6M$M and Bionic Woman Region 2 release 09/26/05? - Page 3

Anyone know of any websites that show the back covers to these R2 releases?

Well, I watched the first two wpisodes of the Bionic Woman tonight. Yes, they both sport the Bionic Woman credits (and part two mentions "Last time on the Bionic Woman. . . .")

The only other odd thing I noticed was the sound - it seemed kind of tinny for a couple of acts between commercial breaks. It didnt sound bad, just sounded odd. If anyone else gets this set, pay attention and see if it's the discs or I got a bad copy. (It was right around when Jamie unloads the stove from the back of the truck, I seem to recall).

I noticed this sound problem on the original R2 Vol. 2 single-disc release. It's during the scenes you mentioned, only I'd describe it as a "warbling" kind of distortion. There are several obvious instances of dialog looping, too. I have two VHS copies of these episodes (from Sci-Fi channel and original syndication) and the audio is not distorted.

Seems like they used the same transfers from the previous release.

While perusing Amazon.com, I came across something that everyone may want to sign up for email notifications on:

Six Million Dollar Man
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...56956?v=glance

The Bionic Woman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...177342-9756956

If you click on the links provided above and enter your email address, when these DVD's for these shows become available, they'll send you an email. If you're asking why? It's because sometimes they get their information before some of the other sites report these news items as well and it's a nice little tool to use as well.

When you described the tinny sound, are we talking as bad as Knight Rider? Most of the dialogue sound quality is of atocious quality across both seasons 1 and 2.

John

Was the UK Knight Rider bad? Perhaps was it your copy? The version I have sounded just fine - well, for an 80's action TV show, that is.

As for the 6M$M, it's hard to discribe. It just sounded out of place with the rest of the show - but it was only a few minutes and cleared up after that.

Jeff,
Does your copy of the episode have a pre-title scene? This scene shows Katie bringing the lion to Jaime's classroom for show-and-tell. There are several other kids in this scene, including Robbie Rist (best known as cousin Oliver in "The Brady Bunch". This scene is usually missing from syndication versions. I don't have time now to check my copy, but I'd guess it's Robbie that's also listed in the credits under "school kids".

Jeff,
As for when we can expect R1 releases...your guess is as good as mine. I recently had a conversation with Kenneth Johnson (creator/producer/writer/director of "The Bionic Woman"), and he was unaware of the plans for the DVD. He told me he'd be contacting Universal, since he was willing to contribute to any special features. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that he will be successful. I'd be more than happy to wait even longer for these sets...if it means we can expect some great extras, unlike the R2 releases. Mr. Johnson was able to contact Fox in time for them to allow his commentary on the upcoming "Alien Nation" set, so let's hope this scenario plays out for the "BW" set as well.

I spent a few hours tonight checking out the Season One R2 sets of SMDM and BW. Here's my quick take on them:

Both sets are packaged in the "Digi-Stack" book-style case (like "Smallville"). All the photos on the BW package, except one, are from Season Three, including the cover. SMDM has a few shots from other seasons, and incorrectly proclaims "Also starring Lindsay Wagner" on the back cover (along with Farrah Fawcett). Farrah Fawcett should have been listed as "Guest-starring Farrah Fawcett-Majors", which was her name at the time, since she was married to Lee Majors. The packaging is simple, but sloppy in presentation. The inside front cover lists the episodes per disc. The discs are all DVD-9s. The BW set is particularly ugly with its olive-green color scheme on the case and discs. Neither set has any extras.

Both sets have really nice menus with music and clips playing. The discs have individual episode or "play all" options. Both sets have chapters placed before and after the opening titles, at the commercial breaks and before the end titles.

The audio is clean, but the current presentation reveals the limitations of its 1970's sound mix, with noticeable looping, hiss and sound edits. When considering the soundtracks were designed to be heard through a three-inch mono TV speaker, they sound fine when (slightly) amplified on current gear.

Now, for the good news and the bad news...

First, the good news: The BW episodes have never looked better! All appear to be completely unedited, with (PAL) running times 47:30-48:00 minutes each. I noticed several scenes that I haven't seen since they were first aired back in 1976. The quality transfers from the previous R2 single-disc volumes are ported over to this set, and the transfers of the new-to-dvd episodes are of the same high quality. The transfers are on par with other (usually top-notch) Universal efforts from the era. There are a few instances of dust and debris, but nothing bothersome. There are a few dark scenes, some slow-motion shots and stock-footage where grain is evident, but it's always been that way. The colors are very vibrant, and well-lit scenes look especially nice. The transfers are consistent in quality for the whole season. The only one that appears "soft" is the final episode, "The Ghost Hunter", which was shot with a diffused focus for "atmospheric effect". Overall, I am extremely pleased with the presentation of BW on DVD, except for its lack of extras.


