101: Juliet Prowse & G.I. Blues

Tonight on MuppetWatch, we’re joined by dancer Juliet Prowse in the first episode of The Muppet Show produced and all of its awkward growing pains. Then, we watch G.I. Blues (1960), where Prowse plays love interest to Elvis Presley in his first film out of the army.

Topics of discussion include Space Mutiny-esque Elvis names, the troubling implications of a Muppet version of yourself, StarKid musicals that haven’t aged well, the career of Arnold Drake, and At the Dance: Yea or Nay?

Further resources:

• Championship Ballroom Dancing (1987)
• Circus of the Stars (1987)
• Dancer-Actress Juliet Prowse Dies at 59
• “I watched every Elvis movie and all I went was insane”
• In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid (1993) part 1 and part 2
• ”Mahna Mahna” on The Ed Sullivan Show
• Obituary: Juliet Prowse