The Muppet Show - Zoot Endings

[ilovemusic]

Oh my gawd.
I'm sorry, Zootsaxplayer, but I bought the TMS episodes in Germany. And they, to say, cut and stuck the scenes together, for some reason. The last shot from the Roger Miller episode is Statler and Waldorf on their balcony, dressed up/turned into moles. After that, the screen slowly turns black, while the music is still on. Every episode! So also harry Belafonte. I'm so sorry I can't send you the screenshots.

 

[David French]

Not if they don't have them, no...

So far as I know, these shots have not been seen since the early 80s when Henson acquired the rights to the show from ATV and changed the copyright graphics. The only reason the original ending from the Kaye Ballard show has surfaced again is because I obtained a Betamax 'viewing copy' of a number of shows which was made back in the 70s/early 80s. Sadly it did not include any of the other episodes we're looking for.

Earlier than that; when TV 3in New Zealand played reruns back in the early 1990's, the versions they had used the original ATV/ITC endings. The last few seconds of the Kaye Ballard episode which I have comes from one of those reruns.

That episode has another anomaly, which is the ending that is used on the DVD. Unfortunately (as far as I'm aware), the origins of that ending are still unclear.

 

[anathema]

Yeah; the earliest recording I've seen that shot on is from the early 90s when the 'Sax & Violence' shot was tagged onto all the other shows. It might have been recorded originally for a trailer - those always involved specially-shot material.

There was a run of episodes in Germany a good few years back too, some of which still had the original ATV/ITC logo at the end. Most of them had the final shot lopped off, though, and ended on either the orchestra shot or on S&W.

 

[ZootSaxPlayer]

Oh my gawd.
I'm sorry, Zootsaxplayer, but I bought the TMS episodes in Germany. And they, to say, cut and stuck the scenes together, for some reason. The last shot from the Roger Miller episode is Statler and Waldorf on their balcony, dressed up/turned into moles. After that, the screen slowly turns black, while the music is still on. Every episode! So also harry Belafonte. I'm so sorry I can't send you the screenshots.

That's okay. I'm not upset. Germany usually doesn't have the wide orchestra and Zoot shots.

 

[ZootSaxPlayer]

Does anybody else have an original ITC (or ATV) copy of the Harry Belafonte, Roger Miller, Dudley Moore, and Mac Davis episodes?

 

[David French]

Good news - I found the tape that had the original ATV copyright notice from the Kaye Ballard episode.

Bad news - I had hoped to take a digital photo off the screen but the tape tends to flicker when you press pause (it plays fine so there are no issues there).

Will have to come up with a new strategy.

 

[anathema]

Just to check: does your copy have the centred credit roll, or the left-justified one?

 

[David French]

Just to check: does your copy have the centred credit roll, or the left-justified one?

Regrettably the only bit I've got is from Nigel's line "Play hound, play." to the square ATV copyright notice. When I taped that episode, it was the left-justified credit roll.

 

[ZootSaxPlayer]

Regrettably the only bit I've got is from Nigel's line "Play hound, play." to the square ATV copyright notice. When I taped that episode, it was the left-justified credit roll.

Can you please upload a screenshot of the original Rowlf and Nigel ending shot with the ATV logo?

 

[anathema]