Remember when a broadcast of Muppet Family Christmas ended with a nightmare Nightline report? We do
Aux Features The Muppets
Any true blue Henson Head knows that if you ever wanted to rewatch A Muppet Family Christmas in its entirety after its initial broadcast in 1987, you had to tape it yourself on ABC. Once it was released on home video, many of its best musical moments were omitted due to rights issues: Fozzie Bear duetting “Sleigh Ride” with his new snowman sidekick, the Muppet Babies—in live action!—sweetly singing “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” the list goes on.
But as 2020 continues to remind us, all good things come at a terrible price. News of a coronavirus vaccine is accompanied by rising death tolls. A new president is preceded by a cloud of stinky fast-food farts. And the Muppets’ caroling medley is cut short by the harvesting of organs from sick infants.
In a viral clip from a bygone airing of the special shared on Twitter by Late Night With Seth Meyers writer Mike Scollins, the epic finale of the special ends happily enough, with beloved characters from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock singing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” in the living room of a farmhouse owned by Fozzie Bear’s mother. The music ends and they all do that Muppet thing where they nod rapidly in satisfaction while looking around at each other. But then, as soon as the credits roll, the festivities are interrupted by a Nightline report from Dr. Timothy Johnson. He’s no Muppet, and the things he says were not meant for sweet Muppet ears.
See for yourself:
To quote Sam the Eagle, “Is nothing sacred?” Here we are, thinking that the biggest conflict of A Muppet Family Christmas was getting Miss Piggy home safely in a snowstorm or Robin the Frog yearning to prove the existence of Fraggles to his Uncle Kermit. We don’t know the date of this particular airing, but the emotional whiplash of a cherished holiday special ending with talk of dying babies and their precious body parts is just so distinctly 2020.
After Scollins’ initial post, several other Twitter users chimed in to confirm that their ripped VHS copies also had Dr. Johnson’s ultimate killjoy playing over the end credits.
Was the promo tied to a specific region, or was this aired everywhere in the United States via the national broadcast? Does this mean there’s a deleted scene where Dr. Bunsen Honeydew stalks the Muppet Babies through the farmhouse with a scalpel?
A quick Wikipedia search tells us that Dr. Johnson retired in 2012 after a distinguished career as a physician and journalist. That’s great and all, but the man must answer for his sins. So Dr. Johnson, if you’re reading this, please comment and let us know why you had to piss all over The Muppets’ special brand of yuletide cheer. And why did we all have to be reminded of it now? Because this, friends, is 20/20. We mean Nightline.
You can watch the Muppet Christmas Special—with that special outro—in full below.
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99 Comments
God, this was AMAZING when I was a kid. The Muppets, Sesame Street AND Fraggles all in one place? This was Avengers: Endgame-levels of insane awesomeness to a young 80s child.
For sure! I definitely remember watching it but I don’t remember that promo over the end.
Having them all together was epic, but also the way they interacted was so well done, like they really were all friends living in the same world. It’s too bad they can’t have that kind of cross-interaction now, or probably ever again.
“It all ends in one of two ways: either someone gets eaten or something blows up.”— — Jim Henson
The third way: a baby gets harvested for its organs
For eating? Or for blowing up?
The third way is actually tossing penguins in the air.
This special is the best thing the Muppets have ever made.I imagine that after Jerry Juhl finished this script, he stood up and said “Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.”
i dunno, even in the realm of Muppet Christmas Specials, i feel like Emmit Otter is a legit contender!
You’ll get no argument from me. That’s a great choice! (And also written by Jerry Juhl!)
Emmet Otter is my all time favorite. It was a natural choice when an actual, for real otter moved into the lake in my backyard I named it Em (wasn’t sure if it’s an Emmet or Emma). But it is just as awesome as Emmet and his Ma and pals! Also Muppet Christmas Carol. Every song is still stuck in my head since watching last week. I just wander around occasionally saying “Please sir, I want some cheese.”
You’re right—the Muppets have a TON of good Christmas content. Y’all should check out The Christmas Toy, too. It’s lesser known, but is streaming on Prime right now. Between that, Emmet Otter, A Muppet Family Christmas, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Great Santa Claus Switch, and that John Denver special, they’ve cornered the market on holiday fun.
Ooh, thanks for the heads up. My oldest is obsessed with Muppets, and I thought I had found all Christmas content.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is also pretty much prefect. They’ll never do anything that good again.
