When are We going to see a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea DVD Release?!!!!! - Page 10

But one would suspect that the release for VTTBOTS vol.2 would be staggered by about a month as it was for the releases for TT V2 and VTTBOTS V2. Logically speaking, anyway.

Surely we won't have to wait until Christmas before we see the color episodes...?

Correct about the penalties.

I know for a fact of a case of a retailer being penalized for breaking the street date on a CD release (note that this was before DVDs came out, prior to 1997). I don't recall the title or the studio, though.

I just finished watching episode three, "The Fearmakers", and a more gripping hour of television you could hardly want.

The clarity of the picture continues to be outstanding, even moreso on the regular episodes than the pilot. In fact, there's a scene at the conclusion of the episode with members of the Seaview standing outside after surfacing, and one can see ripples in the cloth backdrop that was meant to be a sea-scape! I doubt that was as clearly discernible in earlier televised presentations.

Harry
...giving kudos to the folks at Fox Home Entertainment...

That goes ditto for me, Harry--thanks for your thoughtful insights. I shall be anxiously waiting outside my local 'Best Buy' tomorrow morning...

My pleasure. VOYAGE for me is not quite a blind buy, but rather a series I used to like years ago but haven't seen much of lately - and what was available was so awful looking that it was a chore just to watch it. Thus, many of the details have been lost to me in the mists of time. So as I watch these, they're almost like new television programs.

So far, these early episodes are as described elsewhere - tight, gripping political dramas with a science-fiction overtone. The names coming up on the credits are impressive too, with the likes of Woodfield/Balter as writers, and Gerd Oswald as a director. The series started out with quite a fine stable of talent.

My memories kind of tell me that I probably didn't spend much time watching the first season all those years ago. It supposedly aired on Monday nights at 7:30. That would make it almost a replacement series for the old OUTER LIMITS (which I know had its second season buried on Saturday nights). No, I probably watched the network run with the color episodes of season two on Sunday nights.

Harry

I have never really seen the "cold war" type of stories I am currently seeing on this first half season. Seems almost like "Mission:Impossible". Ihave finished the first disc and have been completely amazed at how excellent these episodes look. Great job by Fox. Even the plankton episode didn't seem to out there.

Like most everyone else, I remember the outlandish storylines from the later years. Mr. Pem, Vincent Price with the puppets, the diving bell in the belly of the whale, etc. Actually looking forward to those also.

I was so glad I was able to "find" this set early, made a miserable weekend fun.

I'm not sure anyone was hurt. Best Buy was the only one that put it in their advertising. If Walmart is carrying it then Walmart shoppers would have bought it Tuesday. I generally stop at Walmart first since its closer and then go to BB if I can't find it. Walmart rarely if ever advertises single discs especially of classic shows. The spotty nature of this also suggests that there is some confusion. Two Walmart stores in my city have them while a third does not.

I also agree that the show has never looked better. The only issue that I see is in some of the episodes that used stock footage from the movie especially the diving sequences. In some of the episodes they are very grainy and really distracting. However I'm not sure it's fixable and at a reasonable cost so its minor.

Also I thought the ABC presentation real was a bit of a con. He describes the 'Turn Back the Clock' episode as being with Jill St John which gives him an opportunity to use Lost World footage with what is clearly Jill St John in it. He uses 'Five Weeks in a Ballon' footage with Red Buttons and says the Seaview transports Red Buttons. Of course that never happened.

I am hoping that we will see at least S2 Vol 1 before this year ends. Maybe when Time Tunnel finishes they
will be able to focus more on Voyage since it was indicated Land of the Giants will not be seen anytime soon.

Check out this page on the VTTBOTS site. It draws some very interesting parallels between the first season of Voyage and OL as far as directing talent and cinematography are concerned:

http://www.vttbots.com/classic_episodes_directors.html

That's because Best Buy was the only store that Fox paid to have the title featured in their ad. Every single item in those Sunday circulars is a paid ad from its vendor, whether in the form of actual payment, reduction in cost of the featured item, or some other form of compensation. It's that compensation the studios are supposed to withhold when a retailer breaks streetdate, but of course, never actually occurs.

Because of those "outlandish storylines", I very much doubt that I'll buy those Season sets.

The trouble is that Walmart's everyday low price is the equal of BB's sale price. The simple reason is that they can move so much product that they don't need any goodies from the distributor. Walmart is the single reason why Fox moved from single season sets to breaking them into volumes. The point still is that Walmart shoppers are not going to BB to buy Voyage if Walmart has it.

I really am looking forward to the wilder seasons of Voyage. I think it's a lot of fun to watch. While there are the occasional clunkers, there are plenty of excellent episodes as well.

