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Ozzie & Harriet (1 Viewer)

Gary OS

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If this were to come off and Mr. Sam Nelson can actually get full season sets released in uncut, pristine condition from the original 35 mm elements it would be absolutely huge for me. First off, this dispels the nasty rumor about the elements being cut up when the series aired on the Disney Channel so long ago (which I always found hard to believe, but until now never had concrete evidence that it hadn't happened). That in and of itself is fantastic news. Second, I'm hoping enough people will be willing to help with such a project. Sam says in the video he's looking at $56,000 for the restoration of all 435 episodes. Hopefully that will be a hurdle that can easily be cleared for such an important project. I'm trusting it can and will be.

Thanks for the link, John. This news is fabulous and I hope Mr. Nelson can succeed in this all-important project. My fingers are crossed.


Gary "just knowing there is someone working on the project is good news in and of itself" O.
 

Jeff Willis

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^ Will keep the fingers crossed for you, Gary, on this one.

Sometimes the real story takes years to get clarified about some of the original elements with the older shows.

Jeff "Hoping for a complete series restored uncut box set for you" W. (I bet you know what I'd like too, a particular WWII 60's series restored from original elements and uncut)
 

Steve...O

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Originally Posted by Gary OS /t/314965/ozzie-harriet#post_3852918
If this were to come off and Mr. Sam Nelson can actually get full season sets released in uncut, pristine condition from the original 35 mm elements it would be absolutely huge for me. First off, this dispels the nasty rumor about the elements being cut up when the series aired on the Disney Channel so long ago (which I always found hard to believe, but until now never had concrete evidence that it hadn't happened). That in and of itself is fantastic news. Second, I'm hoping enough people will be willing to help with such a project. Sam says in the video he's looking at $56,000 for the restoration of all 435 episodes. Hopefully that will be a hurdle that can easily be cleared for such an important project. I'm trusting it can and will be.

Thanks for the link, John. This news is fabulous and I hope Mr. Nelson can succeed in this all-important project. My fingers are crossed.


Gary "just knowing there is someone working on the project is good news in and of itself" O.

Agreed and thanks again, John.

However I have a concern:

Doesn't the $56k figure seem really, really low for that many episodes? That's less than $130 per episode. From what Danny and others have posted I would have expected this to be much higher. This kind of budget also would only cover transfer costs and not allow for any true restoration. Then there's going to be the cost of clearing the music, which isn't going to be cheap unless the Nelson family owns a lot of the music (including the publishing). I'm not an O&H expert so perhaps others who are can chime in.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
 

Gary OS

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Quote:
Jeff Willis said:
/t/314965/ozzie-harriet#post_3852932
However I have a concern:

Doesn't the $56k figure seem really, really low for that many episodes? That's less than $130 per episode. From what Danny and others have posted I would have expected this to be much higher. This kind of budget also would only cover transfer costs and not allow for any true restoration. Then there's going to be the cost of clearing the music, which isn't going to be cheap unless the Nelson family owns a lot of the music (including the publishing). I'm not an O&H expert so perhaps others who are can chime in.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
That was my first thought as well, Steve. I was expecting a much larger amount for all that work. I'm guessing there's probably a huge mountain to climb with this so I'm not getting my hopes too high just yet. But the first step, in my mind at least, is that the elements actually have been found for all the episodes. That's was a big hurdle for me. As you said, we'll have to see how it plays out from here.


Gary "keeping my fingers crossed that Sam Nelson can make this happen" O.
 

JoeDoakes

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Sam Nelson's Kickstarter message says, "Ultimately, the accumulated footage together will be produced into a documentary that will encompass the journey of restoring and revitalizing the show from the musty vaults, all the way back to broadcast and a mainstream audience." So, it sounds like he is working on a documentary about O&H. Hopefully, he can find someone like MPI who will be willing to bring their expertise to this project, but it sounds like it is just beginning and, perhaps, Mr. Nelson has not considered all of the potential issues that might be encountered.
 

