Universal Studios Is The Pits (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

i needed to be corrected also



i was looking at an episode guide that listed all the indivdual stories for Season 1 of which there are 17 (+ the 3 from the pilot), but i guess these were paired up usually 2 per hour, so the original poster iwould be right that we're only getting about 10 hours of content.

actually, that still averages $6 an hour, and less than $5 with the typical retail discounts-
thats in line with what you pay for features, and doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

and frankly i'm a little relieved now since they won't be cramming 17+ hours on 3 discs
10 hours across three discs sounds much more comfortable

 

[DanielBH]

Universal does seem to miss a great many opportunities. For instance, I know there were several extras they could have easily included on the Sliders set (such as the video press kits for season one and two - some great interviews and behind the scenes with the cast in those). However, the Sliders set was left fairly bare in the extras department. At least we did get a commentary; that's more than poor Quantum Leap received.

I just have to wonder why Universal doesn't seem to be changing at all? Can they really be ignoring the many problems that are occurring? It's not like this is new. The Back to the Future box was pretty badly screwed up too; and that had been in production for what...nearly a decade? (or at least it seemed that long)

 

[TheBat]

you can write to universal at:
universalstudios&[email protected]

JACOB

 

[Bryan^H]

The first batch of Buck Rogers dvd's were beyond horrible. I went through 3 sets before I got a good one. I haven't watched it all the way through yet, and to be honest I'm afraid I will find more defects along the way. The discs of the first 2 sets were badly scratched, and one even had a super glue-like substance on it. I know I'm not the only one who had this problem, I read the reviews on Amazon. I don't know where quality control was on the release of this set, because it was almost funny how bad the sets were. I was turned off from buying any Universal releases for a long while.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Bryan^H, I hear what you're saying about the Buck Rogers set. I got a perfect set after having to exchange it once and the price when it came out the week of release was horrific. Universal soaked me for $75 then they lowered the prices? What the hell is up with that.

And let's not get started on other boxed sets.

Emergency Season 1, what the hell is it with $34 for 12 episodes? Paramount (aren't they the ones putting this out) talk about gouging fans on the price for this set.

And the Battlestar Galactica Season 1 that's coming out in September and Universal is charging $50 for 13 episodes? They really suck. They seem to be happily ecstatic with overcharging fans for these DVD sets. I think I'm going to start waiting a few months after these sets are released before buying them because these stores seem to drop prices in order to clear the DVD's out of their store.

 

[ElijahS]

It's a Universal title, not a Paramount title; this is a Universal thread, not a Paramount thread.

 

[FrancisP]

Since I started this thread, this is my current assessment
of Universal. My assessment is based mainly on their classic releases since that is the pool I buy for. I would place them at the lower end of the major studios. They are doing a better job of exploiting their classic titles.
I do think the pricing is inconsistent. The prices for the
some of the sets are reasonable but are overpriced for
others. As far as Buck Rogers is concerned, I am still not happy about paying for a rotten second season. That is why I have not bought it as yet. It's also a shame that they
apparently are not going to release the second season of Night Gallery. If they don't want to do it, then farm it out to AB or Image. Then it could get the treatment it
deserves since I thought the second season was the best.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

I think Universal, and they have done a good job with Magnum Season 1 but I wasn't satisfied with the second season and how they handled it. My 4-year old nephew could have done a better job at putting these sets together.

Does Universal even care about the fans of these classic television shows when they're putting these sets together?

 

[John*D]

The replacement of music on QL sucks! Especially in season 2's MIA. Ok, so Al can reference and specifically name, Ray Charles: Georgia on my Mind as Beth's favorite song, but they can't even play it at the end?

What makes even less sense is that the Jamie Foxx movie, RAY was released by UNIVERSAL in cooperation with Ray Charles. So why the heck could they NOT get "Georigia on my Mind"? Now the series finale is going to be ruined too as it is linked to MIA and plays the song as well.

___

I don't even want to talk about the HORRIBLE packaging UNIVERSAL has been using for the SLIDERS sets...

 

[Daniel-M]

One of the biggest problems with Universals TV-releases are that they use double sided discs

 

[michael_ks]

According to the nightgallery.net site, season two is coming out later this year. Click on the DVD link on the left seen on the main page.

At this point, all I would expect is the same bare bones release as seen in season one, with minimally restored prints. I hope they at least rework the confusing menu, and PLEASE Universal, drop the obnoxiously LOUD modern logo with the "Genesis Effect" rip-off from "Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan" and restore the quiet "revolving Earth" logo seen in NG's initial run! I mean, Christ...how lame can it get...?

 

[RickER]

You wanna bitch about the Universal logo? I HATE that the damn logo has to play, about 4 times, before an episode of a show even starts. I get it already. I know its Universal crap because its on a flipper disc. As i have said in other Universal hate threads i wouldn't mind if not for the fact that Universal has almost ALL of my favorite shows i want. Maybe they know this so thats why we get the shaft from them. Next i will get on my soap box about Paramount and the Trek price rape.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Well, I'll update, since I have a post in this thread. Obviously, the praise about Quantum Leap's music didn't hold. Fortunately, that's the only Universal show I've wanted that's been affected to the point of not buying a release, but it was a tough one. Other than that, I have no problems with Universal and own many of their releases. I'm sorry that so many people seem to be having problems with the sets, but I'm lucky that none of my many Universal purchases has ever had a problem. It'll make you mad for me to say it, but I'm glad they are on flippers. It's better for me than something like Dukes of Hazzard S4 with 9 overlapping discs. I hate that. Before you get too mad, remember that what I want makes little difference, and Universal will keep or discard flippers regardless of my stand.

 

[Darren Haycock]

Word on the street is that Universal is distributing House for some reason. Anyway, apparently it's going to be released in NON-anamorphic widescreen. WTF? House is a brand new show, what on earth are they thinking?

 

[Jay_B!]

I am glad Murder She Wrote is the only Universal show they're currently working on that I really care to own on DVD, and that doesn't have any costly music rights as far as I'm aware.

Universal is a crappy company IMO

 

[Jeff Willis]

OK, here goes...as I risk the rath of fellow HTF'ers regarding Universal:

I have one question about Uni: I own several Uni sets and from what I can tell, all contain the originally-aired un-cut eps. That, to me, is the #1 issue as a TV/DVD collector. Does anyone out there know of a Uni set that contains cut eps? By "cut", I'm referring to cut video scenes, not music cuts or credit cuts, etc.

I agree with some of the issues posted here but if it's true that Uni has a good track record with the un-cut ep issue, then I'm an easy-sell for their sets.

 

[ElijahS]

With my sets, my big complaint is the constant change in packaging. Otherwise, my sets have been fine (I own all of the L&O DVDs and Monk).

 

[Katherine_K]

Aside from being pretty short on extras, I've never had anything to complain from my Universal purchases. Now I'll say I'm mindly amused and mildly annoyed about the packaging changes on L&O... but that's not a major issue.

Law & Order 1-3 +14
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 1 + 5
Law & Order: Criminal Intent 1 + 3
Earth 2

 

[AnthonyC]

I only have one Universal set (The Apprentice: The Complete First Season). I have three complaints about it:

1. The original theme music is changed.
2. The packaging is terrible and gimmicky.
3. The bonus features are a perfect example of how quality is better than quantity. Paramount's Survivor sets feature less bonus features but they're better. The Apprentice set has a ton of bonus features but very few worthwhile ones.

 

[ElijahS]

Apparently, that set was a flop, and Universal is not going to release another reality show in the forseeable future.