Nelson Au
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 1999
- Messages
- 19,130
Thanks Walter! I agree, I only saw Trial By Fire once and it really stuck in my memory!
That show was a masterpiece in terms of B&W photography for television. I can't think of any show of its time that looked better. Just beautiful. I would love to see it remastered for blu-ray in all its B&W glory.ROclockCK said:I just finished watching most of the 1st and 2nd (final) season episodes. These were the original MGM sets - I never saw the re-release DVDs - and I thought most of them upscaled to 1080p surprisingly well. A lot of creativity and care went into the lighting, cinematography, sound, and score for this series, which gives its original 35mm elements a major leg-up for HD remastering. After all these years, this is still the finest anthology series I've ever seen. I tend to rewatch The Outer Limits in roughly 5 year cycles and never tire of it...I always find something new to appreciate in every episode. So many great scenes and richly detailed performances.
As spotty as MGM's post-bankruptcy home video output has been (especially on Blu-ray), the Studio has never failed to support this series in every other format (even Laserdisc), so presumably it has been an evergreen property for them. I just can't see them walking away from an opportunity to box the whole shebang into one definitive Blu-ray collector's set. And I don't care what they ask for that sucker, I'd be all over the first retailer taking orders.
49 one hour episodes @ roughly 48 minutes per = approximately 42 hours of video. What would that translate to as 50 GB discs?
That would be "The Guests", which was also one of my favourites Ethan...although more so in later years. During its original run I was too young to appreciate the rich screen history of its supporting cast, especially Noir vet Gloria Grahame:Ethan Riley said:That show was a masterpiece in terms of B&W photography for television. I can't think of any show of its time that looked better. Just beautiful. I would love to see it remastered for blu-ray in all its B&W glory.
My favorite episode when I was a kid was probably the one where the guy was trapped in that house with hundreds of doors...that one creeped me out but good. Haven't seen it since the 70s.
That was a great episode. Another one that I really liked was called Tribunal from the 5th season where Saul Rubinek goes back in time to a concentration camp. Unfortunately the standout episodes were so few and far between. I have almost the whole run in my closet on VHS from Showtime but I've not had the inclination to transfer them.Walter Kittel said:What I saw of the series was definitely a mixed bag for me. My recollection is that a large number of the plots relied upon a 'twist' type of ending. To be fair I did enjoy more than a handful of episodes. One in particular that I thought stood out was the Season 2 premiere episode "Stitch in Time" with excellent performances from Michelle Forbes and Amanda Plummer. That might be my favorite episode of the new series.
- Walter.
ROclockCK said:That would be "The Guests", which was also one of my favourites Ethan...although more so in later years. During its original run I was too young to appreciate the rich screen history of its supporting cast, especially Noir vet Gloria Grahame:
Yeah, that one was beautifully photographed, withe the Dark Shadows going down the endless hall. I tell you, the first time I saw it I was three, and it literally gave me a nightmare, for which I am forever grateful.
Very surreal, disturbing stuff for 60s television...
Very nicely put. And I love the intentional capitalization, which certainly got my attention.Ethan Riley said:Yeah, that one was beautifully photographed, withe the Dark Shadows going down the endless hall. I tell you, the first time I saw it I was three, and it literally gave me a nightmare, for which I am forever grateful.
I couldn't agree more, and that includes both the visual and aural elements. The aural aspect of the series has captivated me for decades, so much so that I have transcribed some of the music for keyboard in order to analyze and play it for my own enjoyment. And in my opinion, Gerd Oswald kicked the visual component up another level or two when he got behind the camera.ROclockCK said:Very surreal, disturbing stuff for 60s television...
That is my only concern about any high-def remastering of this series. Even on DVD, the limits of the original TV budget and production schedule were betrayed by a resolution much higher than folks routinely experienced via over-the-air broadcast, then later on tape. Back in '63, on the standard sets of the era, with antenna reception often fading in and out, you just couldn't see any of this make-do stuff. In that regard, I always thought the series' signature 'electronic noise' and 'snow effects' were a rather canny way of acknowledging how many audience members like me sometimes viewed the show itself...I mean, if a storm was blowing in over the lake, almost any episode ended up looking like the effects in "The Borderland" or "Controlled Experiment." I never got to see some episodes in their entirety until my parents sprung for one of those new-fangled antenna 'rotors', and even that wasn't always a guarantee.Ockeghem said:But the episode that resonated the greatest with me (as a child) was Nightmare, which I saw when I was about six or seven years old. That episode really terrified me because of the way the interrogators seemingly 'tortured' the POWs, and because of the distortion of the Ebonites' voices when they spoke. Of course, had I seen the sneakers worn by the chief Ebonite (as one of the children of the cast / TPTB did during production of the episode as referenced in Schow's fine book on the series), I would have been less frightened.
Oswald certainly got his hands on a fair share of the classics from this series:Ockeghem said:I couldn't agree more, and that includes both the visual and aural elements. The aural aspect of the series has captivated me for decades, so much so that I have transcribed some of the music for keyboard in order to analyze and play it for my own enjoyment. And in my opinion, Gerd Oswald kicked the visual component up another level or two when he got behind the camera.
Roclockck,ROclockCK said:That is my only concern about any high-def remastering of this series. Even on DVD, the limits of the original TV budget and production schedule were betrayed by a resolution much higher than folks routinely experienced via over-the-air broadcast, then later on tape. Back in '63, on the standard sets of the era, with antenna reception often fading in and out, you just couldn't see any of this make-do stuff. In that regard, I always thought the series' signature 'electronic noise' and 'snow effects' were a rather canny way of acknowledging how many audience members like me sometimes viewed the show itself...I mean, if a storm was blowing in over the lake, almost any episode ended up looking like the effects in "The Borderland" or "Controlled Experiment." I never got to see some episodes in their entirety until my parents sprung for one of those new-fangled antenna 'rotors', and even that wasn't always a guarantee.
The Outer Limits Control Voice intro (with some 'real world' caveats):Harry-N said:It wasn't the case at all in Philly, where I grew up. Channel 6 was always the ABC station and always put out a good signal, so when THE OUTER LIMITS came on, we got the full effect - as much as possible in those analog TV days. The TVs themselves that we watched on were tube sets that had difficulties at times with vertical and horizontal hold. So when the control voice said he could "roll the image, make it flutter...", that's the kind of stuff we'd have to adjust on the TV to stabilize the picture. There were always horizontal and vertical controls right on the front of most sets.
Despite the unpredictability of antenna reception, sometimes it had a weirdly positive effect...I originally saw "The Production and Decay of Strange Particles" during a raging thunderstorm. Probably should have turned the set off (not a chance), but wow, was that the perfect backdrop!"There is nothing wrong with your television set (that we have any way of controlling). Do not attempt to adjust the picture (yet...at least not during these credits). We are controlling transmission (to the affiliate - past that ya takes yer chances). If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume (it might spike anyway). If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper (it might dropoff anyway). We will control the horizontal (for now). We will control the vertical (for now). We can roll the image, make it flutter (it might anyway). We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity (unless the signal drifts). For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear (or as much as we can). We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set (that we have any way of controlling). You are about to participate in a great adventure (give you that). You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits (give you that too)."
Still applies! Even on DVD, you can sometimes see the zippers on the alien costumes. And most of those 'tin can' rockets never did look remotely to scale.Ockeghem said:I should have been clearer. The sneakers were seen by a child behind the scenes, when he or she was visiting the set with his or her parents. This alleviated the child's fears with regard to the alien (Ebonite) make-up. I didn't mean to convey that the shoes could actually be seen during the episode footage. Sorry about that.