CBS Series DVD's and possible Blu Revisits (1 Viewer)

[ScottRE]

Gotta watch some of the shows that were broadcast in the late 80's - 90's. That was the era of "shot on film/edited on tape" and so a ton of those shows look like crap and would have to be restruck from the film masters and the credits and such would have to be redone. Some shows have and are streaming in much nicer quality (I noted SeaQuest on another thread). Otherwise you'll have these lower quality tape transfers on Blu which won't be of any real use. Imagine Paramount's War of the Worlds or Mission: Impossible remake/sequel on Blu as is. Yikes.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Gotta watch some of the shows that were broadcast in the late 80's - 90's. That was the era of "shot on film/edited on tape" and so a ton of those shows look like crap and would have to be restruck from the film masters and the credits and such would have to be redone. Some shows have and are streaming in much nicer quality (I noted SeaQuest on another thread). Otherwise you'll have these lower quality tape transfers on Blu which won't be of any real use. Imagine Paramount's War of the Worlds or Mission: Impossible remake/sequel on Blu as is. Yikes.

Yeah all those shows (along with 80s Twilight Zone, Tales From The Darkside, and Friday the 13th) are in my "forget it'" tier of blu-rays.

Honestly I'm surprised they bothered to remaster MacGyver.

 

[ScottRE]

MacGyver has a decent cult following and the remake series may have had something to do with it. I was surprised to see SeaQuest remastered, but I hear that's gonna get a US blu ray release.

 

[Garysb]

The Dick Van Dyke Show had a bumper that was only used during CBS daytime reruns. This bumper with Rob and Laura kissing in the kitchen was not part of the original broadcast. Are there other shows like this? Is it possible that some missing bumpers were created for later broadcasts?
Something else that was original and only occasionally shows up on home video is a picture of the main sponsor's product in the lower left hand corner as the final credits role. These were replaced by a picture of the star on the reruns and homevideos. Examples include "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ,"Bewitched", and "The Donna Reed Show". Some episodes of "Bewitched" still have the sponsor's product picture. Some have the Chevy logo blocked out by a cloud. Instead of Samatha and Daren flying on the Chevy logo they appear to be flying on a cloud.

 

[jayembee]

I would think that for older SF shows with composite effects, HD harms rather than helps. The seams really show on Star Trek, for example. That's why they went to the trouble to create new effects, the originals didn't stand up to the unforgiving eye of high definition. Now, shows with mostly in-camera model work, like Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Space:1999 look incredible. But imagine how bad The Invaders saucer effects would look in HD.

Not really saying you're wrong, I do notice the majority of my BD series are SF shows. The UK seems to embrace HD for their adventure shows more than we do. The ITC series look absolutely fantastic in HD.

I wasn't mentioning that as older-show-specific thing. Even with modern shows, it's less likely for a sitcom, family drama, or even a cop show to get a blu-ray release than an SF/fantasy series. The same is true of color vs. black & white shows. It's just an oddity of perception that certain things need or require higher resolution than other things.

 

[smithbrad]

I wasn't mentioning that as older-show-specific thing. Even with modern shows, it's less likely for a sitcom, family drama, or even a cop show to get a blu-ray release than an SF/fantasy series. The same is true of color vs. black & white shows. It's just an oddity of perception that certain things need or require higher resolution than other things.

Or it could just be that SF/Fantasy have tended to sell better than other genres.

 

[David Weicker]

Gotta watch some of the shows that were broadcast in the late 80's - 90's. That was the era of "shot on film/edited on tape" and so a ton of those shows look like crap and would have to be restruck from the film masters and the credits and such would have to be redone. Some shows have and are streaming in much nicer quality (I noted SeaQuest on another thread). Otherwise you'll have these lower quality tape transfers on Blu which won't be of any real use. Imagine Paramount's War of the Worlds or Mission: Impossible remake/sequel on Blu as is. Yikes.

Those are probably my two worst DVD sets (in regards to PQ) in my entire collection. Even other same era sets have better PQ.

 

[jayembee]

Or it could just be that SF/Fantasy have tended to sell better than other genres.

