Shows that need to be redone (1 Viewer)

[darkrock17]

Mama's Family is one candidate for being redone, WB gave us Season 1 back in 2006 and fans cried FOUL!

 

WB says that they only own Syndicated version, not the broadcast version.

 

Some other studio should take over this classic series, and to fix season 1 drastically as it is always being shown out of order, since NBC aired it that way.

 

 

[Greg_S_H]

A few months ago, I watched the first three seasons of That '70s Show in syndication--my first exposure to the show. When Nick flipped back to the pilot episode a few episodes before they finished season three, I bought the complete set. Four and a half seasons in and I love it, adore it, it's one of my favorite things ever. But, starting with the last disc of season 4, I started hitting some syndication prints. Suddenly, there are several episodes with the credits superimposed over the opening scene in place of the title sequence. I am also aware of the music replacement, though I don't know what or when music is replaced since this is my first time. I can only imagine how great this show would be with period music. I understand this was Carsey-Werner's first release, and it would be great if they'd go back and rerelease with all of the music and uncut episodes. I don't expect it to happen, but I would definitely rebuy at this point. It would be so worth it.

 

[Brian Borst]

Originally Posted by Justin Boggan

"Batman: The Animated Series" because the blacks weren't black enough and there was grain from not even trying to clean it up.

That's how Bruce Timm likes it (gives it a gritty feeling befitting to Batman) so it won't be changed at all. Oh, and it's primarily cell dust and specks that you're seeing, not grain.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer season one: I've heard many variations on the problems with this dvd, but it really, really looks awful on dvd! Supposedly the pilot was shot on the cheap, but they can still clean it up for home video release. It looks like they over-compressed the whole season for dvd...that's what I think the main problem is. Even if was shot on 16mm or whatever, they can certainly remaster a dvd that doesn't have that many digital artifacts!!! One of the worst dvds in my entire 1000 title collection!!!

 

Mama's Family season one: Warners went with severely edited syndie versions. They failed to cut a deal with the Hamilton Estate for better transfers. Therefore: one crummy dvd set!!

 

Soap season one: Not sure about the later seasons, but season one seems to suffer the brunt of the edited episodes. The episode with William Daniels deleted approximately 1/2 of his hilarious shtick from the living room scene...and I have no idea why! There was no music in the background or anything. They also deleted Billy Crystal singing "I Feel Pretty" in drag. Hilarious scene, but had to go because of music rights. That's too bad.

 

Lost in Space: I think we all agree that this needs another go. Maybe they'll clean it up real good for bluray sometime? I hope so. Now, keep in mind that the season one episodes looked astonishingly clean, crisp and with excellent B&W contrast when they were put out by Columbia House for mail-order video. This was way back around 1993! How did the show go from looking so good to looking so lousy on a so-called superior format like dvd?? I think the show's future on standard def is dead--they need to just back away from that and do a complete series set for the bluray market. And get it right this time!!!

 

The Big Valley: There was nothing particularly wrong with the picture quality of the episodes, but there are some compression problems and skipping, especially in season one. And it doesn't help that they never even got through season two. Again--let's forget about the dvd and pin our hopes on a bluray complete series set!!

 

X-Men: the Animated Series. When I bought the first set, I thought it looked a little weak. It looked kinda milky and off-register. Since then, I've upgraded my tv to a 42-inch Sony Bravia 1080p. Believe, NOW this series looks awful. Just unwatchable! I think they used some crappy second-generation prints for the dvd releases. Doesn't have nearly the electric quality of the show's original airings. It's very soft. Well, should we hold out for a bluray on this one? Would there be enough interest? Or do we just have to let this one go...

 

The Brady Bunch: I know the reason this series looks so bizarre on dvd is because they had to re-insert long lost deleted scenes using inferior source materials. I wonder if they can't do a better job with that, using updated technology. I dunno...this might be as good as gets.

 

Falcon Crest season one: Had many lousy prints and audio irregularities.

 

Can't think of any others right now that truly need an upgrade. Just keep hoping that some of those abandoned titles will be picked up by Shout!, MPI or end up as MODs at the very least.

 

[Bryan^H]

Originally Posted by Ethan Riley

Buffy the Vampire Slayer season one: I've heard many variations on the problems with this dvd, but it really, really looks awful on dvd! Supposedly the pilot was shot on the cheap, but they can still clean it up for home video release. It looks like they over-compressed the whole season for dvd...that's what I think the main problem is. Even if was shot on 16mm or whatever, they can certainly remaster a dvd that doesn't have that many digital artifacts!!! One of the worst dvds in my entire 1000 title collection!!!

Yup, it's terrible.

 

Season 2 is almost as bad. Hopefully Fox can remaster the first couple seasons(It seems to be one of Fox's strong selling titles).

 

Star Trek Deep Space 9 - Just horrendous transfers, like watching it through a muddy Coke bottle

 

War of the Worlds - Just as bad

 

Lost in Space - pretty bad, but watchable

 

 

[darkrock17]

Are You Being Served?
 

I know it got a slim releases in 2009, but on youtube I saw the pilot episode in colour not B&W.

 

Eerie Indiana

 

When it was released in 2003, it was rushed and syndicated I think.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by darkrock17

Are You Being Served?
 

I know it got a slim releases in 2009, but on youtube I saw the pilot episode in colour not B&W.

 

Eerie Indiana

 

When it was released in 2003, it was rushed and syndicated I think.

