Long vs. short closing theme

[zrs70]

Most episodes end with a short closing theme. But once in a while, the music went into "It's a magic carpet ride...."

Few questions:

1) How often did this occur? Once a week?
2) Was this the only space where the actor's credits were given?
3) What was on the screen during this music? I remember three sketches:

a) Barkely and kids running around
b) The hands of a person while driving
c) (really fuzzy/ early to mid 70's): an animation of a building with different muppet characters at each level. (Can someone confirm this one).

Any help to refresh my memory would be great!

 

[zrs70]

Well, I found part of my answer here:

http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=4962

 

[gbrobeck]

The long credits were used on Fridays (up until they started only having 26 episodes a season). Here's what I know about what we saw during them:

1969-1970: ???
1970-?????: Scanning down the apartment building
????-1978: Hands driving the car
1978-1992: Barkley and the Kids/Nighttime scenes (only on shows that end during a scene at night)
1992-present: Dancing buildings

Greg

 

[ssetta]

I think that occasionally, in the early 90s, instead of having the credits with Barkley and the kids, it had Big Bird and kids taking a walk through Central Park, but I don't think it was used very often.

 

[minor muppetz]

We now know that the first and third season closings showed the action of the last scene continuing during the credits, with no specific closing sequence. And the second season closing was a shot of a painting that looked like a child made it.

Did they eventually start showing the credits on other days of the week before season 33? I remember seeing the 30th season premier on the day it was first broadcast, on a monday, and that episode had credits.

 

[mjb1124]

There is also a video on YouTube of a season 3 closing with the apartment building credits. So I guess that must've been introduced later in season 3, or was only used on weeks where they didn't have the ending scenes running over the credits.

 

[JLG]

I think the Friday credits thing bit the dust in 2002, because that, along with the format change, was the end of the old Monday-thru-Friday setup. I say that because that season started on a Tuesday, not a Monday. Add that to the fact that it's 26 episodes now, not a number dividable by 5. So there's no point to having credits just once a week now, especially since they've speeded up and shortened them.