The Muppet Show originally ran for 5 seasons.
The Jim Henson variety series premiered in 1976 and concluded in 1981, producing 120 episodes across its five-season run. Each episode combined musical performances, comedy sketches, backstage storylines, and a rotating celebrity guest star. Kermit the Frog served as the host and the increasingly exasperated showrunner.
The program was developed after two unsuccessful pilot specials made for American television: The Muppets Valentine Show and The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. British producer Lew Grade and ATV helped bring the series to production in the United Kingdom, where it was filmed at ATV Elstree Studios. It was then distributed internationally, including through first-run syndication in the United States.
A common mix-up is confusing the original series with later Muppet television projects. Muppets Tonight ran for two seasons in the 1990s, while later series had different episode counts and formats. The original The Muppet Show is specifically the five-season production that established the classic ensemble and its signature guest-star structure.