time whilst Rowlf is singing the song the first time, you will find that he manages get it done in under a minute anyway.
When the Swedish Chef dips his finger into his spicy sauce, his finger can clearly be seen not going into the sauce pan.
During the Veterinarian's Hospital sketch, Kermit says "That's nothing! You should see it in here." at the end. However, when he says this, his mouth lip synching the line is slightly off. [NB: This is due to the fact that Henson performs both Rowlf and Kermit, but performed Rowlf in the sketch for having the more comic responsibility. So, Kermit's dialog in the sketch was pre-recorded.].
John Lovelady's headset can be seen behind Statler's chair, as Crazy Harry pops up behind Statler and Waldorf. The second time during Kermit's introduction to "Mr. Cellophane", when Crazy Harry pops up again behind Statler and Waldorf, John Lovelady's blond hair is clearly visible.
When the Swedish Chef smashes the Japanese Cake, the hole where it was performed from can be seen. In addition, Richard Hunt's hair can be seen just to the right of the Chef.
In the scene in the dressing room, one of Animal's eyes has a Kermit-style pupil.
Mary Louise and Miss Mousey switch seats during Fozzie's act. (Note: Just before we see Fozzie's Cousin, Mary Louise can be seen next to a Whatnot with a yellow shirt and orange hair. After Waldorf says Fozzie's cousin is funnier than Fozzie, Miss Mousey is seen next to the whatnot. Mary Louise is seen behind the Green Frackle.)
For this season, a new shot of Floyd wearing his hat and blinking his eyes is shown during the credits. However, during the first shot of Trumpet Girl and the wide shot of the orchestra, the Season 1 Floyd puppet is shown, and those two shots were never re-filmed.
Both Statler and Kermit refer to "The Windmills of Your Mind" as the opening number, even though it was actually the second number.
Right before the Screaming Thing crashes into the windmill at the end of "The Windmills of Your Mind", what appears to be either a head or an arm can briefly be seen underneath it before being covered by a censor bar.
In the first backstage scene, when Kermit tells Floyd that Fozzie is the one who is responsible for having "Lullaby of Birdland" as the closing number, Jim Henson's head pops up to the right of Kermit above the table.
Although the plot revolves around Fozzie being so nervous about Milton Berle being on the show that he must hide from him until just before the closing number, Fozzie does appear in Milton Berle's earlier number, "The Entertainer", with no difficulty or fear.
During the Leatherwing Bat sketch, the bat asks before Judy Collins goes to sing with the woodpecker, "Find out what how-dow-dee-dit-dit-doe-dum" means. He is referring to a line in the song. However, the line is, "Hoe-dow-dee-dee-dit-dee-dum."
For his act, Gonzo wrestles a brick blindfolded. During the act, the version of Gonzo that debuted in season two is used, but when he returns backstage, although he is in the same costume, the Gonzo puppet from season one is used.
When Kermit introduces the opening number, he is wearing a black tuxedo, but during the opening number, he wears a purple tuxedo.
The arm of the performer operating Uncle Deadly's right arm becomes visible during "Sheik of Araby" along with the head of the performer of Uncle Deadly being briefly seen at the end of the sketch.
During "Just One Person", Richard Hunt's head is visible beneath Scooter.
Before the end credits begin, Goelz's head can be briefly seen behind Gonzo.
At the very end of "Crocodile Rock", a performer's head is visible behind one of the crocodiles.
In "Any Old Iron", one of the Whatnots is missing a pupil. The staff was aware of this while taping, but it was the last piece of the day and they didn't have time to do a retake or an extensive search for the pupil. This same Whatnot later regains his missing pupil when he helps dress up Sam the Eagle for his big introduction to Elton John.
On the Season Two DVD release, the closing footage of the orchestra is slightly off-synch with the music
During the closing number, one of the trumpet players trumpets falls off, and for the rest of the number the trumpet player doesn't play the trumpet (both trumpet players were most likely performed by the same performer at once, and therefore nobody was controlling the arms of the characters).
During the Veterinarian's Hospital sketch, when Rowlf falls into the hungry operating table, it is shown that no one bothered to give him legs for that one scene.
During "Wild Thing," the pedal on one of Animal's cymbals continues to depress even though his foot is no longer working it. Moments later, when Janice and the pig are taking Animal away, Frank Oz's head becomes visible.
During "Music Music Music", you can see both performer's heads if you look at the couples in the top boxes.
As the Swedish Chef explains to Kermit where all the smoke in the theater is coming from, Fozzie Bear goes to help Link Hogthrob and Rowlf put out the fire. As he does, Frank Oz's head comes into frame below Fozzie's arm. Then, during the "Pigs in Space" sketch, Link Hogthrob points to a lever and tells First Mate Piggy to pull it. She refuses, so he says he'll do it, but pulls the one next to the one he was pointing to.
Before the Witch Doctor shows up, while Marvin Suggs is pounding the Muppaphone, his mustache flies off.
Then, during the Muppet Labs sketch, when Gilda Radner accidentally squirts some of the super-adhesive glue out of its bottle, some gets on the camera.
Gilda also accidentally sticks her hand to the top of her head with the super-adhesive, but at the end of "Tap Your Troubles Away", she has moved her hand down to her forehead.
When Piggy shouts at Alice Cooper, "I wouldn't sell ya my soul if ya paid me," viewers can see the tip of Oz's head in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
A performer's head is seen between a pig on the left and Miss Piggy.
