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When are We going to see a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Blu-ray Release?! (1 Viewer)

Mark Collins

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I have already started my October best of Voyage Monsters with the Mummy. Love that episode and the ending with Richard Basehart looking straight into the camera at us. What a great actor!!! I want TCM to do Summer Under The Stars with his movies next August!!!
 

Mark Collins

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Harry hope you are safe my friend I have been thinking about you ever since I heard the reports. Sorry I forgot to mention this. My thoughts and prayers are with you as Matthew comes closer. My thoughts and prayers are also with all HTF members who over the next few days may be in the path of this awful storm.
 

Harry-N

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Not to worry. We in the central part of the state were spared the main fury of the storm. Our neighbors up in Jacksonville and St. Augustine got the worst of it in Florida. Also suffering are a good number of people in Georgia up through the Carolinas.

All we got was a couple of inches of rain (that's GOOD as we're heading to the dry season) and some rather breezy weather that followed. The storm has actually served to break our summer heat that lingered on through September.

ABCBasehart.jpg
 

RBailey

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VTTBOTS will be presented this weekend on the DECADES channel as its Weekend Binge series. 42 episodes will air from 1:00 p.m. Saturday (Season 3's THE HAUNTED SUBMARINE) to the final episode of the series (NO WAY BACK) airing at 6 a.m. Monday morning. All episodes are from Seasons 3 & 4 so it's a lot of The Monster of the Week segments including the infamous "Lobster Man" entry airing at 8 p.m. Sunday night. All times are Eastern.
 

Mark Tay

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I put together a video covering the history of home video releases for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series only, not the motion picture). I ramble on quite a bit, but hopefully you guys enjoy it. Here is the link:
 

ScottRE

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Hey Mark,

Really a nice video. Thanks for taking the time to make it. I still wish I had the Japanese laser discs. Some people hate the prints, but I enjoy revisiting Voyage as I watched it for years: 16mm and crummy. I kept all of my VHS tapes for that and other reasons (network bumpers and previews, etc.).

Do you mind if I make a few corrections?

Columbia House actually released 5 volumes. The final tape included the episodes "Doomsday" and "The Menfish." Originally, they planned to release 10 volumes, but the sales just weren't there. I used to have a list of the other 5, but it's long gone. I just remember "Submarine Sunk Here" and "The Cyborg" were slated to be among them.

The "In Color" intros, to my knowledge, were not used in season 2. Instead, there was a network created intro announcing that "this is an ABC Color presentation."



The third season kicked it off with a card we, sadly, didn't get on even one DVD episode.



A lot of other great network stuff never made it to DVD, which I was actually used to from all those years watching 16mm prints.



Regarding the color version of the pilot, if you watch the version that was original in syndication and then on Columbia house, the cut to the theme music is jarring and the print quality is a little different. It's not the original unaired color pilot with original theme. It's the aired edit in color with the unaired theme taked on. So on DVD, what we get is the color version of the broadcast edit with the second season titles put in because, frankly, it makes the most sense. The unaired pilot had different scenes (and only Theo Marcuse as Dr. Gamma) and music, particularly the opening and closing theme music. There is a color version of the unaired 47 minute pilot out there, but Ive only seen VERY faded and sliced up 16mm prints of it. I have no idea if it still exists in the vaults, since the b&w unaired pilot (as well as the pilot with commercials) were from 16mm prints loaned to Fox by private collectors. It's entirely possible the actual color print was cut up when they used the opening credits for syndication. Much like how NBC used the actual print from the original Star Trek pilot to create The Menagerie. I was able to get a VHS copy of the restored print of the color broadcast pilot some years before the DVDs and it was missing the opening credits. The episode itself was filmed in color, but the first season credits weren't, which is why the 2nd season credits were put on there.

FINALLY - some quick sound mix notes. There are some errors in the mix. The end credits for "Time Bomb" incorrectly have the Jerry Goldsmith theme from "Jonah and the Whale." No prior prints carried it. "A Time To Die" has the prior season's theme music put over the 4th season graphics for whatever reason (this had to be a conscious decision). "Deadly Amphibians" - and a few others - have some very bad mix issues. The bass is practially missing. Explosions (of which there are many) sound like they're coming out of a radio speaker somewhere.

Wow, I didn't mean to prattle on like that. Thanks again for posting your review. It was hugely interesting to look back, especially at the amazing LD releases. How do the discs hold up? The Star Treklasers really suffer from "laser rot" and some of them look awful even by the low res standards. I still watch them for the more accurate sound mix, but it's tough...

