I have the unwatermarked LCJ box-set DVD release of the Ann Murray episode with “Dancing on the Ceiling”, audio is in French but the video is the original interlaced PAL.
As noted in a post above, the show was shot on PAL videotape, so the ‘highest quality’ would be that native PAL.
The US Disney+ episodes are interesting; they’ve taken the PAL masters, de-interlaced these, then upscaled to HD, so higher quality than any previous NTSC conversions. They’re also at 23.976fps, rather than the original 25fps. Previous NTSC conversions have done fuzzy field interpolations that significantly reduce the quality of the motion to get to 29.98fps, but preserve the speed. The Disney+ conversions use a technique that is the reverse of the “PAL speedup” usually used to convert 24fps film to 25fps video by speeding the playback up by 4%; they actually slow the speed down by 4%. This avoids motion interpolation artifacts, but means that the episodes play at the wrong speed. To avoid the audio playing at the wrong pitch, they’ve pitch adjusted so that although the speed is wrong, you don’t get pitch lowering.
For my own amusement I’ve had a go replicating the Disney+ workflow, using a motion interpolated de-interlacer, a superres up-scaler, and a pitch-corrected 4% slowdown of the audio and video. Using a combination of the German series 1 box set, the UK series 2 and 3 box sets, the French LCJ box set, and the UK Best of set, I’ve created patches for the Disney+ trimmed material for seasons 1-4, and the complete Brooke Shields episode. Oh, and both versions of the Harvey Korman episode. Not got to S5 yet.
But, again as noted in a post above, the ideal restoration would be in PAL. That’s harder.
I did have a go reversing the Disney+ workflow; slowing the speed by 4%, rescaling to 576p, then using a motion interpolator to re-create the interlacing. It slots nicely back into the PAL material for the one sequence present on the Disney+ episodes that is unavailable on any season 1 DVD, and for the LCJ DVDs of Seasons 4 and 5 episodes that were missing the UK spot. Not tried this for full episodes, but plan to have a go at some point.
I’m curious if you’ve managed to get hold of the PAL DVD releases of the James Coburn, Tony Randall and Marty Feldman, as I know these are not so easy to come by. The NTSC DVD versions of these episodes are a big step down in terms of quality (though do have the soundtracks you’d want). You’d definitely want the PAL ones for the best restoration.
I have reasonably high quality off-airs from Disney Channel PAL broadcasts of the four S5 episodes you mention, a German set with the logo at the top of the screen, and a UK set with the logo at the bottom; for the short musical skits I’m having a go combining these to produce a logo free version that’s 640x480 at 25p. Not the best quality, but the best I’ve been able to find. (And by ‘not the best’, these aren’t as good as PAL DVD quality, but are definitely still better than the NSTC DVD quality of available Muppet Show episodes).
Of course for a true restoration, you’d need the extra Waldorf and Statler scene from the Joel Grey episode, the only copy of that I have is terrible quality, and the final sax note at the end of each episode that are routinely cut from every DVD and broadcast. Those I don’t have many of, and only one of the specially shot ones where the final shot was an episode-related gag. I’d love to see all those properly restored.
Interested to know what your plan is, happy to help where I can.
This sounds great to hear!
By the way, the plan is so I can try and get a preserved and restored edition of all 120 uncut episodes of The Muppet Show.
Also, I don’t own PAL DVD releases of James Coburn, Tony Randall, and/or Marty Feldman. Another thing, the “UK set” with the Disney Channel logo at the bottom is actually from the Australian Disney Channel, meaning it’s an “Australian set”.