Still, there might be an interesting backstory behind the Goodies in the US, if anyone can find it. I would assume that PBS stations saw another Monty Python, but were disappointed (viewing figures?), and dropped it after series 5. Time-Life lost the US rights to BBC shows in the late 70s or early 80s, so that would have factored in as well.

I watched "The Goodies" in Arkansas in the late 70s and early 80s.  They were the center of a kids' summer daytime block in 1983.  As it was a public "education" station, this was the first time they broadcast during the day in summer.

They showed Montreux '72 Kitten Kong, none of the specials, but all the rest of Series 3, 4, & 5.
Appropriately enough, the last episode seen in the US was "The End"

I remember watching The Goodies on PBS in the seventies.  'Scatty Safari' was one episode I remember watching.  Also 'Kung Fu Kapers' was another.  Unfortunately, my local station had it on at 11:00 at night in the middle of the week and since I was poor working girl who had to get up at the crack of dawn and VCR's weren't around, I didn't get to watch it as much as I would have liked.

It looks like they had series 5 as this had to be 1976.

This is just speculation, but I think PBS started running "The Goodies" around 1976 so it could be they just didn't go back and pick up the earliest series.

Since PBS is a group of affiliated stations which can determine their own schedules, rather than a true network, it's possible that stations in other parts of the country showed more series than others.  I'd be very interested to learn whether any American fans can provide info about which Goodies series they saw in which US state(s).

Public Broadcasting Stations in America ran GOODIES in the mid-late '70s, but they didn't get the first few seasons, only 2 or 3 from the middle of the BBC run.Obviously they didn't think It did well enough for them to buy later series, but I wonder why the first series were skipped?