How to restore a playlist (not the music) in iTunes?

How to restore a playlist (not the music) in iTunes?

Background: I recently had to restore OS 10.8.5 and incredibly, the hard drive containing TimeMachine info crashed half way into the restoration process. Fortunately, the most critical files/folders were copied and saved but various preferences and iTunes was not among them. However, I had all the music on another drive so importing the music into iTunes was not a problem.

Problem: The problem is how to restore the playlists. I had over a hundred, mostly smart playlists, that had detailed info on what songs to include in that particular playlist.

I have tried exporting a copy of my playlist from my Classic iPod, which has more or less all the playlists that I want (and which were originally created from the original iTunes on the computer, of course.) However, nothing happens when I import the playlist into iTunes. No playlists appear in the left side of iTunes.

All the information and suggestions out there basically point to restoring the music into iTunes which many people seem to call playlist. I'm talking about the actual playlist that points to the music already in iTunes.

Any solution? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks!