Shout Factory Press Release: Route 66: The Complete Series (1 Viewer)

[Jack P]

Randomly sampling the S4 episodes, and I have to say quite honestly the two part story that concludes the series really lands with a giant thud. Two hours of silly comedy basically which undermines the tone the best episodes of the series established.

 

[StanInKY]

Hi I recently sent a note to Mr Maharis and it came back undeliverable....it was the Mulholand Drive address ..do you have a better one ? THANKS

 

[Neil Brock]

My "Route 66" set just arrived from Shout Factory. Took a quick look at a couple of episodes I knew were cut on the first Infinity pressing. Specifically "A Fury Slinging Flame" and "Blue Murder." They're still cut. In fact, "A Fury Slinging Flame" now carries a slate before the start of the episode that says it was taken from the "best master element available" and that it was edited for syndication. The first season episodes are the correct aspect ratio, like the second release of Season 1 that Infinity put out after their original 16:9 fiasco. The image quality is pretty much on par with the Infinity sets. In fact, it looks like they were taken from the same master elements. So, no big upgrade here. It's nice to finally get Season 4 though.

I have a question regarding the episode, Blue Murder. Last night I sat down to transfer it from my tape off Nick at Nite from the 80s. Supposedly they ran every episode complete and unedited. It came in at the same running time, around 47:10 as the DVD release. Other than the questionable running time, around 3 minutes shorter than the other episodes from that season, does anyone have any proof of missing footage? I thought for sure that all of the Nick airings were complete off 35mm transfers so I'm wondering now what the story is. It seems unlikely, although not unheard of, for a show of that era to be so much shorter than the others. Really at this point I don't know how we could find out for sure unless someone has another version from somewhere.

 

[jimmyjet]

they may have just needed some extra revenue that week, and snuck in a few more commercials.

 

[Neil Brock]

they may have just needed some extra revenue that week, and snuck in a few more commercials.

Uh, no. Anybody have any plausible theories?

 

[jimmyjet]

neil,

i am getting a bit tired of your negativity towards me. it all started out when you were proved wrong about your statement of the percentage of tv shows that have been released.

i guess you have a hard time when you have to eat some crow.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

I have a question regarding the episode, Blue Murder. Last night I sat down to transfer it from my tape off Nick at Nite from the 80s. Supposedly they ran every episode complete and unedited. It came in at the same running time, around 47:10 as the DVD release. Other than the questionable running time, around 3 minutes shorter than the other episodes from that season, does anyone have any proof of missing footage? I thought for sure that all of the Nick airings were complete off 35mm transfers so I'm wondering now what the story is. It seems unlikely, although not unheard of, for a show of that era to be so much shorter than the others. Really at this point I don't know how we could find out for sure unless someone has another version from somewhere.

Now turning to A Fury Slinging Flame, CHVL had released it uncut back in 1995, but I don't have the tape anymore, because I transferred it to DVD-R, so I can keep it forever and I have seen the shorter version of it on those Roxbury/Infinity and Shout! releases.

 

[Neil Brock]

neil,

i am getting a bit tired of your negativity towards me. it all started out when you were proved wrong about your statement of the percentage of tv shows that have been released.

i guess you have a hard time when you have to eat some crow.

Yeah, that's the reason. How was that proved exactly?

 

[jimmyjet]

it is best that we move on. i do not say bad stuff about your posts. in fact, quite the contrary. i usually say good stuff about them.

if you cant seem to get past that, perhaps it would be best to put me on your ignore list, and then you wont see a need to attack me on a personal level.

i have been very tolerant up to this point. but i will report you the next time you post something else that is clearly due simply to whatever personal dislike you have for me.

i gave you a first warning when you responded to my post about not giving an opinion about something i had no knowledge about. you responded with something like "that never stopped you before".

i wont put up with it - this is your last warning before i report you.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Even Buz and Tod had a few flare-ups once and a while. They usually just punched it out, then wiped themselves off, shook hands and got back in the Corvette.

