Shows that need to be redone (1 Viewer)

I'm not sure if this topic has been mentioned before -- if it has, my apologies.

 

I was thinking of some shows that were butchered on DVD and, as a courtesy to fans, should be restored. For instance, one of my all-time favorite shows is Quantum Leap. But I refuse to buy any seasons except the first and last because the music was replaced. In most instances the music was crucial to the storylines. Although this will probably never be corrected, it needs to be.

 

Same with WKRP. What an insult to release the garbage they put out on this show!

 

Can you think of others that need to be redone? Even if Universal wouldn't correct their sloppiness on QL I would like to see Shout pick it up and restore it.

The Fugitive

My Three Sons

I think I Dream of Genie and Bewitched should be fully restored. I mean at least 2k scans of the best possible elements. I would prefer 4K.

ALF (not everyone can afford the Region 2 sets)

Father Knows Best: Season 1

Mama's Family

Married With Children: Season 4 (the theme song was one thing, but this one is particularly bad, with cuts of several episodes including "It's a Bundyful Life")

Rhoda: Season 1

The Waltons (no cuts I know of, but the transfers range from tolerable to terrible).
 

Originally Posted by snoopy28574

I think I Dream of Genie and Bewitched should be fully restored. I mean at least 2k scans of the best possible elements. I would prefer 4K.

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I think Sony had them both restored, but as good as they look now on DVD (except season 5 of Bewitched which inexplicably uses older masters), they could really do some great things with them on Blu-Ray.

 

Speaking of Sony, they never even acknowledged the problem of cut versions of individual episodes turning up on Sanford and Son, Soap, Diff'rent Strokes, Good Times, The Jeffersons, etc. And I'm guessing that since they're out of the non-current TV on DVD game (leaving Shout! to pick it up), they won't.

 

Originally Posted by Elena S

I'm not sure if this topic has been mentioned before -- if it has, my apologies.

 

I was thinking of some shows that were butchered on DVD and, as a courtesy to fans, should be restored. For instance, one of my all-time favorite shows is Quantum Leap. But I refuse to buy any seasons except the first and last because the music was replaced. In most instances the music was crucial to the storylines. Although this will probably never be corrected, it needs to be.

 

Same with WKRP. What an insult to release the garbage they put out on this show!

 

Can you think of others that need to be redone? Even if Universal wouldn't correct their sloppiness on QL I would like to see Shout pick it up and restore it.

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"Quantum Leap" would also be first on my list that needs to be corrected. As it stands, I only own Season 1. There are also the Season 5 episodes "Trilogy" and "Mirror Image" which weren't presented as originally broadcast. It would be nice to finally replace my NBC recording of the series finale.

 

"The Fall Guy" would be another Fox title (like WKRP) that I'm still not over the handling of Season 1. I would also love to see the remaining seasons released, but only if going forward the original broadcast music is intact. Season 2 is where this series really took off with Markie Post.

 

While Fox did bring in Jason Katims to oversee the music rights hurdles on "Roswell", I'd love for Shout to take this on (from what was released, even the menus and extras seem to lack) and at the same time, restore all of the original broadcast music.

 

Then there's "Friday Night Lights"; we've seen four season box sets of music replacement and the last two that didn't include the DirecTV versions. It is truly sad that FNL finally gets not one but four Emmy nominations but NBC and Universal can't seem to get the DVDs right.

 

The full-length episodes restore to Rhoda: Season One (if that's possible).

 

The first two seasons of "Quincy, M.E." re-issued, as well as continued. Universal released it on double-sided discs (which were problematic for a lot of people) and there were music substitution.

 

This would probably be a very low priority, even for Universal as Season 5 has yet to be released, but I like to see the first two seasons of "Sliders" re-issued (and honestly, the only seasons I would even consider purchasing) with better packaging (none of that "floating discs" garbage), restore the opening credits on the episodes which cuts off the "whisper" and "SLIDERS" at the end, Gord noted in his review that whenever it fades to commercial back, there was a tendency to cut off the music... and speaking of music, they even went as far as replaced one piece of film score in the second season episode "In Dino Veritas".