Now for the bad news: SMDM has never looked worse! Unlike the previous BW R2 single-discs, the R2 SMDM Season One episodes from the single-discs were atrocious, and have been ported over to this set. I was really hoping that Universal would re-do them for this set, but no such luck. In fact, some of the new-to-dvd episodes actually look worse than the previously available ones! My SVHS dubs from Sci-Fi Channel actually look better. At least the thirteen episodes are uncut, each running 48-49 (PAL) minutes. I just can't believe how bad the transfers are! The transfers are similar to "Bob Newhart" S1, only worse. They look like video dubs of worn-out 16mm prints transferred (poorly) to DVD. The colors are so faded and drab, they almost appear monochrome in some scenes. There are certain scenes where the color literally "blinks" from vibrant to pale in a single shot. I've never scene anything like this from a major studio. Since the prints used for syndication have been remastered, but edited, I wonder if this was the only way to get the uncut episodes. As noted earlier in this thread, the three pilots are included, but in their re-worked and expanded two-part versions. These versions are painful to watch, but at least they look a bit better than the thirteen Season One episodes. Also noted before, the first pilot has the usual SMDM title sequence featuring Richard Anderson in the credits, but is nowhere to be found in the episodes (he joined the cast in the second pilot). For some reason, Universal has left the original closing credits for the pilots in place, so one can at least hear a portion of Dusty Springfield's (horrible!) SMDM theme song from "Solid Gold Kidnapping". It needs to be heard to be believed. The old PAL VHS featured this pilot in its original movie format, with the title sequence and theme song in its entirety. We can be thankful the song was never used again, and that someone came up with the now-classic SMDM theme and title sequence instead. Still, its nice to have Dusty's version preserved, at least partially. The syndicated versions of the pilots normally have the standard SMDM end title sequence in place of the pilot's credits. Another problem with the previous discs has not been corrected for this set. Three episodes have the pre-title sequence played after the opening title, spliced into the scene that would have come after the opening titles, making for an awkward sequence.

There's no way consumers in R1 will accept these transfers as they appear on the R2 set. That's not to say that consumers in R2 are more forgiving, but it seems the studios tend to short shrift non-R1 releases for some reason. Let's hope Universal remasters these SMDM episodes for the R1 release, and while they're at it, includes the three pilots in their original form.


"The Bionic Woman" S1 (R2)
"The Six Million Dollar Man" S1 (R2)

Let's hope that since Playback (Britain's wing of Universal) and Universal-US are pretty much seperate entities, that Universal USA will be working on thier own version of this and not just get an NTSC transfer of the PAL set, which you'd hope they wouldn't do anyway, especially if the UK sets weren't mastered from film print (then you might potentially have NTSC to PAL back to NTSC).

That's what I'm guessing happened to this release. The transfers look way too many generations removed from the original film source material. Some of the visual defects I detected (besides the ones mentioned in my review) include: "zoomed" in transfers, moire patterns and minor "strobing" at certain scene changes. I don't know if these defects are side effects of the NTSC-to-Pal conversion process, but "The Bionic Woman" exhibits NONE of these problems.

Wow - either my eyes are going south or you wound up with a bad set. While I'll freely admit that the video doesnt look as good as modern TV shows, I dont think it's not nearly as bad as you make it out to be. Admittedly I've stalled out on disc 2 (or was that 3) because the new Doctor Who disc came out - so perhaps it gets worse as it goes.

I guess I'm more tolerant of older TV shows than most folks - but I didnt have any issue with the set.

Matt,

Thanks for the review. I saw these two sets tonight at a local store which sells R2 imports, and very nearly bought SMDM. Glad I didn't! Here's hoping any possible R1 release does right by Colonel Austin...!

question.

i have 2 6mdm eps that appear to be the first 2.
one is called the six million dollar man the other is
Wine Women and War.
they both show 70 minutes plus a few seconds.
including credits.

are these the syndicated or origional versions?

They would be the first two (of three) pilot movies. The three pilots were broadcast in 90-minute timeslots, so each should run approximately 75 minutes. Where did you get your copies? If they were transfered from PAL sources, the running times you cite would be about right, since PAL is time compressed compared to NTSC.

The syndicated versions were presented as two-part episodes, utilizing "filler" footage to extend the running time to form two 50-minute episodes.

cant really say, here, were i got them.

havent noticed any speed up in the sound or video.

i'll pay better attention next time i look at them.

Has there been any mention of an R1 release?

Also, how many seasons did each of these shows run? TIA for any info.

Go to www.epguides.com to find guides for both shows.

There have been many mentions of the shows coming to R1, including a Best Buy promo disc produced by Universal claiming BW was coming to DVD in the fall of 2004. Well, it's a year later...and we're still waiting.

SMDM had five seasons and BW had three. Both shows debuted in mid-season, so their first seasons were only thirteen episodes each. SMDM also had three pilot movies that played the year before the actual series started.

