B.J. AND THE BEAR (1 Viewer)

[haveaday]

1 - You know this how? 2 - Right. So the publishers and the song writers have nothing to do with it? Sure. 3 - So, the $5000 an hour that they pay in-house to transfer is BSt and you know otherwise? You work for Universal?

1. It is called calling people who work at Universal and them doing research. 2. Yes nothing to do with it, perhaps if you ever heard of the saying "The Devil's in the Details" and knew how to apply it to a legal contract, you would then know. 3. Yes that rate is crap

 

[haveaday]

As I said earlier, I know of an overseas company trying their hardest to secure this show for release. Universal are not making it easy though. They are having trouble tracking down some of the masters. It's still in early stages so I'm not at liberty to name the company at present. I will try and get an update in the next couple of days. On a side note, I recently had some questions answered kindly by Greg Evigan about BJ and the Bear and you can read them here. He does talk about the DVD rights issue. link; http://www.facebook.com/groups/209987832375051/permalink/531496000224231/

Facebook is a privacy thief site, so why not summarize what was said

 

[banjo78]

An update but not a positive one though. The overseas company trying to get this released has hit a dead end. I will reveal now that it is British company Fabulous Films and they have released shows like "Tour of Duty" for example with the original music.

They met with Universal last month and BJ was on the list of avails, FabFilms made them an offer but then Universal strangely backtracked and told them that they had no materials and they were lost in a fire.

So I guess it's back to square one. Our hope I guess now lies with another company/tv station that may have copies on file somewhere? Not sure how that works. I'm sure no one is going to pay the money to have the original masters transferred.

I so want this show on DVD. Cue tantrum

 

[Jack P]

Well, much as I hoped to one day see a remastered Anne Lockhart in the Pogo Lil episodes, I'll just have to consider that a lost cause. Sounds like that was another total casualty of the 2008 fire like "Baretta" and "Switch" are known to be and unless a major cable channel pays for a remastering, you indeed can forget it.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

I thought none of the original masters of B.J., Baretta, and Switch, were lost. Only the tape transfers.

Now this is getting confusing.

 

[Jack P]

That's what we're talking about. When it comes to Universal titles if the tape transfers are gone, then that's the end of a realistic chance of seeing the show on DVD because Universal will not remaster the film elements unless they have a compelling reason.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I just removed two posts from this thread.

I don't mind anyone coming here as a new user (or current) criticizing
Universal for something they did wrong with a transfer.

What we don't tolerate here are people typing complete statements in
ALL CAPS, making personal attacks towards the studio by calling them
names.

If you wish to discuss a problem here, do it intelligently. Be somewhat
professional. Nobody takes name calling rants seriously.

You are all welcome to speak your mind here. Just do it in a manner
that invites discussion rather than having people think you are a "troll."

 

[banjo78]

Further to my earlier post, Fabfilms were also told by Universal that they don't have the original masters, just some heavily edited broadcast masters.

 

[Radioman970]

Everything I bought from Fab films (2 or 3 obscure shows), the second DVD was always a loosey-goosey. And they wouldn't refund or send me a new one. I hope someone else gets BJ.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Everything I bought from Fab films (2 or 3 obscure shows), the second DVD was always a loosey-goosey. And they wouldn't refund or send me a new one. I hope someone else gets BJ.

Did you buy from them direct? If you'd have ordered it from Amazon UK, they would probably have sent you another set no problem.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Further to my earlier post, Fabfilms were also told by Universal that they don't have the original masters, just some heavily edited broadcast masters.

if that's indeed the case, it certainly puts Fabulous between a rock and a hard place. There would be perhaps just as many complaints over an edited-for-syndication release as there would be for no release at all. The latter is certainly the least risky.

Do you know if Fabulous and Universal discussed Sheriff Lobo at all? I know that particular series was syndicated on RTV in recent years, so one would assume that there are still tape masters circulating for that show (though whether there are uncut ones would remain to be seen).

