What have been perfect releases? (1 Viewer)

[PianoPlayer]

Going through my collection of Blu-ray/DVD/VHS releases of classic TV shows now -- I'm realizing how so many of them have one or more glitches in their release.

Just a sampling:

THE OUTER LIMITS (original series) -- very poor audio quality on the multiple DVD releases
LOST IN SPACE (Blu-ray) -- superb video & audio quality, but terrible (risk-disc-damage) packaging
STAR TREK (original series) -- music on certain first-season episodes' opening & closing credits is not night-of-broadcast music
THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN season one -- an awful print of "The Stolen Costume" was used, although better prints were reportedly available
THE BRADY BUNCH -- tic-tac-toe "squares" missing at the end of act two of the Hawaii episodes
PERRY MASON season two -- edited syndicated version of "The Case of the Fancy Figures" was used on the DVD
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY season one -- tag scene missing from "A Knight in Shining Armor"
BEWITCHED seasons one and two -- opening credits aren't actually from those seasons
THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW season one -- most of Mary's singing of "White Christmas" is gone

Of course I'm grateful to have these shows at all. But all of these glitches (save the last one, with pesky music licensing) were easily avoidable. Why don't studios have diehard fans involved when preparing these shows for home video release? (A series like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" apparently did -- and that, to me, is indeed a perfect Blu-ray release.)

Other perfect releases?

 

[bigshot]

Twilight Zone on blu-ray is perfect as far as I'm concerned.

 

[jcroy]

The original Battlestar Galactica.

Fullscreen bluray only.

(ie. Not Galactica 1980, and neither of the widescreen versions. Also not the original dvd version, since it was done as double-sided flipper discs).

 

[TravisR]

The Twilight Zone is an absolutely great one and my pick for best TV Blu-ray/DVD ever. Also, I can't imagine Seinfeld or The Simpsons having better special features.

 

[Carabimero]

I vote for THE TWILIGHT ZONE DEFINITIVE EDITION. In second place is...there is no second place.

 

[bmasters9]

--Barney Miller (all eight seasons' worth of that 1975-82 ABC police comedy, plus the first go of Fish [I haven't seen that, though], plenty of interview material with some of the surviving cast [Linden, Gail, Vigoda, etc.; Vigoda would pass in 2016, though], and a very informative booklet, among other things)
--The Bob Newhart Show (all six seasons' worth of that 1972-78 CBS comedy, plus at least as informative a booklet as the one on the Miller release, and a bonus disc that has a 2014 Group Therapy roundtable discussion with Newhart, Bonerz, Riley, Daily and Zinberg [Riley would pass sometime later; don't know when], and the Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary from 1991, and the original first pilot, among other things)

 

[The Obsolete Man]

--The Bob Newhart Show (all six seasons' worth of that 1972-78 CBS comedy, plus at least as informative a booklet as the one on the Miller release, and a bonus disc that has a 2014 Group Therapy roundtable discussion with Newhart, Bonerz, Riley, Daily and Zinberg [Riley would pass sometime later; don't know when], and the Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary from 1991, and the original first pilot, among other things)

Yeah, but shows like The Bob Newhart Show, The Facts of Life, Newhart... they all lose points for the utter lack of care showed by Fox and Sony when they gave Shout whatever transfers they had lying around, sometimes syndicated, and that was it.

Those seasons look like hell, especially compared to the seasons released by the companies themselves.

Yes, it's nice they were released at all, and I'm glad to have them. But they're far from perfect.

As for the topic?

Twilight Zone on Blu, Dick Van Dyke on Blu, TNG on Blu (I'm willing to forgive a couple of minutes of upscaled footage out of 7 years worth of shows)... doesn't seem like there's much more. Everything else, you can point out at least one flaw.

 

[bigshot]

The Prisoner was damn good on blu-ray. Honeymooners too. David Attenborough nature stuff. the new corrected World At War. The Professionals from the UK. Lots of modern stuff. Ripper Street, Sherlock, The Missing, Luther, etc

 

[Bryan^H]

 

[Bryan^H]

Also, Little House On The Prairie Blu-Ray. Uncut, and beautiful. A dream come true for a big fan of that series.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

The Prisoner was damn good on blu-ray. Honeymooners too. David Attenborough nature stuff. the new corrected World At War. The Professionals from the UK. Lots of modern stuff. Ripper Street, Sherlock, The Missing, Luther, etc

Not Sherlock.

