Let's Hear it for the companies that transferred their libraries (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

MGM (as in former UA), Turner (when they owned MGM), Worldvision (now part of CBS). All of them had the good sense and foresight to remaster their libraries to tape. Companies that didn't - CBS, Sony, Universal, Fox. That's why its easy for obscure shows to get licensed out or sold for airing from those companies. When Warner Archive stopped spending money on remastering, they had the old Turner one-inch tapes to use for shows like Mr. Novak. The only way the non-transferred shows get done now is if a network, like Encore Westerns, foots the bill for the remastering, like they did with Virginian, Wells Fargo, etc. Otherwise if shows were never put to tape, and owned by a major studio, its highly unlikely to ever see the light of day.

 

[smithbrad]

MGM (as in former UA), Turner (when they owned MGM), Worldvision (now part of CBS). All of them had the good sense and foresight to remaster their libraries to tape. Companies that didn't - CBS, Sony, Universal, Fox. That's why its easy for obscure shows to get licensed out or sold for airing from those companies. When Warner Archive stopped spending money on remastering, they had the old Turner one-inch tapes to use for shows like Mr. Novak. The only way the non-transferred shows get done now is if a network, like Encore Westerns, foots the bill for the remastering, like they did with Virginian, Wells Fargo, etc. Otherwise if shows were never put to tape, and owned by a major studio, its highly unlikely to ever see the light of day.

True.

However, history is repeating itself where now if they don't go back to the original elements and make HD transfers, then there won't be anything to market since SD content is becoming less and less desirable to consumers. That is where notably CBS made up ground since they started transferring to HD for the DVD releases going back to the early 2000's.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

Encore could foot the bill for a couple of Warner westerns, Colt .45 and Temple Houston. CBS should do new HD transfers of Have Gun Will Travel's earlier seasons 1-3. I'd love to see M Squad from Universal remastered and streaming online somewhere!

 

[smithbrad]

CBS should do new HD transfers of Have Gun Will Travel's earlier seasons 1-3.

They eventually fixed the Rawhide and Bonanza seasons they originally skipped from the HD transfers, so I would think they would get back to HGWT at some point.

 

[Darby67]

CBS should have done transfers for all 4 seasons of The Defenders and if they had we might have seen all four seasons released individually or as a complete series. A missed opportunity.

 

[Gary OS]

They eventually fixed the Rawhide and Bonanza seasons they originally skipped from the HD transfers, so I would think they would get back to HGWT at some point.

We can only hope. My fingers are crossed.

CBS should have done transfers for all 4 seasons of The Defenders and if they had we might have seen all four seasons released individually or as a complete series. A missed opportunity.

Gary “may God have mercy on your soul for that suggestion, Sean” O.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I've come to accept the fact a few years ago that The Farmer's Daughter will probably never be remastered or re-run on TV again (let alone released on DVD). Instead, I've chosen to be grateful for the episodes we do have thanks to the few people who had the foresight to record it when it was shown on CBN in the mid 1980s. If it wasn't for them (and the 16mm collectors), we would have nothing.

 

[The 1960's]

Here we go again.

 

[bmasters9]

True.

However, history is repeating itself where now if they don't go back to the original elements and make HD transfers, then there won't be anything to market since SD content is becoming less and less desirable to consumers. That is where notably CBS made up ground since they started transferring to HD for the DVD releases going back to the early 2000's.

Why do consumers want more HD and less SD lately?

 

[Todd Erwin]

Why do consumers want more HD and less SD lately?

Because SD (especially if mastered from an analog source) looks like crap on a UHD display.

 

[bmasters9]

Because SD (especially if mastered from an analog source) looks like crap on a UHD display.

Very good reasoning!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Why do consumers want more HD and less SD lately?

Because SD (especially if mastered from an analog source) looks like crap on a UHD display.

That’s certainly a big part of it.

But I think some of it is also simply the age of the content.

We have so much available to us at all times with the touch of a button. One person in their entire life might not be able to watch all the things made in a single year now. There didn’t used to be this plethora of content that’s now being produced.

The SD stuff is sort of an easy target for a larger discussion about relevance.

A lot of the programs we frequently discuss on HTF when we talk about classic TV are from the 1950s and 60s, which means we’re talking about things that are more than 70 years old in some case. The “young” shows might still be half a century old.