Well gang, it's "Zero" day, the day VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, SEASON ONE, VOLUME ONE finally and officially hits the streets. We've already had entertaining stories about early sightings and purchases, now let's hear the stories from release day onward, be they online purchases or those trips to the store where the confused employee asks, "Voyage, what?"

Harry

I got my Voyage at Wally World weeks ago but I'll be noting how many copies they have for sale when I go there to get NYPD Blue S3 later today. I remembe how many Time Tunnels they had a few weks ago. None. They had gotten only like 4 to sell. The downside to getting them early is I'm already halfway thru the set before anyone get there, no the longer wait to season 1-B

I've got it!! In my hands, I hold the DVD equivalent of the Holy Grail to me. This is the last of my all-time favorite series that I desperately wanted on DVD (I still want Batman, but not as desperately as this one). It looks just as fantastic as the early buzz indicated. The black and white eps look really sharp. Some of the movie stock footage is a bit grainy, but a minor nit compared to how many things went right on these DVDs. I really like the menus with the water-warped text and I like that there are lots of chapters for each ep (rather than the four or five 10-minute chapters on other sets).

It's great to have the show on DVD and it sure looks nice on my big HDTV. I'm ok with the May/June error on v.2. TT is a great show as well and I'm looking forward to v.2 of that show. Surely, Voyage will follow shortly after that. With any luck, we'll see season 2 showing up on DVD before Christmas.

I know a few people mentioned a while back in the thread that they were worried about supplies in the stores. Well, my local Best Buy had at least 15 copies on the shelves when they opened. About half stocked under New Releases and the others under the TV on DVD section.

Got mine too!! And yes, this my 'holy grail' as well, Bill, the culmination of waiting and dreaming for years for this to become a reality! I actually went into Best Buy yesterday, inquired about the number of sets they had in stock, and showed up promptly this morning at 9:00 am to purchase the first of ten copies they had in the sales racks.

I can't say enough about the wonderful crispness and clarity of the episodes (stock footage and original movie footage excepted). In scanning through several segments, I was thrilled to discover that this is truly the best picture quality my eyes have beheld for the B&W episodes of VTTBOTS. A bit anti-climatic, following the stellar TT release, but I'm thrilled just the same. I just now watched a scene where Seaview gets knocked about by the giant sperm whale and it looks sensational!

I'm glad this set came out when it did and not 2-3 years ago as it probably wouldn't look as good as it does.

Say, where's Jeff, the one who started this thread back in '04? Must be giving his rapt attention to this exceptional release...

Too bad "Outer Limits" alumnus Oswald didn't direct more of the episodes. But wow, does Leonard Horn, another OL veteran (who directed "Submarine Sunk Here", "The Fearmakers", "The Sky is Falling" for Voyage) ever shine with his exceptionally well composed shots!

With talent like this, I have little doubt that had the high level of quality been maintained throughout the 4 year run, we would by now have been witness to several theatrical films, a la Star Trek. Voyage had everything going for it: exceptional hardware design and effects, high talent in directing and cinematography, great guest star casting and a duo (Basehart/Hedison) with wonderful on screen presence and chemistry. I think fans like me adore the series as much for what it 'might have been' as for what it was.

Sadly, just as VTTBOTS is receiving this great release on DVD, IMDB.com reports that Paul Carr passed away from cancer on February 17th:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0139824/

I love the cheesy monster eps a lot, but watching these early espionage thriller type eps is a lot of fun. It's like reconnecting with old friends.

Sad, indeed. Comes on the heel of the passing of Lloyd Bochner ("The Fearmakers") about a month ago. I was just viewing his performance as the Spartan warrior "Paris" on an episode of "The Time Tunnel". Paul Carr and I share the same birth date--he was born exactly 25 years before me.

There's and official website for him with good biographical information:

http://www.timem.com/starwebs/paulcarr/index.htm

I hadn't heard about Carr's passing. RIP, Mr. Carr.

Well, I suppose with the good sometimes comes the bad. The good is that I got the VOYAGE set early. The bad news hit me this morning. I finished up Disc One and place Disc Two in for viewing. Up popped the menu for Disc Three.

Uh-oh. I got a set with two Disc Three discs!

Drat! Now I have to go through the exchange process. We got reports on the TIME TUNNEL set that certain people got some mixed up disc configurations, so I guess FOX hasn't figured out this little snafu yet.

So warning to all purchasers - read the fine print on each disc to see if you have a one, a two, and a three. Then just to be sure, fire up each disc to make sure it's correct.

Harry
...this set just did a crash dive...

