John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together is, as its title suggests, a Christmas television special starring John Denver and the Muppets. Produced for the holiday sales for the album of the same name, which was released two months prior, this one-hour Christmas special was originally produced for ABC and aired on December 5, 1979.
This special was one of the relatively few productions featuring the Muppets that was not sold to The Walt Disney Company when they acquired the characters from The Jim Henson Company in 2004. Along with the later Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets, it is instead owned by John Denver's estate.
Unlike Rocky Mountain Holiday, A Christmas Together has never been commercially released on home video. It is, however, available for public viewing at the Paley Center for Media.
Highlights
The Muppets and John Denver sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in the opening scene.
Highlights include:
- Denver and the Muppets sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
- Denver sings "The Pleasure of Your Company".
- John tells the tale of Alfie the Christmas Tree before singing "It's in Every One of Us".
- Kermit the Frog and Denver reminisce about past Christmases with their friends and families, and sing "The Christmas Wish".
- Miss Piggy confronts Denver in her dressing room about their presumably mutual attraction.
- Denver and Rowlf the Dog sing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".
- Denver recites the story of the Nativity.
- Miss Piggy, as a doll named Fifi, sings "I Will Wait for You" to Denver, who plays a wooden soldier trying to stay in step with a line of marching soldiers.
The program concludes with Denver and the Muppets singing "Stille Nacht," and children in the audience join in for the English version, "Silent Night".
Notes
- The original ABC broadcast included an announcer mentioning the sponsors, DuPont and Dr. Pepper, at the end of the first and last segments.
- Some of the Disney Channel airings, as part of The Magical World of Disney, also included part of an introduction with Michael Eisner and Kermit the Frog, which was filmed for the NBC airing of A Muppet Family Christmas.
Edits
- The three-minute sequence of wooden soldiers dancing and singing "Camaraderie" was deleted from some reruns on the Disney Channel (which also appear to be slightly zoomed in compared to the original broadcast).
Cast
| Actor/Muppeteer | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| John Denver | Himself |
| Jim Henson | Kermit the Frog Rowlf the Dog Waldorf Dr. Teeth The Swedish Chef |
| Frank Oz | Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Animal Sam the Eagle |
| Jerry Nelson | Camilla Lew Zealand Robin the Frog Floyd Pepper |
| Richard Hunt | Scooter Statler Janice Beaker |
| Dave Goelz | Gonzo Zoot Dr. Bunsen Honeydew |
| Steve Whitmire | Foo-Foo |
| Kathryn Mullen Robert Payne Brian Muehl Mike Davis Cheryl Henson Phillip Huber |
Additional Muppets |
External links
- Muppet Wiki: John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together
- A Christmas Together at the Internet Movie Database
- A Christmas Together at RetroJunk.com
- Tough Pigs articles:
- Platypus Comix's review