It’s time to play the music, It’s time to light the lights!
It’s time to meet the Muppets, on The Muppet Show Game tonight!
OK, that was a slight variation on the original opening to the television show that had us all wondering how felt puppets could put on make-up and just what ‘dressing up right’ meant to a bunch of performers who walked around nude most of the time.
Of course, I’m talking about Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show which aired from 1976 to 1981. But the remainder of this post will deal with The Muppet Show Game that Parker Brothers produced in 1977:
Look for Jim Henson as a Muppet on the cover
Box Side
Box End
This game is set up as a theatrical production directed by Kermit the Frog, produced by Parker Brothers, and starring Jim Henson’s Muppets. Even the rule book is actually a working script.
Back of Box
At the end of the post I will include pictures of the complete rules/script so you can get the sense of the play for yourself. Also, if you have the game but have lost the rules, this will make it possible for you to play the game properly.
First, let’s look more closely at the game board by itself, and set up for play:
“It’s time to raise the curtain on The Muppet Show Game tonight!”
Just for fun, look again for Jim Henson as a Muppet in the gallery of Muppets at the bottom of the board. Now let’s have a look at the spinner and rule book/script:
So there are eight characters who play in teams of two and four set pieces, all of which must move around the board to win the game. To win, each player must get his two characters in place for the curtain call, and their set into position as well.
Let’s have a look at the character pieces first. A nice feature of this game is that the playing pieces are double-sided:
In a commercial world where game manufacturers seem to create generic artwork, it’s refreshing to go back in time (to 1977) and see this nice detail of front and back views for the character pieces!
And we can’t forget the sets. Can you match the sets to the characters?
Now as promised, to conclude, here is the entire rule book/script reproduced for you page by page:
Don’t forget to read Kermit’s directions!
