I Spy - Remastered? (1 Viewer)

[Randy Korstick]

Ditto!

 

[jamoon2006]

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?

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

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.

 

[Mike*HTF]

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

 

[BobSchneider]

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

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

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.

 

[Sam Favate]

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

 

[troy evans]

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.

 

[Paul_Scott]

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.

 

[Mary_P]

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.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

This show holds up remarkably well, which is why I went ahead and ordered all three season sets. Unlike The Man From U.N.C.L.E., I Spy originally ran in the 10 o'clock hour and was more adult-themed and oriented. It didn't rely on gizmos, gadgets or toys for merchandising like TMFU, but pretty much on the charisma of the two leads, Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, and their great chemistry onscreen together. The show was actually shot on real locations around the world including Hong Kong, Athens, Tokyo, Mexico City, Cairo, etc. This added an authenticity to the series that no other show could touch (except Route 66 domestically).

The plots were often minimalistic - protect an important ambassador from assassination, or get a philandering diplomat to an important meeting on time, but featured great character actors playing the parts and, again, explored grown-up themes. Plus, it was just pure fun. You could tell the leads had a great time making the show and enjoyed each other's company. I think Bill Cosby won Emmys two years in a row for his performance here; his first series ever. Check it out!

 

[Hank Dearborn]

As many of us already have all of the episodes from when they were originally released to DVD, we are not interested in hearing about what the show is like but in what the "remaster" looks like. Was it remastered or did they just reconfigure the shows into seasons? Can anyone answer this? The price point seems way too cheap for them to have gone back to the negatives and actually remastered, IMO. I'm guessing they just put them together as season sets and did nothing else to them.

 

[michael_ks]

I anxiously await word as to the PQ/AQ as well because I'm still unsure whether to purchase or not. If image/audio has not improved since the release of the original sets, I'll know I needn't bother. Someone please chime in on how the season sets look visually...thanks.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I'll do a comparison tonight. I have some of the original disks and will spot check the same episode from the last release with this release. I just bought a Panasonic Blu-ray player, so I'll be using that (DMP BD30).

 

[troy evans]

Thanks for the insight into the show and taking the time. Look forward to your comparisons.

 

[troy evans]

My apologies. I realilized after posting that this thread was remastered specific and not about content. Oh well, my bad.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I don't think an apology is necessary; the topic is I Spy and the new re-issues and everything is fair game.
I will now confuse the remastering question even further.

I spot-check compared three episodes from previous releases with this new release and my conclusion ... my previous releases were already remastered, and these are the same. They look good. I think Image had remastered them along the way and perhaps early buyers of the show got shafted, but the single disks I bought within the last year already looked good, sounded okay and the storage cases had even changed from the original issues.

Disclaimer: I'm not a video technician; I don't obsess about minor halos, a little dirt and minutae, but I work in the industry, work with video editors and I'm very picky. For reference, I think The Twilight Zone definitive re-issues look great, but I think the original The Outer Limits still looks like crap. I've thrown away Lonesome Dove for looking like crap, Bob Newhart looks hideous, and many others. I can't stand something that doesn't look sharp. But this new set of I Spy, to my eye, looks better than Northern Exposure, looks better than Rockford Files and looks better than I ever saw it when it originally aired. The colors are vivid (there is some dirt and the opening title sequence was never properly cleaned), but it looks great. The stock footage shots that establish locations always look funky, but that's undoubtedly 16 mm. There's also always a little dirt or color fade during some of the dissolves where the film was overlapped. But considering how much of this show was shot using a mobile lab, it's remarkable.

I can only conclude from people that complained about the picture quality of the earlier releases that they came aboard before the show was re-mastered, or they have expectations way beyond the original elements. Image usually does a pretty good job and this set is no exception. They've cut corners on the packaging and disk art this time around, but I would hold this set up against any other color show of that era, and it's far superior to many subsequent releases of other more recent shows. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this presentation of the series.

 

[JeffT.]

In your assessment you make two references to the "early buyers" and "early sets" which are both quoted above.

I am not quite sure what it is you are saying. Are these (so-called) early sets in the current Image Entertainment rereleased complete season issue of the I SPY tv series a better quality or not? You don't specifically mention their actual quality beyond when they were originally issued.

What I (and a good many other people no doubt) am primarily interested is to know whether the quality in the current release is consistently good (or even excellent)...and that includes the (formerly) early sets, the middle sets and the later sets!

In other words...everything!

Jeff T.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I was merely speculating that perhaps there was an inferior previous release others are complaining about, but if so, I don't have it to compare. When I was checking the new release against MY previous releases, they both looked great for color and sharpness. I can't vouch that all the dirt and scratches have been cleaned up from every episode or that there has been any significant remastering between the previous releases I have and these (I'm sure we'll get some more technical comparisons from people who have more time and expertise than I), but to my subjective eye, the new set looks great.

I bought the set to complete my seasons. I previously had about 8 of the single disk 4-episode releases. If you already own the complete three seasons, perhaps you don't want to double dip on these if you're expecting a significant upgrade. But for a mere $12.99 each in slim, shelf-sparing packaging, these were a no-brainer for me.

 

[Mary_P]

The poor-quality disc I'm referring to is, specifically, this one:

Amazon.com: I Spy - A Few Miles West of Nowhere / The Trouble with Temple: Bill Cosby,Robert Culp,Earl Bellamy,Richard Benedict,Robert Butler,Hal Cooper,David Friedkin,Alf Kjellin,Anton Leader,Sheldon Leonard,Arthur Marks,Christian Nyby,Leo Penn,Alle

Note the release date, 1999. It had only two episodes, was expensive at $20, and the transfers were incredibly fuzzy. I don't remember seeing any other 2-episode releases around that time, and it looks like the single-disc 4-episode releases started coming out around 2001.

I warily bought one of the first 4-episode releases, and was pleased to see that the transfers were much better. I bought several of the single-disc releases and thought the quality was pretty good throughout (considering likely source material), and did not see a shift in quality when they came out in the original, episodes-out-of-order box sets. I now have the whole series in a mix of these single discs and box sets and have very much enjoyed them; I'd have been very happy to pay only $12.99 for a complete season!