Gary OS

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeDoakes /t/314965/ozzie-harriet#post_3852943
Sam Nelson's Kickstarter message says, "Ultimately, the accumulated footage together will be produced into a documentary that will encompass the journey of restoring and revitalizing the show from the musty vaults, all the way back to broadcast and a mainstream audience." So, it sounds like he is working on a documentary about O&H. Hopefully, he can find someone like MPI who will be willing to bring their expertise to this project, but it sounds like it is just beginning and, perhaps, Mr. Nelson has not considered all of the potential issues that might be encountered.
Ray, I thought the same thing you did until I watched the video. It's there where he specifically mentions getting all the episodes digitized for the ultimate purpose of dvd releases. I think right now his main focus is on saving the 35 mm elements from any more deterioration.


Gary "I was thinking he should try to partner up with someone like the folks at MPI or Shout (who have done O/H releases in the past)" O.
 

Gary OS said:
     Quote:

Ray, I thought the same thing you did until I watched the video.  It's there where he specifically mentions getting all the episodes digitized for the ultimate purpose of dvd releases.  I think right now his main focus is on saving the 35 mm elements from any more deterioration.   Gary "I was thinking he should try to partner up with someone like the folks at MPI or Shout (who have done O/H releases in the past)" O.
In the pledge section, Sam says a reward for one of the large amounts is "A full collection of the family endorsed complete 435 episode digitized collection signed by the family (when Its complete)." So it seems to me an ultimate DVD release is planned. This from the Ozzie & Harriet Facebook page:So if the money goal is reached, will all shows be available to purchase and if so, when?Sam: Hey Janice. Thanks for checking in. The quick answer is yes, if our TOTAL goal is reached, all episodes will be available. When specifically depends on many factors, but we hope to have it done within a year.
 

Kasey

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While I never bought Shout's best-of releases and am not really a fan of this show, I admire Sam's commitment to preserving television heritage so I pledged $5. I know if someone was starting a campaign for one of 'my' shows, I'd want others to do the same.
 

LeoA

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Hope he reconsiders some of his rewards. It sounds like the plan is to chop all this stuff up once the transfer process is complete...
Gary OS said:
If this were to come off and Mr. Sam Nelson can actually get full season sets released in uncut, pristine condition from the original 35 mm elements it would be absolutely huge for me
Never heard the Disney Channel rumor and really doubt it, but I've seen it mentioned several times that Ozzie Nelson would go back and continue to edit and improve past episodes when episodes were to be syndicated.
So I'm not sure if an as aired complete set is even possible, but I would think complete episodes were possible and I'm sure any edits he did after the fact were for the betterment of the program.
Steve...O said:
Doesn't the $56k figure seem really, really low for that many episodes? That's less than $130 per episode. From what Danny and others have posted I would have expected this to be much higher. This kind of budget also would only cover transfer costs and not allow for any true restoration.
They prices you see quoted around here are what a studio like Universal charges for a transfer to be done. The fee is very inflated and far higher than the actual cost of the process. So if they can work a deal out with somewhere that has the necessary equipment to do it at cost or slightly above cost, for preservation's sake, it seems believable.
And often just transferring from the original prints is all you have to do to get a pristine picture if they've been properly stored and taken care of. The elements he wants to transfer might not need intensive restoration work done to them.
And it looks like the main purpose as of now is preserving this. So let's not get ahead of the game worrying about things like music clearance issues. The 1st job is to preserve it so something like a DVD release is even possible in the future.
 

vnisanian2001

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LeoAmes said:
Hope he reconsiders some of his rewards. It sounds like the plan is to chop all this stuff up once the transfer process is complete...
Whoa. Where did you come up with an outlandish theory like that? You make it out to seem like Sam Nelson's real plans are to digitally remaster them, and then butcher them beyond belief for DVD release.
 

