A&E British TV Megasets (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Swearingen]

I have picked up the new Emma Peel Avengers Megaset, the Prisoner Megaset, and the new Secret Agent complete megaset over the past year. Thin paks and lower prices made these an easy sell. Is A&E planning on doing more of these reissues? I'm thinking of a Persuaders set, a non-Emma Peel Avengers set, or a redo of the Saint Megaset including the b/w episodes all in thinpaks and a lower price!

 

[AlexF]

i'd be interested in a "saint" pack myself. i picked up the python set recently. and the jeeves and wooster, which got a huge price hit. sweet.

 

[progrocktv]

Unfortunatley what I heard is the A&E titles are going out of print and is discontunuing releasing any further ITC shows:frowning: In fact many titles are now being "closed-out"

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Also 'on hold' is the 1970s Brian Clemens show "Thriller", please send complaints A&E's way........-->

 

[Bob Hug]

Which may be the reason why Image Entertainment is releasing the ITC series "Jason King" on May 1st.

http://www.image-entertainment.com/d...roductID=56884

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I, for one, am glad that A&E are, hopefully, losing the ITC licence. Why? So that someone else (Image, it seems) might be motivated to bring over Network's remaster of Space: 1999 Year One to Region 1, NTSC at a better price than the UK set!

Also, from what I've read on other online forums, A&E's quality control is somewhat lacking. The edits to the Monty Python episodes I'm already aware of. I've also heard of inferior picture quality on certain Avengers sets and on another series (either Secret Agent/Danger Man or The Saint, if I recall correctly).

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I'm holding out for this year's R2 rerelease. From what I've read online, every release of The Prisoner so far (R1, R2, R4) has been lacking, whether it be picture quality problems, sound/picture out of sync, tinny audio, or other glitches. Also, it's been said that the new release should have "everything but the kitchen sink" thrown in!

 

[Ollie]

I've just discovered a few of these series on DVD in the last few weeks.

I've Netflixed three Avenger's discs, and two of The Saint discs so far. I was stunned when I looked into the retail price for these sets. Can anyone give me an idea of why they are so RIDICULOUSLY expensive compared to other TV Shows On DVD? Is it because they are British Shows?

I purchased The Saint Megaset through Amazon Marketplace for $49.98, new which I thought was excellent, given that Amazon retails it for $174.99. I'd like to buy The Saint Early Episodes, and some of the Emma Peel Avenger sets but I've not had as much luck so far, finding a good deal. I'd also like to know why the Avenger sets were released in a jillion different collections of 3 and 4 episodes each. The only big compilation I've seen is the Emma Peel Megaset.

I've yet to try Dangerman or The Prisoner, though I do have those in my Netflix Queue to try next.

Are you guys saying that these are all going to be released at a lower retail price and WITH more extras?

I'd appreciate all input...Thanks

 

[Jeff#]

You just missed out on getting the entire Danger Man series in an 18 disc set for $75 (half-price special) which was offered last month through Deep Discount.com. I took advantage of it, and I'm glad I did. I've already watched most of the episodes and they all look terrific. There are no noticeable flaws in the prints.

There aren't any real extras on the set except for the usual Secret Agent (American release title rock theme), and that's on every disc from Season 2 (1964-65) on beginning with Disc 6. Previous releases of the hour shows had those too. I don't count actor and crew biographies as "extras".

I bought the first Prisoner megaset a few years ago, and asided from the disc cases and the box they're in being too large all of them look great from start to finish....except for the tail end of the episode "It's Your Funeral", in which as soon as the camera pans up to the helicopter flying away there's a video glitch. Fortunately it happens after the last word of dialog is spoken. But I would buy those all again if extra features were added to the newer (thinner box) release. It would have to be a lot cheaper than the $120 I spent for that set.

 

[Ollie]

Bummer....on missing out on that sale.
I frequently purchase from DDD, but likely didn't notice that particular sale, because I didn't even know what DangerMan was until a few weeks ago. I'm having a great time uncovering these 40+ year old television treasures. Dangerman is next in my queue, so I'm looking forward to getting to see that one as well.

I went to the A&E website a short while ago and noticed that several of the Avenger sets are not just on sale, but are rather listed as being on CLEARANCE. I'm wondering if I should try and take advantage of some of the clearance prices or wait on a re-release. I really hate all of the short volumes, and much prefer one large set to dozens of smaller ones.

 

[Jeff#]

Danger Man is a rare filmed series to actually get a 4 year break in production, and then have the option to return on a grander scale. As a 1/2 hour, only 3 of the first 39 episodes were filmed in 1959 and the rest in 1960. It came back in 1964 and lasted a little longer than its first run, since there are 47 of those. The final two episodes are the only ones filmed in color (on location with Drake on an assignment in Japan), and although the titles of both are different it was the show's only 2 parter. That was intended as the final season's premiere in 1966, but McGoohan called it quits so he could start work on The Prisoner....taking several crew members from Danger Man with him (including Director of Photography Brendan Stafford).

