All the Muppets (except the ones who could not make it) gather together to celebrate their (at that time) 30 year history. Most of them are wearing tuxedos, even the gang from Sesame street and Sprocket and Traveling Matt from 'Fraggle Rock' are in attendance, though in order to preserve continuity, the remaining Fraggles, Gorgs and Doozers remain blissfully unaware of this gathering.
With all of the most important Muppets sitting at a banquet table in the style of the Dean Martin Roast, this viewer suddenly noticed that the Sesame Street characters have much larger heads than those from the Muppet Show. The rest of the Muppet menagerie are seated in select groups at tables like they're attending the Golden Globes. Statler and Waldorf are joined by Pops, all the monsters share a giant size table and Big Bird is forced to sit next to the dreaded Miss Finch and those dimwitted Dodo kids from 'Follow That Bird'. BB also gets in a plug for 'Little Muppet Monsters', which had already been pulled off the air by the time this show was first broadcast.
This is of course nothing more than a clip show, but what a sensational selection of clips!. Kermit the Frog and all the regulars take turns introducing a lot of great compilations of everything they were ever involved in, from 'Sam and Friends' to 'Muppet Babies'. So many of these gems pass by so quickly that it leaves you wanting more, especially the early material and almost forgotten stuff, such as their stint on 'Saturday Night Life' (shown for about 2 seconds). The Dark Crystal is not mentioned at all, since those characters can hardly be referred to as 'Muppets'.
The constant praising of Kermit does begin to get a little bit tedious when Fozzie refers to him as 'Frog of my heart' (shouldn't that be Piggy's line?). But of course the one they are really thanking is Jim Henson, for realizing his dreams and bringing so much joy and entertainment to the world. To drive this argument home, the man himself appears near the end when Grover the waiter presents him with the bill (this would become a tradition in Muppet Specials until his death in 1990). The only problem with shows like this is that you can celebrate an anniversary only once, so this will probably never be broadcast again.
9 out of 10
