Times a black background was used but not to hide performers

minor muppetz

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Usually, if a scene includes a plain black background, the main purpose for the black background is to hide performers dressed in black so that the characters can do something that would be hard to do without hiding the performers. But there have been times when a black background was used but the scenes didn;t require the performers to dress in black. This thread is dedicated to listing those times.

Muppet Vision 3D has quite a few scenes with the characters in front of a black background (most prominiently when Bean runs away and the others decide to look for him). A black background is also used after the Muppet Labs sketch (after the lab was sucked into a vaccum).

The linking footage for Children's Songs and Stories with the Muppets uses a black background (and many of the clips chosen are ones where a back background was used to hide performers, though most of them had the black repalced with a different background). You could argue that the black was used to hide the black sleeves under the fish, as the fish were raised above the bottom a few times, but I see that as just Jim Henson unintentionally raising his arms above the camera.

Both of the Fraggle Rock video compilations (Fraggle Songs and Doozer Music) used a black background. In fact I wonder if the linking footage for Children's Songs and Stories was inspired by this (a character sitting behind a table or desk in front of a black background presenting clips).

Any other known examples of a black background being used without the purpose of hiding a performer?
 
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