 

Mill Creek Entertainment squeezed all twenty, half-hour episodes of Season 1 of "Beyond Reality", including strangely, the first two episodes of the second and final season on 2 discs (!) on their The First Season set. It's too bad this underrated USA Network series got such a shoddy treatment from them. I believe they no longer own the distribution rights. Perhaps Universal can shop this to another independent.

 

"Home Improvement" is missing the scene that was added in syndication to "I Was a Teenage Taylor" and the sixth season set doesn't include the 3-D broadcast version of "The Feminine Mistake". (I even still have the 3-D glasses from Wendy's.) And I seem to recall reading some varying video quality issues in the last couple season sets. If Disney ever does a complete series set, I hope these are addressed.

 

And finally, there was a rumor awhile back that Alliance was considering doing a complete series set for "Due South" but it never happened. I only have the first season from them, but stopped short of completing the series because: a) the packaging was nightmare (not to mention the discs were double-sided), b) the transfers are bad, and c) they were the syndicated versions (though thankfully all of the original music was intact which played an integral part of this series).

What I would like to see them do is get the available cast and crew together to do more commentaries, provide deleted scenes, gag reels, stuff that may have been done on the series during the show's run on CTV, the original network broadcasts complete (and remastered) with the original music intact and the two-hour back-door pilot telefilm, Paul Gross' "32 Down on the Robert Mackenzie" music video, etc.

One of the most iconic Canadian series needs a better release than the ones currently out there.

 

Originally Posted by MatthewA


I think Sony had them both restored, but as good as they look now on DVD (except season 5 of Bewitched which inexplicably uses older masters), they could really do some great things with them on Blu-Ray.

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I would have to dig up the old threads here but weren't there some edits (besides the show's original sponsors) made to both "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie"? I stopped at the B&W seasons but if released to Blu-ray, I'd definitely double dip.
 

Well, I'll just say Quantum Leap and I wish Universal would put out a single-sided Magnum Complete Series so I could finally watch the rest of that. I stopped when I got a bad Season 3 disc at the same time I had bad discs in other sets. Discouraged me out of the TV on DVD game for a while.

Elena,

 

Good thread, thanks.

 

Regarding "Quantum Leap", the complete series is available in R2 if anyone here is interested, all music intact, according to various reviews. I have the set and am currently viewing S1. The music appears to me to be verified as intact.

 

The Amazon UK page link is here at a current price of £75.47 ($117.21 US). I was able to catch this one on sale there for considerably less a couple of months ago.

 

My #1 request for a "re-issue/restore" series would be "The Fugutive" with all of the original backscore intact, ie, the 1st Season's CBS/P releases.

The R2 Season 4 has the music cut, unfortunately. The complete series can't be bought anywhere completely intact. Funny, however, that they couldn't clear Georgia for Season 2, but they could for Season 5 (R1). I still take them at their word that it was never a matter of not being able to clear songs, but the R1 discs were a rush job. The only official word we ever got was that it was "a matter of timing." That'd be good news, as it would mean they *could* fix things up for R1.

Originally Posted by Greg_S_H
The R2 Season 4 has the music cut, unfortunately. The complete series can't be bought anywhere completely intact. Funny, however, that they couldn't clear Georgia for Season 2, but they could for Season 5 (R1). I still take them at their word that it was never a matter of not being able to clear songs, but the R1 discs were a rush job. The only official word we ever got was that it was "a matter of timing." That'd be good news, as it would mean they *could* fix things up for R1.

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Greg, thanks for the correction. I'm still in S1 viewing in the set and the online Ama UK reviews said that the music was intact in the set, someone was in error.

 

From what I've read elsewhere, the R2 set has the majority of the music intact, which I guess is the best that's available.

Yeah, it's definitely better than what we got here. I know those buying the sets were disappointed in S4, but then Universal got back on track both here and there with S5 (with the exception of edited episodes someone mentioned above). I actually missed a couple key S5 episodes back when they first aired and have wanted to see them ever since. The Evil Leaper followup, in the main. I wish Uni would get on that Complete Series so I could watch them in order and pick up those I haven't seen!

I would have to go with war of the worlds. The film transfer is very bad. I wonder where they will get the source material for season 2 from?

