Lost in Space: Season 1 Officially Announced - UPDATE & APOLOGY ADDED 10/8 (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Koch]

Quote:
"Here is perhaps some bad news on the transfers. Seems that FOX is getting cold feet, worried about poor sales, ala the MTM set, so they are making this a budget release, with old Laserdisc, and Columbia HouseVHS transfers as masters..."


This really has me worried. I bought all three seasons of LIS on VHS from Columbia House before the advent of dvd. I can't tell you the number of times I had to exchange defective tapes due to blown out video, overmodulation distortion of the audio and tape dropouts. THE KEEPER Part I and Part 2 still look horrendous due to video problems despite repeated exchanges with Columbia House. This may have been due to tape duplication problems because of the wretched machines they were using but Columbia House has always left a bad taste in my mouth because of all the LIS problems. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that Fox will use the best available source material for the dvds. Eventually I'll sell the VHS tapes on ebay or donate them for a nice tax write off.


Jeff

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This has me very concerned as well.

Not worth us asking Fox if this is true about
the source material they are using since they
would never admit to it.

Until someone else familiar with how these shows
should look has something to report I am going to
assume that Fox is going to give the best possible
care to this set that they can.

By the way, I also own the complete Columbia
House VHS collection of LIS. The one thing I
really liked about the VHS tapes are the liner
notes on the back cover of each cassette. The
notes give some really cool insight into each
show with little-known-facts about a guest star
or an event related to that episode. Let's
hope that Fox can use those same liner notes
for this collection.

Finally, as to my thoughts on the popularity of
this show.....

I must admit that I have fears of LIS not making
it to 3 seasons on DVD. The show was a moderate
success during it's 3-year run, and I admit that
it did get very silly at times. Still, it has
a huge cult following and it has remained my
all-time favorite TV show since my childhood.

Let's hope Fox isn't cutting corners on this one.

 

[Chas_Michael]

Years back, The USA Network ran all 3 Seasons of "Lost In Space" with PRISTINE transfers. Unfortunetly, they were hacked to pieces:frowning:. Lost In Space, in my opinion will sell in great numbers. It was/is my all time favorite show since I first saw the premire episode as a young boy. I'm counting the days on this one.

 

[Matt.Koz]

Kevin Burns, executive producer of "The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen" and "Lost In Space Forever" had this to say about the LIS transfers for the upcoming DVD on jup.com

Mike --
Fox used the old Columbia House masters (which were from old 1inch videotape transfers made in the 1980s) as their source. In 1998, I transfered the first five episodes and "War of the Robots" from the 35mm fine grain master positives. (These even had the original CBS commercials and logos on them.) These were used by Fox on the retail VHS 12 episode set they sold when the movie came out (the first three were sold on laserdisc) and were far superior to the Columbia House transfers. When I informed Fox of the mistake they told me they didn't have the budget to fix the DVD masters. Too bad. At least Season One is coming out on DVD.
Regards,
Kevin

 

[David Lambert]

January 13, 2004

It's officially official. The press release and cover art are available here.

 

[Eric Paddon]

"These were used by Fox on the retail VHS 12 episode set they sold when the movie came out (the first three were sold on laserdisc) and were far superior to the Columbia House transfers. When I informed Fox of the mistake they told me they didn't have the budget to fix the DVD masters. Too bad. At least Season One is coming out on DVD."

That has me wondering if I might as well keep those VHS copies since from that description alone they're bound to look better than the DVDs once they come out!

 

[Mark_TS]

well, no matter-I would like for FOX to give LIS pristine transfers, but I will be ordering the box.

As for VOYAGE TTBOTS Season #1-I await that also, but i am certain they will remaster those-as seen on SciFi-and the VHS tapes, they are too faded/too dark, and too full of scratches

 

[Steve_AS]

I think when people say the first season was less silly what they really mean is the first several episodes, where Dr. Smith is more a real villain and less of a comical figure, and there is also a nice sense of continuity between episodes that was quite rare for TV in those days (look at how everything in Star Trek is so self-contained where an episode from one week never impacts events in subsequent episodes).

Exactly. And besides, though LIS'll never be considered great drama, how many of these old sci-fi TV shows *really* hold up to scrutiny in one's adulthood? Twilight Zone? Outer Limits? Star Trek? Nope, sorry. You have to disengage at least some of your critical faculties to enjoy them, notwithstanding the occasional brilliant episode or scene.

