The Virginian (2 Viewers)

[Hollywoodaholic]

Okay, what the hell happened between Season 7 and Season 8 (the final season)? Season 7 looked fantastic, HD quality, bright, consistent color. Season 8 looks like shit. No color correction. Muddy night scenes. Some yellowish. Some pinkish. Contrast too high in the day scenes. What the hell happened? Did Timeless drop the ball or the budget on this one? The story "The Long Ride Home" and acting were fine, as usual, but the look was a complete and inconsistent mess. And the music. Cheesy 5th dimension electric piano muzak and even some electric guitar in some sequences. Like they were trying to hip it up, but it sounds completely inappropriate to the setting and action.

Wow, I'm just disappointed that after Season 7, this is a huge quality PQ dropoff. I usually trade the sets back in after watching (and because they are running on Inspiration Channel), but held on to 7 it looked so fantastic. And then this. I just couldn't believe how crummy the earlier scenes in episode one looked. Very distracting to otherwise good origin story for Tim Matheson (the man who never ages and has been around forever).

 

[FanCollector]

I don't have any independent knowledge about it, but that would have been the one season that was fully produced and distributed after Timeless was bought by Shout Factory. (The seventh season was released after the takeover, but must have already been somewhere in the process before Shout came into the picture.) Maybe Shout was willing to release the eighth season to complete the run, but wanted to cut some corners to reduce their costs? Just my guess. I have the DVDs but have not watched the reruns on cable. Are the television prints better than the DVDs?

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The television prints I've seen on Inspiration Channel from Season 7 are generally consistent with the great quality of the PQ for that season. And, to be honest, I actually think my upscaled DVD looks brighter and better then the aired versions. But I haven't seen any of Season 8 on the channel yet, so will be curious what that looks like. Honestly, I couldn't believe they would release it like this after how great all the other seasons looked (but with some audio dropouts throughout). So your news on the owner changeover might explain it.

 

[benbess]

I've been slowly working my way through S8 too. I have noticed that the image quality doesn't seem as good, esp. in nighttime scenes, but I haven't done any direct comparisons.

I missed somehow that Timeless was bought out. Sorry to be so out of the loop, but has this changed their business model in a major way? Do they no longer care about or do old tv shows as much? Thanks in advance.

 

[Richard V]

I've been slowly working my way through S8 too. I have noticed that the image quality doesn't seem as good, esp. in nighttime scenes, but I haven't done any direct comparisons.

I missed somehow that Timeless was bought out. Sorry to be so out of the loop, but has this changed their business model in a major way? Do they no longer care about or do old tv shows as much? Thanks in advance.

Ben, there is another thread in this section called The End of B&W DVD. There is a discussion on the Shout takeover of Timeless. Look on the last couple of pages.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Timeless just like Shout only released what Universal provided them. They have no budget for re-mastering the shows themselves. I'm only on Season 6 but it was my understanding from what had been posted in other threads previously was that Universal re-mastered Seasons 1-8 for Encore channel and other TV broadcasts but did not re-master Season 9 with the title change "Men From Shiloh" What Timeless got was this same package which is why Season 9 or Men from Shiloh does not look very good. So are we really talking about Season 8 looking bad or Season 9. The review on this website and on Amazon did not indicate Season 8 was of lesser quality only Season 9.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I'm talking about Season 8, called "The Final Season" of The Virginian, not Men From Shiloh. It looks NOTHING like, or as good as, Seasons 1-7.

 

[Randy Korstick]

hmm. disappointing and curious as to why. Maybe this season isn't shown on TV either just like season 9. Makes you wonder if the reviewers actually watch what they review or just do a quick scan through.

 

[benbess]

A fan trailer for the very first film of the very first season of The Virginian. It's just 3 minutes or so long:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaTshHozc2Q&feature=youtu.be

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

So I finally made my way through re-watching the entire series, finishing up with the 9th season re-titled Men from Shiloh.


First of all, the picture quality of the last season is even worse than Season 8. They obviously did nothing to re-master or improve it. You can hardly see anything in the murky night scenes. It's not even acceptable DVD.


Secondly, things get off to a horrifying start with probably the worst written episode of The Virginian I've ever scene that introduces the Stewart Granger as McKenzie character. It's unbelievably bad. I was ready to write the entire season off.


But... not so fast. The stories do get better, the guest stars are a cavalcade of great character actors from that era with almost every episode packed with familiar favorites (your Burgess Meredith, Julie Harris, Chill Wills, Slim Pickens, Pernell Roberts, William Windom, Diane Baker, Susan Oliver, E.G. Marshall, Tony Franciosa, Anne Francis). There's some honestly good episodes, though Doug McClure is really shorted. But at least he goes out with a good comedy episode, "The Legacy of Spencer Flats," with Edgar Buchannan, Anne Southern and Carolyn Jones playing good kooks (heavily borrowing from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane vibe).


James Drury gets a nice final star episode, "The Town Killer," where he has to be the guy antagonizing the bad guy owning the town so that everyone wants him dead, and he has to stand up and fight alone until the townspeople are guilt-ed into joining the rebellion. Yup, it's High Noon, re-booted, but if you're going to go out of your self-named series, you might as well go out stealing the most classic western plot around.


