[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/potato_head.jpg]]

-> ''He's got two eyes\\
He's got a nose\\
He's got two ears\\
Wherever he goes\\
When you see him comin', well everybody knows!\\
Mr. Potato Head! Mr. Potato Head! Mr. Potato Head...''
-->-- '''Opening theme song'''

''The Mr. Potato Head Show'' was a short-lived 1998 {{Puppet Show|s}} on Creator/FoxKids based on Toys/MrPotatoHead. It lasted 13 episodes [[ShortRunners before being canceled.]] Afterwards, a DirectToVideo movie was produced, in which... well, the show gets canceled.

Somewhat infuriatingly, the movie is just the last two episodes back to back with 20 minutes of {{padding}} [[StockFootage that were nothing but little skits]] [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment taken from other episodes that have nothing whatsoever to do with the plot at hand.]]

[[SarcasmMode The movie]] is somewhat redeemed by the fact that there's a little production documentary with in-character commentary at the end.

Yes, the show was sort of ''about'' Mr. Potato Head having a TV show. Potato Head battled with the TV execs (who are [[CardCarryingVillain most certainly evil, and they won't let you forget it]]) many times, including in the movie.
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!!''The Mr. Potato Head Show'' provides examples of:

* AesopAmnesia: Mr. Potato Head often forgets the moral of the episode immediately after voicing it; this tends to happen as part of the stinger.
* AmusingInjuries: the show uses slapstick humor from time to time, including Baloney being electrocuted and a ham-monster hurling characters across the room.
* AnthropomorphicFood: the majority of the cast.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: inverted when Dr. Fruitcake lists his latest invention's features: it will cure all known diseases, generate limitless power, and make [[StockYuck bussels sprouts]] taste like [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood cherry cheesecake]]!
* AshFace: Mr. Potato Head was lucky that this was the only consequence of losing an [[EyeBeams Eye ]]BeamOWar with a demon who was supposed to be able to ''destroy the world!''
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: In one episode, Dr. Fruitcake grows to enormous proportions after eating radioactive sludge. In another episode, Dr. Fruitcake ends up in a parallel universe where he's chased by a giant, carnivorous Mr. Potato Head.
* BaldOfEvil: This, combined with BeardOfEvil and his ''name'', [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Bully-Boy McPherson]], are all that's needed to establish Mr. Potato Head's new supervisor as bad news the moment he's introduced.
* BeardOfEvil: Bully-Boy [=McPherson=] sports a goatee, and he very much lives up to his name.
* BeamOWar: At one point, superhero!Mr. Potato Head and an ancient demon, both of which have EyeBeams, get into a beam-o-war duel. Mr. Potato Head loses and gets an AshFace as a result.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: This happens in-universe as a bad decision on Mr. Potato Head's part on how he wrote an episode of his ShowWithinAShow: he had a BLAM at the end of his cop-episode where a clown appears on-stage and sprays everyone with whipped cream. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext This only makes]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext slightly more sense in context]]. Other characters comment on how it made no sense.
* BrickJoke: Perhaps the writers were aiming for a RunningGag some of the time, but they had several jokes that referenced previous events, such as real weapons being used as props in a spy episode. First, [[ButtMonkey poor Baloney]] was exploded by an [[ItMakesSenseInContext exploding handkerchief]], then electrocuted by an electrifying pen.
* BrownNote: Mr. Potato Head works hard writing a masterpiece script, hoping it will satisfy the [[Main/TyrantTakesTheHelm man]] his [[ScrewedByTheNetwork TV Bosses]] put in charge of his show. He actually writes something that causes anyone who reads it to go bug-eyed and scream "I have gazed into the nameless horror of the void!". Which actually works perfectly in this case.
* BulletholeDoor: In the superhero episode, Mr. Potato Head's "[[ShowWithinAShow Spudman]]" character uses EyeBeams to create a door to enter the villain's lair.
* CannotTellFictionFromReality: In the superhero episode, Mr. Potato Head, acting as the [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe fictional superhero]] "Spudman", tried to use his character's powers to fight a world-destroying demon. Bizarrely, he was able to fire EyeBeams, even backstage, though he lost a BeamOWar with the demon.
