Last night, I watched the DVD I made from my own S-VHS recording taped off Nickelodeon in the late 90’s. More than watchable, except for a brief cable outage at the beginning of the talent show I always forget is there.
From the reviews I’ve read of the new release, Kermit is restored, (opening and closing) but the narration is absent. It’s been said the narration was added for a later broadcast, but even the Henson Organization’s own history seems murky on this.
Emmet has had more versions on tv and video than there are cuts of Star Wars. Fall off the dock is also restored. Digital wire removal has been done on the upscaled Blu-Ray, but apparently the new DVD release left them alone.
With the new release available, it seems like a good time for someone to revisit this. My old recording could suffice for Kermit’s narration. (I had enough sense to capture at the highest settings with PCM audio.) A bit of cleanup would be needed to take out the faint background hum that plagued my cable system at the time.
I’ve thought one of the 80’s video releases might be a cleaner source for the narration if they were recorded in Hi_Fi, but every auction of an old VHS or Beta comes from people who are clearly more deranged than the Riverbottom gang.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Emmet-Otters-Jug-Band-Christmas-VHS-1977/254031225804
JEDIT: Seems like the new release incorporates all the deleted footage, except for Kermit’s voiceovers.
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Emmet_Otter’s_Jug-Band_Christmas_edits#Comparison_table