It’s an anomaly in the history of human culture for us to be more interested in entertainment from 70 years ago than what’s contemporary for today.

There will always be enthusiasts interested in historical and legacy content but I think it’s perhaps an unfair expectation that contemporary culture prize what happened decades ago over what’s being made today.

If you could magically make HD copies of every show previously only available in SD, that’s not going to make them pull in more eyeballs than a hit show of today. History and culture have already selected which handful of shows from that era are evergreens; I don’t think that list is going to get substantially larger over time.

 

[bmasters9]

It’s an anomaly in the history of human culture for us to be more interested in entertainment from 70 years ago than what’s contemporary for today.

That is true indeed (I, however, am part of that anomaly, because most of what is made today is what I do not [and probably will never] care for, for reasons unknown).

 

[Neil Brock]

CBS should have done transfers for all 4 seasons of The Defenders and if they had we might have seen all four seasons released individually or as a complete series. A missed opportunity.

Except it wasn't CBS which transferred the show, it was Shout Factory. CBS let Shout borrow the first season elements to transfer for the DVD set. They never had any interest in doing anything with the show. To them its a dead property, like The Nurses, For the People, Desilu Playhouse and about another few hundred shows I could name. They are all sitting in warehouses collecting dust with no likelihood of being seen again. CBS either doesn't consider the shows commercially viable or as in the case of Playhouse 90, a legal rights clearance nightmare.

 

[Lecagr]

Except it wasn't CBS which transferred the show, it was Shout Factory. CBS let Shout borrow the first season elements to transfer for the DVD set. They never had any interest in doing anything with the show. To them its a dead property, like The Nurses, For the People, Desilu Playhouse and about another few hundred shows I could name. They are all sitting in warehouses collecting dust with no likelihood of being seen again. CBS either doesn't consider the shows commercially viable or as in the case of Playhouse 90, a legal rights clearance nightmare.

So I guess this means we won't be seeing a complete series DVD release of The Cara Williams Show, a series that's on my want list.

 

[Neil Brock]

So I guess this means we won't be seeing a complete series DVD release of The Cara Williams Show, a series that's on my want list.

I know someone who has 26 of the 30 episodes from Cara and they might do something with them so there is hope!

 

[smithbrad]

Except it wasn't CBS which transferred the show, it was Shout Factory. CBS let Shout borrow the first season elements to transfer for the DVD set. They never had any interest in doing anything with the show. To them its a dead property, like The Nurses, For the People, Desilu Playhouse and about another few hundred shows I could name. They are all sitting in warehouses collecting dust with no likelihood of being seen again. CBS either doesn't consider the shows commercially viable or as in the case of Playhouse 90, a legal rights clearance nightmare.

Does anyone know of any TV series from the major studios, that were transferred by the studios, from film elements in HD that were not previously transferred to tape and syndicated in SD? I'm just looking to see if there is any evidence a major studio might still dig deeper into their library to bring back "dead property", as Neil referenced, in new HD transfers, or do we have to hope for external sources like Encore Western to foot the bill.

 

[Lecagr]

I know someone who has 26 of the 30 episodes from Cara and they might do something with them so there is hope!

Too bad abut the four missing episodes, but to have 26 of the 30 would be terrific. A few episodes have been posted on to You Tube and they include the original commercials.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Does anyone know of any TV series from the major studios, that were transferred by the studios, from film elements in HD that were not previously transferred to tape and syndicated in SD? I'm just looking to see if there is any evidence a major studio might still dig deeper into their library to bring back "dead property", as Neil referenced, in new HD transfers, or do we have to hope for external sources like Encore Western to foot the bill.

I'm not sure, so maybe someone with more knowledge can confirm, but The Thin Man and Casey Jones both showed up in recent years on Get TV with great looking prints.

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm not sure, so maybe someone with more knowledge can confirm, but The Thin Man and Casey Jones both showed up in recent years on Get TV with great looking prints.

Thin Man was a Turner MGM property so it was one of the shows transferred when he owned the company.

In the 80s, Sony had deals with LBS and syndicated a slew of very short run series through them. Casey Jones was part of that package along with other shows like Hawk, Tallahassee 7000, Rescue 8, The Interns, Medical Story, Doctors Private Lives and a bunch more. Unfortunately, it didn't include some of the Sony shows I'm interested in, like The Good Life, Love on a Rooftop and some of the other comedies.