All in the Family third season DVD question (1 Viewer)

[MattHR]

This episode is clearly "zoomed in" from its original framing. It's cropped on all four sides. The composition of every scene is very awkward--no way it was intentional. It's more likely there was damage to the master tape (like a major tape drop-out or video "streaking" across the top or bottom of the frame) so it was necessary to "zoom in" to crop out the damaged area. Or, someone screwed up in the transfer to DVD.

There are several instances of minor video drop-outs in all three seasons of AITF, similar to tracking flaws in VHS video. The video used to tape TV shows from that era wasn't much better than VHS quality, so there's no way to "remaster" them to look any better.

 

[David Von Pein]

Thanks Matt. I think you must be correct here (about it not being intentional). Although I doubt it's the DVD transfer in this "bowling show" instance -- because (as mentioned earlier) the framing is awful on the TV-Land print of this episode too. Or -- Is it possible that some TV stations/networks actually use the DVDs of certain shows (once released on that format) for their network airings? Had never thought of that possibility until now. But it seems logical, doesn't it, since the DVDs of any TV series are going to be the best prints available I would imagine (even to the TV networks)? Or is that illegal -- because the DVDs are for "private home use only"?

So, obviously, (if Matt's analysis is accurate) there must have been a LOT of damaged AITF prints/(tapes) -- because I've noticed many, many S.2 and S.3 episodes that have this "zoomed-in" look, with bad framing. (Possibly some from Season 1 as well.)

My apologies to John Rich (in thinking he would have DELIBERATELY framed his episodes in this awful manner). He obviously knows better than that.