Bewitched Season 1 (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

That would double the number of discs needed. I don't want to pay extra for a bunch of colorized episodes that I will never watch.

 

[David*P]

There are so many things that could/should be included as extras on these discs and here is what they are:

First Season Extras

• Original Sponsor openings and end credits with the "Bewitched has been brought to you by..." interstitials on as well as "Bewitched Will Be Back" cartoon interstitial on every episode.
• Screen Gems and ABC end tags.
• Commerical where Samantha explains that she is a witch who marries a mortal. The whole commercial is full of scenes from the first episode, some of which were cut from the episode or shot at a different angle.
• 1964 Elizabeth Montgomery Chevrolet commercial filmed at the house.
• 1964 Alice Pearce and George Tobias Chevy Commercial.
• Dick York Quaker Cereal commercial.
• Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead Impala commercial.
• Chevy Commericial starring the stars of Bewitched, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Bonanza. It is a rather long commercial, probably about six minutes, and it was just recently discovered. The great thing about it was it was shot in color at a time when Bewitched wasn't.
• Photo galleries.
• Cast & Crew biographies.

Second Season Extras

• Original Sponsor openings and end credits with the "Bewitched has been brought to you by..." interstitials as well as "Bewitched Will Be Back" cartoon interstitial on every episode.
• Screen Gems and ABC tags.
• Cartoon Tabatha commercial where she sings about whether she's a witch or not.
• Clips from the ABC '65 Fall Preview hosted by Darrin and Samantha.
• Emmy Awards clip where Alice Pearce was presented an award post-humously.
• Photo galleries.

I will say that those first items in each list should just be included anyway as that is how each episode was originally presented. And season 2 MUST have episodes #51 and #56 which are remakes of first season episodes. They are essentially the very same footage from the first season episodes but with a little scene taken out at the beginning replaced by a scene of Samantha and Darrin reminiscing about when the events of the original episode took place. These episodes are never shown on TV.

I am not holding my breath that any of this will take place on these sets seeing as how it is Columbia, BUT it's never too late for them to break the mold they've made for themselves when it comes to their classic TV shows.

 

[Chris:L]

You don't double the disc numbers! It would be like a laugh track option.

You silly forum board people....

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Hi, I know lots of things about disc authoring and you don't have a darned clue as to what you are talking about! You are so wrong it IS funny!

 

[Steve Phillips]

The idea of the first and second seasons being released with both a B/W and color option isn't a wild idea at all...it is exactly what Sony did with the recent batch of Three Stooges discs. They call it "Chroma-Choice" and there are several more movies coming soon from them that will have this option. I'm kind of surprised that Sony would NOT be doing this with "Bewtiched" in the U.S.

For the record, I prefer the B/W versions, but I've seen the colorized versions and they are miles ahead of any other colorized stuff I've seen.

The Japanese DVD sets (now available) of the first and second years contain ONLY colorized episodes, and there is a whole 30 minute documentary about how and why they did it. A couple of episodes from each season are missing from both seasons (as well as Season 3) so hopefully any U.S. release will contain all shows.

I'd buy all 8 seasons as long as the shows are uncut (no edited syndication junk) !

 

[Steve...O]

This whole concept of giving both color & B&W episodes is a bad idea in my view.

You're either going to double the number of discs or you're going to have to lower the bit rate on a disc to accomodate having double the material that you normally would. No way that would look as good. Either option would drive costs up.

Whether or not the colorization looks good is beside the point (with modern technology almost anything can look good). The point is that colorization does not present the show in the way it was created and originally shown. We would not tolerate cut episodes or fake widescreen so why is colorization any different?

As for extras, they would be nice but again, it would likely drive the price up to a point where the average consumer may not buy them. The Van Dyke DVDs are great in terms of extras, but their MSRP is $70 (retail is usually over $50) which undoubtedly reduced their overall sales. Image, being a small company, can tolerate that level of sales, but do you think Fox, Warner, Paramount would have?

