Little House on the Prairie: building the best possible collection (1 Viewer)

[Ockeghem]

Mike,

My family and I often remark on how little that actress says during the series. It picks up a little bit in seasons six, seven, and eight, but not very much. I do recall having read that at least one of the actresses playing the part of 'Carrie' was 'developmentally delayed,' but I never looked into it beyond a cursory reading.

 

[Radioman970]

Carrie's real mama should have told her her face would stick like that. She had that one expression...

I remember a dream Alice in Wonderland episode that was a lot of Carrie. That one came out of nowhere. Being HUGE on Alice I kind of liked that one.

 

[t2smith]

It looks like all nine seasons are going to be available in Digital HD on September 9. I hope this doesn't mean that the last six seasons won't be released on Blu-ray.

http://www.lionsgatepublicity.com/uploads/assets/Little%20House%20Season%203%20Press%20Release%20Digital_FINAL.doc

Celebrate The 40th Anniversary Of The Cherished Series When All Nine Seasons Arrive For The First Time Ever In High Definition Digital HD September 9th From Lionsgate Home EntertainmentSANTA MONICA, CA (August 26, 2014) – In September 1974, the first season of Little House on the Prairie premiered on NBC, bringing Americans together to share in the lives of Charles, Laura and the entire Ingalls family. Now for the first time, 40 years later, every episode of Little House on the Prairie will be available on Digital HD September 9th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Meticulously restored to original broadcast length and remastered for optimal picture and sound quality, all nine seasons will be available in high definition for fans both new and old to experience the timeless themes of love, adventure and rich family values like never before.“I am overjoyed that 40 years later, the series that I grew up performing on, is available for new generations to enjoy. Little House on the Prairie is a show full of love, community and heart,” said Melissa Gilbert (“Laura Ingalls Wilder”). “The stories are still relevant and have resonated for decades with audiences around the world. With the digital release of all nine seasons, the show now looks better than ever and the scenes that were cut for syndication are fully restored. So every episode can be seen as it was originally aired and intended.”"Four decades ago Michael Landon made Little House on the Prairie the most beloved and beautifully produced show on network television and audiences were swept away,” said Dean Butler (“Almanzo Wilder”). “The 40th Anniversary HD re-mastering not only restores the episodes to their original broadcast lengths…it makes them more beautiful than ever before. I think Michael Landon would be honored to know that his timeless tribute to the American family has been so lovingly updated for today’s viewers and today’s viewing technology.”

 

[nigel19]

Well they've produced 6 parts of the documentary so presumably at least 6 seasons are planned for Bluray.
The documentaries so far include HD clips from much later seasons so they've been done a while.
With the very good prices for the Bluray seasons I can't see them not being good sellers so there's no good reason for them not to complete the run although I guess interest will dwindle for A New Beginning .

While I'm on here .
Season 2 - Remember Me Part 1 . Pretty sure the original broadcast didn't end the way the version on the Bluray does . Its a bigger mess than the dvd.
But the first real negative thing I've spotted so far

 

[LeoA]

I imagine that's a good thing. The biggest cost here was the transfer work.

With the hard work out of the way, they'd basically be giving up money by not continuing since I wouldn't believe for one minute that they're not selling enough to turn a nice profit to cover the cost of pressing discs, cases, encoding the transfers, printing inserts, etc.

I just hope it continues on both DVD and Blu-Ray. I would hate to see one or the other killed mid-stream if sales lower so much that they decide to just focus on one format.

 

[t2smith]

It is possible that they are releasing all the seasons in Digital HD early to give the Digital providers a chance to make money instead of just having the digital copies available to be redeemed for free by people who have bought the discs. I've noticed that some movies are released on Vudu a few weeks before they are released on disc. I can't see any reason people would buy digital copies of seasons 1 -3 when the Blu-rays include a free digital copy and you can get them cheaper. However, if no release dates have been announced for seasons 4-9 on Blu-ray, some people may not be able to wait and may be tempted to buy the digital copies which aren't Blu-ray quality, but are still a huge improvement over the previous DVD releases.

