Emmett Otter and Bells of Fraggle Rock on ABC Family this year

[minor muppetz]

I found out today that Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and The Bells of Fraggle Rock will both be airing on ABC Family as part of the channel's "25 Days of Christmas" event. They will both air on December 12 and 13.

It's interesting that ABC Family paid for the rights to broadcast these two this year, and yet none of the Muppet Christmas movies or specials will be airing as part of it.

I've seen The Bells of Fraggle Rock listed as a special on henson.com (well, the pre-2004 version of the site), but I've always considered it a regular episode. Will this be the first time the episode aired on a channel that otherwise didn't air Fraggle Rock reruns? I wonder if the opening will be cut.

I saw this announced on the Tough Pigs forum, and it was pointed out there that a press release announcing that these will be included actually mention Kermit being the host of Emmett Otter. I guess that means Kermit won't be cut from the special (I wonder if it has to do with the fact that it's airing on a Disney-owned channel, or if they can once again include Kermit in any release/broadcast). I wonder if it'll be all the Kermit scenes, or just the introduction. I also wonder if this broadcast will include anything that's been cut from video releases since 1996 (I've read that both specials will be newly remastered versions), or if they'll cut anything that hasn't been cut from the video releases.

 

[animalrescuer]

I think we'll see if Kermit will make an appearance when it airs. I think this'll be the first time any Fraggle Rock episode is on an ABC network. Anyways, this piece of news is very exciting!

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is an announcement which mentioned Kermit in Emmett Otter, though I'm not sure if it's copied from an official press release (I have seen these listed on ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas schedule posted on Facebook) or if the blogger wrote in the plot synopsis'.

http://muppetshenson.blogspot.ca/2015/10/abc-familys-25-days-of-christmas-to-air.html?m=0

 

[Yorick]

It is wonderful that Kermit returned to Emmett Otter's town on TV this year! And it's also fantastic that Emmett was on TV again...in general!

And if I remember rightly, I read that Emmett and Gobo were Jerry Nelson's favorite characters that he performed. If this is so, then it's even more appreciated by me that these two programs happened to be played this year. And as usual, Jerry's performance as Gobo is very powerful in this episode. So much heart and soul...