The Lieutenant - Roddenberry's pre-Star Trek series is out (1 Viewer)

I just ordered this from Warner Archives. Both parts. I am looking forward to it. Anyone else getting these sets?
http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/17367

I'd love to see this often mentioned but never seen series, but I can't pull the trigger at $80 for 1 season. I'll wait till Amazon gets this and they price drops a bit. Just like I'm waiting on Harry O.

Yeah I admit I am splurging on these (and Harry-O) but I tell myself supporting MOD will mean more great stuff in the future.

Yeah, MOD means more great stuff like McDonalds means 'more great stuff' too.
People giving Warners and the MOD drones their money only guarantees the meat grinder approach to serving up what was a cherished craft business... It's all coming out so quickly, because we've gotta have it now now now! Never mind the overpriced, sloppy service.

My experience with Warner Archives customer service was anything but sloppy. Overpriced discs? Perhaps. But no one has a gun to my head.

All I can say is, I have never had a problem with a single MOD set put out for a TV series. I've seen zero difference in quality. However, I can count quite a few times when so-called "craft" releases required me to exchange sets a half dozen times and go through never-ending aggravation of marathon session viewing to see if I finally had a set that played right (i.e. every double-sided disc set from Universal and Fox).

I agree. I wonder if the people who like to dump on MOD have ever even bought a MOD set? I'm delighted to be able to see shows from these series that I thought I'd never own. There are far worse ways to spend hobby money, IMHO.

Carabimero said:

I agree. I wonder if the people who like to dump on MOD have ever even bought a MOD set? I'm delighted to be able to see shows from these series that I thought I'd never own. There are far worse ways to spend hobby money, IMHO.

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I've bought two of the three Night Court seasons available (so far), and I have no problem with the picture quality of the sets.
My only concern is for the future, and how long the discs will last. My only complaint is the price of the MoD stuff being more expensive than regular pressed sets.
But the quality of the sets as I received them wasn't an issue at all. Nor did WBA take an inordinately long amount of time to get my sets to me. I have no problem with ordering from them in the future whenever I see they've released something I want.

Carabimero said:

I agree. I wonder if the people who like to dump on MOD have ever even bought a MOD set?

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I've picked up a few MOD TV sets and movies from WB. The DVD-R for one of the Tarzan films was a bad burn and had to be replaced. The early attempt by WB to support dual layer DVD-R's didn't go well either and the product had to be pulled. So just like commercial pressed DVD-18's (dual sided-dual layer disks) and disk rot have been issues for some, so has the MOD approach been at times. So the potential issue is there for both approaches.
There never should be a video/audio quality difference since the content would be identical using either approach. It all depends on the quality of the source print and to what effort they may go to restore it. I think early on the concerns with MOD were based on the reports of no remastering and the compression and interlaced approach used. However, WB switched to a progressive approach, and going dual layer allows for a higher bitrate. As for video quality, they seemed to initial select titles that they had pretty good prints on that needed no major restoration, and now have been restoring some titles. So the quality is probably no different at this point, especially given that these lessor known titles wouldn't have gotten the premium efforts that many of the commercial pressed WB titles in the past have received.
The main concern has always been longevity and the jury is still out on that. We know the predicted longevity, which is longer then anyone should need regarding a DVD-R or pressed DVD. And we have already experienced pressed and burned CD-ROMs. There will always be reports going both ways on which they had failures with, but from my recollection and personal experience pressed disks seem to be more dependable for longer then burned disks. Then there is how they are burned and the quality of the blank media. One can always buy highly-rated blanks and burn at slow speeds to improve their chances. But with the MOD approach we don't know how they are burned and what type of blank media they used. I've tried checking a few WB MOD disks and they don't appear to maintain any brand ID's. It could be their approach is better then what we can do at home, equal to, or worse. Unfortunately, it may be 10 years or so before we know for sure one way or another. By then we may not be able to get replacements if streaming takes over. So it is just an uneasy feeling some of us have about paying premium dollars for what might not last as long as we hoped.

Brad said it all for me. Spot on, buddy!


Gary "pricing is the biggest hurdle for me" O.

I've only had one set go bad on me, the Final Season of Walker, Texas Ranger a couple of years ago, blotches appeared over all the disks, which became unplayable. Fortunately I found a Replacement for less than Ten Bux, so it wasn't a major loss.

I bought FLIPPER season two, Harry-O, and now The Lieutenant. For me, the pricing was a hurdle I was willing to jump only because I wanted these sets. I don't trust burned or pressed discs to last for the forty-plus more years I hope to reside on this planet, so every few years I make fresh DVD-5 backups of stuff I can't live without, and continue playing the original with the backup in reserve.
P.S. (edit) I love when I ask a question and someone answers it intelligently. Thanks, Brad.

