The Muppets version of Goncharov was amazing, sure, but the story of how it came to be was - in classical Goncharov fashion - even more bonkers than the movie itself.
The whole thing started as a joke. Some people at the Jim Henson company (who for legal reasons will remain unnamed) was playing around with the muppets and, since Goncharov was just about to hit the theaters* they decided to make a sketch. None of them had seen the film, but one of them had heard the infamous dutch radio drama (extremely illegal, of course), so they actually nailed the scenes with eerie accuracy.
*) That is, the SECOND US theater release, but that's a whole other fiasco
Anyway, they had their fun and made their little five minute film and that would have been that, but due to a mixup, the reel was put in the wrong box and delivered along with some charity film to a small TV station in Canada. The people who received it assumed it was part of the rest of the show, and broadcasted it to a small audience of - presumably confused - Canadian children.
That would have been all, if not for the fight over the Goncharov broadcasting rights between East and West Germany, which became part of a general dick measuring contest between the East and West powers. At this time Canada and the Soviet Union had started at tentative relationship over (what else) Ice Hockey, and a Soviet team was in Canada for some 'friendly' games. Which means that when the Soviet hockey players chill in the hotel with some TV, what would they see if not a low budget Muppet version of a blatant disregard for Soviet-US-Agreemens(TM) which during the height of the cold war is a bit, as they say, frowned upon.
Word gets home to Moscow, and on to the United Nations, where the Soviet cultural attaché gleefully grabs this unexpected piece of diplomatic ammunition with both hands. This make waves all the way up to Spiro Agnew, who demands his staff find a way to save face. The FBI raids the Henson Company and the poor people involved (their identity is actually still classified) fess up. Since Agnew refuse to tell the soviets that they made a simply mistake, the solution his staff cook up is to release the Muppet version as the official US version (which is why there is a THIRD theatrical release), which they actually have the rights to, which would place the Canadian broadcast as promotional material (still allowed under the agreement).
Only problem - they don't have a movie, just the five minutes goof a few bored puppeteers put together. So under the 'helpful' eyes of FBI, the Henson company drops everything else and work around the clock to create a muppet version of Goncharov. Matteo JWHJ0715 is flown in from Spain (which put a spanner in the work for the lawsuit against him for smuggling, but that's another can of worms), and even Martin Scorsese gets involved, even if it's a bit murky what - if anything - he actually did. They finished the movie with a few hours to spare (and in true Henson Studio overachievement fashion made a banger of a film) and the reels are flown to New York and the movie premier with a by then highly experimental Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard fighter jet on loan from France (which incidentally caused a few UFO sightings).
Everything's well that ends well. The movie was shown to a very confused audience, US could claim they had not broken any international broadcasting rights agreements, and Canada and Soviets could get back to the important business of hockey. No more clouds in the sky.
This was at the same time as the fight went down between Matteo JWHJ0715 and the Italian government (you know, the one where the mafia got involved), which among other things meant that he lost the rights to the movie in Italy, which propagated throughout Europe and the US.
Normally, the rights would have defaulted to Martin Scorsese (but due to the animosity between him and Matteo JWHJ0715 they didn't) or the production company (but because of the heavy money laundering allegations, they were out too). This, together with the fictive but legal connection the FBI had forged between the original production company and the Henson studios, Jim Henson, in late 1973, found himself the sole rights holder to Goncharov (1973).
He quickly realized what a hot potato it was and - deciding that being raided by FBI once was enough for him - quickly reached out to Martin Scorsese to give the rights back (which pissed off Matteo JWHJ0715 to no end, which led to the whole film festival debacle, but that's another story). But for a while there, the Muppets Goncharov 1973 was not just A Goncharov - it was THE Goncharov.
(Oh, and this was actually the first appearance of Animal, as Ice Pick Joe. Sadly, they had to retcon it later for legal reasons and claim that the Ice Pick Joe muppet was a completely different muppet than the 'real' Animal that debuted 1975, but obviously no one was fooled).
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