The Christmas Toy was our go-to when I was a kid. Absolutely great
I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first, but I really like how Emmet Otter portrayed the issue of poverty. It was done neither too maudlin or sugarcoated. I prefer sentiment over sap when it comes to Christmas movies, and I consider this movie sentimental.
A local theater ran Emmet Otter around Christmas 2 years ago, and my wife and I went to see it. It is arguably my favorite theater going experience of my life. As a young child when it first released, it was a Christmas tradition for me, so seeing it on the big screen was really special to me.
That sounds so fun! Years and years ago, the Siskel Film Center did a Jim Henson retrospective around the holidays and they showed Emmet Otter—Kermit intro and all! Like you said, seeing it on the big screen really was special. But hey, in theCOVID era, I’ll settle for the stream on Amazon Prime—also with Kermit, which was scrapped on all home video releases for the longest time.
In the newer releases when they show the Kermit intro, do they also include all of the scenes with the River Bottom Gang or are some of those still cut out? What about when Ma says she wishes Hetty Muskrat would fall off the dock? That’s another line that was cut on the DVD re-releases…
Last I saw, they were showing the cut version. A person who treasures their childhood and has flexible moralities about downloading things from the Interwebs might be able to find the uncut version online.
I’m lucky my parents recorded both when the originally aired, so I still have them (now on DVD transferred from VHS, with a digital backup I think too!). So now my son will get to see them someday, too!
I always say the “fall off the dock” line when I watch it with my kids. I mean, why would they cut that? I loved it, gave Ma Otter just enough of an edge, otherwise she just feels like a doormat. Too meanspirited, I guess?
Yeah I think they were trying to cut out some of the meanspirited stuff, but it’s not like she’s calling for Hetty Muskrat’s murder or something. I’m trying to think of other scenes that were cut after the original release – like maybe the scene where the two halves of the horse have to go their separate ways at the beginning of the talent show?
Also thinking about scenes that were cut from Muppet Family Christmas, like the running “icy patch” gag! Nothing beats the original of each. Glad my parents recorded them so I still have them today.
Emmet Otter’s Jug Band is the default xmas channel on Pandora here.I’ve never checked if the Nightmare River Bottom Band has a channel. Now I have to see.
Emmet Otter is absolutely my favorite Christmas special, there is not even a contest. Such fantastic music. I had “When the River Meets the Sea” running through my head pretty much constantly from age 7 to age 17, and when I finally watched the special again as an adult with my own children, I cried like a baby.
The best ever use of that quote was the legendary darts commentator Sid Waddell who, when Eric Bristow won his first world title said:“When Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer… Bristow’s only 27.”
That’s honestly something Jim Henson would probably have laughed pretty hard at.
“The music ends and they all do that Muppet thing where they nod rapidly in satisfaction while looking around at each other.”I was today years old when I realized that this is TOTALLY a (wonderful) Muppet thing.
Hahaha, this makes me very happy. It’s like an unspoken trademark of theirs that’s always given me great joy. Thanks so much for reading!
Yup. Even Jaye P. Morgan got to do it.
I didn’t realize that was a ‘Muppet thing’.
It really fits the Muppets in their meta style of storytelling. The Muppets are “actors” that just finished a performance. It feels natural because the puppeteers tend to stay in character between the filming of scenes.
There are a lot of things the Muppets do to give the characters life that, once you notice that not all puppetry uses them, point to the reasons these characters are so engaging.
One is “shooting” – slightly moving the head of the puppet forward while it speaks, especially to emphasize certain words or emotional beats.
Not that you need an excuse to watch this classic bit, but you can see what I mean:
Jim and Frank are a great unsung comedy duo. Whether it’s Kermit and Piggy, Kermit and Fozzy, even Bert and Ernie, they’re always hilarious and (you can tell) off the cuff.
Heck, even when they’re Rowlf and Sam the Eagle. Gold!
They do it on the goodbyes on SNL too.
It’s not as cute when they do it
We’ve got the original broadcast recording taped off VHS, but I don’t know that I ever noticed this. Now I have to go back and check. I do know the taped broadcast we have features a commercial with a 30-year-old J. Smith-Cameron as a flight attendant raving about the fact that you can microwave Shredded Wheat. So there’s that.
I like it when they have a good time.
Aww. Jim Henson watching the party with Sprocket at the end and just enjoying his wonderful creations hits me in the feels every time.
It’s almost as disturbing as the Dinosaurs finale.
The Muppets promoting organ harvesting from babies? QAnon was right!
They have rights issues over Christmas music?
