FAQ Additions: Muppet Family Christmas and Emmet Otter Edits

[Zack the Dog]

oh yeah?i did not know that, i thought it was when it first came out years ago, but the DVD is cut right? i wonder whats up with that Fozzie and Ma part?

 

[anathema]

The US DVD is cut, it's the same as the US VHS release. There isn't a UK DVD release as yet.

 

[Zack the Dog]

oh then it proably wouldn't be cut then if nothing has changed when a DVD comes to the UK.

thanks for all the info i see the light now, now if only i could get the light in in full version on DVD, oh well 80's Mc D's ads are fun anyways.

 

[anathema]

Hopefully when (if?) there is a UK DVD, it will at least be the same edit as the VHS, but there's no guarantee - rights for DVD use are frequently different to those for VHS. I've got programmes on VHS which had to be altered slightly for their DVD release a few years later because the copyright holder had changed their terms.

 

[Phillip]

Concerning the Fozzie and Ma scene...

My guess is that a new digital TV master was made by Henson in the early nineties when Nick began airing the show. The new TV logo was added at the beginning and that one scene with Fozzie and Ma was cut making it immediately dissolve from the end of the Carol Sing to Kermit and Piggy talking. Time might have been a factor here as well for Nick and this was an easy place to make a slight edit.

Because the new master was of higher quality and had the new logo placed at the beginning it's been used for subsequent TV and video airings during the past ten years. The other edits have come from this same higher quality digital master. I've talked to people that work with Columbia, and most don't even know the shows are edited! In the case of Emmet Otter and MFC they have used the masters that Henson gave them.

That's my hunch as to why the Fozzie and Ma scene hasn't been seen much since the original network TV airings in 1987 and 1988.

 

[anathema]

The master must be a little older than that - the original UK release was done in the late 80s and has those changes.

Now, if anyone can supply me with a decent copy of the cut scene, I can edit it back in...

 

[BlueFrackle]

Alex,

I have the whole thing uncut !

 

[Chilly Down]

Thanks for clearing up the Ma Bear scene thing, Phil. Still disappointing, but a little less maddening when one knows the reasons for it.