Originally Posted by LeoAmes
Hope he reconsiders some of his rewards. It sounds like the plan is to chop all this stuff up once the transfer process is complete...
vnisanian2001 said:
Whoa. Where did you come up with an outlandish theory like that? You make it out to seem like Sam Nelson's real plans are to digitally remaster them, and then butcher them beyond belief for DVD release.
I agree. Plus any "frames" one might get as a pledge reward are probably edit trims or dupes or other unused portions. Watching the video, Sam seems to know what his has here and I'm sure he'll take care of it.
 

LeoA

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I didn't say anything about butchering them for DVD release, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm talking about this line...
"A personalized limited edition commemorative thank you plaque containing an original 35MM frame of the show."
I hope he realizes this stuff still has value even after doing modern digital transfers of them. It wouldn't be the first time original elements were thrown out after transferring them.
And some of those 16MM prints might be valuable as well. If what I said I've read over the years was accurate, the 35MM print of a certain episode they're holding might be the edited version done by Ozzie after the original air date and different than the 16MM prints they're planning to give away if they dates back to before he did some editing to many of the episodes.
 

LeoAmes said:
I didn't say anything about butchering them for DVD release, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm talking about this line...
"A personalized limited edition commemorative thank you plaque containing an original 35MM frame of the show."
I hope he realizes this stuff still has value even after doing modern digital transfers of them. It wouldn't be the first time original elements were thrown out after transferring them.
And some of those 16MM prints might be valuable as well. If what I said I've read over the years was accurate, the 35MM print of a certain episode they're holding might be the edited version done by Ozzie after the original air date and different than the 16MM prints they're planning to give away if they dates back to before he did some editing to many of the episodes.
From what Sam says in the video about "every episode is actually six different reels" , he is probably talking about the sound and picture elements. 35mm picture is generally edited in ten minute sections with the corresponding magnetic sound reels. This would make up the "six reels" in an episode. My hope is this footage is the unedited original camera negative with commercials and Ricky's songs intact. Sam could also have access to the 35mm prints that were shown on the New York and Los Angeles network stations. Possibly these are what were used for the Disney edits. If you look closely at the one film can, it says "ABC NY Ozzie & Harriet 27-301" Which is the episode "The Manly Arts", leading me to believe this is the New York 35mm network print. I suppose all this is speculation at this point and we'll just have to see what transpires.
 

LeoA

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I'm probably paranoid for nothing. I wasn't out to falsely pull the alarm, I just didn't much like the sounds of that. I hope they make quite certain whatever they sacrifice to use as gifts to more significant donors isn't anything special that should be preserved intact even after the transfer process is done.
I wish him the best of luck and hope he succeeds. While there are a couple of shows I'd like to see their complete runs on DVD unedited even more than this one (Especially My Three Sons), this one is way up there and one of my grails.
I'd be in for every season, as finances allow.
 

LeoAmes said:
I'm probably paranoid for nothing. I wasn't out to falsely pull the alarm, I just didn't much like the sounds of that. I hope they make quite certain whatever they sacrifice to use as gifts to more significant donors isn't anything special that should be preserved intact even after the transfer process is done.
I wish him the best of luck and hope he succeeds. While there are a couple of shows I'd like to see their complete runs on DVD unedited even more than this one (Especially My Three Sons), this one is way up there and one of my grails.
I'd be in for every season, as finances allow.
I wrote to Sam and asked him some technical questions about the available materials. Hopefully, I will hear from him and will pass along any info.
 

vnisanian2001

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I just hope the prints they found were the original full-length versions, and not the edited-for-syndication ones. I hope they're aware that the originals were over 26 minutes long.
 

From Sam's description that the family archive has been opened for the first time in nearly forty-five years, and that each episode is made up of six reels, it certainly sounds like he's talking about the original 35mm negatives to me. I don't recall what the Disney Channel shows looked like, but everything else I have every seen, including the Shout stuff, looks like 16mm.
 

vnisanian2001

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Where did such a rumor that the originals were lost forever after the editing was Done for the Disney Channel come from, and who started such a rumor?
 

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