The Muppet Show ITC ATV Zoot Ending Shots

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The Muppet Show ITC ATV Zoot Ending Shots

Episodes with Loretta Lynn, Dudley Moore, Kaye Ballard, Harry Belafonte, Roger Miller, and Mac Davis had unique endings.

Lynn and Ballard are circulating. Belafonte and Miller are at the Paley Center.

Fan edits of the Dudley Moore ending freeze-frame on Animal. I'm not sure if that's accurate or if it's to cover for no one having that footage. It's unclear if the Mac Davis episode actually ended with a Zoot Beaker, but that seems logical, and a freeze frame of that is here.

The Kaye Ballard ending is unusual, in that they had an alternate shot of the Electric Mayhem and Kermit backstage, maybe from a promo, and added that to the ending on repeats, DVD and Disney+.

Disney+ versions are deinterlaced upscales, at half the original PAL video frame rate of 50i (also slowed to 24p).

The final shot of every Muppet Show was usually a shot of Zoot blowing one last saxophone note. A handful of episodes have episode-specific endings. The actual shot of Zoot was, I think, the same during season 1-2 episodes, and then during season 3-5 episodes (where he wears a hat).

A large ITC logo was superimposed over Zoot, or an ATV logo in the UK. In season 1 both logos appear.

Crucially, due to changing rights, these shots have not appeared on later repeats and video/streaming releases. They didn't keep a clean version of the shot I guess.

Most circulating copies of these endings are poor quality, and most of the episode-specific endings are not circulating.

Zoot was reshot in the mid-1980s, in both hat and hatless versions. It does vary- I think there's one take of the hatless and three of the hat. You usually see some version of this at the end of DVD and Disney+ episodes. He's greener.

In the 80s HIT version, Zoot was originally blowing a graphical bubble, and the shot was held much longer, with extra audience laughter.

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

Jim Henson

Language

English

Subtitles

English

Who can watch

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