 

[hypnohighball]

 

[John DeAngelis]

Even Buz and Tod had a few flare-ups once and a while. They usually just punched it out, then wiped themselves off, shook hands and got back in the Corvette.

Let's go straight to the shaking hands part.

 

[jimmyjet]

i am happy to shake hands

 

[Reed Grele]

Recently discovered that Amazon Prime is streaming season 1. I don't own any of the previous Route 66 VHS or DVD releases, so I have nothing to compare them to. I'm only up to episode 4. Episode 1 didn't look very good to my eyes. But subsequent episodes look much better. Does anyone know if the quality of Amazon's season 1 episodes is better than previous home video releases?

Just noticed: Amazon lists "Shout Factory" as the source. I wonder if they came up with better source material for streaming?

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Recently discovered that Amazon Prime is streaming season 1. I don't own any of the previous Route 66 VHS or DVD releases, so I have nothing to compare them to. I'm only up to episode 4. Episode 1 didn't look very good to my eyes. But subsequent episodes look much better. Does anyone know if the quality of Amazon's season 1 episodes is better than previous home video releases?

Just noticed: Amazon lists "Shout Factory" as the source. I wonder if they came up with better source material for streaming?

I doubt they are any different than the Shout versions which came from the Infinity/Roxbury versions, where the first 15 episodes of the first season were dark and poorer picture quality, but then it gets significantly better after that.

 

[jim_falconer]

Recently discovered that Amazon Prime is streaming season 1. I don't own any of the previous Route 66 VHS or DVD releases, so I have nothing to compare them to. I'm only up to episode 4. Episode 1 didn't look very good to my eyes. But subsequent episodes look much better. Does anyone know if the quality of Amazon's season 1 episodes is better than previous home video releases?

Just noticed: Amazon lists "Shout Factory" as the source. I wonder if they came up with better source material for streaming?

Thanks for the heads up on this being available on Amazon Prime. I watched the pilot episode last night, which was excellent. However, while trying to watch episode 2 and 3, there was a very noticeable audio / video synch issue. It was so distracting, I couldn't watch the episodes. Did you notice this as well?

 

[Reed Grele]

Thanks for the heads up on this being available on Amazon Prime. I watched the pilot episode last night, which was excellent. However, while trying to watch episode 2 and 3, there was a very noticeable audio / video synch issue. It was so distracting, I couldn't watch the episodes. Did you notice this as well?

Yes. I would have mentioned it, but I thought that the older PC that I was watching it on was at fault. Upon reading other reviews here, I learned that others noticed the same problem. I am now up to episode 7, and the audio has been in sync for the last several episodes.

I can't believe that I waited so long to watch this extremely well made and entertaining show, but better late than never.

 

[jim_falconer]

Yes. I would have mentioned it, but I thought that the older PC that I was watching it on was at fault. Upon reading other reviews here, I learned that others noticed the same problem. I am now up to episode 7, and the audio has been in sync for the last several episodes.

I can't believe that I waited so long to watch this extremely well made and entertaining show, but better late than never.

Great, thanks for the follow-up. I will just keep skipping episodes until the audio / video synch issue is corrected.

 

[DeWilson]

I have a question regarding the episode, Blue Murder. Last night I sat down to transfer it from my tape off Nick at Nite from the 80s. Supposedly they ran every episode complete and unedited. It came in at the same running time, around 47:10 as the DVD release. Other than the questionable running time, around 3 minutes shorter than the other episodes from that season, does anyone have any proof of missing footage? I thought for sure that all of the Nick airings were complete off 35mm transfers so I'm wondering now what the story is. It seems unlikely, although not unheard of, for a show of that era to be so much shorter than the others. Really at this point I don't know how we could find out for sure unless someone has another version from somewhere.

Was this mystery ever solved?

 

[Ron1973]

Was this mystery ever solved?

Just taking a wild guess, but could it have been time sped?