 

[nigel19]

I will never ever buy a download to keep - it's a rental only format for me .
That's unless they allow people to burn their downloads to disc themselves .

Nobody else annoyed at Remember Me Part 1 ending ?

 

[LeoA]

What's missing from it that was on the DVD's?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nobody else annoyed at Remember Me Part 1 ending ?

Yeah. To what exactly are you referring?

I didn't notice any problems.

 

[nigel19]

Yeah. To what exactly are you referring?

I didn't notice any problems.

Instead of the To Be Continued caption appearing as it should we get a crash edit out of the episode to a black screen with To Be Continued in white letters . Pretty sure that's not as original broadcast.

The UK dvd has the proper ending . After Reverend Alden says "Loud and clear" we cut to an overhead shot of the mourners and the caption "Next Week Part II" fades in and the episode then fades out properly. The caption is the original caption , not a video generated one as was seen on some episodes on the Imavision dvd's which even managed to split feature length stories into 2 parts but then ending the first episode in the wrong place not even in line with the syndicated 2 part edits as seen on UK and Dutch dvd sets.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Unfortunately, I have no idea.

But it sounds like you are probably right.

 

[nigel19]

Unfortunately, I have no idea.

But it sounds like you are probably right.

Yes , it's an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise good track record so far .
It's clearly an artificially added caption so the least they could have done is give us a gentle fade on the sound if not the picture.
It's really jarring , messy and amateurish.

I did have the Imavision set for season 2 once but I don't recall which version they used . Many of their features cut into 2 had additional captions added for syndication that we won't see on the Blurays. (although Remember Me is a genuine 2 parter)

 

[Ethan Riley]

Well they've produced 6 parts of the documentary so presumably at least 6 seasons are planned for Bluray.
The documentaries so far include HD clips from much later seasons so they've been done a while.
With the very good prices for the Bluray seasons I can't see them not being good sellers so there's no good reason for them not to complete the run although I guess interest will dwindle for A New Beginning .

While I'm on here .
Season 2 - Remember Me Part 1 . Pretty sure the original broadcast didn't end the way the version on the Bluray does . Its a bigger mess than the dvd.
But the first real negative thing I've spotted so far

I did notice it, but I hadn't seen the episode since the 70s so I wasn't sure what was wrong.

I think they're going to release all 9 seasons, and hopefully the movies, simply because of the speed the seasons are coming out. If sales were blah, they'd probably delay season 3 and it's coming very soon. If they announce Season 4 soon, I won't be a bit surprised.

Also, I notice that a lot of Target shoppers have been picking these seasons up as impulse purchases so that's always a good thing! I've actually seen modern-day parents buying this show for their kids! Civilization is not lost after all...!

 

[Ron1973]

Not exactly to do with the TV series but Laura's autobiography written in the 30's is finally coming out:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/25/laura-ingalls-wilder-memoir-little-house-prairie

 

[Radioman970]

I was watching the S5 episode when they're still in the city, about the school football teams, very good episode and I don't even like football. But at the end Laura mentions the tossing of an actual player (holding football) to get a touchdown and how it was a first. I immediately wondered if that was true or from the mind of Mr. Landon. Maybe the book will tell...

 

[Ockeghem]

Radioman,I remember the first time I watched the episode you describe above. It was our first disc that froze from that series -- but we eventually got it to work in a PS3 player. And I too wondered about that move (the tossing of the player) when I saw it!

 

[moviebuff75]

The UK versions were edited differently from the U.S. It may look better on that version, but that doesn't mean that the U.S. version is incorrect. There are many small differences between episodes shown here and in the UK. Not saying it is right, but you can't go by that either. Also, I have a feeling that this was originally going to air as a two-hour episode and split into two at the last minute.

