I Spy - Remastered?

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Well hank I can't agree with you more that image and most dvd production companys are run by scum bags that turn out trash product and get away with it (my worst set is Crime Store S1 very bad and S2 unwatchably bad). But compairison to that, the orignal I Spy dvd set was very watchable ,decently ripped (video and audio) and had some cool audio commentarys by Robert Clup, that being said , the lack of chapters, decent menus etc.... left the set wanting. Also fans like me (44 years old ) never saw the orginal run of I Spy so I wont know if there's cuts,edits or time compression, sense I dont have cable or sat tv I Spy been off the air in So Cal market for almost ten years. When the Image set came out so for me it was great way to have access to I Spy again. Ok lol I know see that image is releasing the set I Spy DVD news: Announcement for I, Spy - Season 1: Newly Remastered Edition (& S2 & S3) | TVShowsOnDVD.com I still dont have high hopes based on Images generally low rent dvd releases. Atleast the price is right 19.99 instead or the 50.00 I payed for season one. Im going to hold off until the new sets come out and only rebuy them if there is dramatic improvement (video/sound and extras) otherwise I stick with my old set for my casual viewing.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Image is probably just trying to cash in on the publicity around that other mid-60s spy series release, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I have about 10 of the single volume (4 episode) I Spy releases and they look and sound great, so I will be very surprised if they are doing further remastering or re-packaging (unless there's a Blu-ray version coming). Still, the price is sweet, and the entire series will be available, so who's complaining?

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I'll be picking up all three of these sets as I only have just a few of the single releases; that's pretty remarkable pricing on the part of Image . . . . these season sets will probably retail around $15 or less, making the entire series $45 or less. I wonder if Image will include Robert Culp's commentaries from the original DVD releases.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I'm not even going to disclose how much I paid originally for all three I Spy box sets...nor how they went on sale the week after I bought them ('cause it still hurts to talk about it). But I am glad that the people on HTF who haven't acquired them yet are getting a pretty sweet deal.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Alternately viewing the newly-released The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episodes with my I Spy dvds, I am reminded that I Spy was basically The Man From U.N.C.L.E. for grown-ups: a much more sophisticated, nuanced and adult-themed show. But then TMFU originally aired at 8:30 and I Spy was at 10 p.m., so of course that was the original intent. But it's great watching them both because ... sometimes you feel like a kid and sometimes you don't.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I feel your pain. I bought several of the original single-disc releases before the box sets came out. That includes a horrid 2-episode release that seems to have been mastered from VHS recorded at EP speed, and cost more than the 4-episode version that replaced it.... Blech. The quality of that one disc alone almost put me off buying the series, but thankfully the quality on the 4-ep discs was much better.

Given the price point of these sets, I'll be amazed if the "remastering" amounts to anything more than putting the episodes in correct order, so probably not worth a double-dip, but a *great* price for those who are new to the series.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I just hope they actually do some *REAL* remastering on these, and steer clear from that HORRIBLE real-time color correcting they did on the previous sets. I always cringe whenever they go from an outdoor scene to an indoor scene and the color goes from washed out, pale and out of spec and slowly adjusts to the correct levels again, only to be completely out of whack again on the next scene change. UGH!

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I used to catch reruns every now and then, back in the 80s, and really only had a so-so interest in the series. But, I picked up the first Image box-set a few years back on a whim, and just ate it up. Loved it, and bought 'em all. I don't know why my opinion of the series changed so much. Maturation? I dunno. Maybe it also has to do with all the on-location foreign backdrops, which I once looked upon as fairly routine, but now with the passage of time, seems to carry a much greater and rather appealing mystique. Plus, it's just a darned good show.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

The chemistry between Robert Culp and Bill Cosby is just about unmatched in TV history. As a scriptwriter, I can't tell whether their light banter moments are improvised or fully scripted (likely a little of both), but it just reveals a genuine enjoyment of each other's company. And don't forget how revolutionary it was for an established TV star like Robert Culp to share the spotlight and a full co-star role with basically a novice African-American actor back in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was still newborn.

The plots were simple, but the potential for humor and nuance ran deep. I just screened an episode last night, "Always Say Goodbye," where the premise involved them simply having to keep an American diplomat in Tokyo away from strippers and scandal for 48 hours before an important international conference. I mean, how beautiful is that? Or, as Kelly and Scott might say, you gotta just love the "wonderful-ness" of it all.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Hmmm I never saw MFU reruns and I recently got a Used MFU series set for a great price and so far I watch eposides from seasons one, two and three and there all hell of alot of fun and I feel I got a great deal for 140.00. MFU is in my mind WWW in brooks brothers suits and great escapist enterianment of the finest sort as RC likes to say about WWW. I Spy I was introduce in my junior year of high school on old channel 9 in SoCal along with Secret Agent/danger man series shown on channel 56 and fell in love with both shows form the first viewing. Both were more reality based the cold war for the back drop, chinese, rusian and verious com block spys squaring off weekly with scotty and kelly or good old john drake. And there was a really sense of drama and danger are heros faced every epoisde. I Spy compaired to MFU was truely a much more a adult show and quite ground breaking for its day white and black as true partners (oh the black guy was the smart one too Rhodes Scholar and all) not all the episodes had a happy ends, but what made the show was the great complecated adult friendship between the Scotty and Kelly.Also the fantasic Location shooting in the real foreign locals (ie hong kong, japan, greece, spain, etc...) and Fouad Said great inovative cinematography, it was really a great stand out show. Like I said earlier I might pick the new sets with the remastering is significally better, but I wait for user review here before I get the new set.

