CBS Mod Program

All I can currently think of:

One Step Beyond (Complete Series official release)
Way Out (shot on tape, so maybe not any kind of visual boost from Blu, but I'd like it on either Blu or DVD)
Great Ghost Tales (ditto)
Trackdown
The Lineup
The Greatest Show on Earth
Richard Diamond, Private Detective (whatever sub-set of this series CBS controls, if any)
The Millionaire
Amos & Andy (I seriously doubt this one will ever have a chance, alas)

And any of these, which I'm still unsure whether they are with CBS or with other entities:

T.H.E. Cat (if CBS indeed has this, it goes to the very top of the list, my #1 grail show, although I think it's probably with Universal)
Captain Nice (also probably with Universal, though I'm not 100% sure)
Panic! (a.k.a. No Warning)
Q.E.D. (a.k.a. Mastermind)

All the other unreleased and/or stalled series I want seem to be mainly with Fox (both Fox proper and Four Star) and Universal, as well as a couple others with Sony, WB and MGM... and some independent owners (I would guess... such as Wichita Town).

 

December Bride and Our Miss Brooks. Jackie Cooper's The People's Choice and Hennessey.

 

What is the "mod program"?

 

MOD = Manufacture On Demand

 

We all know what I'd support! The DVD transfers are beautiful to say the least, though S4 has some music replacement issues that should be addressed.

 

Manufactured on Demand sometimes erroneously equated with burned discs. Usually small batch burned or pressed discs are made at a time

Several smaller companies use a version, but at least 2 major lines are already MOD
Sony Choice -- though this line seems to be in limbo and I'm not sure it's progressed beyond the first few releases.
Warner Archives

 

I've had the MOST WANTED series with Robert Stack on my Amazon pre-orders since March 8th of last year.
CBS finally got around to BEST OF THE WEST last year after it was on my pre-order list for about a year as well.

 

Too many to list, but they have my support for much of their vintage catalog.

Some would be disappointing (I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show), but only because their previous Blu-Ray's were so impressive. Just their pre-existing HD transfers without all the TLC that went into their first Blu-Ray attempts, would leave these as automatically inferior.

But they're still favorites and I'd love to up the picture quality for the remainder of both series, flaws and all.

 

What scares me, and this is not something that CBS is to blame for, is when does the picture quality become TOO good? Just on DVD releases of The Beverly Hillbillies, it's REALLY obvious when the background is fake. As you got up to S8 and S9, a lot of the scenes were filmed in front of a screen, especially the Washington, D.C. and Silver Dollar City episodes. Those are painfully obvious in VHS quality-I can't imagine what blu-ray would do to them.

 

Not to be pedantic but track down is owned by fox as is Richard diamond, so those would have to be released by fox or more likely shout. The cat, Mr nice, panic and great ghost tales are owned by universal because they aired on NBC.

With that out of the way; I would like to say that I don't see the MOD program becoming a warner archive equivalent, I see them releasing a few tepid catalogue titles like the Californians and maybe a few more but that's it.

 

Slattery's People and The Great Adventure — not that I think either will happen!

 

Such scenes have always been "painfully obvious" to me in most productions - no matter how or where I've seen them and no matter what the quality of transfer. One of the reasons I've never been able to get into most Hitchcock films is his tendency to use rear-screen intercut with location, frequently in a single scene. It *always* takes me out of the film. It's bad enough that some TV shows did this for many outdoor scenes but at least those tended to be for the entire scene. That a director with Hitchcock's pedigree does this in the same scene in a major film just makes me shake my head in wonder.

Things get "too good" for me when wires holding props/planes/etc. become obvious. Frequently it was felt that by the time a film was transferred and then projected, such "tells" would not be visible. It's the same with many TV shows. They counted on the lower quality of the medium to hide how things were done.

 

Example of "too good": the 1953 War of the Worlds on DVD. The strings holding up the alien ships show, taking me right out of film. No way did Byron Haskins or George Pal intend for that to be. We can only hope that the blu-ray (please, Paramount: license the damn thing!) will hide them via digital magic.

 

Another one where the hd resolution is "too good", where strings/threads moving stuff can be seen easily, is the bluray version of the mid-1970s show "The Invisible Man".

 

And that's exactly the film I had in mind when I typed that! I love the clarity but absolutely hate seeing the wires! I still watch it regularly as it's a long time favorite, but those visible wires - ugh! I was shocked the first time I watched that DVD. I excitedly waited for that battle only to discover you could see the wires! OK... I know there are likely people out there who consider them "part of the experience." Fine... I don't have an issue with that but put 2 versions on the disc. One with, one without. Like you, I long for a BR release *if* they'll "hide" the wires.

 

You can see wires in the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still as Gort is carrying Patricia Neal.

 

Gort has to be one of the greatest robots in all of sci/fi. But he’s also one of the most poorly executed designs ever. He’s still bad-ass and I love the movie.

 

I'm pretty sure those wires were visible on 35mm prints at the theater when it was released. I never noticed the wires growing up watching it on small tvs from broadcast and then VHS. But later in the early 90's I got it on Laserdisc and watched it on a 50" TV and that was when I 1st noticed the wires. The original 35mm prints were definitely sharper than a Laserdisc at 425 lines of resolution.