Yes, the TIME TUNNEL set I got was fine. And I've now communicated with my online supplier. They're going to have me just swap my errant disc with the correct one, so I don't have to worry about re-checking 1 and 3 on a new set.

He also said,

"...This looks like it was a
problem with the first shipment of these, as you are the third customer that
has reported this. I have checked our copies here and they all are fine,
all three discs, all three cases."

So again everyone - check your copies.

Harry

That's a bit frustrating to have that happen. Especially on a set we've been waiting for like this one. At least it will be taken care of and corrected.

As a youngster who religiously watched VTTBOTS during the 60's, I made certain to pick up my dvd copy of Voyage yesterday. While I'm very happy with the quality of the transfer,aside from Episode 1 underwater scenes, I do have a few points to raise: Why were 2 different actors used to portray Dr. Gamma including Warner Klemperer from "Hogan's Heroes"? Because of the definition of the transfer played on my HDTV, it's rather amusing to see things that were never apparent when I originally watched the show in the 60's such as in "The Sky is Falling" when one can easily see the guide wires leading from the alien spacecraft to the Seaview when the underbelly of the ufo detached to pick up Nelson and later Crane. Also, was Walter Pidgeon ever considered for the role of Admiral Nelson for the tv run as he portrayed him in the 1961 movie? Finally, why did David Hedison change his name from Al Hedison as he was originally called when he acted in the original "The Fly" in 1958?

I think he was 'DAVID Hedison' in THE LOST WORLD (1961) cheezy as it is -it deserves a widescreen transfer-I remember beiing absolutely transfixed by it in my youth...

The process shots from the movie look very grainy-the newer shots of the Seaview look great-LB Abbott knew his stuff-the Seaview in most shots almost looks as if it were 500 feet long- except when the large bubbles give away the true scale.

I believe, the common theory going around is that Werner Klemperer was originally supposed to play the role of Dr. Gamma, and some of his scenes were filmed. Then due to some circumstances, he must've had to have backed out, and was replaced with Theo Marcuse. Since he was a shadowy bald figure, and this was TV in the '60s, and Mr. Allen probably didn't want to refilm stuff already in the can, they just used the Klemperer footage and then the Marcuse footage as well. Since Theo Marcuse is the credited actor, he's the one who probably "finished up" the role, leaving Klemperer with no credit at all.

But it also must have been an amicable departure on Klemperer's part, since he was invited to return in the first half of season one in "The Blizzard Makers".

arry

So far I've seen the first two episodes. I was much more impressed with "City Beneath the Sea" for plotting and character portrayal than I was with "Eleven Days to Zero". What 'saves' the pilot IMO is the fact that I can watch it in glorious color, which was very nicely transferred for this set. In it's B&W form, it is indeed less clean looking than the remaining episodes.

Irwin Allen conceived a marvelous series, but thank goodness he didn't write any more episodes. Virtually all his attention is placed on spectacle and characters comes across strictly as one dimensional beings. The whole episode comes across as little better than a sophomoric B-movie. It reminded me of a quote by "Price of Doom" director James Gladstone which I read on VTTBOTS.com:

"Irwin Allen was much more interested in special effects and monsters than he was in the characters. I was working with the actors, trying to establish their character relationships, and Irwin kept looking over my shoulder and saying things like, "Jim, where’s the plankton? Remember, this story is about killer plankton." I finally announced that I would not continue directing until he left the set. He did and I finished the show."

What a delight it was, to see more of a human element and superior plotting in the second installment, "City Beneath the Sea". The reviewers at VTTBOTS.com are rather unkind to this episode (and manage to get some key facts wrong regarding the antagonist's megalomania), but after the viewing the pilot, the second episode really shines for me.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing "The Fear-makers" tonight, as I know that this was truly a 'watershed' moment for the series where it achieved a level of true greatness.

I've been watching the Amazon.com rankings for this series and TIME TUNNEL, just for comparison.

For the record TIME TUNNEL peaked at a #23 on the Wednesday after its official release, and it looks like VOYAGE has peaked now at #60 on the Wednesday after its release.

These rankings are purely unscientific and reflect only the rankings on that site, so take the info for what its worth. I just find it interesting that the lesser-known series with the "awful" artwork seems to have hit a higher rank than the better-known classic series with the better artwork.

One has to wonder, does the black & white-ness of the show have any effect on sales. Are people that conditioned to shun a black & white series? Are the studio honchos watching these figures as an experiment to determine whether or not to release other series with black & white seasons?

Both shows got similar reviews from people. Both came out in half-season sets. And both came out within 4 weeks of each other. I suppose that these rankings could be considered close given that they're NOT scientific. I also suppose that the word of early release at some stores might have affected what might have been release-week purchases on Amazon.

Harry