The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1 Viewer)

[Ron1973]

I remember watching this in syndication on a local UHF channel as a kid. I hadn't saw it in years and when I saw it was being brought to DVD, I jumped for joy. When I saw that CBS was distributing it, my heart sank.
Anyone that knows me knows I'm not a fan of CBS Home Entertainment. They seem notorious, and more so than other DVD home release outlets, for not finishing series in their entirety and even slapping in edited for syndication versions as they did on Andy Griffith and My Three Sons.
The good news is CBS has already announced a February release date for the 2nd and final season of this heartwarming show. The bad news is that CBS Home Entertainment is up to their usual tricks.
There's a disclaimer at the start of each DVD saying that they used the best possible sources for the transfers. In reality, these appear to be the edited for syndication episodes and do not appear to have been cleaned up at all. Most shows of that era ran for a full 50 minutes; these run about 46 minutes, give or take a few seconds. The Viacom logos that were prevalent in the late 80's/early 90's appear at the end of each episode-the colorful, purple "V" (not the old "V of Doom") and the "VIACOM" on the blue background with the male saying "Viacom.
The prints are very grainy with obvious scratches and spots. In one episode you can even see what appears to be video-tape distortion. It just doesn't seem that any effort at all was made to restore these. I've seen public domain releases of old black and white shows that look almost as good.
The good news is the entire season is only around $20 at Walmart. Even with the above mentioned flaws it's still worth that to see this show again.

 

[Tom M]

There's a disclaimer at the start of each DVD saying that they used the best possible sources for the transfers. In reality, these appear to be the edited for syndication episodes and do not appear to have been cleaned up at all. Most shows of that era ran for a full 50 minutes; these run about 46 minutes, give or take a few seconds. The Viacom logos that were prevalent in the late 80's/early 90's appear at the end of each episode-the colorful, purple "V" (not the old "V of Doom") and the "VIACOM" on the blue background with the male saying "Viacom.

Actually, 46 minutes is about right. The remaining 4 minutes usually consisted of a 1-2 minute preview of the episode and a 1-2 minute preview of next week's episode. The episode itself would usually run 46-48 minutes.

There's a disclaimer at the start of each DVD saying that they used the best possible sources for the transfers.

In all honestly, the disclaimer is probably correct. These may very well be the best available versions of the episodes currently available. Who knows if the original negatives are even still around?
Maybe someday, someone will take up the cause and try to give us something better. Untill then, these will do.

 

[Ron1973]

No, that would be in keeping with the syndication edited running time. Any other show of that era WITHOUT promos would be 50 minutes. When you watch syndicated episodes of any show of that era on television, 45-46 minutes is the standard running time for an hour long program.
Perhaps these are the best prints available but I highly suspect it isn't. I certainly don't want to start an argument on a forum I just joined and I don't want to appear to call you into question but I've seen plenty of other hack jobs by CBS Home Entertainment and other distributors. It's slap whatever we can find on there and be done with it. It happens on "historical" releases of classic music all the time. Case in point is the release of The Legend Begins: Rare & Unreleased Recordings on Hank Williams. Selections that had been released on CD not too many years before are now presented in way less than pristine quality with no effort at cleaning up the recordings.

 

[Tom M]

No, that would be in keeping with the syndication edited running time. Any other show of that era WITHOUT promos would be 50 minutes. When you watch syndicated episodes of any show of that era on television, 45-46 minutes is the standard running time for an hour long program.

I don't want to argue. Just consider this:
The original Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979) has running times of 47-49 minutes per episode WITH promos at the beginning of each ep. The exact running times per episode are noted on the insert that comes with the DVD set.
So, for Grizzly Adams to have run 46 minutes on it's original run would not be out of the question.
BUT...even if these ARE syndicated versions, they are only missing a minute or two. Syndicated edits in the 1980's were far kinder than today.
Perhaps if this set sells well, Paramount will pony up for a full restoration of the series. Unlikely, but I can dream. I would LOVE a nice Blu-Ray set of this series!
But untill that day happens, this set will suffice.

 

[Ron1973]

Ahh, no thought you wanted to argue! I'm happy to have it on DVD and my kids have gotten hooked on it, too. I just wish that it would be better done.

 

[Tom M]

No argument. Just information. It was in the late 1970's that the 50 minute running time started to get slowly trimmed down.

I just wish that it would be better done.

I think we can all agree on that! Maybe someday. At least we get a new Dan Haggerty interview with season 2 which is something anyway and I'm looking forward to it.

 

[John Karras]

R.I.P. Dan Haggerty


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35329137

 

[David Rain]

Maybe CBS doesn't finish series if they stop selling. What a shocking idea. Businesses wanting to make money.

 

[Ron1973]

Maybe CBS doesn't finish series if they stop selling. What a shocking idea. Businesses wanting to make money.

Huh? I'm not exactly certain what that is supposed to mean considering the series was finished, albeit not in the quality some of us would have liked. Take the rude comments elsewhere.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

Huh? I'm not exactly certain what that is supposed to mean considering the series was finished, albeit not in the quality some of us would have liked. Take the rude comments elsewhere.

Right on, Ron.

 

[Sa5150]

Via Vision has remastered dvds from Australia , Hoping to get in on the jbhifi buy 2 get 1 free but season 1 is not showing in there database . . They would be a good price with the exchange rate . There also more discs which leads me to believe there less compressed ?

 

[ian McLachlan]

Can anyone tell me please if the original movie was ever released on DVD? Thanks

 

[Ron1973]

Via Vision has remastered dvds from Australia , Hoping to get in on the jbhifi buy 2 get 1 free but season 1 is not showing in there database . . They would be a good price with the exchange rate . There also more discs which leads me to believe there less compressed ?

Let us know when/if you find out something. I'd be willing to double dip if the picture quality is better.

Can anyone tell me please if the original movie was ever released on DVD? Thanks

No, it hasn't. To my knowledge, the only way you'll get it on any sort of home media would be to search for the GoodTimes VHS release. I don't think they're terribly hard to find, but they're in that funky LP mode (in between SP and SLP) meaning the picture quality is rather iffy and it may not track too well. I procured both it and The Capture of Grizzly Adams and dubbed them on DVD and then backed them up on my computer. With the differing software on the market today you might be able to clean up the picture some. I'm more familiar with audio restoration, so I can't really say for sure on that.

 

[ian McLachlan]

Many thanks for your reply.

 

[Ron1973]

Many thanks for your reply.

No problem! Welcome to Home Theater Forum!

 

[HubbaBubbaKid]

Via Vision has remastered dvds from Australia , Hoping to get in on the jbhifi buy 2 get 1 free but season 1 is not showing in there database . . They would be a good price with the exchange rate . There also more discs which leads me to believe there less compressed ?

I researched high and low about the ViaVision sets and from the reviews of some amazon uk buyers , they are the exact same prints as the Timeless versions . I was bummed bc i sold my old set bc it was hard to watch for me bc i really enjoy the outdoor location shooting and was hoping these ViaVision sets were better.