Great article from cinescape about tv shows...

todd s · 01-09-2006, 02:41 PM

The following article is from www.cinescape.com And is so true in so many ways. I also wish we might se Voyagers soon.

Quote:

TV Wasteland
If I Only Had That Tape...

Dateline: Monday, January 9, 2006

By: JASON DAVIS

We live in a marvelous time for television fans. If you'd told me ten years ago that I would have high resolution digital transfers of every episode of AMERICAN GOTHIC or SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND on discs the size of a CD, I'd have laughed in your face while caressing the 22 Super VHS tapes upon which I had painstakingly archived both shows (technically, not every episode of the former aired by 1996, so it would have been more like 17 tapes, but who's counting?). Now, I'm looking at the shelf to my left and they're both there. The aforementioned Super VHS tapes are stacked in the kitchen with a piece of paper declaring them "redundant."

With this TV on DVD revolution rapidly devaluing my prized collection of videocassettes, I started contemplating the transfer of my remaining treasures to DVD. Though I've done a few experimental transfers, I'm thus far unhappy with the MPEG encoding and am looking for better software. What does this have to do with you folks? Glad you asked. In going through the--I don't know--probably 1,500 to 2,000 tapes, I started thinking about the things that were no longer a part of that collection--things I'd taped over with shows now readily available on DVD. I'm sure most of us have taped over something only to regret it years later. Whether you just needed a tape in a hurry and didn't read the label or you convinced yourself that "you'll never watch that again," each of us has that one recording that we wish we could bring back.

For me, it's mostly the stuff I taped in my first years of recording. How many here remember the mid-1980s ABC airings of SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II? You know, the ones filled to the brim with deleted scenes so that they could play in a three-hour timeslot? Sure, most of that footage is intact on the SUPERMAN DVD, but you won't find a single second beyond the theatrical cut on SUPERMAN II's DVD. Speaking of ABC's extended movies of the week--that's where I first glimpsed what is now known as the director's edition of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. Granted, that's available on DVD though the close-ups of Kirk and Saavik in the turbolift have been replaced with the two-shot from the theatrical cut.

Ah, but this is a TV column, so I'll redirect my mournful reminiscences to lost recordings originating on the small screen. For years, I had, taped on a battered VHS tape, a mid-season installment of the 1982 series VOYAGERS!. For those not in the know, the series starred the late Jon-Erik Hexum as Phineas Bogg, an Eighteenth-century pirate recruited into a secret society of time travelers who maintained the proper chronology of Earth history with the use of pocket watch-like devices called Omnis. In the pilot, Bogg accidentally abducted 12 year-old Jeffrey Jones (Meeno Peluce), an orphan from 1982. Needless to say, I wore that tape out watching this one episode for years until the Sci Fi Channel went online in 1992 and broadcast the entire 20 episode series from start to finish. Did I tape it? Of course I did, but I figured the Sci Fi Channel would run VOYAGERS! forever, so I taped over it a short time later.

In my head, I hear a loud buzzer accompanied the phrase "Wrong answer, but thanks for playing!" When SFC went online, I taped 'em all--VOYAGERS!, MISFITS OF SCIENCE (starring a young Courtney Cox as a telekenetic), FANTASTIC JOURNEY (with Jared Martin, Roddy McDowell, and Ike Eisenman of STAR TREK II fame), and even the animated STAR TREK. Yep, I taped every last one and taped over them 'cause I thought they'd always be there. Did the same thing with my local PBS station's broadcasts of ROBIN OF SHERWOOD and SURVIVORS--luckily, both are available on DVD in region 2 and I can import them. Still, not a day goes by that I don’t long for some of those old recordings. With a little luck, the shows I've mentioned will eventually find their way to DVD in the near future. Until then, I still have my recording of the two-part Disney movie EARTH STAR VOYAGER from 1988! I can hardly make out the faces or dialogue, but it's there--the oldest recording in the collection. So what do you guys wish you still had on the video shelf?

Chad E · 01-10-2006, 02:27 AM

Quote:

I also wish we might se Voyagers soon.

I'd like to see Voyagers! come out on DVD too. However, since I haven't actually seen it since its original run, I've got this nagging feeling that I might not enjoy it as much as an adult as I did when I was a kid. Has anyone who watched this as a kid seen any episodes recently? Does it hold up?

Michael Alden · 01-10-2006, 11:33 AM

I got a kick out of that. 1,500 to 2,000 tapes. Is that supposed to be a lot? I've probably already transferred over 5 times that many with thousands more to go. No, I didn't tape over Voyagers. And they are from the network run (as is my Misfits of Science), not the cut to 45 minute versions that ran on SciFi. BTW, how does one "wear out" a tape? I have things I've watched a dozen times. Tape doesn't "wear out". Sounds like this guy bends the truth a bit to fit his story.

Ethan Riley · 01-10-2006, 04:39 PM

I luckily didn't erase too many tapes. My one regret is that I erased the first half of season two of "American Dreams" a while back, thinking it would make it to dvd. But of course, it probably won't at this point.

But most of the stuff I taped over the years, has ended up on dvd. The latest one was Dark Shadows 1991, but I'm hanging on to my tapes because of the shoddy cropped version that make it to dvd. I used to be very proud that I had taped "V" back in 1983-85. A lot of friends begged me to make copies of the whole 29 hours of that for them. Sigh...I did make a few copies. V was finally released on video in the early 90s and has been on dvd for quite a while. I also taped all of "3rd Rock from the Sun" but didn't care because it was heavily syndicated. 3rd Rock is coming out on dvd as we speak. The only rare, rare, rare things I have are:

Central Park West (except for the 4 eps never aired)
the Charmings
Second Noah
Pacific Palisades
Savannah
Fresno
Good and Evil (except for the FIVE eps that never aired...!)
Hail to the Chief

and a few other screwy tv shows. Clearly I love primetime serials and weird sitcoms. Most of this stuff hasn't aired at all since their network runs. I'd buy all of it on dvd if it ever comes out--the tapes won't last forever.

Michael Alden · 01-10-2006, 05:35 PM

Quote:

the tapes won't last forever.

True. Put them on DVD. That's what I've been doing for the last 4 years with my tapes.

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todd s · 01-10-2006, 06:20 PM

I have put a few shows that I liked and thought weren't coming out. And up until recently I was recording shows using my dvd burner. But, with the plethera of shows (especially newer ones) coming to dvd. I have pretty muched stop.

A couple I have transferred that I just don't think will come out are:
-Vengeance Unlimited
-The Strip
-Time Trax
-Cobra
-All Souls
-Legend



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