Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. โค๏ธ

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

๐Ÿ”  ๐Ÿ’€  ๐Ÿ“ธ  ๐Ÿ˜ญ  ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ  ๐Ÿค   ๐ŸŽฌ  ๐Ÿฅ”

Gene Kelly Doesn’t Want to Perform Singin’ in the Rain on the Muppet Show

The legendary dancer, actor, and singer Gene Kelly appeared on The Muppet Show in season five, in what turned out to be the last episode of the show ever filmed. The episode’s gag involved Kelly being under the impression he was turning up to watch the show and not perform. Kermit tricks him into it, but in the final act, Kelly refuses to do his most famous song, Singin’ in the Rain. Until…

As Jonathan Hoefler said about this bit on Threads:

For all the satire and irony and anxiety that shaped Gen X, we were so lucky to grow up with the gentleness, wit, kindness, and respect of Jim Henson, the Children’s Television Workshop, and public television generally. How lovely is this?

Discussion  7 comments

Monica

Helluva last episode! The way the muppets stare at him in awed delight as he sings... Perfection. Over here grinning so bigly as I watched this.

Hugh C. McBride

This is just lovely. Thank you so much for sharing it!

Edith ZimmermanMOD

So good. What Hugh said!

Jason KottkeMOD

Oh, I forgot to add that if you have Disney+, you can watch this episode (and every other episode of The Muppet Show).

Moira

Sigh. That was *perfect*.

Nelson Minar

I love how sharp he looks.

Louise Hornor

I admit I teared up a little! Such a great show.

Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.

Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!