10 Greatest Episodes Of The Muppet Show

2. Season 5, Episode 1 (Gene Kelly)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NiF33BSWaM Around the same time that Gene Kelly's Muppet Show episode aired, he starred in his last film, 1980's Xanadu. Many would say that he fared much better with Jim Henson's creations than with roller-skating muses. All of the Muppets are elated to be sharing the spotlight with stage legend Gene Kelly. The only problem? Kelly is convinced that he's only been invited to watch the show, and has little interest in performing. While they are able to buy themselves time with an adorable musical number by Arctic animals and a a Veterinarian's Hospital sketch that involves the doctor and Nurse Janice relentlessly snarking at each other, Kermit eventually realizes that he needs to trick Gene, both into taking the stage and into doing "Singin' in the Rain", in order to please the audience. He quickly succeeds in the former, by taking dance lessons from the star while on stage (a scene that features some tremendous puppetry, with no visible strings attached to the frog), but the second task is much trickier. Gene Kelly, does, of course, concede by the time the curtains are closed (Muppet productions are prone to happy endings).