The discs are missing a 10 minute webisode from between seasons 2 and 3. And when there's only 3 episodes at 4 and a half hours of content per season, anything missing is too much, IMO.

/I'd be more forgiving of something like that missing if the BBC didn't include every online exclusive or Original Children in Need short on the Doctor Who DVDs. But they do, so why treat Sherlock worse than Doctor Who?

 

[Ron1973]

The perfect releases for me at least have been S1-3 of The Beverly Hillbillies. They've went back to the original elements, scanned for HD, added in cast commercials and other extras. S1 is truly a treasure trove considering I never thought it would get the deluxe treatment. S4 on the other hand was far from a treasure trove!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Not Sherlock.

The discs are missing a 10 minute webisode from between seasons 2 and 3. And when there's only 3 episodes at 4 and a half hours of content per season, anything missing is too much, IMO.

the British (Region B) Third Series: Special Edition (which I have) contains the mini-episode, so at least it's out there for those willing to buy that edition (it's the only one I ever bought, so I didn't have to double-dip).

 

[AndyMcKinney]

The original Battlestar Galactica.

Fullscreen bluray only.

I, personally, am deducting a point or two for the original freeze-frame and night-of-broadcast end caption not being present on the 3-hour pilot, though, admittedly, that end caption may have only existed on ABC's print, I don't know. All I know is it's on my off-air VHS and not on either the original DVD or the blu-ray re-release (though I think the blu-ray doesn't fade to black as quickly as the DVD did).

It was a good solid release, though. Far better than for many other shows.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Get Smart, The Prisoner (Blu-ray), The Honeymooners (Blu-ray), Twilight Zone (Blu-ray).

 

[Dave B Ferris]

I vote for THE TWILIGHT ZONE DEFINITIVE EDITION. In second place is...there is no second place.

Given that DVD's are eligible, can we not - at long last, and finally (and with a nod to your contributions) - count The Fugitive box set?

 

[Carabimero]

Given that DVD's are eligible, can we not - at long last, and finally (and with a nod to your contributions) - count The Fugitive box set?

Thanks for the shout out.

The team at CBS did in fact create close to a perfect release with THE FUGITIVE: MOST WANTED EDITION. The set I and my colleagues signed off on was virtually perfect. Alas, those few discs replicated by Deluxe with technical errors keep the set out of the running, in my view. But on behalf of all the great Fugitive fans (and forums members!) who had a hand in restoring that release, many thanks. An argument can be made that a corrected MOST WANTED EDITION stands proudly in second place behind The Twilight Zone: Definitive Edition. IMHO its extensive special features give it the edge.

 

[Kasey]

Shout's MAUDE set was the perfect release with no cuts or music substitutions as well as two lost unaired episodes among the Bonus Features. Too bad I can't say the same for StarVista's MAMA'S FAMILY set that had some cuts due to music.

 

[Mr. Handley]

The Twilight Zone was the first that popped into my head. Next, was The Dick Van Dyke Show. Those two are perfect on Blu-ray.

Little House On The Prairie BDs have been nearly perfect.

The first 2 seasons of Flipper on DVD look incredible. Too bad the first season was released on flipper discs!

The Dark Shadows DVDs aren't perfect, but I still can't believe that every episode (save one) of a daily soap opera from the 1960s was actually released. Also, the bonus interviews are pretty great.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Season one of The Andy Griffith Show on blu-ray seems darn near perfect to me, unless someone knows more about this release than me. Most of the sponsor opens/closes/commercials and the ability to watch them integrated back into the episodes is great.

Pity the blu-ray project has been abandoned.

I think I would also have to say Network (UK)'s release of Space: 1999 -- The Complete Series One is pretty close to perfect, if not all the way there. It's too bad that Year Two didn't get quite the same level of treatment in the bonuses.