* CatchPhrase: Multiple characters have catchphrases:
** Mr. Potato Head himself has "Tubular, baby!"
** Baloney has "Not in any way good!"
** Potato Bug has "Sweet cheese and crackers!"
** Nora the T.V. Boss has "I have ''no'' idea what that means, but I ''love'' it!"
* CharacterDevelopment: Of all characters, Betty the Kitchen Fairy has some development over the 13 episodes that sticks: at first, she would refuse to help the other characters when they had a pressing problem, like a world-destroying demon or a [[ItMakesSenseInContext Frankenstein's Monster-expy made of ham]]. A few episodes before the end of the show, she realizes how annoying this is, and actually helps them out. [[spoiler: In the finale, it's actually her who saves the day from an AlienInvasion.]]
* ClipShow: The final two episodes of the show are unabashed clip shows; Mr. Potato Head has frequent flashbacks to earlier episodes when he hears that the show has been cancelled to justify most of them. However, at one point, the narrator just says they're going to show the audience some clips [[LampshadeHanging just because]]. It's as if they were deliberately aiming for SoBadItsGood!
* CloudCuckooLander: Potato Bug: she talks to shoes (but ''never'' boots), believes goblins deliver the newspaper every day, and thinks you can get milk from a cabbage if you can get it to say "moo".
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Several of the show's jokes use this. For instance, after Mr. Potato Head showed his "[[BrownNote masterpiece script]]" to Queenie, she screamed at the top of her lungs and fell over. As she was on the floor moaning, "the horror...the horror..." Mr. Potato Head asked her, "So...you don't like it?"
* ConfessionCam: Invoked during the reality-show episode: Mr. Potato Head set one up and allowed the other cast members to go in any time they wanted to discuss their feelings. Which he then used ManipulativeEditing on to make it look like one of the characters was badmouthing all the others as an attempt at generating conflict to liven up the show.
* CueTheRain: After alienating all his friends and turning all the floorspace he'd normally use to film his show into rented space in order to make money, Mr. Potato Head is stuck outdoors, alone. He says it's not so bad "on a day like today", only for a thunderstorm to begin.
* TheDarkArts: Baloney gets a magic kit in one episode. He thinks it's plain sleight-of-hand magic that he's getting into at first, but his magic wand turns another character into a toaster, and he accidentally summons a monster out of his top hat while trying to perform a magic act.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Queenie was going to try to force Mr. Potato Head to let her sing on the show by stealing his detachable ears and holding them hostage. She didn't make her demands until ''after'' she detached the ears, and he couldn't hear her, though...
---> '''Queenie''': Man, I shoulda thought this plan through better!
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Sweet Potato often slaps Mr. Potato Head around, and no one calls her on it. Then again, there are times when Mr. Potato Head is kind of asking for it, and it's downplayed in that Mr. Potato Head never seems to be in much pain from it.
* DreadfulMusician: Johnny Rottenapple even calls his own songs "My latest musical stain/puddle/onslaught"!
* EverybodyHatesMath: One episode had the TV Guys tell Mr. Potato Head and his crew to do an educational superhero show. When Mr. Potato Head's character sang a song about the Pythagorean Theorem right before a battle with an evil robot, the evil robot just moaned "I ''hate'' math!", [[ItMakesSenseInContext filled up its bubble-helmet with whipped cream in a panic]], and fainted.
* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Immediately after Mr. Potato Head and Baloney [[ItMakesSenseInContext restore their bagel-eating writer's talent]], he begins writing an episode on his typewriter, and while watching him writing his script, Baloney comments on how stupid these kinds of endings are. [[HypocriticalHumor Cue]] them laughing, the screen freezing, and a cut to commercials.
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: In "Aliens Dig Baloney", the Aliens that Baloney encounters make him listen to bagpipe music, much to his horror. They later regret this decision.
* EvilLaughTurnedCoughingFit: In the episode "Secret Agent Mania", Mr. Potato head has hidden cameras all over his home and is watching all his co-stars to see if any of them are TheMole for his rival, Donkey Waddlefoot. As he does so, he slowly goes mad with paranoia in his hiding spot, commenting on how everyone's out to get them, and how he'll get them first.
-->'''Mr. Potato Head:''' He who spies on Mr. Potato head must perish, baby! Aah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha-(lets loose a phlegmy-sounding cough) Man, that insane cackling's harder than it looks.
* EyeBeams: During the superhero episode, Mr. Potato Head's "Spudman" character has the ability to fire lightning-like purple rays from his eyes; he used them to create a BulletholeDoor to enter the villain's lair. He showed this ability once backstage, too.
* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: The show lampshades and dances around the fact that you can't have real guns on a kid's show. For example, in a western episode, sherrif!Mr. Potato Head and outlaw!Johnny have some closeups of them that size them up head-to-toe, and you can tell that ''their holsters are empty''. And yet, when Mr. Potato Head is showing this western episode to the [[ScrewedByTheNetwork TV bosses]], seconds after these size-up camera shots, you can ''hear'' gunshots as part of the climactic shootout while seeing the bosses' reactions of horror as they tell him he can't have guns on the show.
* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: Potato Bug's stupidity got Mr. Potato Head's plant killed, so she asked Dr. Fruitcake to make her smart with a brain-enhancing device. It works ''too'' well: she felt like she was SurroundedByIdiots, she enhanced every appliance in ways only she could understand, she made the whole cast obsolete by programming the computer to create episodes of the show for them, and in general made herself and everyone around her miserable to the point where she [[DrivenToSuicide thought about throwing herself under a bus.]] She instead had the brain-enhancement reversed and went back to being a CloudCuckooLander.
* ForcedTransformation: an evil magic kit turns two characters into toasters, who both say "I feel peculiar" upon this happening.
* FrothyMugsOfWater: In the spy-episode, there's a scene where spy!Mr. Potato Head and spy!Baloney are in a lounge, listening to agent!Queenie sing before getting information from her. The show [[FunnyBackgroundEvent doesn't draw attention]] to it, but their wine glasses are filled with ''[[DrunkOnMilk milk]]''.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Often, when Mr. Potato Head met with the TV executives Aaron and Nora, they were eating french fries.
* GenreShift: The ShowWithinAShow takes this trope to its logical conclusion: literally every episode of that show is in a genre different from the previous episode!
* HellHotel: After getting depressed, thinking his friends no longer needed him, Mr. Potato Head stays at a run-down hotel in a dangerous neighborhood to mope.
* IdiotBall: Mr. Potato Head would sometimes be quite wise, like making it a point to break the news that the show has been cancelled to his cast in small groups so there wouldn't be a mass panic. Other times, even ''in the same episode'', he'd make unbelievably idiotic decisions, like setting up the opening night of the show months before anything was ready!
* IHaveToGoIronMyDog: Due to a misunderstanding, Queenie Sweet Potato felt very awkward around Mr. Potato Head, and made up random and nonsensical excuses to get away from him, including:
--> I have to go shampoo the doorbell!
--> I have to go feed the toaster!
--> I have to go iron my toenails!
* InsufferableGenius: One episode (appropriately with a Sherlock Holmes ShowWithinAShow theme to it) had Potato Bug use a brain enhancer. She's an atypical example in that she isn't just a know-it-all, and doesn't even go out of her way to prove she knows it all, either--when other characters ask her trivia questions, she gets bored with that quickly. The problems begin when she starts enhancing equipment around the kitchen in ways only she can understand.
* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: In an episode of Mr. Potato Head's in-universe show, where Mr. Potato Head and Baloney play cops, they arrest Sweet Potato for jaywalking.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mr. Potato Head acts like either this or JerkWithAHeartOfJerk, depending on the episode or even the situation. For instance, in one episode spoofing reality shows, he deliberately tricked his friends into getting mad at each other to create drama, but in the end apologized.
* KaleidoscopeHair: In the reality TV episode, Queenie starts trying on various wigs, experimenting with different looks. One of them is neon orange!
* LampshadeHanging: This being a show about producing a show, a lot of meta-humor is a given. One outstanding example: when Jiblets is playing the evil overlord in the spy episode and has spy!Mr. Potato Head and spy!Baloney captured, he literally says he'll explain his evil plan to them so they can foil it. Then when Mr. Potato Head pressed a BigRedButton to activate the island's self-destruct, Jiblets howls, "I knew I shouldn't have had that thing installed!"
* LogicBomb: At one point, a robotic version of Mr. Potato Head decided that the real Mr. Potato Head was a bad influence on the rest of the cast who was making them miserable, and tried to keep them separated. Betty the Kitchen Fairy told the robot that keeping them away from their friend also made them miserable, and this paradox caused the robot to explode.
* MadLibsCatchPhrase: One of Mr. Potato Head's catchphrases is "Who's ___? That's right, it's me/you!" The blank can be filled in with all sorts of things, like "clueless", "gonna be rich", or "a genius".
