https://archive.org/details/movies-the-muppet-show-itc-atv-zoot-ending-shots-and-promos/
I've finally solved what you might call the "Zoot Problem." It's a problem which has plagued reruns of The Muppet Show since the mid-80s and made it difficult for fans to consider their copies of episodes truly complete.
I'd like to thank everyone who has helped, although maybe I won't name them right now, as to not cause trouble. I asked a lot of people for material for this, and it's possible that further material will be shared soon to improve the situation further. None of this is quite DVD quality, even after my very complex restorations.
However, this is reasonable raw material for faneditors to correct their copies.
If you don't know, airings of The Muppet Show end on a final note by Zoot. He is hatless in the first two seasons and has a hat in seasons 3-5. These carried logos for ATV in the UK and for ITC Entertainment internationally (in the US and the Netherlands, for instance). The season 3-5 Zoot is sometimes longer in the UK.
This was also pre-digital, so the logos were different on each episode and could theoretically be used to reconstruct the logo-less Zoot (as I've done with season 1, using the German DVDs which accidentally used the old Zoot on a few episodes).
Instead, Zoot was reshot in the mid-1980s, and various takes from this footage are still used to this day. This was originally the long version where he blows a bubble which becomes the HiT logo, which is now itself rare.
Additionally, six episodes had unique endings which are plastered over with a generic Zoot in reruns.
Kaye Ballard- Rowlf and Nigel alone. A shot of the band backstage is used in current versions, perhaps rescued from a promo.
Loretta Lynn- Zoot at the train station. In the UK this was the season 3 finale and had three additional segments with Statler and Waldorf (and Fozzie), and longer takes of the band.
Harry Belafonte- The "Spirit" mask (probably Dave Goelz) plays the final note.
Roger Miller- Chickens.
Mac Davis- Beakers. It's believed that this never aired with a Beaker Zoot as final shot, but they definitely taped footage of him.
Dudley Moore- The MAMMA robot and Animal.
There's also the matter of the initial Christmas airings of Danny Kaye and probably Julie Andrews. Oh, and the pilot, which nobody has. Oh, and the Best of the Muppets special which aired after season 1.
This material was cut from reruns, and has been very hard to track down in early off-airs, and in certain archives.
So after a very long search, and a lot of restoration of the material to make it work in the edit, here we are.
The Zoot problem, solved. Every episode which had unusual material at that point is represented with some sort of copy of either the ATV or ITC edit, or both. There's also a textless Season 1 Zoot, other Zoot variations, and lots of rare material cut from the common version of these episodes.
All of this material has been painstakingly restored so that it fits together and matches even when the quality of the source varies greatly. Photoshop, EBSynth, Adobe Premiere and Aftereffects were used at length. Many scenes were restored frame by frame.
I've also compiled as many Muppet Show episode promos as I could find (or in one case restore), and other ephemera. It is likely that we will remux some Muppet Show episodes to make use of this material (and I can provide source files to those looking to do that. Only remuxing though; if you're recompressing don't bother.)
https://archive.org/details/movies-the-muppet-show-itc-atv-zoot-ending-shots-and-promos/
If you have material which should have been included here but wasn't, let me know.
Also!
I've revisited Miss Piggy's first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This took several days of work, on top of the several days of work done on it originally. This episode circulates in current reruns of "The Johnny Carson Show" and indeed I have an off-air of it that I recorded myself, which was one of my sources here. However, Piggy's appearance, and discussion of it, is cut from these reruns for music rights. (Also the streaming and fan copies have screwed-up interlacing; this was a VERY tough one to edit.)
The Johnny Carson website has uncut previews of the episodes for licensing, and they've changed their tactics over the years. The old versions were 240p and 10fps ... about half the size and 1/6th the intended frame rate. The current versions are 360p 30fps but have a big color watermark obscuring most of the picture.
You'd have to be absolutely nuts to think this is useable source material. But let's get nuts. I spent several days going in frame by frame and keyframing based on the best available source frames to generate new material. The Piggy segment is quite long so this was a real marathon of work, and one of the most difficult restorations I've done.
This also includes some material of Johnny and Jim which is cut from the reruns.
The Herb Alpert special is also here which was also a tough restoration.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/39cf8af9-a8b0-4f19-b148-cb77dd0ab95c
https://archive.org/details/muppets-go-hollywood-1979-german-cut-in-english
The Muppets Go Hollywood (German Edit in English)
1979 ‧ Comedy/Family ‧ 1 hour
In this one-hour special, Kermit the Frog throws a glamorous party at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub to celebrate the premiere of the Muppets' first feature film, The Muppet Movie. Hosts Dick van Dyke and Rita Moreno interview the wide array of celebrities and Muppets who attend the event. Gary Owens serves as off-camera announcer, and appears on-screen to introduce Miss Piggy.
There are musical performances by Rita Moreno, Johnny Mathis, Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, Miss Piggy, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, among others.
Celebrity appearances include Christopher Reeve, Phyllis Diller, Cheryl Ladd, Peter Falk and Liberace.