BTW great I Spy triva where and on what scholarship did Kelly Robinson go to college on , I bet you know Hank

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I have never seen I Spy, at least I don't ever remember seeing it, but I'll gladly blind buy it, if it's even half as good as Mission: Impossible and especially at that price. I'm enjoying a lot of shows from the 60's and love Cosby and Culp's other work.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

This would essentially be a blind purchase for me as I barely saw the show air in syndication but as a big Robert Culp fan I don't see how I could go wrong, especially when one considers the price of the upcoming season sets. I love 60s era spy stuff and this would fit nicely into my collection next to "Man in a Suitcase", "Mission: Impossible", "Man from U.N.C.L.E." S1, "Danger Man" and others.

With the location shooting and the wonderful guest stars (back when guest stars were standouts and offered individualized talents) this should be a winner. Added to that, this series was unique in that every episode featured an original score (divided between Earle Hagen and golden age film composer Hugo Friedhofer). The main theme and opening titles are quite slick too, as I dimly recall.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I very recently picked up all 21 individual volumes (I haven't even opened them yet!). If I can get three bucks each for 'em on eBay, I can buy the new season sets. Here's hoping the Culp commentaries are intact.....

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I have three or four of the old discs, and will gladly be getting the new sets. When I read the news last week, I was thrilled, as I have been loving Man From UNCLE on DVD, and have wanted a comprehensive I Spy set for a while now.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Two of the new remastered season sets are up for order on Amazon: $13.99 for a 5-disc set. Not too bad.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Hmmm really well if the re master job is better I might just pick it up again

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

$13.99 is a great price for the first 2 seasons each, especially for what's going to be a blind buy for me

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Ditto!

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I've already pre-ordered Seasons 1 and 2 at that $13.99 each price. Anyone have a guess as to why Amazon doesn't have a listing for Season 3? Aren't all three coming out on the same day?

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I don't usually listen to audio commentaries all that often because, let's be frank, who's got that much time? But I started listening to Robert Culp's commentary on the single disc editions where he goes through the whole creation, history and evolution of this show and I couldn't stop listening it was so entertaining.

Two single discs came out with his commentary over the shows that HE WROTE. These shows were not consecutive, so one advantage of the single disc releases (with 3 or 4 episodes) were the ability to group shows by international location, or, in this instance, by his writing.

I sincerely hope his commentary is included in the releases scheduled for April, but I will be curious how they will do that since his commentary, at least on the Patrick Henry disc is basically a 2 1/2 hour continuous monologue that can't really be broken up by any particular episode. It's a history of the show. And it's funny, illuminating, and it should have been a book by itself. He laments why nobody chronicled this story, but HE JUST DID. Why didn't he write the book? It seems obvious, because he spends more time talking about himself as a writer than an actor. And, to back it up, watch his episodes and you realize they ARE the cream of the crop.

His second script for the show, "The Tiger," was nominated for four Emmys and won Bill Cosby his first lead actor Emmy .... his FIRST TIME out as an actor in a series. Speaks volumes for the role as well as the actor. Plus the fact that Culp at least claims it was his idea to make the characters 50/50 instead of a Matt Dillion/Chester type of relationship. And to completely ignore the issue of race, which made it a non-issue to the show, and to anyone watching the show. Remarkable stuff for 1965. And did you know it was Carl Reiner who recommended Cosby to I Spy producer Sheldon Leonard?

Anyway, I'm just curious how the new releases will accommodate Culp's commentary, which to me was, as the commercial goes, priceless.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

They're supposed to. Right now I'm only seeing season 3 listed at Overstock, Buy.com, and CDUniverse.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

Yes I agree Ive learned most to ignore the general vacuous ramblings of vain out of there mind actors on most dvd sets, but occasionally there fun and insightful (like when david mccallum does on ncis dvd set) But culp's on the I spy series were special, fun and fascinating all at the same time and hope there on the (hopefully higher quality ) digital remasters

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I got these new I Spy season sets in the mail yesterday and am happy to report that the Robert Culp commentaries ARE included. But they are scattered throughout the three sets on the episodes they were originally attached to. They are not listed on the packaging as extras, but you see the smaller print "with commentary" listed after the name of the episode. There are no other extras listed.

The packaging is a little funky, with 5 disks squeezed into a double-size box and using these clips that, in one of my sets, are already broken off, of course. And the box is cracked. Definitely cut some corners. But at least the sets are now complete.

I haven't spot-checked to see how these are remastered, or IF they are truly remastered from the last release, since those looked decent to begin with. Others more technically-oriented will probably weigh in on that. But I was just happy to see the Culp commentaries retained.

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Looking forward to these; mine haven't arrived yet. Here's hoping that they get here intact. Glad to hear the commentaries made it.

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Would really love to hear your thoughts on the episodes PQ and AQ. Also, I've been thinking about getting all of these. When I was a kid my Mom would watch this in syndication whenever it was on. So, I watched as well. She would tell me how this was one of her favorite shows. What I'm mainly concerned with is, does the content hold up? I can't remember too much about this show, it's been so long.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

I'm very suprised to see so many positive comments about the technical quality of the previous releases. I bought one of the big box sets- I think it had about 10 discs in thin packs in it- watched two eps and then promptly sold it. The compression artifacting was horrendous, amongst the worst I've ever seen. It was a complete eyesore. A shame too, as I was really looking forward to finally seeing what the show was like.

Re: I Spy - Remastered?

The quality of episodes in the box sets, while far from pristine, was a big improvement over the first "I Spy" DVD that came out, which appeared to have been mastered from a VHS tape recorded at EP speed.

The series definitely deserves better treatment, but I find this very watchable compared to previous releases, the occasional rare television airing or tapes traded amongst collectors. I do wish they'd clean up the title element, though. Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to remove the debris from that fairly short clip.