Of the two shows, I personally preferred the spin-off (though the addition of the all-female trucking crew in season 3 of BJ added some much-appreciated eye candy!)

 

[Radioman970]

Did you buy from them direct? If you'd have ordered it from Amazon UK, they would probably have sent you another set no problem.

They were selling through amazon.com as well with the name fabulous_films_inc. I got them that way. I contacted them but they didn't want to send me a replacement. I got The Red Hand Gang and Monster Squad (w/ Gropher from Love Boat). Both arrived scratched but tested okay. I guess it would be worth the chance if they picked up BJ. I wouldn't let it stop me from buying. no way.

 

[banjo78]

Can someone explain to me what edited broadcast masters actually are in comparison to the originals?

 

[Scott511]

Can someone explain to me what edited broadcast masters actually are in comparison to the originals?

Well, the edited broadcast masters would have been used for syndication purposes. Edited meaning cut for more commercial time. They should have also had uncut broadcast masters. Some studios used to have 2 versions of shows available for syndication, edited or unedited. Years ago the station I worked for had one or the other, usually depending on when they were airing the program. They used to air The Rockford Files, and Mission Impossible late night, and they were uncut. In the case of those 2 shows, we had them on 16 mm film and ran them on a film chain. If the tape masters were destroyed in the Universal fire, no way are they going to spend the money on making anything new from the original 35 mm film elements. I have 3 3/4 inch tapes of B.J. given to me about 10 years ago when I worked for a station that ran the show in the early to mid 80s. It was from The B.J./Lobo Show syndication run. They also gave me one Lobo tape. They did not get sent back when the stations contract ended. They are edited, not uncut.

While it would be nice to have the show uncut, I'm not a big fan of Fabulous Films. They (in conjunction with Shout Factory)botched the Tales of The Gold Monkey and Airwolf: The Movie discs because their U.S. releases have the dreaded PAL "speed up".

However something is better than nothing...

 

[banjo78]

Hey thanks Scott511 for that info. Can we coax you into transferring your tapes to DVD so we can get good quality copies? Wink wink!!

 

[Stephen Wight]

I totally agree. "Stacks" sure was an appropriate name for Judy Landers' character.Greg Evigan must have been in the proverbial hog heaven being around those beautiful ladies all the time.

Of the two shows, I personally preferred the spin-off (though the addition of the all-female trucking crew in season 3 of BJ added some much-appreciated eye candy!)

 

[Stephen Wight]

Of the two shows, I personally preferred the spin-off (though the addition of the all-female trucking crew in season 3 of BJ added some much-appreciated eye candy!)

I totally agree. "Stacks" sure was an appropriate name for Judy Landers' character. Greg Eveigan must mave been in the proverbial hog heaven being around those beautiful ladies all the time.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

Maybe Universal could borrow home-recorded copies of the original network versions that were taped off of NBC way back when.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Maybe Universal could borrow home-recorded copies of the original network versions that were taped off of NBC way back when.

Not gonna happen. That would take just as much restoration work (if not more) than going back to the original 35mm films. Late '70s VHS (this was even before HQ circuitry), at around 250 lines of resolution, just wouldn't cut it, and most people who would have been recording at the time wouldn't have used SP speed, either, since tapes were so expensive. They'd have used LP speed (I have three off-NBC recordings of second-season Lobo episodes in just such a state. Perfectly watchable, but not really good enough for a commercial DVD).

 

[Ron1973]

Not gonna happen. That would take just as much restoration work (if not more) than going back to the original 35mm films. Late '70s VHS (this was even before HQ circuitry), at around 250 lines of resolution, just wouldn't cut it, and most people who would have been recording at the time wouldn't have used SP speed, either, since tapes were so expensive. They'd have used LP speed (I have three off-NBC recordings of second-season Lobo episodes in just such a state. Perfectly watchable, but not really good enough for a commercial DVD).

My "unofficial" copy was from VHS tapes from collectors. There were some pretty terrible episodes picture-quality wise.