Alternate Muppet Show guest stars

There've been a number of threads about Muppets WIs, but I thought I'd go for a slightly different take on it.

The Muppet Show, running (in OTL) from 1976 to 1981, every week had some B-list celebrity (usually musicians or comedians, but they had a variety; they got bigger names in the later seasons, as the show gained popularity) who was willing to show up to a studio outside London for a half hour of silly variety.

Which other celebrities' appearances (not necessarily OTL's 1970s celebrities, of course) should we have seen?

I'll start off with Buddy Holly: in this Season 3 episode, the aging Rock-n-Roller performs some of his classic hits with Muppet backup. Most notable is the ending of the performance of "Not Fade Away", in which both Holly and the Electric Mayhem fade out, leaving an empty stage.
 
JRR Tolkien meets with the cast for a Hobbit themed adventure. The famous author played gandolf in the episode with Kermit as Bilbo. Animal acted as golum
 
Surprised they never tried to get any SNL cast members. Belushi and Animal interacting together would have been fun.
 
"Surprised they never tried to get any SNL cast members."

In addition to Gildna Radner, they got Steve Martin, in one of the better episodes. Also John Cleese from Monty Python, who was also in one of the movies.

John Belushi would have been great. I looked it up and Eddie Murphy came to SNL too late to even get on the Muppet Show radar.

Looking up who was big on TV in the late 1970s, emphasizing the best fit for the comedy:

Dick Van Dyke
Terry Savalas
Goldie Hawn
Linda Carter
Peter Falk
Tim Conway (but Harvey Korman was a guest)
Johnny Carson (it would have been a coup but it would have been an incredible show)

Anyone from the cast of "Taxi".

Movies:

Robert DeNiro
Jack Nicholson
Robert Redford
James Caan
Dustin Hoffman
Marlin Brando
Michael Caine
Jeff Bridges

Carol Kane
Teri Garr (she later became a David Letterman regular)
Jane Seymour
Meryl Streep

For the movie stars, I just looked up the IMBD list of 1970s movie stars, selecting for aging well and showing some ability to do comedy. However, the problem with the list is that it is an "A" list and that most of them would have been too big for the show. I could see getting Teri Garr, Maryl Streep, or Jeff Bridges.

For music, the Ramones?
 
Some members (or all of them if feasible) of either the Munsters and/or the Addams Family would have been great for one of their Halloween episodes. Heck, Cousin Itt is basically already a Muppet to begin with.
 
Top