Some of it, yeah. While a lot of the carols are in the public domain, the ones omitted from the special are all less than 100 years old, or at least they were at the time.
Like why they can’t do a full release of WKRP
Or why some streaming shows from the 80s and 90s have really bad cheap music in them now. 90210 has a lot of a replaced copywrited music with cheap cover bands
Yeah exactly
Quantum Leap had the same issue and Miami Vice was delayed for awhile but it was finally re-released on DVD’s in the mid 2000’s with full music. Quantum Leap was just reintroduced and had a full slate of music.
Daria. It’s just not the same when the majority of the cast is throwing an impromptu dance party in the woods, if they’re not busting to “Gettin’ Jiggy With It.”
I don’t really notice it in Daria because the writing is so solid. But man is it hard to watch Dawson’s Creek without that Paula Cole song. Or with that Paula Cole song.
My favorite example of this is that Amanda Bynes/Jennie Garth show “What I Like About You,” which used the song as its theme and had to change it for DVD releases.
I think China Beach has this problem. I was just about the age where that show a big effect on me (both in my viewpoints of war and a crush on Dana Delaney). I have looked for it streaming a few times, but I haven’t really tried to watch it because I hear the music is not the same.
Tour of Duty got mangled in syndicated release. The 1960’s rock standard soundtrack including “Paint it Black” as the theme got replaced with generic mood music. Added to the problems were video conversion issues which rendered some episodes hopelessly blurred/muddy looking.
I remember that show. That’s a bummer, I remember it being pretty good.
I think The Wonder Years also suffers from the same problems.
Remember The Electric Shoes?
“Let them play! Let them play!”
The Greatest American Hero has a similar problem. It’s really egregious in the episode titled “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” when they can’t use the song that was all over the original airing.
The Greatest American Hero had a lot of problems.
The less said about poor “Daria” and her DVD replacement music, the better.
Some songs that I know are cut are “Home for the Holidays” (Piggy sang it after arriving at the house), “Sleigh Ride” (Fozzie and the snowman sang it), and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (Muppet Babies sang it). These lead to very awkward cuts in the video release.
https://www.easysonglicensing.com/pages/help/articles/copyright-law/christmas-songs-in-the-public-domain.aspx
That’s your takeaway from this?
yes
Oh yeah, they do. In 2012 the drum corps did a Christmas-themed show and the DVD/Blurays of the finals performances had to cut out portions of their performance’s audio. Keep in mind they were playing the music themselves, not pre-recorded, and copyright still fucked with the release. This happens to most of the corps every year now, it’s ridiculous.
Do you honestly expect record company executives to pay for coke and hookers with their own money?!
I do a yearly Christmas card DVD for my friends and family where I basically recreate a VHS tape of old Christmas (and Hanukkah specials – but those are few and far between, sadly) specials. I like to take rips of original broadcast recordings, then replace any non-holiday themed ads with other old Christmas ads from YouTube. It’s meant to be a holiday media nostalgia yule log.
This made my heart drop, because I rushed the edit of this years and didn’t watch it closely. The first pick was broadcast of this special. Just checked it and… surprisingly, the copy I used promotes an Alf Christmas special coming up next. Crisis narrowly averted!
Wow. I wasn’t prepared for it to be over the actual credits. Seems like they don’t do that now.
Now they squish the credits into the corner and show you the Nightline ad with video too.
They do it on shows from the UK. When I watch shows like “Call the Midwife”, there’s always some chick talking over the credits.
Pretty sure Dr. Johnson was as surprised as all of us when his recorded spot was played right at the end credits of the program.
This reminds me of when I would be watching a comedy and then the commercial break is all depressing stuff. Save the animals! Save the children! Take these meds for depression! I’m trying to escape for 30-60 minutes and they keep bringing me back in.
I LOVE that other people share in the weird joy from this that my family and I do. Ours is another recorded-from-TV copy that’s been transferred from VHS to DVD over the years, and it’s one of the Christmas specials I never tire of. I absolutely love it, and the really weird, completely inappropriately placed outro is the cherry on top. It just wouldn’t be the same without it. My family and I also enjoy Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas, another Muppet special that’s been tweaked and ruined over the years since its original airing, with various scenes and jokes cut out of it. We call ours the “Hamburger version” because our recording caught the tail end of the credits for the movie Hamburger, and the camera is just focused on this really greasy, gross looking hamburger sizzling away on a flat top grille while the credits roll. This made my day!
This is funny because that’s the version I watch on YouTube every year, since the video also has all of the ads intact.