AYBS (at least in region 1) doesn't really need a reissue as all of the episodes are complete and unedited (unlike the R2/R4 versions). You can bet that BBC Wordwide will try to squeeze every last dollar out of US fans and will put out a single disc release with the restored colour pilot episode, probably with the 2009 documentary and/or other things as bonus features to help fill it out. Don't belive me? They did put out a single-disc release of all the Christmas episodes (despite all those being in the complete set).

 

[darkrock17]

Originally Posted by AndyMcKinney




AYBS (at least in region 1) doesn't really need a reissue as all of the episodes are complete and unedited (unlike the R2/R4 versions). You can bet that BBC Wordwide will try to squeeze every last dollar out of US fans and will put out a single disc release with the restored colour pilot episode, probably with the 2009 documentary and/or other things as bonus features to help fill it out. Don't belive me? They did put out a single-disc release of all the Christmas episodes (despite all those being in the complete set).

Bring on more AYBS

 

[David*P]

Without a doubt Bewitched needs to be redone in a Complete Series set with the original sponsor openings and credits, the cast commercials (including Liz Montgomery's 80s Japanese commercials where she twitches and does witchcraft), the ABC promos, the show intros by Liz, the TV Land Samantha statue dedication, Liz's star dedication, the Fanatical episode, the Tabitha and Adam Go to the Circus cartoon, the Tabitha series, Liz's appearances on the Mike Douglas Show and Merv Griffin Show, clips from Passions when Dr. Bombay appeared, the two Rerun Show episodes, the Be-Bitched skit from Mad TV and footage from the Bewitched Fanfare's, especially from 2008 and this year when we presented William Asher and Bernard Fox the Fan Appreciation awards.

 

The few episode problems seen on the individual releases need to be corrected as well, like the one frame containing a ball of light when Samantha zaps up a tankard of ale and blacked out end scene from "My Friend Ben" and the missing intro from "Samantha for the Defense", the missing scene from "Splitsville", and a better color corrected version of part two of "Cousin Serena Strikes Again".

 

However as it's a Sony property, highly doubtful

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Dark Shadows (1991) needs to be completely redone, because Universal made several mistakes. The most important things that need to be fixed:

 

* the framing needs to be restored to the original 4:3 (universal cropped it to 16:9, ala Kung Fu: Season 1)

* all of the "day for night" shots need to be properly graded so that they actually appear to be night-time (as originally transmitted). On Universal's set, they didn't grade these shots properly, so Barnabas appears to be wandering around in the daylight!

 

Also (minor point) is the Universal set also presents episodes 2-3 as a double-length episode (how it was originally aired on NBC, but not how it was originally produced, which means Joanna Going's "this is Victoria Winters" intro to episode 3 is missing).

 

Also, there were missing scenes that were inserted into the pilot episode on MPI's VHS release that could either be restored (or presented as deleted scenes) on a future rerelease. MPI also released a tape that contained bloopers, EPK items, etc. that could be used for supplements.

 

[Ockeghem]

How I wish the Gulf War had not intervened, and that the 1991 Dark Shadows series could have gone on for ... years. I really did appreciate the cast of this series quite a lot.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Definately agree there. This was probably one of the best shows ever that never got a chance.

 

 

Originally Posted by Ockeghem

How I wish the Gulf War had not intervened, and that the 1991 Dark Shadows series could have gone on for ... years. I really did appreciate the cast of this series quite a lot.

 

[ThatDonGuy]

Originally Posted by AndyMcKinney

They did put out a single-disc release of all the Christmas episodes (despite all those being in the complete set).

Did they include the original version of "Roots?"?

 

I'd better put this part in a spoiler:

There is a cut version - KQED (San Francisco's PBS station) has aired it - with the blackface finale removed (and the pictures in the closing credits taken from a different episode) and the Somerset song moved to the finale.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by ThatDonGuy




Did they include the original version of "Roots?"?

The complete, unaltered version of the "Roots" episode is on the normal series DVD sets (volume 11) and although I can't speak for the Christmas DVD, the corresponding Christmas VHS also had the complete episode, and I'm sure the Christmas DVD probably came from the same duplication master.

 

Every episode of AYBS? (as well as Grace and Favour) is complete and unedited on the US Region 1 discs. The Region 2/4 discs of AYBS?, however, have various cuts to various episodes, probably not intentionally so, but probably someone just pulled the wrong copy off the shelf when they were doing these in the UK (the reason the US set is different content-wise is that it was put together a few years before they started releasing them in the UK, due to US customer demand, so when the UK division started releasing them, they had to pull masters all over again as they needed PAL format discs).

 

The Brady Bunch....horrible DNR and a few mistakes and an edit to an episode.

Little House on the Prairie....syndicated prints on most episodes.

The Honeymooners....the current version is okay, but restored copies would be fantastic.

 

[vnisanian2001]

What do you mean by horrible "DNR"? Please elaborate.

 

[Ockeghem]

Originally Posted by Eric Scott Richard

The Brady Bunch....horrible DNR and a few mistakes and an edit to an episode.

Eric,

 

I wasn't aware of this edit. Which episode are you referring to? I will look for this edit the next time I watch it.
 

 

The edit occurs during the second Hawaii episode. After Mike and Carol exit the boys' hotel room, there is a conversation about what they should do next. The first 20 seconds of dialogue have been cut out. I have a syndicated version I taped in the early 1990s and it is there. It's common knowledege amongst us die hards.

 

[vnisanian2001]

Eric, you didn't answer my question. What is "DNR"? I've never heard that acronym before.