Buck Rogers in the 21st Century (1 Viewer)

[Jay Pennington]

I imagine if they released the theatrical it would be a separate release, like they did with Battlestar. After all, the movie wasn't technically part of the TV show, even if it did share 99% of the footage.

My dad, bless him, took me to see that glorious cheesefest. I recall an "s" word or two in there, and a little more innuendo/tension between Buck and Ardala. I recall noticing some alternate footage and/or editing differences in the TV version, but I haven't seen either in what, 23 years?, so I have no idea what those differences were.

 

[David Lambert]

For Galactica, they announced a separate movie-DVD at the same time. Actually, that was a re-release of a years-old item, with a new cover.

The Buck "film" was NOT announced as a separate DVD at the same time as the "Complete Epic" Buck set, nor is there a previous release of it for them to easily re-issue.

IF the Buck film edit IS coming, it will be part of the "epic set". Right now I hve no evidence one way or the other, except for the vague wording from Uni that I quoted in my news item. But I don't think the time counts work out right for inclusion of both the TV edit and the Film edit. I need to re-examine that a bit closer, though.

Jay, my news item links to the IMDB list of the differences between both edits.

 

[Tom Brennan]

I don't think they will have both either. Which is unfortunate since it will be weird to have one without the other. The TV version has never officially been released. The best scenerio would be an edit of the two, keeping most of the theatrical version and adding the TV epilogue at the end. Sadly, I don't see Universal putting the effort in. In fact, the people doing this set probably don't even know about the two different versions!

 

[Paul_Scott]

i'd like to see the theatrical version released as well (seperately would be fine with me), but i have to say i'm happy to hear that the set will also include the more maligned second season.

disappointing to hear of no extra material, but actually the second season is the best 'extra' i can think of.

looking forward to this release quite a bit now

 

[Bryan Tuck]

It is great that this is coming, and all in one set. I really do hope they have both versions of the pilot, though. Battlestar Galactica was handled the right way, in my opinion, even if was just a reissue of a previous disc. The theatrical version on a separately sold disc, in widescreen, no less, and the TV version in the box set.

I'd buy both if they did that with Buck.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=2189

All I need now is the confirmation that the "movie" version of the pilot on the set is uncut and in anamorphic widescreen and I'll preorder it.

I know the movie was released theatrically in Europe, but does anybody know if it was in the US?

 

[Mark Oates]

Ah, but remember the theatrical version of the pilot would only be a tv print projected in theatres as an open matte film.

 

[Curtis F]

Yes it was released in the US. I am not exactly sure when, but I do remember going to see it. It must have been late '78 or early '79. I also remember it being shown on HBO in July of '79.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I remember seeing the Movie at the theater and i can't remember the Particulars but i do remember that the movie had a scene that was too racy for tv and it was cut.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

The VERY memorable opening credits (well, at least very memorable when I was 12 ) were replaced for the TV version. And a line of dialogue were Twiki mentions that it's so cold that he's afraid to "freeze off his ball-bearings".

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Actually, it's the opposite. This was filmed for TV and was shot in 4:3, so the theatrical presentation is presumably the same as Battlestar Galactica: they took the original 4:3 image and HARD matted it, masking off the top and/or bottom of the picture, so the theatrical version would have been MISSING picture information that was present in the TV version.

Despite literature, it wouldn't surprise me if what we get is the TV presentation rather than the feature, unless, of course, no one there knows one from the other.

I think we should've gotten the TV version with the "movie-only" scenes either re-inserted or added as supplements (along with the footage that was cut from both versions, most notably all of Joseph Wiseman's scenes as Draco, except for the brief one at the end of the theatrical version).

 

[Will_B]

I believe, based on my vague memory of a TV Guide article, that they started filming Buck Rogers with the intention that it would be a tv special or miniseries.

Then before production was even done they decided to release it theatrically.

The film did well enough for them to decide to make a standard tv series. So they went back and recut the film a little bit to serve as a tv pilot...which wasn't too difficult since it had originally been planned as a tv special anyway. However they still needed to add some stuff to it to set up the series -- this is why the extra "tv footage" of Buck being given a tour of his spiffy new tv series apartment with sleep-o-matic bed is so jarringly out of place in the tv version of the miniseries - it was filmed months later, with a completely different "look."

The theatrical version is easily recognizable from the very start, as it most memorably has a different opening credit sequence a la James Bong, er, James Bond (good typo, there), with scantily clad futuristic women rolling around the giant illuminated letters of "B U C K R O G E R S" (you can tell they're futuristic women because they wear spandex). Too racy for tv. And the theme song had lyrics in the theatrical version. The lyric version of the song can be heard in the END credits of the tv version of the movie, but from that point forward the lyric version was replaced with instrumental only.

"Far beyond this world I know
Far beyond my time
what am I
who am I
where could I be
what am I doing and where
will I pee..."

or something like that. I actually had the soundtrack album.

Something like that.

 

[Stephane]

I know that this was an old thread and that I am reviving for a simple question.





Has anyone heard anything about the release date per chance on the box set?





Or are we still waiting on Universal to publish the release date?





Stephane

 

[Citizen87645]

It's scheduled for November 16.



http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/release...?ReleaseID=3842

 

[Stephane]

Thank you Cameron

 

[Mark Oates]

I have an old Starlog article from the year Buck Rogers premiered, and it would appear that Universal decided ahead of shooting the pilot that they would try a theatrical release to test the water and follow it up as quickly as possible by premiering the series. It states in the interview that the cast only found out about the theatrical release plan when one of the camera operators mentioned they were framing the show "185 instead of the usual 175). I take this to mean the show was shot 4:3 but all the action kept within the 1.85:1 Title Safe zone. No hard matting was used so the film could be projected at 1.85:1 in theatres and show on tv at the standard 4:3.





R2 is getting just season one as a collection on the 22nd November. I'm getting that, but I'm not bothered with season two. I'd still like to see the theatrical cut again with the cool title sequence and Twiki muttering that he's freezing his ball bearings off.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Are there any reviews of this yet? I really hope that both versions of the pilot are included. Both have footage that didn't appear in the other version.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Brian,





My review copy won't be here until Monday for DVDTown.com I'll give you first impressions right away!

 

[Sam Favate]

Just read the fine review of this set that's up at thedigitalbits, and I have a question: Is the theatrical release included in addition to the TV pilot? The review seems to say that it is, but I admit I don't know for sure.

Sounds like a cool set, despite the lack of extras.

 

[FrancisP]

I probably will wait for a while to see if the price drops.


My problems are twofold. It is very pricey for a set with no extras plus paying for a second season that I loath. For


Universal, what else is new.





There were two problems with the second season that made me stop watching. The first was it was turned into a poor copy of Star Trek. Whereas Gil Gerard was perfectly cast for season 1, I thought he was miscast for season 2. I also hated the fact that they got rid of Ardala. Gil Gerard and Pamela Hensley had a chemistry. I loved the fact that she was a lot like Buck in that she did her own thing. Witness the dance scene in the pilot where everybody is looking at them like what they are doing is scandalous but they don't care. Yet she could be so petulant as in Flight of the War Witch where she declares that Princess' don't start engines.