Have a great day and a wonderful Thanksgiving.
 

mattfire64

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Hey everyone, I'm a relatively new fan of Voyage, and I've been lurking in this thread for a little bit. I've been a Lost In Space fan for most of my life, so recently I've finally branched out and looked into Irwin Allen's three other series. Since the discussion of prints has come up here, I guess I can put in my two cents with some facts and questions that I have.

First off, I started watching Voyage back in the fall of 2014 when Me-TV readded it to their late night Sci-Fi Saturday Night lineup. They started somewhere in early season 2 (the episode where Nelson and Sharkey get stranded on the island of dinosaurs). I watched up until the final episode, and when they looped back around to the beginning I started buying the DVDs to watch instead. I was starting to get annoyed with Me-TV as the episodes seemed to be getting more cut up making the stories very choppy. The worst offense was an episode (I forget the title, might have been 'Nightmare') where Crane was on the bridge and it seemed the Seaview was going to face imminent destruction. They went to commercial, and when they came back Crane was on the bridge talking to Sharkey like nothing had happened! I went to look the episode up quickly on YouTube, and of course Me-TV (or Fox) had cut out about 2 1/2 mins. of footage of Crane waking up realizing it was a dream. Needless to say that was more than enough of a reason to start buying the DVDs.

Me-TV mostly had the new remastered DVD prints, but at least two episodes in late season 4 (Terrible Leprechaun and one other that I forget, it might have been The Return of Blackbeard) were the old beat up 16mm prints that I'm guessing Sci-Fi used to air. The print quality really started to get noticeable towards the end of one of the episodes as the image actually started weaving frantically to the left and right! However, I find there is a certain rustic quality to watching older prints. I've started collecting Star Trek laserdiscs for this reason, and I wish that those Japanese Voyage laserdiscs were more easy to get a hold of! If anyone still has any episodes taped off of Sci-Fi (of Voyage or any other Irwin Allen show) that they are kicking around or want to get rid of, shoot me a PM. I'd be glad to take them off your hands. I already own all the shows on the official DVDs, but I'd be interested to see the older prints, plus I have an interest in the history of the Sci-Fi Channel and like to see what aired on the channel back in the day.

I've got a few questions for all you long time watchers. First off, for the last season the opening was changed around, which featured a freeze frame of the action while the radar scope animated onto the screen (similar to the 'countdown' used in the last season of Lost In Space). However, I noticed that not all the season 4 episodes that aired on Me-TV featured this new opening, but actually had the older season 3 opening instead. Was this an error on Fox's part with the syndicated prints they gave to Me-TV? Or did the episodes actually air this way? Secondly, did the older prints actually feature the full voice clip of the announcer giving the sponsorship plug (Voyage... has been brought to you by...) or did they cut it off as well? I find the newer prints very jarring with how they edited the audio to complete silence after the announcer says the name of the show. It's very noticeable when watching with headphones as even the 'hiss' of the audio track vanishes during the edit.

One final thing that's a little off topic. I've recently purchased season 1 of Land of the Giants through Amazon Video and was rather surprised to see that Fox appears to have supplied very old prints of the show. The picture quality has been pretty fuzzy and the audio has very loud tape hiss as well. I'm rather surprised at Fox doing this as I guess the show was remastered for the big DVD release that came out a few years ago. Would anyone know why Fox wouldn't use those new remastered prints for digital streaming? I would have posted this in another thread, but I don't see any other active threads about Irwin Allen's other series.

Happy Voyages everyone!
Matt
 

Harry-N

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A little trick with the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA that *sometimes* works (regarding the opening credit sequence cutting off abruptly) - try switching to the French language track on the DVD at that point. That track eliminates the announcer, but leaves the music intact. It's not 100% effective, but it happens often enough to satisfy.

LAND OF THE GIANTS - I bought the big full-series set when it was offered at a reasonable price and all episodes are pristine and remastered.
 

ScottRE

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Hey Matt! Welcome to Voyage fandom. I discovered the series later in life myself and loved the journey. Enjoy it!

I've started collecting Star Trek laserdiscs for this reason, and I wish that those Japanese Voyage laserdiscs were more easy to get a hold of! If anyone still has any episodes taped off of Sci-Fi (of Voyage or any other Irwin Allen show) that they are kicking around or want to get rid of, shoot me a PM. I'd be glad to take them off your hands. I already own all the shows on the official DVDs, but I'd be interested to see the older prints, plus I have an interest in the history of the Sci-Fi Channel and like to see what aired on the channel back in the day.

