Fugitive comes to DVD in a 33 disc set on Nov. 1st 2011 - Page 3

Well let's remember that when Season Four was released they made no mention of the music being correct even though it was (except for some incidental music). From what I've heard from a reliable source the music from Season's Two and Three on this set won't be perfect, but it will be better than previous sets. I would guess the Capitol Library music is still missing from this set, but that more of the CBS cues will be put back in.

I know it's hard, but I would hold off pre-judging this set until the details come out. It sounds like they're trying to give the fans what they want so be patient.

I'd love to be sitting in that marketing meeting in their office when they decide how the ad guys are going to word that on the sales poster....

marketing person 1 - How about "newly improved audio"?
marketing person 2 - What about a "remastered and digital sound" logo?
marketing person 3 - I like "restored score for more authentic listening"!
...all advertising talk for "hey, you know the music we fu*ked-up almost beyond recognition? We've almost fixed it!!!"

I'm inclined to agree with Brad's insight regarding possible reasons for CBS withholding the information from their promotion, at least thus far. The last thing they need is to revive that public relations nightmare of irate customers demanding an account of their ignominious treatment of this series. It's entirely possible they will wait for reviews and word of mouth to spread the news of the music restoration and not have to directly deal with deserved customer backlash.

 

My best GUESS at this point is that given the title and price of the set, the music has been largely restored. CBS has a track record of forcing people to double dip for complete series sets, as they did by including exclusive and highly desirable extras on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW and THE WILD WILD WEST. I speculated from the very beginning of the music substitution issue that they might pull this one out when it came time for the Complete Series release. I never bought any of the season sets for that very reason. 

 

Of course, it is just a guess and subject to the same liabilities of any guesses!SUBMIT

If Paramount fixes the music, I assume they'll let me trade-in my edited copies for the corrected ones. I think both of those scenarios have about zero chance of happening.

However, if they do fix the music, I'll give $150 (or whatever the set costs) to charity before I send it to Paramount for fixing what shouldn't have been broken in the first place.

I hope the optimists are right about this one (music restored as in the S1 sets).

 

Travis, that's a good point.  Unless this show is on one's holy grail list, it will be a tough choice to double-dip or to take a chance on the music question without some advance detailed info from TSoD or waiting for someone here to purchase and report the music status.

 

Dave mentioned in his TSoD post that he is asking for additional info about the music question so hopefully as the release date gets closer, we'll see another post from Dave soon.

 

Dave, if you check in here, could you ask CBS (about the S2/3 sets within the box set), if the backscore will be restored as in the oirignal S1 vol releases?

 

Some consider the Rugolo portion of this series as sufficient restoration (ie, no "Heyes" backscore), and that's ok; their stance on it.  However, there are some here that don't consider that to be adequate for this series.  We consider the restoration issue to require the Rugolo music as well as all CBS library que's restored, to match the S1 releases, to be what is required before purchasing the box set.

 

The few Capital Music que's are probably a lost cause at this point but those que's consist of a very small portion of the backscore in the series.

 

Just me here, but it's (S2 & 3) got to be restored like S1 before I'll get this box set.  Rugolo restoration alone won't get me to purchase it.

Even if they reinstate music back into season's two and three, won't they have to cut out some of the season one music?

I guess we all still have our original season one boxes if this comes to pass.

While I am a fan of complete series sets, I don't know about this one. I bought all eight volumes in the series, watched them over the last 3 or 4 years and just finished. Of course I want the original music like everyone else, but can I justify the high price tag of this set just for that? Will I be able to sell the original volumes? Too much to worry about.

 

What's on the CD bonus disc? Does anyone know?

 

 

I too would not send another penny to Paramount. In my case, I spent half that amount to acquire the entire series (with all music in its unedited form) a few years ago from another distributor. The set is fine, the packaging is excellent, and the music is just the way it should be. I honestly can't imagine being a hardcore Fugitive fan and having to endure this. I think of TOS, and cringe when I think of what could have occurred with that (or any other beloved) series.

The set from your other distributor can't be in the quality this would be. I will buy if the music issue is resolved but I'm not as optimistic. Keep tuned. Anyone think one of the extras might be the pilot episode? That should be included and should have been on one of the original half season sets.

I guess the main reason for my somewhat optimistic guess is that I just can't figure out who they are trying to market this to if it's the same releases? Dismiss those who already bought it, dismiss the fans who won't buy it because of the edits and you are left with casual fans and impulse buyers who have almost certainly picked up the seasonal volumes at discount prices by now. Three volumes even turned up at Big Lots for ten bucks each. The series sets for ANDY GRIFFITH and WILD WILD WEST came out when the individual seasons were still commanding relatively high prices, but this set arrives at the twilight of DVDs.

So if they are the same releases who do they think wants this now? Does CBS/Para actually think ANYONE will shell out their asking price just to get a bonus disc and a CD?

Studios have dones similar type of releases with shows, like married with children, a-team, knight rider, etc. I have not bought the individual sets and have pre-order the complete series. I had other purchased when the fugitive came out that i was unable to pick up the show until now. I am looking forward to this set as my buddy, who recently passed on never got to see the final episode. So, i want to watch the final episode and have a molson dry to salute my buddy!!

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Good points.  I sure hope you're right about this one.  It would seem that the target customer base would be smaller after the individual season sets have been released, in addition to the music issues.
 

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That's a good strategy, waiting on the series sets.  I waited for the Knight Rider complete set but double-dip'ed on the A-Team's (to get the single-sided box set discs).  But I got Amazon "lightning deals" on both sets which helped the wallet.  That's another one I owe Gary :),  I was on the fence with Knight Rider.  Enjoying that set now.

