'Halfway Down The Stairs' oddity

[anathema]

Hi,
I've recently had the chance to compare two versions of the Harvey Korman episode of TMS, one in English, the other dubbed into German. The video recording of 'Halfway Down The Stairs' is somewhat different from one show to the other - the camera angles and lighting change completely. Can anyone shed any light on this, as I can't think of any reason why two different takes would have been released. It's not an alternate recording done for the German market, as Robin's mouth movements sync up perfectly to the original sound recording.

Regards,
Alex

 

[Joggy]

Where did you see those two clips? Were they both on the Muppet Show episode, or was one on a video?

I have the Muppet Show episode where this episode comes from (Harvey Korman), and the song is also on the Children's Songs And Stories video from the early eighties. This clip looks indeed different, but it's the exact same song. Maybe it's a clip from a live show or something?? I have no idea - none of the TMS geeks around here can answer this question!

 

[anathema]

I have two copies of the episode; one is an English-language off-air VHS courtesy of the Disney Channel, the other is a German-language off-air from digital satellite in AVI format. Barring minor edits for timing or untranslateable dialogue, the only differences between the two are the credits and this song.

The English copy starts out with a long shot of the staircase, taken from the front and slightly right of center. Background lighting is blue/purple. The German one starts with a much tighter shot. Lighting is yellow/brown. The English soundtrack syncs up perfectly with both versions, and it can't be a simple edit job, as there is a dissolve into the first shot of the song, so any editing would have required access to the original studio tapes. This suggests that it was done back in '76.

 

[BlueFrackle]

Guys,

I also noticed this.

and my conclusion is that one of them (Not The Muppet Show version) was recorded for Top Of The Pops in England.

Half Way Down the Stairs, got into the Top 10, So thats what i think it was done for.

See ya

 

[anathema]

Reached no 7 around May 1977, in fact If that's it (in which case it seems odd that they didn't simply take the clip from the original episode), it still wouldn't explain how it wound up edited into an overseas copy of TMS...

The photo on the single's sleeve suggests the yellow/brown lit version was used for the picture. It has to be said that the yellow/brown lighting looks much better, so maybe that's why it was redone?

Food for thought

 

[Froggie]

Better late then never....
If you search for this song on wikipedia you'll find this explanation:
Halfway Down the Stairs, based on a poem by A.A. Milne, was Robin's only significant performance during the first season of The Muppet Show, before he became known as Kermit's nephew. It's a sweet little song that Robin sang while sitting in the middle of a flight of stairs.
The tune was written by Harold Fraser-Simpson, who put many of Milne's poems to music.
This song was included in The Muppet Show episode 110 with Harvey Korman, and for some reason this sequence was refilmed for a few different countries. It was also redone for an appearance on Top of The Pops. This song was included in the LP called The Muppet Show and then released as a single, which made it to the top 10 in England. it would later be included in The Best of The Muppets (CD), and Rowlf the Dog would go on to sing a cover of this song in his album, Ol' Brown Ears is Back.
It was also included in the Playhouse Video: Children's Songs and Stories with The Muppets.

 

[anathema]

Bear in mind that Wikipedia is by no means authoritative ;-)

There are three video recordings of this song: the TOTP one, shot live in the TOTP studio; the blue/pink-lit version, as seen in the Harvey Korman TMS for at least the last 10-15 years; and the brown/yellow-lit version, as seen in the original edit of the same show.

The brown/yellow version definitely appears in the original US and German broadcasts (I have copies) as well as on 'Children's Songs and Stories'. Thus, the show was re-edited at some point (this isn't uncommon during the first season - several shows were re-edited in various ways).

It is possible that the blue-pink version appears in the original UK broadcast, but I haven't managed to track down a copy of this to find out.

 

[David French]

Hi,
I've recently had the chance to compare two versions of the Harvey Korman episode of TMS, one in English, the other dubbed into German. The video recording of 'Halfway Down The Stairs' is somewhat different from one show to the other - the camera angles and lighting change completely. Can anyone shed any light on this, as I can't think of any reason why two different takes would have been released. It's not an alternate recording done for the German market, as Robin's mouth movements sync up perfectly to the original sound recording.

Regards,
Alex

Didn't Jerry Nelson explain the oddities a few years back in a thread about the German version of The Muppet Show? Give me a couple of minutes and I'll see if I can find the thread again.

ADDENDUM:

Found it - http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=5401