Night Gallery on DVD (MERGED THREAD) (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

ok.
i just watched a couple of stories from discs 1 and 3 and spot checked a few others and i have to say i'm kind of pissed off.

not at the set, but at all the people that have been badmouthing it and scaring away old fans, and worse, potential new fans over 'quality' concerns.
i realize my previous comments in this thread have probably already marginalized me as an apologist for this set, but i'm honestly going by what i'm seeing.
i bought 3 TV on dvd sets yesterday-
Artisans Best Of Bonanza (the only legit, quality release of that show yet)
Warners Dallas S1&2
and Night Gallery.

Night Gallery was, far and away, the best looking of the bunch.
yes, even with the dirt and the speckling.
the comparison with Dallas was especially shocking.
soft, blurry, lacking in fine detail, dirt on the print, color fringing, ringing, edginess- while still watchable, it was one of the poorest looking TV sets i've seen.

by contrast, the only flaws i saw with NG were dirt and speckles.
disappointing? well, a bit, but i can easily see where a studio would come to the conclusion that it's just not worth going to the expense of remastering 9 hours of content over those things.
For Pete's sake- look how many classic films never get the resotration they deserve and peopel expect those resources to be thrown at a TV show that wasn't much appreciated when it first aired?
Dallas will most likely outsell NG by at least 2 to 1 (maybe 3 to 1).
i will be surprised if i see anywhere near the same level of vitriol directed at Warner over it the same way Universal has been dumped on for this.

could NG have looked better? sure. i could envision this looking every bit as brilliant as Fox's first season of Mary Tyler Moore.
but if i may remind everyone- that beauty came at a price-
namely that's all we get- one lousy season.
even if the other seasons were magically put into the pipeline, its certain that past season 2 they wouldn't be going to the expense of remastering any more of those anyway.

and, correct me if i'm wrong-but the most noticeable visual difference between those two releases is not sharpness, detail, or compression/encoding-
its surface blemishes.
seems to me, NG would need more than just a remastering if there is dirt and speckling on the prints- it would need some kind of a full-on restoration.
going in and removing the dirt and specks from each frame.
as much as i like the show and would love to see that happen, that is just too damn unrealistic.

i would be quite satisfied to see the remaining two seasons released in quality comparable to this set.
i just hope i'm not sitting her a year from now posting threads asking if anyone has heard a peep about season 2 yet.



oh and, i thought it was pretty bizarre that Universal would trumpet Lindsey(sic) Wagner as appearing in the Bonus episodes when she has about 2 minutes of screen time and four lines.
i hope Universal makes up for that tease with the BW set soon- although it wasn't one of the titles listed in the enclosed booklet as still coming out in 2004 (Miami Vice and Leave It To Beaver were though).

 

[Gord Lacey]

Paul, I know what you mean. I pictured the set looking horrible from some of the things that have been going around the message boards, but I thought the dust was the only problem (and one minor defect that lasted a second in a story).

I was quite impressed by the quality of the set, and to think I almost passed it up because of what I read previously.

Gord

 

[Scott Skelton]

I pictured the set looking horrible from some of the things that have been going around the message boards, but I thought the dust was the only problem (and one minor defect that lasted a second in a story).>>

I think some folks got the impression that the butchered half-hour syndication version was going to get released instead of the '90s master. This series has had such a confused history, it's not surprising some might think that. But I get irked at Universal when the crackling in "The House" soundtrack and the missing music cue from "The Diary" weren't fixed before release. Those were purely sound issues that could have been dealt with even without a full remastering.

And I'd like some cheese with my whine, please.

 

[Dane Marvin]

I haven't pictured the set looking horribly because I have seen the episodes being broadcast on Mystery and I think they look great. Looking forward to picking up this set on payday.

 

[MattHR]

Agreed. She was a "contract player" for Universal during the early 70's, so they cast her in many of their TV shows of the time. She made appearances on "The Rockford Files" (2), "The FBI", "Owen Marshall", "Adam-12", "Night Gallery" (2), "Marcus Welby" (4), "The Bold Ones", "Sarge", "Man in the City" and, of course, "The Six Million Dollar Man".

With "The Bionic Woman" coming to DVD soon, as well as some of the above titles, maybe they're giving her a little "plug". Hopefully they'll spell her name correctly on the cover of her most famous show.