I have the Trek lasers as well. Mostly for the sound mix, which was butchered for DVD and then Blu-Ray. Even the "original mono mix" is wrong in most episodes. I too wish I had the Voyage lasers. I too enjoy watching the 16mm prints.

I no longer have any episodes from SFC, mostly because they were missing 5 minutes apiece and the cuts were awful. They would even fade out before every commercial to save some seconds, so we arely heard the music crescendo. I have the entire run uncut from different sources on VHS: from 16mm film, Canada's Space The Imagination Station and the UK's Channel 4. At that point, anything was better than SFC.


I've got a few questions for all you long time watchers. First off, for the last season the opening was changed around, which featured a freeze frame of the action while the radar scope animated onto the screen (similar to the 'countdown' used in the last season of Lost In Space). However, I noticed that not all the season 4 episodes that aired on Me-TV featured this new opening, but actually had the older season 3 opening instead. Was this an error on Fox's part with the syndicated prints they gave to Me-TV? Or did the episodes actually air this way?

Yup, that's the way thair aired. Probably because the LIS titles were so successful, partway through the season, they upgraded the opening credits with "Terror" in production order, "Rescue" in airdate order. A few weeks later, "Blow Up" still held the earlier credits. No matter what order, production or aired, it's still the odd man out.

Secondly, did the older prints actually feature the full voice clip of the announcer giving the sponsorship plug (Voyage... has been brought to you by...) or did they cut it off as well? I find the newer prints very jarring with how they edited the audio to complete silence after the announcer says the name of the show. It's very noticeable when watching with headphones as even the 'hiss' of the audio track vanishes during the edit.

The Sci-Fi Channel, to my recollection, also cut off the announcer, but Space kept it.

I can't answer your LOTG question, but it does seem odd they would slide in some earlier prints.
 
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mattfire64

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Thanks for the quick answers everyone! I guess I should have mentioned that "most of my life" meant that I first saw LiS as reruns when I was a little kid in the late 90s! I do envy those that grew up in an era when TV programs actually had thought put into them, not like today where so many shows seem to be so mindless and mediocre...

That's interesting to hear how cut up the show was on SFC. I don't ever remember Dark Shadows being cut up like that when it was airing in the same time period. That being said, I'd still be interested in seeing an episode or two off of the channel, even if just to marvel at the butchery. :D

I can't remember if the two episodes from Me-TV I mentioned earlier kept the announcer, but when they aired "The Green Hornet" a little while back (also from Fox and sourced from older prints) they had a mix of keeping the announcer entirely, muting him completely, or turning the volume down very low to where you could barely hear him. The new prints of The Untouchables also seem to have the same issue but at the end of the end credits.

All the prints of Land Of The Giants appear to be older ones. Most episodes feature the 90s era 20th Television logo at the end of the credits instead of the original 20th Century Fox Television logo, much like the troublesome Lost In Space DVDs from a while back.

One more random question. Does anyone know what's up with the stereo mix that is available on the DVDs of Voyage? From what I can hear it sounds like the mono mix piped into each speaker and spaced out to give a false sense of "direction". Why did Fox feel the need to create this special mix?
 
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JeffT.

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seaview5.png


Marvellous summation of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA's history in the home entertainment medium.

There were actually five complete Columbia House subscription VHS tapes issued.

The fifth (and what would be the last) consisted of the double episodes "Doomsday" (18/01/1965) and "The Menfish" (06/03/1966).

I remain optimistically hopeful that VOYAGE (and THE TIME TUNNEL) will make it onto blu-ray.

Informative (and intelligent) message postings like yours my friend can only help the (noble) cause.

Thank you and keep up the fine work!

Behold television grandeur at its all-time finest!



V2.jpg


Jeff T.

:)
 

ScottRE

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One more random question. Does anyone know what's up with the stereo mix that is available on the DVDs of Voyage? From what I can hear it sounds like the mono mix piped into each speaker and spaced out to give a false sense of "direction". Why did Fox feel the need to create this special mix?

No idea why the mix turned out as it did. Some episodes sound awful, while most are okay. Having spoken briefly with Kevin Burns on soclial media (he owns the rights to the Irwin Allen properties), he doesn't like the mix either. A blu-ray release would correct these little problems. If that makes you feel any better.
 

JeffT.

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8df7d1e44aec59e0ffed3fd412e4e57f.jpg


Lee Meriwether (aka Dr. Ann MacGregor on THE TIME TUNNEL tv series) will also be present at this upcoming autograph signing in April.