Well, sure. That's possibly the why, or a part of it. But the studio labels still look at the fact that non-SF/F doesn't sell as well on blu-ray as a reason to not release it on blu-ray.

 

[smithbrad]

Well, sure. That's possibly the why, or a part of it. But the studio labels still look at the fact that non-SF/F doesn't sell as well on blu-ray as a reason to not release it on blu-ray.

Agreed. However, my comment was directly related to the reference that it might be that SF/Fantasy are seen as needing or requiring higher resolution, so are a better candidate for blu-ray. I had always heard that in general SF/Fantasy has always sold better. Thus, for what limited TV titles we get on blu-ray the percentages are that we will get more SF/Fantasy then many other genre's and that it may not have anything to do with SFX and such. To take that even further, Stargate SG-1 was released on blu-ray with only the live shots upgraded to HD with the SFX just up-converted. Babylon 5 while not yet released on blu-ray was also transferred to HD following the same principle. Rebuilding SFX shots in HD for SF/Fantasy TV shows, like done for TNG, is actually a deterrent due to the additional costs, yet some still get released.

In general, TV shows take more work to transfer than movies just due to the large number of episodes and likely bring in less then movies in revenue. With streaming increasing and an easier way to distribute TV related HD content then physical media, and the continual decline of physical media it should be no surprise that we haven't gotten a large number of TV shows on blu-ray and that the chances are less and less as time goes on. So whatever TV shows do get released in blu-ray has to have a proven market to do so, or be very cost effective (e.g., like CBS that has lots of TV series already transferred just sitting on the shelf). Who knows how many more CBS will even release, if any.

 

[LouA]

That would be great, but my top want would be Have Gun Will Travel restored on HD.

Yes, season 1 particularly needs to be remastered . My favorite TV western of all time, I’d love to have it on Blu-ray!

 

[smithbrad]

Yes, season 1 particularly needs to be remastered . My favorite TV western of all time, I’d love to have it on Blu-ray!

I wouldn't be surprised to see seasons 4-6 show up in HD on the Paramount+ channel at some point since they have already been transferred.

 

[LouA]

The Beverly Hillbillies
Petticoat Junction
Our Miss Brooks

In other words, the perpetually stalled zone.

I’d take the remaining seasons of those shows on DVD, and I’d add Bonanza, Love Boat, and Ben Casey -all stalled shows from CBS. I’d also like to see I Love Lucy on Blu-ray.

 

[jcroy]

With Bull ending after this season (six), I have to wonder if ViacomCBS will bother doing a mass market release of a complete series dvd set (likely a 30 disc set).

The Bull season 5 dvd set was done as a dvd-mod release.

 

[jcroy]

Another recent show which hasn't been released as a complete series set, is Ray Donovan. (Likely a 29 disc dvd set).

The post-series movie dvd is being released on May 24, 2022.


(Too bad it was discontinued on bluray, where the first three seasons were released on bluray).

 

[John*Wells]

I have heard that Warner is Remastering Dallas in HD. Is there any truth to this?

 

[ScottRE]

I have heard that Warner is Remastering Dallas in HD. Is there any truth to this?

Really? Maybe they're going for a streaming release. Those last few seasons were edited on tape, so it's gonna need some work.

 

[John*Wells]

Really? Maybe they're going for a streaming release. Those last few seasons were edited on tape, so it's gonna need some work.

Stream release would be on HBO Max. But what I read stated they were releasing physical media also. We’ll see

 

[Mr. Handley]

I'd be all-in for an original Dallas Blu-ray set. I STILL haven't been able to find Seasons 10 & 11 on single-sided discs!!!

 

[Desslar]

I'm still divided on whether or not I want to pick up Dallas. The melodrama doesn't really thrill me, but I do like Larry Hagman and the Texas scenery.

The DVD set is nearly $200. If the blu-ray came out closer to $100 I might bite.

 

[John*Wells]

I'd be all-in for an original Dallas Blu-ray set. I STILL haven't been able to find Seasons 10 & 11 on single-sided discs!!!

I remember you trying to get them. Looks like if this is true you might get them