Steve

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Why would people want a colorized version of the show when it wasnt intended to be like that?
The technique was not popular when Ted Turner did it with movies, why do you think it would be now?

I just read the script and it doesnt sound very good but who knows....

 

[Steve Phillips]

Well....if you read my post you'll see I said I prefer the B/W versions.

Sony paid big $$$ to colorize the first and second season of BEWTICHED (also the first season of I DREAM OF JEANNIE), a bunch of Three Stooges shorts, THE WAR LOVER with Steve McQueen and others are on the horizon so whether or not we like it, the process has returned. This doesn't even count any of the Legend Films stuff which has been hitting the market. The Chroma Choice idea at least offers the consumer a choice, but if it adds costs, it may not be worth it. That's up to Sony (and the marketplace) to decide.



I'd rather have the extras than a fake color version for sure, but barebones uncut shows are all I really have to have.

 

[Chris:L]

I'm sick and tired of hearing this kind of logic.... it drives up a wall you would not believe. How many people bought The Simpsons sets? They're crammed with features, no doubt about that.... and yet the sets are the hottest selling TV DVDs.... give me a break... and they're cheap.... I think, I'm not too sure... something like 50.... 40... I don't know.

It just really bugs me. Here's the logic. Even though I love the show to death, I won't buy it if it is more than just 30 bucks.

Pitiful! Pitiful!


Read the script? Where'd you find a copy of it?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

It's a bit of a difference when talking about a single feature film. They could release it DVD-5 with only one version, or DVD-9 with both. Either way, it is a single disc release.

With a TV show, a 6-disc set (yes, the season one box in Japan is six discs...and it is missing two episodes!) would become an 12-disc set if providing both choices, or you crank the bitrate down so low that it is artifact city.

 

[Steve Phillips]

I guess they could always go the "split season" route.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Dividing a series up into more releases only increases the total cost to collect the whole series.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Don't say that to the FOX people regarding the LOST IN SPACE sets!

In all the stores I've seen, the combined cost of the two sets of Season 2 were less than the full set for Season 1.

As I've said three times now, as long as I get uncut shows (and no missing episodes) in OAR, I'm up for all 8 seasons.
I've already got all 254 shows on VHS!

 

[David*P]

With the new news about Bewitched posted over at TV Shows on DVD.com giving a new date of June 6th I thought I would mention that this date is particularly magical to the show as Samantha says in the first season episode "Eye of the Beholder" that her birthday is June 6th.

So, all though I'd much rather believe the earlier rumor simply to get the show sooner, I think this June 6th date (if it holds true) is pretty bewitching!

 

[David Lambert]

Gord decided to change "June 6" to "early June" because that isn't a Tuesday, yet that's the date we were given.

 

[David*P]

It looks like, according to the calendar June 6 is a Monday...so much for the cosmic coincidences then

No matter...I'm just SOOOOOOOOOO excited for BW to finally be on DVD!!!

 

[David*P]

Amazon.com FINALLY has a page up where the BW DVD will eventually be placed so you can order it. Right now, though, they say this:


I don't know how much what Amazon says will impact how soon they release the DVDs (I'm quite impatient when it comes to this release, though) but everyone should fly over there and vote for it.

I'm just excited that when I search for "bewitched" on DVD on their site that it just doesn't bring up a movie titled "Sexually Bewitched"

 

[Jeff Willis]

Great thread and quotes (kudos on the 6M$M quote . These sum it up for me. It's a sure buy for me even if they colorize them. I liked the early seasons the best.

 

[Angela_K]

*coughDukesofHazzardMoviecough*

I agree though, but the tie in with the movie and vice versa is always good.

 

[Garysb]

Quote"All right...to take this thread back to the original subject of BW First Season on DVD...an article from DVD Scan from June talks about the release of the first three seasons of the series in Japan and about the missing episodes from each season that are on that release, which might also happen for the US release. It turns out, according to this article, that the master copies are suffering terribly from the deterioration of the audio track on certain episodes thereby necessitating their exclusion from the Japan release."


Does anyone know which episodes are missing from the season sets released in Japan ?