Almost simultaneously near the chaotic ending of "Never on Sunday", a performer's head pops into the left side of the screen, and then Steve Whitmire's face becomes visible through a chair, seconds before Animal enters.
In his first introduction scene, Kermit is reading from a piece of paper. He leaves the screen for a second and returns with empty flippers; however, the piece of tape that was used to keep the paper in place is still stuck to his fingers.
During the Muppet Sports sketch, the starting flag is the checkered flag used at the finish instead of the green colored one.
At the end of the episode, a performer's head and arm becomes visible operating Lew Zealand.
Also, when the two chickens begin pecking on Gonzo, Camilla loses an eye. As the credits roll and the chickens start fighting, they both lose several facial parts.
Right before Beauregard interjects that he hasn't finished building the opening number's set, Dave Goelz's face is seen and pulls back behind the curtain before speaking.
During the opening number, "Take Ten Terrific Girls", Rowlf's puppeteer is briefly visible as he wheels a light stand. Later, a puppeteer's head can be seen behind Statler operating a female whatnot.
In this season, trumpeter Lips is added to The Electric Mayhem and the orchestra. He gets a solo during the opening sequence where he is seen with Trumpet Girl, who is playing the trombone instead. However, during the wide pan of the orchestra and the "Why don't you get things started?" scenes, Trumpet Girl is playing the trumpet and Lips is nowhere since these sections were never re-filmed to add Lips.
In the musical number, "Tie The Man Down", pirates tie themselves up. Afterwards, Dead Ear Dick, one of the pirates that performed in the number, appears in the upper level of Backstage while the other pirates appear from onstage. Dick also has his voice changed.
In the performance of "One Way Or Another," when Debbie Harry is opening the doors in search of Mulch, she encounters a group of Devils. A performer's hand can be seen in one of the devil's mouths.
At the end of the "One Way or Another", after Debbie grabs Mulch, a side of Jerry Nelson's head is seen towards the bottom of the frame.
In the second control room scene, Fozzie's arm sock is briefly visible as he throws the clipboard away.
Occasional Goof[]
A 'continuity goof' occasionally occurred on The Muppet Show that involved the Muppet orchestra:
Musicians from the orchestra pit would be on stage during the goodnights until the beginning of the closing theme.
A wide shot of the audience would feature musicians in the pit that were not featured, or leave some musicians out.
General Goofs[]
Muppet Height Relations[]
One of the big errors people can nit-pick with the Muppet productions is continuity of the characters' heights. For example, Rizzo and Pepe normally appear around (or even above) waist height compared to their human co-stars. However, a full-body look at proportions of the character would suggest they would barely reach a human's knee. Kermit, Fozzie, and the other Muppets also appear in a flexible height range in order to interact comfortably with humans and sets. Steve Whitmire said in a 1998 interview that "If a character like Rizzo only appeared at his true height next to a human actor, you’d only see the human actor’s feet when you saw Rizzo. That’s an extreme example, but the idea is true for most of the characters. Even so, we do know the relative heights of the characters to each other and make an effort to keep that in mind." The suspended belief that the audience has when watching the Muppets allows this flexible reality to exist without major distractions. So even though Pepe's feet would be floating three feet off the ground, the audience still goes along, not questioning, and usually not even perceiving.
Canonical Holes[]
Many people argue that the Muppet films and TV shows are non-canonical; that each production is a world unto itself - that the Muppets are timeless personalities and characters that carry throughout productions, and these characters are presenting a show. People continue to argue and debate over what is Muppet truth and what is just acting and plain entertainment. Muppet Babies undermines the whole notion of The Muppet Movie. And Scooter's role as The Electric Mayhem's road manager in The Muppet Movie undermines his back-story set up in the early run of The Muppet Show as the theater owner's nephew hired by Kermit as a go-fer. There have been many contradictions in Muppet canon and back-stories throughout the 50+ years of the Muppets. However writers and performers will overlook or circumvent them in order to create new compelling stories, new characters or character traits, or just deliver a humorous joke.
In episode 210, Gonzo explains that his mother died before he was born and left a note to his father regarding Gonzo's name. This is contradicted in the Jason Alexander episode of Muppets Tonight, where Gonzo claims his mother liked his unique college interpretation of Death of a Salesman. However the whole notion of Gonzo remembering his parents is somewhat dispelled in the film Muppets from Space.
TV Overscan[]
A television image goes right to the very edges of the screen, however most TVs are not so precise as to fit the picture perfectly to its glass. As a result all televisions have what is called "overscan" - where portions of the actual picture area fall outside of the physical viewable area of a TV set, due to the picture being projected larger than the actual screen. About 5% of the picture area is missing from each edge, with some sets cutting off as much as 15% on one edge or another. Television creators are aware of the situation and are careful not to put anything critical too close to the edge of the picture, and will frame a shot accordingly. TV directors have what is called a "safe title zone", somewhat in from the edges, where it is considered safe to put text and titles. They also have a safe action zone within which it is considered safe to put the action you need to see. With the special effect illusions created by the Muppets, filming them sometimes results in a revealing mistake or puppeteer's head/arm. Since The Muppet Show was intended for television broadcast and viewing, sometimes "goofs" were allowed to stay in the edges of a shot assuming they were far enough at the bottom of a shot to be cut off by the viewer's TV (or were unnoticed on the film prints as they were cut off on the studio monitors themselves). Since that time the show has been transferred and released in digital – in the form of DVD. Playing such videos on screens without overscan (such as some computer monitors, digital screens, plasma monitors, etc.) will allow viewers to see things originally thought to be out of sight.