Emergency! TV Series (2 Viewers)

[Jack P]

They looked better but they were not pristine since a lot of those episodes were remastered in the 90s for VHS release. The giveaway is if the original intro/credits are intact. If it's the S6/Syndicated one you're watching an old, old master in the substandard quality.

If all the seasons are great now for Netflix, then Universal should just go ahead with a slim package complete series set like they've done for other titles they completed themselves. Emergency is one of only three long-running 70s titles that was never farmed out to an independent label (Columbo, Rockford Files).

 

[LeoA]

Not a Netflix subscriber at this time so I can't compare directly, but I popped it in and scanned every season 1 episode. It's clearly remastered and looks beautiful, much unlike the situation later on.

The film grain is a bit heavy at times, but everything looks pristine, is very sharp, and the colors look great. If it's not the same source they're using for Netflix, it was at least remastered sometime in recent memory.

I popped in disc 1 of season 5 and watched it through to completion afterwards last night, and the quality was poor with lots of print damage like scratches, tears, and dirt in particular dragging it down.

In no way, shape, or form was season 1's transfers from the same source that they relied upon for much (Or all? Been going off several year old memories here) of seasons 2 through 5 on DVD.

 

[Jack P]

Compare Season 1 good quality episodes to Season 6 and you'll see the difference between early 90s remastering that was done for select episodes only released on VHS, and the full-blown post-fire remastering that Universal did with S6.

 

[LeoA]

Maybe I'll do that tonight, but I didn't really notice their quality as very inferior to that of the six post series movies that I just wrapped up rewatching a few evenings ago.

I bet we wouldn't be here talking about this right now had they maintained this level of quality throughout even with it apparently inferior to the shape it's now in with their HD transfers.

Either way, I guess the sentiment here is that we'd all love to see this rereleased in fully remastered form someday (And hopefully on Blu-Ray). I know the upgrade would be worth it for me, if the price is right ($100 or so).

 

[LeoA]

I don't remember catching this when I first watched this at release, but Universal misplaced the teaser in the season 6 episode 'Welcome to Santa Rosa County'.

The episode starts with the introduction, then plays the teaser before proceeding with the main body of the episode. Sort of like Shout Factory's Leave it to Beaver set.

I'm surprised that slipped by since it's so obviously wrong.

Incidentally, they sure didn't delve too far back for most of their clips in their Greatest Rescues of Emergency movie. After watching that recently and then rewatching the final two seasons, most everything they used is from these.