In 1975, a half-hour variety show titled The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence piloted on ABC television but it was going after an older audience. According to Muppet Wiki, it was a “parody the proliferation of sex and violence on television”. There’s a lot of interesting things going on in the pilot (I believe I see a Jim Henson-looking Muppet playing the banjo in the end credits) and definitely worth checking out. It is not truly an early version of the The Muppet Show but it definitely shares elements and might be considered more of a first draft. The Onion’s AV Club goes into more details about this pilot and the other similar pilot, The Muppets Valentine Show.

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