I'd vote for "Lost In Space". Looks like they used broadcast videotapes for the DVDs. Really looks bad on the HDTV!

Gotta agree with Steve and Jeff. First and foremost I'd like to see The Fugitive redone to get all the music issues corrected. Same with My Three Sons. CBS has also subbed music out of shows like Gomer Pyle and The Odd Couple, so those would need replacing if I was calling the shots. I'd definitely go for a redo on that 1st Season set of Father Knows Best as well. And we got some bad prints in those early Route 66 releases too. And the last poster hit on a good suggestion with the 1st Season of Lost in Space.

 

Some of the smaller companies have released only syndicated cuts of shows like Branded and Guns of Will Sonnet.
 

I'd also go for any redo's that involve subbing out double-sided discs for single-sided ones. Many Universal and Fox titles fall into that category.

 

Gary "I'm sure if we really sat down and thought about it, we could come up with a very large list" O.

I'd love single sided releases of season 1 of Dragnet, season 1 of Adam-12, and seasons 1 & 2 of Emergency.

 

And I'd like to see Shout do a Best of Mister Ed DVD release with the complete versions of the cut episodes on season 1 (Not like publishers ever actually pick fan favorites for such releases so it would be a good way to get them out).

 

And the later seasons of Cheers have tons of problems from syndicated cuts, unrestored episodes, and replacement music.

 

But most of all, I want to see My Three Sons done right and all 12 seasons. Too bad it will never happen.

Great news, if that is true. I only looked at the packaging for the shows ounce and thought I saw SLP on the back of both. I'm not happy with what I see off TV. I think at least one of them was remastered in 93 or 94. I was not aware of any work after that on either. I don't expect eye popping visuals, just something that holds up on a large screen TV. I know we will never see a clean up like we did on Star Trek TOS. It would be nice though even if the iffy special effects was made all to obvious.

 

Also I wonder if Digital Betacam was ever used for mastering in the 90's. Could that not get 1000 lines interlaced ? I wonder what the specs on that format is ?

Originally Posted by MatthewA

ALF (not everyone can afford the Region 2 sets)

Father Knows Best: Season 1

Mama's Family

Married With Children: Season 4 (the theme song was one thing, but this one is particularly bad, with cuts of several episodes including "It's a Bundyful Life")

Rhoda: Season 1

The Waltons (no cuts I know of, but the transfers range from tolerable to terrible).
 


I think Sony had them both restored, but as good as they look now on DVD (except season 5 of Bewitched which inexplicably uses older masters), they could really do some great things with them on Blu-Ray.

 

Speaking of Sony, they never even acknowledged the problem of cut versions of individual episodes turning up on Sanford and Son, Soap, Diff'rent Strokes, Good Times, The Jeffersons, etc. And I'm guessing that since they're out of the non-current TV on DVD game (leaving Shout! to pick it up), they won't.

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All the released season sets of Saturday Night Live with no edits to the original broadcasts whatsoever. This includes keeping all of the bumpers intact and having no artificially inserted audience applause between segments where it did not exist when the shows aired live.

"Due South" with it's piss-poor (reportedly described as YouTube having better qaulity...) picture qaulity. Even the Canadian release looks better, I read, but still is poor.

 

 

"ALF" because it was made of edited syndication re-runs, and not the original uncut runs.

 

 

"Batman: The Animated Series" because the blacks weren't black enough and there was grain from not even trying to clean it up.

 

Originally Posted by Justin Boggan

"Due South" with it's piss-poor (reportedly described as YouTube having better qaulity...) picture qaulity. Even the Canadian release looks better, I read, but still is poor.

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It may look better compared to what was released in the States, but it looks like someone took their VHS-quality tape and transferred that to DVD with noticeable and constant aliasing, macro blocking, etc. And the Alliance (Canadian) release uses the syndicated masters. The first season set I own is exactly what was aired on TNT.

Without question, The Fugitive.


Route 66 would be next for me, seeing the complete series released with every episode uncut and remastered.

 

The Odd Couple and My Three Sons would be third.

 

I'd also love to see a remastering of Have Gun-Will Travel Seasons 1 through 3.

 

Seeing a complete set of M Squad with a much better print quality would also be nice.