EMMET OTTER'S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS was one of various TV specials that the Jim Henson Company made before and up to the point when the troupe found a long-term showcase in the internationally syndicated
The Muppet Show. With Kermit the Frog the one familiar Muppet doing the introduction, it takes place largely in a riverbank community populated by muskrats, foxes, bullfrogs, badgers, woodchucks, etc. Young Emmet Otter and his widowed Ma eke out a living after the demise (no details given) of the father, Mr. Otter, a failed snake-oil salesman. The nearby town of Waterville offers $50 in a Christmas talent contest, and Emmet secretly enters it with his jug-band pals to buy his mother a piano (at least make a down payment). Ma, a singer, enters in secret herself, to buy a proper guitar as a present for Emmett. But the last-minute competition of a raucous rock band fronted by the troublemaking Riverbottom Gang (a funny takoff on an
Ozzy Osbourne-like 70s arena-rock) leads to an ironic -- though happy -- finale.