Roy Thinnes just attended in January (2017) to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of THE INVADERS (ABC 1967-68) tv series incidentally.

It's good to see David Hedison back in (limited) circulation. Albeit the original VOYAGE cast has pretty much been decimated over the recent years. It's just an indication that VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (ABC 1964-68) is the oldest of the Irwin Allen produced 1960s SF tv series and it came out at a time when these type of shows were targeted much more to adult sensibilities (like its contemporaries such as THE OUTER LIMITS).

We're still (anxiously) waiting for VOYAGE's rebirth in the blu-ray medium and we're not going to give up on this until it becomes "stunning reality" to coin some promotional hype.



hshow11.jpg


Jeff T.

;)
 

KarlB737

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We're still (anxiously) waiting for VOYAGE's rebirth in the blu-ray medium and we're not going to give up on this until it becomes "stunning reality"

While all of us want Voyage on Blu-Ray I ask you all if you think the demand is really there for Fox to do it. With all the time that has elapsed it forces me to ask that question. If they offered it on Blu-Ray how might that affect sales of the existing non-Blu-Ray sets that are currently offered. If everyone that wanted the existing non-Blu-Ray (like us) has pretty much bought them you have to wonder what the demand (if any) is for these sets now that several years have passed since their release.

Again, I hope as do you that a Blu-Ray release happens but answer the questions I have printed above in the meantime.
 

jcroy

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While all of us want Voyage on Blu-Ray I ask you all if you think the demand is really there for Fox to do it. With all the time that has elapsed it forces me to ask that question. If they offered it on Blu-Ray how might that affect sales of the existing non-Blu-Ray sets that are currently offered. If everyone that wanted the existing non-Blu-Ray (like us) has pretty much bought them you have to wonder what the demand (if any) is for these sets now that several years have passed since their release..

As far as I can tell, all the old Voyage dvd half-season dvd sets have been dump bin fodder for several years already.

Fox might very well be letting them all go out of print?
 

Harry-N

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The following picture was taken by me in a local Best Buy store five years ago, back in 2012. As I recall, they were selling these for a fairly low price even back then and had stocked their shelves with many copies of each half-season. (Remember those days?) I stumbled upon the display and thought to snap a picture with my phone.

2012-05-22_13-07-12_702.jpg
 

JeffT.

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One picture is (well) worth a thousand words!

That fantastic shot of Harry's tangibly represents the kind of things that I personally envisioned could-should be wondrously accomplished with the DVD medium back when! This is exactly where I'm coming from.

Yes indeed. The demand is certainly out there.

We're just not rattling off favourite old-time tv shows for blu-ray release here.

Some come under the heading of "Television Gold." And VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA certainly falls under this category.

Since its original DVD release (along with THE TIME TUNNEL) there is now a new generation of enthusiasts.

These kind of things endure in perpituity. As we speak at this very moment somewhere in the world VOYAGE is currently airing on television. It literally hasn't left the tv airwaves since its original ABC-TV Network primetime airings.

Ask yourself: Just how much revenue specifically has this valuable tv property earned 20th Century-Fox Television in syndicated reruns for well over the past 50 years now?

In addition to having been advanced in the (superior) blu-ray medium there would be the added inducement-appeal of the entire series being packaged all at once. Not fragmented in duo seasonal sets as before (which some individuals understandably objected to).

Some things grow stale with the public but good (or rather great) SF entertainment endures forever.

In this context we (VOYAGE fans) have to be every bit as prophetically visionary and enthusiastically optimistic as this great, classic Irwin Allen produced 1960s SF tv series was. Can we do less?



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Jeff T.

;)
 

mattfire64

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I'm assuming that Fox took the effort to remaster Voyage into HD for the DVD release after the fiasco they had with Lost In Space, right? If that in indeed the case, then at least Fox wouldn't have to go through the trouble of an HD remaster for a possible Blu-ray release. The DVDs definitely look like down-rezzed HD to my eyes.

Sadly however, considering the fact that getting Fox to release the final season of the show on DVD was equivalent to pulling teeth, my hopes are pretty low for a Blu-ray release. The Blu-ray of Lost In Space was justified due to Fox bungling the initial DVD release, plus the fact that Lost In Space is likely the most well-known (A.K.A. more $ for Fox) of the four Irwin Allen series to boot.

If a Blu-ray of Voyage were ever released, I'd love to see the "Next Week's Episode" trailers reinstated back to the end of the episodes. It's one of the things I enjoyed so much about the early home video releases of Star Trek, and something that has been so mishandled with pretty much every DVD release in the past 10 years.
 

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