Will an Unedited MFC ever be commercially released on DVD?

[muppet boy]

What would be the possibilty that A muppet Family Christmas will arrive on an uneditied DVD in the next few years. I read on Muppet Wiki that the rights to the special is now owned by Disney. Now all we have to worry about is the music rights problems. I really don't see an issue here. Disney has obtain the rights for songs used for seasons 2 and 3 of The Muppet Show, surely they could disolve the music rights for this special.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes... I think it's all up to Disney, and if it's true that they don't have any problems with the Fraggle or Sesame Street characters then we could see it very soon. Just not this year, unfortunately. Firstly, it's too late for them to release a Christmas based DVD. You release those in September so stores can keep them in musty store rooms until November, when they put the holiday DVD's and CD's out. I could easily see them releasing it next year, or maybe even year after... I don't know. So far Disney hasn't really released any Muppet specials that weren't actually pilots, as bonus features on season sets...

And as far as Disney goes, so far, past Season 1, they've been good with musical rights. So we could very easily see everything in tact if the greedy corporations that own Christmas musci wanna play ball.

 

[LeanneRivett]

you can still get it in the UK try amazon.co.uk and Play.com it is uncut and also comes with the christmas toy. I've got my copy when it first came out over here, it's really good quality.

Leanne
x

 

[minor muppetz]

you can still get it in the UK try amazon.co.uk and Play.com it is uncut and also comes with the christmas toy. I've got my copy when it first came out over here, it's really good quality.

Leanne
x

Those are probably used or unsold copies form before Disney bought the Muppets.

 

[beaker]

I got ahold of good quality version of the complete 1987 MFC, and edited together a montage of all the deleted clips and scenes...and I was surprised at the fact this totals a good seven minutes plus completely gone from the late 2001 dvd release. Which is totally strange to me. 7 minutes is a large chunk of time if we're talking a standard 45 minute tv special(or in this case, 51.5 minutes total)

I have no idea why some of these clips were taken out, there's not even any music; and if there are it's not copyrighted(Rowlf warming up on the piano is not really a "song" per se)

Best one can do is just download the uncut version on youtube or a torrent site.

 

[dwmckim]

It's just such an odd history. Sure a lot of stuff got cut for dvd/video releases because of music issues but even if none of that had happened, there was the whole case of when airing of MFC switched to a different network in 1989. Henson Co put together a different edit of the special cutting bits here, adding music there...basically making an "alternate cut" of MFC. The 1989 edit's master had been deemed to be of a higher quality than the 1987 master so they used the 89 cut as the base for all reairings and video releases...so you have an already changed version mutated a little more because of the music rights stuff.

So even if Disney can clear up all the issues in regards to music rights and the three families in the special all under different ownerships, a lot may also depend on (a) if Disney has the original master from 87 in their vaults and (b) what condition it's in. In these days of digital remastering, the latter may not be as much an issue but if they do have access to both masters, they may also take an approach HIT did with the special edition Emmett Otter dvd and put the 89 edit as the main attraction with stuff from the 87 cut that got removed for the 89 version as bonus feature material.

 

[beaker]

It's just such an odd history. Sure a lot of stuff got cut for dvd/video releases because of music issues but even if none of that had happened, there was the whole case of when airing of MFC switched to a different network in 1989. Henson Co put together a different edit of the special cutting bits here, adding music there...basically making an "alternate cut" of MFC. The 1989 edit's master had been deemed to be of a higher quality than the 1987 master so they used the 89 cut as the base for all reairings and video releases...so you have an already changed version mutated a little more because of the music rights stuff.

So even if Disney can clear up all the issues in regards to music rights and the three families in the special all under different ownerships, a lot may also depend on (a) if Disney has the original master from 87 in their vaults and (b) what condition it's in. In these days of digital remastering, the latter may not be as much an issue but if they do have access to both masters, they may also take an approach HIT did with the special edition Emmett Otter dvd and put the 89 edit as the main attraction with stuff from the 87 cut that got removed for the 89 version as bonus feature material.

Yeah, it'll probably never happened. Just not enough demand from where they're sitting. Also, didnt the Emmett Otter remove Kermit's parts? Very odd.

Back in 2003 or 2004 I believe, some tenacious Muppet fans on here seamlessly edited the 2001 dvd release with the missing parts via the UK release; and further added the never aired since 1987 missing tidbits. That may be the movie file I've seen online.

But man, I have such good memories of seeing this in late 1988; had no idea it had actually premiered the year prior.

 

[Drtooth]

To me, the problem is that Disney just doesn't seem to want to release any of the older specials. Sure, they released the "pilot" specials as bonus features on DVD sets, and one other special... but those were all half hour specials...

If they only can release 2 specials on DVD, I vote this one and Muppets at Walt Disney World. There is no excuse for the latter... unless they feel it's too dated and that half the attractions are gone or have been changed.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I vote this one and Muppets at Walt Disney World. There is no excuse for the latter... unless they feel it's too dated and that half the attractions are gone or have been changed.

Even if it comes off being more nostalgic than anything (as far as rides and attractions having changed), it's still great marketing for Disney and a chance to further emphasize their ownership of The Muppets. Any publicity is always good for a business- I'm sure Disney will want to capitalize on this ready-made product sooner or later.

 

[The Professor]

My family taped this special back in 1987. My sister owns the 2001 DVD. I watched both this Christmas and was surprised how much was cut. The song between Fozzie and the Snow Man was especially missed. The puppet Muppet babies sequence made a lot more sense seeing more of the footage. I'm going to try to convert the original tape to DVD. There's a lot of nostalgia there what with the original commercials and everything.

I also have some of the Muppet's 30th Anniversary special on that tape.