* MadScientist: Dr. Fruitcake, in spades: he created a Frankenstein-like ham-monster that attacked the rest of the cast, built machines that have exploded when they're supposed to be safe, and given the other characters ''real weapons'' as props while they were doing a spy show.
* MeatOVision: When Queenie goes on a diet, she starts seeing other cast members this way (who, let us remember, are almost all AnthropomorphicFood to begin with): she sees Mr. Potato Head as a baked potato, and she sees Baloney as a sandwich.
* MoralGuardians: During the filming of a monster-themed episode, the censors won't let Mr. Potato Head use a gun or drive a stake through someone's heart on a children's show. He improvises by serving yogurt with a silver spoon to the werewolf actor and driving a stake through the vampire actor's cape.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The [=TV=] bosses set up a violent and sour supervisor over Mr. Potato Head whose name, [[SincerityMode we kid you not]], was ''Bully-Boy [=McPherson=]''.
* NervousWreck: Happy Whip, a can of whipped cream with Mr. Potato Head arms attached, comes across this way. Whenever he gets emotional (typically afraid, though pride can have this effect as well), he sprays whipped cream everywhere. The main purpose of his appearances is for him to panic and trigger this.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Feeling both guilty and desperate for something to show his audience after his original plan for a reality show spectacularly blows up in his face, Mr. Potato Head films himself doing a dance that embarasses him called the "Fluffy Pookie-Poo" and submits that to his network executives for the show. To his dismay, both the executives and the [=TV=]-watching public love it, and it becomes extremely popular. He swears he'll escape the embarrassment if he has to move to South America to do it...only to find that it's also popular in South America.
* OncePerEpisode: Most episodes had Betty the Kitchen Fairy appear to deliver an aesop and call out the characters on jerkish behavior. If there's a problem like a monster chasing the characters, though, she won't intervene to save them. Most episodes also have a song in them.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Nora's catchphrase is "I have [=NO=] idea what that means, but I [=LOVE=] it!" But in one meeting with a new executive character, she says "I know ''exactly'' what you mean" in a much more subdued voice than usual, a clear hint to the audience that things are going to be different this time.
* PieInTheFace: Queenie Sweet Potato loves her sugar cream pies. At one point, she accidentally got some pie slapped onto her face, and when Mr. Potato Head's test audience loved it, he added a segment to his for-Toddlers episode where a large number of pies were thrown in Queenie's face.
* QuickDraw: It's implied that the original version of the cowboy episode ended with one of these, as there are camera angles sizing up both sheriff!Mr. Potato Head and outlaw!Johnny right before their showdown. (The closeups revealing that their holsters are empty did not stop this.)
* RestrainedRevenge: After Mr. Potato Head has a segment of his show where Queenie gets hit by about a dozen pies, she tells him she's not upset because of her new philosophy: Don't get mad--get even! She then pies him in the face. He laughs it off and admits he deserved it.
** Mr. Potato Head arranging PieInTheFace segment of his show in the first place qualifies, as well, since Queenie had been acting like a colossal jerk while she thought she was the [[ItMakesSenseInContext reigning queen of Egypt]].
* RobotMe: Mr. Potato Head was under a lot of stress and needed a vacation, so Dr. Fruitcake made a robotic version of Mr. Potato Head to stand in for him while he was away...who was friendly and didn't have any of [[IdiotBall Mr.]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Potato]] [[JerkassBall Head's]] flaws. He was so liked by the rest of the cast, that when the real Mr. Potato Head found out about the robot, he didn't want to come back to the show and became depressed.
* RottenRoboticReplacement: ZigZagged with a robotic duplicate of Mr. Potato Head, built so that the real Mr. Potato Head can go on vacation: at first, the robot is actually well-liked by the cast. However, when they realize the real Mr. Potato Head is miserable because he feels like the robot has made him superfluous, the problems start: the robot concludes the real Mr. Potato Head is a bad influence on the others and tries to keep them from him.
* RunningGag: Most jokes that involve referencing previous events in the episode don't happen often enough to qualify as Running Gags and are instead [[BrickJoke Brick Jokes]], but there's one that recurs often enough: Mr. Potato Head saying, "Please don't say X. It makes me uncomfortable." Words like "bosom" and "evacuate" fill in the X.