Here's a link to a fansite where the front and back cover art, disc art and menu screens for the R2 sets have been posted:

http://bionicfans.net/

But will the R1 discs play from start to finish? If Universal did things right in R1 then it'd be a no-brainer. But right now R2 makes most sense for these titles.

I'm gonna stick it out just in case, if the R1 sets are dramatically different then I'll be stuck in a quandry, but I doubt they'll be any different.

JR

I just received an update from Kenneth Johnson (creator of "The Bionic Woman") regarding the R1 sets...and it's not good. As I previously posted, I had contacted Mr. Johnson to see if he was going to be involved with the DVDs. He was unaware they were being considered for DVD release, so he contacted Universal himself. He told me today "the fate of a US DVD release is iffy since there seems to be some confusion over some rights issue. So nothing is imminent."

I had also asked him to settle the long-standing debate regarding the original broadcast of BW's premiere two-part episode, "Welcome Home, Jaime". He confirmed what I had always remembered: Part I was indeed broadcast on Sunday night as a SMDM episode. Part II was then aired the following Wednesday as the first "official" episode of BW as its own series. When the series went into syndication, Part I was retitled to air as an episode of BW. Over the years, many syndication prints included the opening SMDM guest cast/crew credits and SMDM closing titles, with only the BW main title sequence substituted.

I'd like to know more about the "rights" issues holding up these R1 releases, and how/why the R2 releases were unaffected by these issues.

I was was watching the episode Operation Firefly on the R2 Season One Six Million Dollar Man Set. There is a whole scene missing where Steve cuts out a log with a knife to make a canoe . All of a sudden they are in this canoe and the girl is questioning if it is safe or will tip over.

I just checked my copy, and you're correct. That scene is edited from the DVD. The previous scene leads to a commercial break point, and then there's an abrupt edit where the missing scene should be. The missing footage is as you described. After the boat is destroyed, Steve makes a canoe by carving out a huge log.

I must have missed the timing on this episode when I first checked my set. This episode runs about 1 1/2 minutes shorter than the rest. I'll re-check the rest of the episodes again for timing.

So besides the crappy transfers, we have at least one edited episode as a bonus!

I just finished checking the times of all the episodes. The six episodes that form the three pilot movies range from 45:44 to 47:04 (in PAL format) which translates to approximately 48 to 49 minutes in real/NTSC time.

The episode in question, "Operation Firefly" runs 47:41 (PAL), or approx. 49:30 in NTSC. I checked my SVHS copy from Sci-Fi Channel in the early 90's, and the missing footage runs exactly 30 seconds.

The other twelve episodes run between 48:16 and 48:57 (PAL), or approx. 50:10 to 51:00 (NTSC).

I haven't watched all the episodes in their entirety, so I don't know if there are edits to any other episodes. If there are, they'd be similarily small, since the timings are between 50 and 51 minutes, which is the correct timing for the show.

One thing I did notice after reviewing a few episodes from my Sci-Fi Channel tapes: the transfers of the Sci-Fi versions (from the early '90s!) are way superior to the new R2 DVD transfers. The detail, color and contrast are superior in every way. They look almost as good as Universal's other recent DVD transfers. Obviously the limitations of the SVHS format and the syndication episodes are unacceptable, but they are proof that better transfers do exist.

Also, I wrote the episode copy for last year's SMDM trading cards, and the screen shots used for the cards were taken from recently-mastered DVDs, which looked much better than the new R2 DVDs.


Andy, I would guess this is the case. Universal/Playback probably has their own set of "masters" to work with, which would explain why the Sci-Fi versions look different.
Also, both the SMDM and BW R2 sets feature the original Universal/MCA "globe" logo after the credits, instead of the newer CGI logo that Universal has been using on their R1 discs. I much prefer the vintage logo and theme to be used on the old shows.

I'm still hoping that all these issue will be resolved by the time the R1 versions get released...if ever.

Jeff, I timed the BW episodes last night. They range from 46:48 to 48:45 (PAL), which converts to approx. 48:37 to 50:42 (NTSC).

The shortest one, "Welcome Home, Jaime-Part I" is missing a few seconds right after the main title sequence, before the episode title appears. When the scene first starts, there's a music cue that is obviously clipped a bit. When I checked my old VHS copy, the missing footage (about 15 seconds) is an aerial establishing shot as the camera pans the landscape and then zooms into the hospital where Jaime is recovering from an operation. The episode is also missing the "next on..." preview for Part II. This episode is almost two minutes shorter than the rest, so I'd assume that the small bit of missing footage at the beginning, and the missing preview would explain the shorter running time.

I'll be watching them in the next few weeks with a closer eye, and will report any other edits. So far, after spot checking them, I've only noticed extra footage that I haven't seen in almost thirty years.