 

Fugitive: I've also not yet seen the 2-parter finale.  Mom and I are watching the series weekly and we're in the early part of S4 now.
 

 

This is possibly true, but the quality is still excellent. And for me, I'd trade quality in order to have the music intact. As a musicologist, music is one of the most important things to me for a variety of reasons.

FWIW, Amazon is listing this for about $168. Not sure if that influences anyone's feelings about it. Doesn't change anything for me.

 

 

A poster to the Yahoo Fugitive group has noted that Walmart is now listing The Fugitive box-set at $134.96, about $33 less than Amazon. http://www.walmart.com/ip/17209495

I'm with you. I cannot watch the mangled episodes of seasons 2 and 3 from CBS. Lucky I have my A&E videotapes from the 90's.

Steve,

Your comment about the A&E videotapes from the 90's reminded me of something which is somewhat related. I almost purchased the laser disc format for the original series The Outer Limits, because the single-sided DVD discs were not working for me. But then, a poster on this Board mentioned that there were some United Kingdom releases of the series on single-sided discs, which I purchased.

Amazon has now raised the price to 178.00. Walmart online has it for 138.00. I spoke with Amazon via chat about the price differance and they would not match the Walmart price.

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That price is getting in my range.  I checked Walmart.com and it's showing up at 134.96 pre-order price here.   Tempting but I'll wait for the answer about the music issues.
 

 

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Agreed.  I saw that price quote earlier and thought the exact same thing, Jeff.  I'm just going to have to wait until we get a report on the set that we can trust concerning the music issue.  That probably won't come until the set is released, unless a reviewer that really knows their stuff gets it early and posts an online review with specifics about the music.  Even then I'll be doing all I can to make sure the person knows what they are talking about before I order the set for any price.  But the Walmart price is closer to what I'd be willing to pay.  Since I'd really only be buying this mega set in order to get Seasons 2 & 3 as replacements (assuming the CBS cues were restored - something that's still only a faint hope), and the bonus CD, I'm not keen on paying too much. 

 

 

Gary "if the studio did NOT restore the CBS cues they own to S2 and S3 then I'm not sure who they think they are targeting with this mega set" O.

To casual viewers/fans who did not buy the individual sets, but might buy the whole lot in one go, or to people to use for gift-giving for that TV junkie family member.

I'll be totally surprised if the studio does any content changes from the individual sets. The only thing I'm not sure about is which version of S2 V1 they'll use: the better (but not perfect) mail-away version, or the retail one with the larger amount of replaced music. I'd be hoping for the former, but since they went on record previously saying it would only be available by mail and only for a limited time, I'm not 100% sure.

It's unheard or (or maybe just almost unheard of) for a studio to go back and make widespread corrections/fixes on a complete series collection of something they previously released individually. Almost always, it's just the same content in newer/smaller packaging, with separate bonus disc(s), if any bonuses are included at all.

So it's pretty safe to assume this is just a repackage with a bonus disc, but which version of S2 V1 they'd use is still a mystery.

If they were going to restore all the music cues, you could almost bet they'd be trumpeting this loud and clear in the press release so that there'd be more double-dipping, especially given all the negative publicity they got for the replaced music.

I hear you Andy.  And what you said in your last paragraph makes all the sense in the world to me, but...  I'm still hoping there will be some music changes (for the better).  We'll all have to just wait and see.

 

 

Gary "usually I'm pretty pessimistic with stuff like this - but I think there's a good chance positive music changes have been made for this set" O.

CBS/Paramount did release the complete box set of I Love Lucy with a newly remastered Season 1, which they later made available individually, so there's precedent of them going back and fixing something for a complete series release. But is was I Love Lucy; I'm not sure they consider The Fugitive to be on the same level.

I think they will do some tweaking to the music track of Seasons 2 and 3, probably just enough to interest some folks into double dipping, but probably not enough to satisfy those who want the show with its original music track. That's just the maddening way that CBS/Paramount is.

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Bingo, John!  That's exactly what I'm expecting.  Some tweaking, but also still missing some CBS cues that the studio could have included had they really cared to do it right.  I hope they prove me wrong and have actually reinserted all the CBS Library cues, which would mean we'd have, on average, a good 95% of the original music in each episode.  But I'm not holding my breath for it to be that good.

 

 

Gary "I'll wait for a detailed review before I do anything" O.

How can you tell the newly remastered Season 1. I wondered if they made it available individually, but I have never seen anything about it?

Actually, I take that back; looking on Amazon, apparently they never did make the newly remastered Season 1 of I Love Lucy available individually

All of the negative publicity of the original releases kept me from buying them, but a "fixed" complete set would entice me to buy if the pricing is good.  Like others, I will be waiting for Paul Mavis and other respected writers to weigh in with their reviews.  Danny's cryptic comment about miracles sometimes happening does give optimism that this might be done right.  He's very well connected and knowlegeable about these kinds of things.

Yep, my words too all along, likely a good chance that's the way they'll do it.

Steve, please tell me you're joking here. If you're serious, then this must be the most unintentionally hilarious comment of the year on this forum.

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Todd, if you are insinuating that Steve's post is hilarious because he classifies Paul Mavis as a trusted reviewer then I think it's your post that's unintentionally funny.  Paul Mavis is the best reviewer of Classic TV on DVD, bar none, on the net.  He does a phenomenal job and while he might not possess all knowledge as it concerns the Fugitive music issue, that doesn't disqualify him as a first rate reviewer in my book.

 

 

Gary "maybe I'm reading you wrong, Todd... but if not then I don't understand the shot you just took at Steve and Mr. Mavis" O.