Muppet Thread: The Henson Legacy

[ctlw83]

I decided to start this thread after some conversations regarding various Jim Henson restoration or fan edit ideas which came up during the Thief editing session last night.

The fact is, there are many classic Jim Henson works which have not been done proper justice. Most of the released TV movies and even The Muppet Show are missing scenes and/or music when compared to their original television releases. There is also some Henson material which will likely never see a full DVD release, such as The Jim Henson Hour, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, Hey Cinderella!, The Muppet Musicians of Bremen, The Frog Prince and others as well.

Even the classic film, The Muppet Movie has deleted scenes which might add to the viewer experience of the film. Who knows what some of the other Muppet films might have in terms of "lost" footage or vision which might be experienced!?

I do know that Garrett already started to take on an extended cut of The Dark Crystal (see thread viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4) and also has done a restoration of Dog City (http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7694546/ ... uppets_DVD), which was originally part of The Jim Henson Hour. Garrett also advised me that one of the forum members here was also responsible for the awesome Emmett Otter Jug Band Christmas restoration.

I know that I have a VHS with the full HBO original release of The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and would eventually like to restore it. I also know that there has been discussion of doing some restoration on The Jim Henson Hour and an extended cut of The Muppet Movie.

The purpose of this thread is to hash out these ideas and to see what actually lies within the realm of possibility in terms of good quality restorations. It is also to generally discuss the legacy of Jim Henson and the impact of his work on our lives.

[Garrett Gilchrist]

Hi Chris. Yes, David A/PhilFrog was responsible for a great restoration of Emmett Otter.

We had a few similar Muppet threads at the previous forum, so it's high time we started.

There is already a (PAL) DVD restoration of the extended Muppet Movie, which I've shared with SirQuacky. I believe there's a torrent out there. The ending to the film is much better, with the Muppets talking over the credits, and "I Hope That Something Better Comes Along" plays out in full, among other things. I have a decent Muppet Family Christmas restoration in PAL, though the quality is pretty varied.

Lighthouse Island, which was part of the Jim Henson Hour, has leaked in clean VHS-type quality. Miss Piggy's Hollywood is on official PAL DVD. Song of the Cloud Forest is on official DVD. Monster Maker is on Netflix, though we've had some frame rate issues with that version apparently.

Dog City was actually released on laserdisc in Japan, as its uncut Jim Henson Hour episode. The audio was Japanese with some subtitles during songs, such as in "Bean Bunny and the Cuteness Thief." So this allowed me to edit together a presentable DVD of it. The actual Dog City program is on official DVD in both NTSC and PAL formats, although the NTSC DVD has very poor audio for some reason.

I restored other material for that DVD, including a version of "Sweet Vacation" from the Jim Henson Hour which was composited together from three different VHS copies for better quality.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?it1lk7z9rk7i1k3

I have various copies of all the Jim Henson Hour material, but the actual episodes are old VHS and only passable in quality. Combining multiple sources did help in this instance.

I'm in touch with certain Muppet collectors who have a lot of rare material, and I have some rare material myself. One person put out uncut Muppet Show season sets, and used some trailers from UK-master Beta tapes I had as a kid (when my father drew the Muppets comic strip, among other things).

We've discussed doing a mainly-audio restoration of The Dark Crystal workprint, since I started one years ago and abandoned it due to technical problems. There's a thread for that.

[TheTimeWanderer]

[Garrett Gilchrist]

Uncut Muppet Family Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWTSe_Y5Klg

Alex Taylor's list of what episodes of the UK version of Fraggle Rock (with Fulton MacKay as the Captain, and other actors later) are known to still exist:
http://www.nightshade.org.uk/fraggleuk.html

Fulton MacKay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilqFOP8mIzo

Here's rare studio footage of Simon O'Brien playing B.J. in otherwise lost UK episodes of Fraggle Rock series 4. Prior to him John Gordon Sinclair played P.K.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbojIZUz-gs

[DaveHolmes]

I think I mentioned on the old board that I have the "Secrets of the Muppets" episode of Jim Henson Hour taped off Nickelodeon by myself on VHS somewhere.

I should dig that up.

[Garrett Gilchrist]

You should. I have all the Jim Henson Hour episodes, but having more than one copy actually helps if these are ever restored ....

[TheTimeWanderer]

Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy with good ol' Kermit: http://depositfiles.com/files/2qztot0wa

The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson: http://depositfiles.com/files/3pbssgx35

[ctlw83]

As I mentioned, I do have the original Un-Cut airing of The Muppet Musicians of Bremen on tape. I believe I also have the Tale of the Bunny Picnic somewhere. The only issue is that the VHS player I have does not match the timecode of the tape so, there are waves that form in the image. I will have to try adjusting the tracking at some point and see if that corrects the issue. Then I can upload the full versions for archival and potentially restoration purposes.

The only way I currently have to capture the VHS is my DV camera. I do not have a computer interface for direct capture, though, I may spend the $20-30 to get one at some point.

I also have whatever KermiClown http://www.kermiclownvideos.com/ has in terms of the Jim Henson Hour on DVD. These are grabs from VHS put onto DVD and are of varying quality. I believe the Secrets of the Muppets episode was of decent quality. However, the Muppet Muscicians version he has is the edited down Nickelodeon airing of it. I have the un-cut HBO version.

[ctlw83]

I think I mentioned on the old board that I have the "Secrets of the Muppets" episode of Jim Henson Hour taped off Nickelodeon by myself on VHS somewhere.

I should dig that up.

You should definitely try to find that! If it is better than the other copies out there, it could be a great opportunity.

[TheTimeWanderer]

The Muppet Musicians of Bremen: http://depositfiles.com/files/iha04apzz

The Muppets Go Hollywood: http://depositfiles.com/files/i3sqysodv

The Muppets Go To The Movies: http://depositfiles.com/files/yoaz2hhy0

John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together: http://depositfiles.com/files/ygmg26p2u