 

[nigel19]

The UK versions were edited differently from the U.S. It may look better on that version, but that doesn't mean that the U.S. version is incorrect. There are many small differences between episodes shown here and in the UK. Not saying it is right, but you can't go by that either. Also, I have a feeling that this was originally going to air as a two-hour episode and split into two at the last minute.

I'm not sure you can have watched the end of Remember Me Part 1 where the Bluray ending is quite obviously not what was originally broadcast. If it was supposed to be a feature originally and the ending was not on the negative but added later for broadcast its poor quality control on the part of Lionsgate to think the ending they included was acceptable.

The UK dvd's all seem to be uncut . Having collected every episode on VHS via the UK C4 screenings then all the Imavision sets then changed to UK sets ( with series 3 from Holland) it was obvious that the Imavision sets were edited .

The UK broadcasts by C4 and UK dvd's all seem to be uncut going by the running times which even with PAL speedup were often longer than the Imavision versions . They were nice to start with but very soon became obvious as being badly edited . The first 2 seasons don't even include opening credits on most episodes.

 

[moviebuff75]

The UK versions have scenes not on NBC, and vice versa. From the rough cut, they made a UK cut and a US cut. The new blu-rays are taken from the U.S. cut. Everything from the NBC versions is on the new blu-rays because they are using the actual elements that were broadcast...that's why there are bits on the UK cuts (some used for the old dvds) that aren't on the new blus. I am thrilled with them, as is the surviving cast. Melissa Gilbert released a statement about them this week.

 

[nigel19]

The UK versions have scenes not on NBC, and vice versa. From the rough cut, they made a UK cut and a US cut. The new blu-rays are taken from the U.S. cut. Everything from the NBC versions is on the new blu-rays because they are using the actual elements that were broadcast...that's why there are bits on the UK cuts (some used for the old dvds) that aren't on the new blus. I am thrilled with them, as is the surviving cast. Melissa Gilbert released a statement about them this week.

Why would they have prepared alternate versions for the UK ?
No other show did that .
In the unlikely event they actually did the likelihood that those versions would have been used for modern dvd's is remote.

Are you confusing Uncut and Syndicated for UK and US?
The only difference between a UK broadcast of an old US show and a US broadcast would be that the UK always showed the original unedited network version whereas the US suffered edits once the series went into syndication.
So while the UK discs should feature the unedited episodes unlike the Imavision discs the Blurays are being restored to the original broadcast length so there should be no footage in the UK set not on the Blu.

When the show first aired in the UK the BBC screened the first season but presumably it didn't do well enough as they didn't buy any more seasons.

It was left to ITV who did what they did with most US series at the time . They used it as filler and it was aired by each regional ITV station ( 13 of them) in their own slots on different days at different times often months and sometimes years apart. Many regions never even got close to the final season and I don't think any showed the whole lot. Most aired it as daytime kids show.
First proper UK run was from C4 around 1992.

But the UK situation is irrelevant regarding Remember Me Part 1.
If you actually look at the ending as it appears on the Bluray its quite obviously not something that would be broadcast .
The syndicated versions would often have additonal captions similar to the one on Remember Me Part 1 as it appears on the UK dvd where features were split in 2 but even on the dreadful Imavision discs none feature an edit as glaringly bad as the Bluray of Remember Me Part 1.
They do feature video generated captions and in the wrong places on at least one (Gold Country IIRC) but none look as bad as the Blu.

To be honest I think your theory about alternate UK versions is incorrect although I'm willing to change my mind if you can tell me of any scenes that are on the UK dvd's that are not on the Blurays .

My belief is that Imavision got stuck with syndicated versions of old broadcast prints that had been cut by tv stations while the European dvd's are the correct uncut versions that are basically the same as the Blurays .

The bodge up on Remember Me could support your theory that it was intended to be a feature which is why no caption was available for the Blu version of Part 1 but they really should have opted to edit in a caption from a version with a proper ending instead of what they did.

I'm sure Melissa Gilbert is thrilled with the Blurays as they do look better than we've ever seen the show before .
There's not really anything to dislike - but shortcomings should be mentioned .