And in case you all didn’t know, Sesame Street has a whole Shalom Sesame series that has delighted Reform kids for many years!
I watched this very video over the weekend while we were wrapping gifts, and let me tell you, coming to it with no knowledge it’s coming is quite the mind fuck, indeed.
There are no baby parts. Only baby actors.
You better remember that, or you’ll have to answer to Baby Herman!
I had to look up when this happened, but I remember it happened.
During the week of April 14, 1986, David Letterman decided to take a week off from his NBC show, and they decided to rerun 5 shows that all featured Dave’s favorite woman, perhaps of all time, the always game Terri Garr. They called, I believe, Terri Garr Week.
On Tuesday, April 15, 1986, President Reagan sent bombers to punish Qhaddafi/Gadafi for that country’s alleged role (and they probably WERE involved, of course, as Gadafi was a well-known asshole) in the West Berlin disco bombing earlier that month. And so, late nights after the local news was wall-to-wall coverage of that.
Said Letterman upon his return to the show the next week: “I would like to thank Ron Reagan for screwing up Terri Garr Week.”
I don’t recall they ever tried that again. He did, however, get Terri to “take a shower” back at his old NBC studio:
Jesus Christ! That was some epic tonal whiplash!
Everything everyone’s saying here about bits being cut in official releases is why torrents are wonderful. Corporations won’t preserve our culture – thankfully pirates will.
Alestorm will save us all. I knew it all along…
lol nobody remembers this, you just saw a tweet about it go viral
Better have Wilkins coffee with it.
Is it wrong that this made me laugh for two full minutes?Also: Hey Caffrey, really enjoyed the “Giants” album! Do you plan on doing another MH record?
Oh wow, thank you! That means the world. And yeah, it’s coming along slowly, but surely. The first one took forever to complete—not because Mae or I are studio perfectionists or something, but because we had to write and record it between a lot of other stuff in our lives. We actually wrote a song this year called “Quarantine Punks” that I have a demo of. Mae is hopefully going to record instrumentation for it soon. It’s a little harder these days because we live in different cities now and Mae just had a baby. Plus, you know, coronavirus!Anyway, the new album is named after a Lifter Puller song. It’s called “To Live And Die In LBI” and is all about Long Beach Island, New Jersey, where a lot of my family is from/lives. I’ve got about 75 percent of the songs written. Just need to demo them, send them to Mae, and then hopefully we can record the damn thing. Ideally, it would come out at the end of summer 2021. It’s definitely an end-of-summer album. Sorry for such a long comment. I always get excited when people listen to my music, haha. Thanks again!
No need to apologize, I was absolutely delighted to read your long comment! I think Methodist Hospital is a really great project (the writing and the music really come together so wonderfully), and I had been hoping it might be more than a one-off, so yeah, glad to hear from you!Very happy that there’s another record coming. And I appreciate the concept as well. I am not American, but in love with the culture, so I’m always happy to learn new things about all those iconic places through art and music.Anyway, thanks so much for the reply!
If it is – welp, I’m wrong too.
Simon and Garfunkel did a great rendition of “Silent Night” over “The 7 o’clock news” with some pretty dark stuff. A dark contrast done so beautifully.
Phoebe Bridgers did an update on that on her Christmas EP too
A basic internet search shows that The Muppets took over Nightline for a night in 1987 (probably to promote this very special). Yeah, that’s all I could find.So, Nightline got back at them with this cut-in. (tfh)
LMFAO! That’s the best.
@
What? So babies can’t have their own remake of Coma?
I want to know more about doombabies.
It’s the fact that the Christmas music is still playing that makes me crack up laughing. That duhnaNanana softly playing under and after ol Doc talks about harvesting baby organs is great
How is it that such a wonderful institution as The Muppets has never managed to offend anyone (that I know of)?
I think it’s disturbing that they thought there was any controversy to keeping “doomed” babies “alive” for organ donation. Apparently organs can only be donated if you spontaneously explode and they fall into ready made ice coolers…
“This thing that happened in 1987 is so 2020″ is the most meta 2020 thing I’ve heard so far.
Despite being a huge fan of the Muppets my entire life and being old enough to remember Kermit being on Sesame Street and watching The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock when they were new I had somehow never seen this special before. But discovering it for the first time this year along side my 5 and 3 year old may honestly be my highlight of the year.
I’m a little late to the party, but I have that recording on VHS. My mom used to write the date on the covers of the tapes, and I can therefore tell you that the broadcast was December 16, 1987.