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Laramie Delay.

post #1 of 15
2/18/09 at 5:43am
Thread Starter 
Further to the news item about the new street date for 'Laramie', it seems there were some problems with picture & sound synch.

Here is a copy of Timeless's response to initial complaints from an early customer

Here is the info you requested.....Laramie has approx. 120 programs......To the best of our knowledge all the original masters were destroyed in the fire at Universal last year.....we worked very hard to obtain copies of the programs thru collectors and other sources......most of the programs we obtained are copies taped off television or poor quality transfers from 16mm films....during the mastering and replicating process further "glitches" developed in the transfer....we were unaware of much of this degeneration in the process.....were are trying again to remaster these programs using more sophisticated computer editing equipment....we are "recleaning" all the programs and have located another source with some better copies on tape.....we plan to recall all the Laramies sold to this point if the customer wishes.....we will replace these n/c by the end of March.....we apologize for this error in the process as we endeavor to bring the best possible product to the market......Norm
>
> Norm Andersen, President
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post #2 of 15
2/18/09 at 5:49am

Re: Laramie Delay.

Wow, terrible news to hear about the masters being destroyed in the Universal fire. One wonders as to what other series were affected.
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post #3 of 15
2/18/09 at 8:32am

Re: Laramie Delay.

I received my LARAMIE: Season 3 from Timeless almost a month ago. All the episodes that I saw (halfway through so far) looked pretty good to me.
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post #4 of 15
2/18/09 at 10:20am

Re: Laramie Delay.

x
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post #5 of 15
2/18/09 at 10:20am

Re: Laramie Delay.

This is very interesting. I believe it's the first official confirmation of specific tape masters having burned in the Uni vault fire, yes? I'd guess this is just the tip of the iceberg, because it's not likely the LARAMIE tapes were stored in a different building as all the other old TV shows.

Frankly, even if LARAMIE weren't such a lousy show, I don't really see the point of releasing off-air broadcasts or 5th generation 16mm dupes. It kind of makes sense in a situation like M SQUAD, where the poor quality episodes filled in a few gaps to complete the whole series. But an entire DVD release comprised of the same material that collectors have been passing around for decade -- why bother? Even with the promise of some marginal digital improvements. Surely there's some other property that would be a better use of Timeless's resources.
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post #6 of 15
2/18/09 at 1:38pm

Re: Laramie Delay.

You know, I'm sure the episodes exist safe and sound as negatives that are too cost prohibitive to strike up new prints.
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post #7 of 15
2/19/09 at 5:27am
Thread Starter 

Re: Laramie Delay.

Well Stephen, I would disagree that 'Laramie' is a lousy show though I would concede that the first two seasons were the best.
As for your point that 'Timeless' should use their resources for something else I disagree, you could argue that about any release. I would hope that their set will contain, at least some better copies than those circulating in the grey market. Following your logic we would not have had 'Arrest & Trial' 'Restless Gun' 'Tall Man' 'Checkmate' etc. All of which were much cleaner copies than the multi dubs I have seen.
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post #8 of 15
2/19/09 at 2:33pm

Re: Laramie Delay.

No, just to clarify, I'm fine with the Timeless releases comprised of actual 16mm transfers (i.e. Arrest & Trial, Checkmate, etc.). They're worth having and it's an ingenious way of getting around Universal's impossible bureaucracy.

But that logic ends for me if Timeless sources an entire release primarily from inferior fan-supplied VHS tapes of off-air broadcasts, or 4th generation 16mm transfers (which is how the e-mail from Norm Andersen to silverking reads to me). That's just not worth having. Especially if Timeless charges "we licensed this from a major studio" prices instead of "drugstore public domain bin" prices.

Dull as I find LARAMIE, though, I wince at the thought that we probably would've had nice looking season sets instead of garbage (or nothing) if Universal had bothered to store its elements in a fireproof vault. I'm not being at all facetious when I suggest we need legislation allowing negligence as a basis for revoking copyright.
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post #9 of 15
2/19/09 at 7:15pm

Re: Laramie Delay.

How dull was it? How did Laramie compare to other westerns in the story, action, acting, drama, music, and guest star departments?

I don't remember watching it. I know it was on against Combat for it's last year. So I think I watched the competition the other three years also. But maybe I avoided it on purpose.

Seeing John Smith in Cimarron City and Robert Fuller in Wagon Train, they seem like good action guys so I was interested in getting this, but I'd like more information.

I don't get the whole Universal charges too much to make new prints situation. A big company like they are should be able to produce them without thinking twice about it.
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post #10 of 15
3/28/09 at 2:05pm

Re: Laramie Delay.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Gu
How dull was it? How did Laramie compare to other westerns in the story, action, acting, drama, music, and guest star departments?
I just picked up season 3. I only watched one episode, and it wasn't the least bit dull. Of course I'll report back after I watch a handful of episodes.
The video/audio is below average, but I don't mind too much. From what I have seen the, the acting, and storylines will most likely be on par with the color Gunsmoke episodes.
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post #11 of 15
4/15/09 at 6:34am

Re: Laramie Delay.

Quote:
Originally Posted by silverking
.....we worked very hard to obtain copies of the programs thru other sources......
>
> Norm Andersen, President

Mmmmmm, "Other Sources"
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post #12 of 15
1/28/11 at 11:25am

 I just got news directly from TMG Projects Coordinator Autumn Malcom that the first season of Laramie is coming out on March 15th. I wonder how the quality of those episodes could be, maybe coming from either 16mm prints from collectors or newly minted digital video transfers that needed to be done after the Vault Fire back in 2008. We'll have to see about that!

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post #13 of 15
1/29/11 at 11:14am
Thread Starter 

As I mentioned in another thread here, the prints for S1 have been discovered in a vault so should be an improvement on the two colour seasons released previously.

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post #14 of 15
1/29/11 at 3:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverking View Post

As I mentioned in another thread here, the prints for S1 have been discovered in a vault so should be an improvement on the two colour seasons released previously.



But what type of prints? 16mm? 35mm-Video transfers? 

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post #15 of 15
2/3/11 at 11:34am

I e-mailed Autumn Malcom at TMG, and she replied by saying that they received the masters from NBC Universal, so it should be those videotaped transfers from 35mm elements. The same can be done for eventual releases of seasons 2-4, particularly an upgrade in quality of the color episodes, so we can all 'mosey on down' to Laramie!

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