Best of Route 66 - Page 7

Richard Gallagher · 10-23-2007, 04:38 PM

My set arrived today and I took a quick look at the episodes on disc one. For the most part they seem to be watchable, though certainly not up to the standards of The Fugitive and other titles. The packaging claims that the episodes were "digitially remastered" but it looks like they just took what they had and digitally transferred it.

I have the Columbia House VHS tapes so I'll do an a/b comparison when I get a few free minutes. It's been ten years since I've watched them.

Has anyone who has the Nick at Nite episodes timed them? I'm a bit skeptical that Nick at Nite would have shown the full, unedited 50-minute episodes.

Bert Greene · 10-23-2007, 06:01 PM

Yes, Nick-at-Night used to air un-cut episodes. Remember, this was back in 1985-87, before a lot of the chopping frenzies started. In fact, Nick-at-Night also used to include the little "coming next week" promo's, narrated by either Milner or Maharis, and mentioning the scheduled guest-stars. They eventually dropped that, though.

Richard Gallagher · 10-23-2007, 06:32 PM

Okay, I compared Episode #1 with the Columbia House VHS tape, and it's clear to me that both the tape and the DVD used the same print. At the five-second mark of the opening scene there is a white speck which briefly appears in the lower left-hand corner of the picture. The speck is visible on both the Columbia House tape and the DVD. The only difference that I can see is that Columbia House tacked on a color logo at the conclusion of the episode.

On my display the DVD of Episode #1 shows a thin translucent line down the right edge of the picture. This does not appear on the other episodes and I'm not sure what it would be called.

Hank Dearborn · 10-23-2007, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert Greene

Yes, Nick-at-Night used to air un-cut episodes. Remember, this was back in 1985-87, before a lot of the chopping frenzies started. In fact, Nick-at-Night also used to include the little "coming next week" promo's, narrated by either Milner or Maharis, and mentioning the scheduled guest-stars. They eventually dropped that, though.

Nick ran everything complete for the first several years, not just Route 66 but I Spy, My Three Sons, Dennis the Menace, Donna Reed. The thing that put an end to that was when they bought Make Room for Daddy in the late
80s. The syndicator sent them badly cut episodes that came in at around 21:30. No one complained. No viewers were outraged and called to find out what the hell was going on. After that, Nick knew they could cut the shit out of the shows and no one cared or knew the difference. That was when they began to edit all of the shows to 22 minutes. But anything they ran pre-1989 or so was complete.

Hank Dearborn · 10-23-2007, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert Greene

I'm generally not a stickler for print quality, when it comes to old and often rare series. But "Route 66," with its on-location work and visual, historic preservation of roadside americana, really BEGS for top-flight prints and transfers. So, I can't deny I'm a bit disappointed, even though I do find the majority of episodes serviceable. The main sore points with me seem to be "A Lance of Straw" and "The Quick and the Dead." Watching the former episode (last night), with its 16mm-ish picture and thin audio, was particularly disheartening. It made it seem like a very antiquated artifact, compared to my print recorded off of Nick-at-Night, which was so much brighter and sharper, and exuded so much more life (for lack of better wording). Comparatively, I guess it is rather amazing how differences in print quality truly affects the viewing experience. And, I say that as someone who is often very content with old, well-used 16mm syndication copies.

I would keep those Nick tapes, especially if we are seeing cut episodes thrown into the mix. And the Nick transfers were remastered and looked gorgeous. Why Infinity/Roxbury is not using those and instead using dirty (just run through a projector with no clean up) transfers of 16s, I don't understand, unless that was all Sony would give them. None of us knows exactly what kind of deal Roxbury struck with Sony to get the series and what elements Sony would allow them access to. If they actually purchased the series outright, lock, stock and barrel, then they should have gotten the
1-inch tapes that Nick ran.

Michael Rogers · 10-23-2007, 10:37 PM

When I started to watch Nick At Night, they were starting to show The Patty Duke Show. When they first started to show them (and I was able to record most of the run this way) they ran 24 minutes without commercials, which means, as most know, about a minute was cut. After the second or third run, they began running them edited of another 2 minutes. This additional editing was usually done by cutting the teaser.

Jeff Willis · 10-24-2007, 08:31 AM

After some thought on the R66 set, I'm passing on this one for now until that certain gentleman from points north comes through Texas

"You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town"

Sorry, couldn't resist

It's early but the holiday season's just ahead and this way I can get this set for free.....IF I've been nice all year

If I had any connections, I'd call the North Pole and get Santa to drop some DVD sets down you guy's chimneys!

Jeff "Santa's Helper" W. "Don't work too hard, Gary. We'll connect next wk."

Hank Dearborn · 10-24-2007, 10:00 AM

Just curious but to the people complaining about the picture quality, I have a question. If they had spent the money to clean up the prints, would you have still bought the set if it was $50 or $60 per half season? You have people on here balking at paying for it now, with DDD selling it for under $20. It wouldn't bother me as I make a good living and my hobbies are my only big expense. But I just wonder how many people wouldn't mind paying the extra cost. Judging by some of the posts I read, not too many.

Gary OS · 10-24-2007, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hank Dearborn

Just curious but to the people complaining about the picture quality, I have a question. If they had spent the money to clean up the prints, would you have still bought the set if it was $50 or $60 per half season? You have people on here balking at paying for it now, with DDD selling it for under $20. It wouldn't bother me as I make a good living and my hobbies are my only big expense. But I just wonder how many people wouldn't mind paying the extra cost. Judging by some of the posts I read, not too many.

But apparently, the issue really isn't about "cleaning" up bad prints. It's about using good source material. And we know there's better material out there because so many saw it years ago on Nick@Nite. So unless Roxbury was told to only use these beat up prints that apparently came from Sony, this is more about not doing much research into what was available. And that would be a shame.

I'll admit that I would balk at paying $50 or more for half season sets. Especially if by $50 you are talking the actual price we'd pay - which is generally around 30% off SRP. Frankly, I don't believe Roxbury or Infinity would have ever even considered trying to sell the sets at that price. It'd be a losing proposition for them. So the hypothetical you bring up doesn't really work for me. It's just not something we'd have seen in any situation. No company worth their salt is going to be crazy enough to think folks would pay upwards of $50 to $60 for a half-season show. Just not gonna happen.

Have you actually seen the prints yourself, Hank? Because I can assure you none of us is exaggerating how poor some of the episodes look. Michael, Bert, myself and others are not being nitpicky here. There really are some bad looking spots in this set. And a few spots are perilously close to PD quality.

Gary "I still say buy the set for $20, it's well worth it in my book - but I'd be lying if I said the quality of every episode was outstanding or even average, because that's not the case" O.

michael_ks · 10-24-2007, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Just curious but to the people complaining about the picture quality, I have a question. If they had spent the money to clean up the