But here's the holy crap moment of the whole season...


...Never thought much of Lee Majors as an actor. Then, I see he gets the final final episode, "Jump Up" (the name of the town). Groan. I almost was going to skip it. I reluctantly turn it on around midnight new year's day. And... holy shit... it's easily one of the best written EVER episodes of The Virginian and easily the best of the entire season. I kid you not. Never heard of the writer Ron Bishop, but he gives every character great dialogue, really believable to the era and the character. He even has Lee Majors doing the best job he's ever done in a series with his dry delivery, but great lines. You've got John McGiver, stereotypically the man who controls the town, but just giving the juiciest speeches going. And you've got Rick Jason from Combat! playing the baddie putting the town and McGiver under his thumb and just nailing it with, again, some really tasty dialogue. And the innuendo played in the last night scene between Lee Majors and Madelyn Rhue is so sophisticated and demure and pointed, I couldn't believe this was a 70s television series.


What a way to go out. Seriously. It was like a perfect little odd-ball independent feature film. I was left trying to figure out if they left it for last because the producers honestly recognized it as their best script of the season, or if it was such an offbeat non-typical episode, they just kind of dumped it at the end. Either way, that episode alone totally justified going through the entire season. I'm still trying to get over it. What an unexpected little gem. It's like watching The X-Files for several seasons and suddenly getting that Vince Gilligan "Bad Blood" episode. It jolts you to attention.


It even had a cameo of the Virginian and McKenzie headed out for a brandy at the finale after Tate (Majors) comes back to the ranch and lets on he will stay. Nice tag. Great episode. Perfect way to leave a good taste for the viewer after nine seasons of a favorite western series classic. I would have loved to see it go out on Trampas, but I can see they needed a different character (mum man Tate) to pull it off. If I had a hat, it would be off to this show riding off into the sunset in fine style.


P.S. - Looking up the writer Ron Bishop, I see that he wrote for almost every classic western series from the 60s from Maverick to Gunsmoke to Bay Masterson to How the West Was Won. He even wrote for Combat! I guess everyone of that era recognized that he had the touch when it came to great cowboy dialogue. He even wrote for Longstreet and The Bold Ones. I'll have to check some of his other episodes out.

 

[benbess]

For the past few weeks, I've been doing a re-watch of the first season of The Virginian. Here are my ratings for the first 30 episodes from 1962 to 1963. And yes, there's some grade inflation, since this is my favorite TV Western.

The Executioners: A-
Woman from White Wing: A
Throw A Long Rope: A-
The Big Deal: A-
The Brazen Bell: A-
Big Day, Great Day: B
Riff-Raff: B+
Impasse: B-
It Tolls For Thee: A-
West: B+
The Devil's Children: B
Fifty Days to Moose Jaw: A-
The Accomplice: A-
The Man From the Sea: B-
Duel at Shiloh: B+
The Exiles: A-
The Judgment: B+
Say Goodbye to All That: B-
The Man Who Couldn't Die: B-
If You Have Tears: A-
The Small Parade: B+
Vengeance is the Spur: B+
The Money Cage: B+
The Golden Door: A-
A Distant Fury: B+
Echo of Another Day: B+
Strangers at Sundown: A-
The Mountain of the Sun: A
Run Away Home: B+
The Final Hour: A-

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

"West" was easily my favorite of the first two seasons. It sums up the whole appeal wanting to live the freedom of the West but not think about all the consequences. And Doug McClure gives his most energized, charismatic but also tragic performance of the series. His reaction to the offscreen death of his amigos hits you in the solar plexus. More powerful than anything that could have been shown what happened to them.

 

[Bert Greene]

I agree about that first-season episode "West.". It really packs a wallop. Great script. Always considered it one of the most memorable and most affecting episodes of the entire series, and McClure really delivers.

 

[benbess]

"West" was easily my favorite of the first two seasons. It sums up the whole appeal wanting to live the freedom of the West but not think about all the consequences. And Doug McClure gives his most energized, charismatic but also tragic performance of the series. His reaction to the offscreen death of his amigos hits you in the solar plexus. More powerful than anything that could have been shown what happened to them.

I agree that Doug McClure's performance in "West" is great—that's the best part of the episode for me. The motivations of his friends, however, weren't always convincing to me—but that's obviously a personal opinion and preference.

I think McClure's performance in "The Final Hour" is maybe even more powerful, and for that one I personally found the motivations of the opposing sides a bit more convincing.

 

[Regulus]

Why am I getting alerts when someone posts on this thread? I don't like seeing alerts on a thread I haven't posted on.

 

[dawnshadow]

In Germany next year season 1 and 2 will be released on blu ray. All episodes uncut and with original english soundtrack.

https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-news..._ersten_staffel?cs=newsletter&nl=NDYyMS5odG1s

No infos about the RC yet.

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09LGWVJXY

 

[bmasters9]

Why am I getting alerts when someone posts on this thread? I don't like seeing alerts on a thread I haven't posted on.

It may be because you have set this thread to be watched, and when someone says something, you'll get an icon notification on the bell at the top right, and (depending on preference) get an email notification as well, or just get the bell notification.