* SassyBlackWoman: Queenie Sweet Potato comes across this way, though she's an anthropomorphic yam.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Happens often in-universe, with the TV executives changing their minds about things ''in the middle of filming an episode'' of Mr. Potato Head's ShowWithinAShow, such as telling them that their superhero episode needs to be educational or a musical.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Baloney and Mr. Potato Head have this dynamic; Baloney has little problem expressing his softer emotions and is into things like aromatherapy, while PH tends to only express manlier emotions like anger and annoyance, and is ashamed to be found dancing.
* ShoePhone: subverted in the spy episode: Potato Bug is regularly in the habit of speaking to shoes. See CloudCuckooLander above.
* ShowWithinAShow: This is the premise of the Mr. Potato Head show. No, really: the main cast films episodes of a TV show (not all of which we get to see) for a pair of network executives. However, what this show is or even its genre is different in every episode.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: happens in-universe in an episode where Mr. Potato Head had gone money-mad and was deliberately keeping the budget down: three small spaceship miniatures made of tinfoil, suspended by visible wires, are swinging around in front of the camera, while the narrator says things like "Swish! Boom! Zap!"--those were the only sound effects. And this is supposed to be the sci-fi episode's epic space battle.
* StockFootage: Hilariously lampshaded in the Variety Show episode: there's no studio audience for the ShowWithinAShow, so Mr. Potato Head splices in stock footage of an applauding audience after each act, instead. At one point, footage plays of a woman working in what looks to be a tomato-canning factory, and Mr. Potato Head shouts "Wrong stock footage!"
* TemptingFate: after listing off what his invention does (see ArsonMurderAndJaywalking), Dr. Fruitcake tells those assembled at his press conference that his latest invention is ''completely safe'' (his own emphasis). Cue explosion. Then he starts telling them about another invention of his. Cue ''another'' explosion!
* TokenEvilTeammate: Jiblets is a character who delights in the suffering of others. When the show is cancelled in the finale, he laments that he's unemployable, and when Mr. Potato Head jokingly says "There's always politics", he quickly regrets it.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood:
** Queenie Sweet Potato, despite being AnthropomorphicFood herself, has a favorite food: sugar-cream pies.
** The TV Bosses are also (rather disturbingly) always eating French fries during their meetings with Mr. Potato Head.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Dr. Fruitcake calls a press conference, and says hello to the reporters present: Tom Brokaw, Nancy O'Dell, and Diane Sawyer, all of whom were news anchors at the time the show was being aired. However, he only uses the characters ''first'' names.
* TypeCasting: [[invoked]] This happens in-universe as the way Mr. Potato Head runs his ShowWithinAShow: Mr. Potato Head is invariably TheHero and his best friend Baloney is invariably the {{Sidekick}}. The other characters aren't nearly as typecasted, however; Queenie and Johnny have played both villains and allies, for instance.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: The western episode-[[ShowWithinAShow episode]] sees the [=TV=] bosses giving Mr. Potato Head a literally impossible task. When he calls them out on its impossibility, they put an [[SarcasmMode oh-so-subtly-named]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Bully-Boy McPherson]] in charge of his show, and give him a contract that allows him to cancel the show if he's not satisfied with the cast's work.
* UnmanlySecret: Mr. Potato Head's secret is that he likes to hide in the cupboard and do a silly dance called the "Fluffy Pookie-Poo".
* VillainSong: Queenie Sweet Potato plays an EvilOverlord in the superhero episode, and her first moment on-screen in the in-universe episode is a song about world domination.
* TheVillainSucksSong: Queenie begins singing one about [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Bully-boy McPherson]] in his episode, and as he realizes that it's not meant to be flattering, his smile fades, and he cuts her off.
* {{Wangst}}: [[invoked]] In-universe, Baloney viewed Mr. Potato Head's progressively worsening depression over the show being cancelled as annoying and overreacting, and tried several over-the-top things to get him out of that funk.
* XRaySparks: This happens to Baloney in the spy episode, when he tries taking notes using a spy-gadget electrifying pen...that ''isn't'' just a prop!
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: A third network executive appears in the finale, who says Mr. Potato Head's show has outlived its usefulness to "ThePlan", and tells the regular T.V. Bosses Aaron and Nora to cancel it.
* ZanyScheme: In one episode, Mr. Potato Head thinks that his rival is trying to hire away his star singer, so he sets out to give her the variety-show episode she wants, and everything else she wants, too...without letting her know why. She ends up thinking he's fallen in love with her. HilarityEnsues.
** Most of the characters' plans are relatively simple, but insanity always follows, regardless.
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