In the case of LIS, even today there's still a few first-season moments that rank high with me on the shiver scale...e.g., some scenes in "Invaders from the Fifth Dimension', where those floating heads in that nightmarish-looking spaceship want to use Will's brain as a computer, and the ending of the one with Michael J. Pollard as the boy stuck behind the mirror, where John Williams' music makes the scene incredibly poignant.

I also thought LIS had the coolest sound effects on TV. ;>

A shame about the news of mastering of DVD from inferior sources...but unless the originals are destroyed, there's always hope for an 'upgrade' in the future (and wouldn't Fox love to get our money *again* for these?)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Update and Apology



I want to post a public apology here....

I always attempt to try to be honest about
all the information I post to this forum. I
don't like to post what I feel to be factual
information about an upcoming release without
having facts to back it up.

In the case of LOST IN SPACE to DVD....

I'm a huge fan of this show. In fact, I have
been politely asking Fox for the past two years
to put this show into production. In a small
way, I think my efforts (and those of the fans
within this forum) are the reason why the show
is finally being released in January.

You noticed that I have finally come to the
conclusion that the show is in fact going to be
released this upcoming January 13th, 2004.

This comes after a little more than a week
after I told all of you that there will be a
delay in the release. This was, from what I
had gathered, to be the situation regarding
Lost In Space when I asked Fox's
Peter Staddon directly about it during a
meeting at the studio in September.

Perhaps something was misunderstood in our
conversation? I don't think so, as there
were 4 other people in the room with me
who all heard the same conversation and can
confirm exactly what was told to me.

This is my opinion on why we were not
given confirmed information....

Fox was obviously days away from making a Press
Release announcement on Lost In Space and
My Darling Clementine. Obviously, Fox
did not want us breaking the news on the net early.

However....

If Fox would have confidentially told us the
information and asked us not to print it, we
would have heeded their request. We have been
told many private things that we have never posted
without authorization. It's a trust that we have
never broken.

Meanwhile, I am given false information and I
end up looking like a fool.

I apologize that I reported information that
I had thought to be correct. Be assured that it
did come straight from Fox and that there were
four others that confirm exactly what I originally
posted.

I'm a little embarrassed. The information I posted
was taken as FACT and passed along to Lost In Space
fan sites and other TV forums as factual. I ended up
with egg in my face as a result.

My apologies again.

 

[Sergio Martorel]

You noticed that I have finally come to the
conclusion that the show is in fact going to be
released this upcoming January 13th, 2003.

2003?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

oops! Obviously a typo!

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Ron, I don't see why you should need to appologise for relaying information direct from the source, even if it was incorrect/purposefully false.

Unfortunately, if the source elements are as bad as reported, I doubt this will sell very well.

 

[Sergio Martorel]

No problemo. Now let me start doing my cartwheels and my dance of joy for this GREAT release.

 

[Steve_AS]

Hey, Ronald ..don't sweat it....you aren't a fool, you're just someone who was given misinformation, apparently deliberately. No apology necessary...at least not from you. Fox owes you one, though.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Jeff,

It is being reported that the source elements
are the same exact ones used a few years back
for the Columbia House VHS releases.

In other words, if this report is correct, we
will be getting VHS masters put on DVD.

Very sad.

Fox owes you one, though.

No, they don't. Trust me -- Fox has done more
for this forum than anyone will ever know. They
will continue to be the crown jewel amongst all
studios we have dealt with.

I just wish there was more faith put into
the information that was given to us.

 

[Brenton]

Good thing I only have two on VHS.

 

[Chet_F]

All I can say is don't waste your time FOX.

"In other words, if this report is correct, we
will be getting VHS masters put on DVD." = NO SALE!!

 

[Steve_AS]

"In other words, if this report is correct, we
will be getting VHS masters put on DVD." = NO SALE!!

VHS tape degrades over time. If only for that reason, I'm happy to have a decent transfer of these to DVD. And theres another reason: I have some ebay-bought first season stuff on Columbia House VHS, plus, I bought the few that were commercially released on VHS a few years back -- and together they take up lots more shelf space than the DVD box will.

I suppose you could call this a 'making lemonade from lemons' sort of response.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

It would look better than VHS, but not a whole lot if they do this.

Is it just me or is $80 a high asking price for 29 episodes of a half-hour show with VHS-quality picture? If they aren't spending much on this release, you think they could make it cheaper.

 

[Sergio Martorel]

I don´t think they´ll be using actual VHS TAPES as masters.
They´ll probably be using Betacam tapes.