No plans to release 2 & 3? I don't get it. It's not like the series had 7 seasons. I'd really like to have the rest of the Night Gallery series more than anything right now, especially since most of the classic episodes were in those remaining seasons.
Well, if you're going to that extreme why not record them at XP and get one episode to a disc? I have no problem using LP speed, because on a DVD they look very good off-air even at that speed. LP on a disc is visually superior to LP on a VHS tape. If LP went out 25 years ago, then it wouldn't still be featured on some models of DVD recorders (particularly Panasonic, and I have an August 2005 model).
I didn't read your February post until now, but if The Mystery Channel no longer runs Night Gallery odds are that some other cable channel will carry it eventually.
Based on what, exactly? I'm a gigantic Serling fan, and even I concede that Night Gallery is nowhere near Alfred Hitchcock Presents in terms of cohesiveness, consistency and quality. It sucks that Universal took a piss on Night Gallery fans, but it's not as if they took Night Gallery season 2 off the schedule and released Alfred Hithcock Presents season 2 instead. But even if that WERE the case, who has more name recognition cache: Serling or Hitchcock? Also, one ran for 2 1/2 seasons (with lackluster ratings) and the other ran for TEN YEARS and rated quite well. Do the math.
Smiley aside, it should be noted that going from SP to XP to archive compressed material (from satellite or cable sources) will result in ZERO improvement in picture quality, while dropping from SP to LP will produce a very visible reduction in quality.
That's exactly the point I was making, Craig. XP isn't all it's cracked up to be. And while SP recordings are indeed notably better visually than LP, the "middle" speed is still quite decent looking -- particularly on a digital recorder as opposed to a VCR.
The advantages to using 4 hour LP speed outweigh the 2 hour speed. For one thing, on cable systems I've used (Comcast, Cox, and Time-Warner) some of the channels have a slightly fuzzy picture. It's nothing major, but noticeable. Recording them in SP retains that fuzziness, so therefore it's clearer in the LP speed.
With the price of DVD-R discs very low in recent years, cost effectiveness is no longer an issue for recordable media. However, the other advantage to using LP is that less shelf space is utilized when collecting TV series with 4 or even 5 hour-long shows to a disc Vs. only 1 or 2.
Well, far be it for me to argue with another big Bernard Herrmann fan! (We corresponded around 6-8 years ago on the BH forum). Anyway, I agree Craig, Universal did not treat this as an "either/or" where NG and AHP is concerned--my feeling is just that as long as they're commiting to the latter, there's no reason to think that NG will sell fewer units. It's possible that NG companion book authors Scott Skelton and Jim Benson may have inadvertantly contributed to poor sales by bad mouthing the S1 release so much, but that's a matter of loose conjecture. Personally, I was OK with the release, about par for Universal, blaring and pompous Goldsmith scored Universal logo and all...
And yes, AHP is the more successful show with 10 years under its belt, but realize that it can prove to be its achilles heel where dvd releases are concerned. Fans may tire of purchasing each subsequent season set and invest upwards of $325 for the half hour shows to a series that has not quite achieved the status of something like "The Twilight Zone".
Gord, I simply do not know how to interpret that post. When do you think you could elaborate on the scuttlebut you've heard?
Since I honestly wasn't expecting S2 anytime soon, It's not as if its a crushing disappointment- but if it isn't 'on the schedule at some distant point (like in the next year) then I would be more inclined to import it.
let me ask you this then- should I just go ahead and import it...or is there going to be some issue (beyond the PAL issue) with the import sets (like cut eps, quality, etc)?
I'm guessing that maybe they will stick on a few bonus extras on the U.S. version. It would be nice if they could include the 1966 B/W version of "Silent Snow, Secret Snow". Gene Kearny wrote and directed the Night Gallery version and the B/W version. I can think of a few other things that they could include (none very expensive). It would be great if this is what is causing the delay.
I had given up on Night Gallery being released again, but I'm wondering if Universal licensed out the series to the folks at Image. These are the same wonderful people who gave us the gorgeous Twilight Zone sets (and the solid 80s TZ sets). Or perhaps Universal is releasing a complete set as opposed to releasing individual releases of S2-3. Either way Gord is telling us to be patient because there seems to be plans for Night Gallery in the near future on DVD!