^ Brad.
We all can pull info pertaining to our individual DVD collections to make a point about this ongoing pressed vs burned media discussion.
Mine, is that one factor that I look at is the overall "playability" when comparing pressed / burned discs.
For example, I can't play some of the MOD discs in my PC drive's. I have 2 PC's and there are a few MOD discs that don't play in those drives. I know about the MOD disclaimer on the pkg's and it's not a big issue to me but since we're comparing things in this thread, that's worth mentioning to me as I use my laptop away from the house on occasion to watch dvd's and it'
s something that I have to consider before leaving the house with a selection of dvd's.
I have yet to encounter 1 pressed studio dvd that won't play back in either of my pc drives. I have recent vintage drives in both pc's.
As far as pressed disc failures, the Universal dvd-18's that were mfg'd in the Mexixan plant several years ago are the only problem that I've seen in my collection. Uni corrected the problem and shortly afterword the overall trend was to discontinue the flipper discs in most TV/DVD sets.
Aside from those Uni 18's from that era, I've had zero pressed disc defects. I have some that developed the "milky" surface issues but they all continue to play back without issues.
Burned media is a mixed bag ot results for me but imo, the WBA discs are not an issue as they all play back good for me. Longetivity, the jury's still out imo, as I need to see more time elapse before coming to a conclusion there.

The Harry-O discs, which apparently are pressed, have problems, at least my set did. Disc two was faulty and had to be replaced and disc three won't play on my PC. So the discs may look pressed, but I am questioning if they are, and asking if there's a sure way to tell. Thanks.

I received my two-parts of "The Lieutenant" this weekend, and have to say that the release is a first-class knockout.
I had not seen most of the episodes of this series ( I think I had caught one or two on cable a long time ago ), so this was a somewhat of a blind-buy for me based on the repudiation of the program, and the amazing array of talent associated with it. Warner has done an outstanding job with this series, with quality ranging from very good to excellent, and there is even a bonus 'feature film' (made for theaters overseas, like the U.N.C.L.E. movies) built around the final episode "To Kill a Man", which not only expands upon that final episode (and another earlier one), but actually contains a lot of footage (some of it a bit racy for the era) that seems to have been filmed especially for this 'feature film'.
Gary Lockwood 'is' the series, and his work here is remarkable, as are all the performances. The actors who appear are a virtual 'who's who' of television history, including Bill Bixby, Linda Evans, Chad Everett, Ed Asner, as well as many who would later be associated with Mr. Roddenberry's later series (Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nicholls, Majel Barrett and Ricardo Moltalban are on hand for Trek-fans in notable roles) . It is a fascinating insight into the military of the era, and clearly a great deal of effort went into the making of this series. After watching most of the episodes over the weekend (I couldn't get to all of them, as they are 'vintage-long', so I skipped a few that I intend to watch later this week), I am delighted that I made this leap of faith, and purchased this set. it really is a buried gem that deserves to have been unearthed, which probably would not have ever happened had it not the Roddenberry pedigree to help support its ascent from obscurity.
Although I am not one of the folks who have issues or concerns with the Warner Archive MOD releases which are burned vs. those which are pressed, for those who do care about such things, it is worth noting that my discs were indeed 'pressed'.

I don't know whether it has been confirmed, but there was a discussion in another threadt hat indicated WB might now be doing an initial limited run of pressed disks with burned disks to follow when they run out. This seems like a logical approach since a limited run could cost less then burning individually on demand and better supports the initial list of pre-orders. Then going MOD means no extra cost/supply issues when demand doesn't keep up with expectations. The last season i received of Night Court appeared to be pressed as well.

smithb said:

I don't know whether it has been confirmed, but there was a discussion in another threadt hat indicated WB might now be doing an initial limited run of pressed disks with burned disks to follow when they run out. This seems like a logical approach since a limited run could cost less then burning individually on demand and better supports the initial list of pre-orders. Then going MOD means no extra cost/supply issues when demand doesn't keep up with expectations. The last season i received of Night Court appeared to be pressed as well.

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It can also be a good money-making strategy for WB, because if the people who follow the Warner Archive releases know up-front that there will be an initial batch of 'pressed' copies, which will be replaced with MOD ones when supplies run out, that's a bigger incentive to pre-order (or order early) if they want the 'pressed' ones, rather than doing like I have done in the past and wait for one of their big sales. This way, they almost guarantee a lot of early buys and all at full-price.

Looks like I got a "pressed" set too in my package that arrived today!

Gone through the first two episodes and already I'm enjoying what I'm seeing. Beautiful quality transfer, and it's fascinating to see Robert Vaughn in a supporting role as a series regular just a year before Man From UNCLE for the same production company. I also have to admit that after years of only seeing the peacetime Marine Corps of this era on "Gomer Pyle" it's refreshing to see that there coud be a show that used the same setting in a dramatic context.

This is an OUTSTANDING release. I had never seen this series before, and only bought it based on reputation, and a hunger for good classic B&W TV that hasn't been over-exposed. The Lieutenant certainly fills the bill, and it is really a shame to see a program with this level of quality acting, writing, directing and overall production value that had been so overlooked and dismissed when originally broadcast. Then again, if it HAD been a hit....would we have ever gotten STAR TREK? That aside, kudos to Warner Brothers for excavating this jewel and giving it such TLC.