 

[Corey3rd]

A&E got into the TV on DVD business in the very early days when the prices were out the wazoo. They were charging $40 for 2 DVDs out of the set. They have never completely adjusted on these titles.

 

[Ollie]

For now I will continue to use Netflix to see which of the series I like enough to want to repeatedly re-watch. I have to sense a high "re-watchability" factor to actually purchase a set. I liked what I saw of the Saint enough to want to own it, AND I found a great price which was worth it for 47 episodes.

At second glance, even with the "clearance prices" on Avenger sets on the A & E website, it's still paying between$16-$25 (or more after shipping) for only 3-6 episodes. So I'll have to watch rentals for now and wait for a better deal. There are too many reasonably priced releases coming up this summer , for me to shell out those kind of $$$ for a handful of eps.

In the interim, thank God for the vast selection of Vintage TV shows available through Netflix!

 

[Jeff#]

The Mystery Channel used to rerun The Saint complete and uncut. I had a DVD recorder even then, but at that time I stopped subscribing to the channel. If I had the opportunity, I would have recorded 4 episodes to a DVD-R disc in LP speed.

Of course for the sake of getting a crystal-clear picture, I'm better off buying the megaset....once they come down in price.

 

[Jeff Willis]

"Calling all Danger Man Experts"

I have a question about the 2 D.M. Megasets. I have the 1st Megaset which contains all of the 1-hr shows, including the final 2 color shows, "Koroshi" and "Shinda Shima". I know that this set doesn't include the 1/2-hr seasons but I'm almost 100% certain that it includes all of the other shows. A poster at Amazon said that my set was missing additional 1-hr shows. I think that's incorrect. Another Amazon poster said that the new Megaset did not include the U.S. opening theme (Johnny Rivers/Secret Agent Man). If I understand things, the U.S. opening is included in the new set as an "Extra"..., right?

I also missed that DDD sale... but I've been thinking of getting that new set at DDD's June sale, if they have the usual 1/2 price thing again this summer. Like Ollie said, the thinpacks and having the complete set is tempting. I guess I'd need to trade in my orignal megaset at the local DVD Trading Store.

Great quote, Ollie...."re-watchibility" That's the main thing that I look at before buying a set as well. Glad to see that you're "discovering" all of those old classics that we "baby-boomers" saw years ago

 

[Jim*F]

I have the two original sets and this is what they contain:

Original "Secret Agent" Megaset -- all the 1-hour episodes (47, I believe), including the 2 color episodes; uses the original UK opening; US "Secret Agent Man" opening on each disc as an extra

Original "Danger Man" Season 1 -- all the 1/2-hour episodes (39, I believe); no alternate US opening ("Secret Agent Man" wasn't written until the 1-hour episodes were produced, so, to the best of my knowledge, there is no alternate US opening for the 1/2-hour episodes)

New "Secret Agent" Megaset -- I don't own this (no need to!), but everything I've read indicates this is simply an 18-DVD set that includes both "original" sets.

I'd love to know if anyone has heard anything else about a new "Prisoner" re-release overseas (and possibly here). It would be nice to have a new set that has all the extras that are floating around on the various sets, as well as more than 1 or 2 episodes per disc.

 

[michael_ks]

Hi Jeff--

I concur with everything that Jim F wrote having both these sets as well. I wish I could conveniently trade these now for the more compact complete series re-issue with all 86 episodes in one set. And yes, most definitely the A&E megaset for seasons 2-4 is 100% complete.

Myself, I was glad A&E used the original UK harpsichord driven instrumental theme for the episodes over the Johnny Rivers vocal made with new titles for the U.S. market. It's fun to play as an extra but IMO the latter's lyric/opening titles is not indicative of the nature of the character of Drake since it erroneously hints at action, guns and girls in the 007 tradition.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

 

[Jim*F]

Thanks for the information, Andy. A&E's re-release last year was pathetic (a small booklet of info many people already have in Prisoner books and a map of the village -- what a way to treat die-hard fans who probably would have bought the whole set again just for new extras).

I hope a US company picks up the ITC releases and decides to do an R1 version of this upcoming set.

 

[Jeff#]

The only problem with the Danger Man release box set is that the thin case artwork on the first season episodes is completely identical to the other (hour-long) seasons, much like what Columbia House did with their expensive releases of Wild Wild West in 2003-2004 (which I no longer need and would gladly trade for The Saint megaset if anyone's interested).

But a quick look on the back cover shows 8 episodes instead of 4, so that's a giveaway.