Participation in the Muppet Wiki Forums requires a full understanding of the Rules and Etiquette.
The Muppet Show was videotaped at 50 interlaced fields per second, on 25fps PAL videotape in the UK. Disney+ have halved the frame rate to 25 and then slowed it down to 23.98, to give it a "film" look. It's also been given an upscale and a darker/more contrasty color grade. This terrible awful no good garbage change was not done for the UK/PAL DVDs, which remain the best/most accurate versions of the series when available. (This despite cuts done to the various releases, already discussed elsewhere.) The Disney+ version is also somewhat cropped, and generally useless if you're presenting the material in its original format.
The Muppet Show was initially produced with two different edits. The UK version had left-justified credits and an act break halfway through (before the UK Spot). The US/international versions have breaks after the opening and before the goodbyes, and centered credits (and are slightly lower quality). There are minor editing differences at these act break points (an extra audience shot or wipe, or a longer fadeout).
Home video releases are generally a hybrid of the UK and International edits, done more or less at random, and differently every time. Act break fadeouts (and fade-ins) are often shorter than they were on initial broadcast. Often, the reason for this is that they're editing the UK master to have the additional act breaks of the US version.
Example: The Disney+ Vincent Price episode has a longer UK transition after "You've Got a Friend" but not the longer "At the Dance/I'm Looking Through You" break fadeout (from US airings but never on home video). The Disney+ Kaye Ballard ending runs long enough to show the UK ATV logo, which they had otherwise worked very hard to remove.
The German Season One release is occasionally longer at the mid-episode act break, presenting the material in full, although this is not always true (Vincent Price's act breaks are cut short). Ethel Merman has an extra line, Florence Henderson and Valerie Harper are also longer. The jugband number in Ruth Buzzi also has an extra verse toward the beginning.
The UK edits initially aired with a yellow card reading "The Muppet Show" before and after the act break in the middle. They also have ATV logos, while the international airings had ITC logos, meaning the same thing. Every episode's credits and logos were composited differently, since these were physical credit rolls. These played over final shots of the orchestra and Zoot, which are removed from pretty much every video release. (A few episodes of the German season 1 have the original Zoot present). Zoot was reshot in the 1980s when the Jim Henson company (or hit!) got the rights back from Lord Lew Grade. This unfortunately affects a few episodes which had unique endings. (See Zoot's Muppet Show endings)
The Kaye Ballard episode found a unique way to remove the ITC/ATV logos, by using (two different takes of!) a previously unseen shot of the Electric Mayhem band and Kermit backstage (with Trumpet Girl). (During Fugue For Frog, and the closest thing we get to the resolution of the band's storyline here.) It is likely, though not confirmed, that this is from an episode promo. (See: The Muppet Show Promos)
I can't prove that the Kaye Ballard endings are from a promo, but it's an obvious reason why there might be additional footage on the master tape that they could use for this purpose. Promos appear to have been at the end of the master copies generally. They're looking at the camera. This is at the point in the first season where they were getting more experimental with promos (Thudge McGerk and Statler and Waldorf were used, rather than just Kermit and Fozzie). It matches stuff they'd do with promos much later in season five.
Muppet Show episode promos probably appeared after each episode on the master, in 10 second and 30 second forms. These were improvised and involved Kermit and Fozzie (or other characters) announcing the guest star. The Season One DVD has some of this material as a gag reel, but it is otherwise not well documented, and we're still trying to find the complete set of these. Sometimes the episode clips presented have small amounts of material not used in the final edits of the episodes (Liberace, Peter Ustinov, Diana Ross, Rita Moreno). Stations would reedit these promos as they pleased and often omit the final moments of the 30 second ones, or combine two promos into one to advertise an hour block.
The promos often had a variation on this speech: "On the Muppet Show we're going to have some fantastic music and comedy, plus our guest star is the incredible (guest) ... Plus other good things. Fun for the whole family on The Muppet Show." Lenny the Lizard imitates Kermit's behavior during these promos in Episode 208: Steve Martin.
The UK and US credits will cut to the band at a different point during the goodbyes, since they were edited at different times. There is also, often, a shot of the audience after the theme song and/or before the goodbyes, or at least a different wipe/transition. Some season 1 episodes, as aired in the UK, have a reaction from Statler and Waldorf before the goodbyes, praising the closing number. Statler and Waldorf being positive about the closing number seems to be a running theme that they abandoned early on. (Joel Grey and Ruth Buzzi are examples of this, and probably the pilot version of Juliet Prowse.)
US and some international versions initially aired without the "UK Spot," a two-minute segment just after the midpoint of the episode (and after an act break). This segment still appeared on the master tapes, but could be cut out without affecting the episode if more time was needed for commercials. These UK spots are present on most video releases now, although the French DVDs still cut them for instance.
In the UK, a Best of the Muppets special aired after season one. The raw footage from the episodes still existed at this point, as there are minor editing differences throughout, especially at transitions. Sweetums carrying away Rita Moreno, for example, has additional dialogue, and there is an unused Wayne and Wanda sketch (with a Sam the Eagle intro which was used).
The UK version of the John Cleese episode uses a different take of Kermit introducing Cleese, mentioning Fawlty Towers (which was a current series at the time) rather than Monty Python's Flying Circus. The footage is different for one minute until the jugband number starts.
The UK version of the Loretta Lynn episode, as initially aired, has some segments with Statler, Waldorf and Fozzie mentioning that it's the end of the season. The closing with the band also has a little extra footage (and, of course, a unique Zoot ending which is now rare).
Tygerbug Garrett Gilchrist (talk) 00:04, 27 August 2025 (UTC)