Faerie Tale Theater (1 Viewer)

[moviebuff75]

I wonder who owns the master tapes to this series? The versions released on VHS and dvd have cut episodes, and episodes featuring later Duvall intros, and not the originals. I would like to see this masterpiece remastered and released properly.

 

[SD_Brian]

Here's hoping, but it would likely require a great many magic beans and intervention from a fairy godmother or two to make this happen.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Unfortunately, the series was recorded on analog standard def video back in the 1980s, so trying to make these shows look good would be a challenge.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Unfortunately, the series was recorded on analog standard def video back in the 1980s, so trying to make these shows look good would be a challenge.

I’m not unhappy with the DVD version I have. My childhood memories of seeing this show were from watching the Playhouse Home Video VHS editions and the DVD is consistent with those memories (and how those tapes appeared when I took a second look as an adult). A lot of chromakey and green screen, static backgrounds, etc. They were very creative with basically using the technology your local news used to do the map on the weather report and turning it into the illusion of fantasy worlds. I always thought the low-fi nature of the series was one of its charms.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I remember watching the series on Showtime, then renting them on CBS/Fox videotapes.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I remember watching the series on Showtime, then renting them on CBS/Fox videotapes.

I grew up in a no-cable house

Heck, at one point, my mom got rid of the roof antenna so the best I could do was three channels on rabbit ears (as long as I was holding said rabbit ears in the right direction while trying very hard not to breathe lest the slight vibration scare the signal away).

I think the CBS/Fox videos were the original releases and then Fox created that Playhouse subsidiary that reissued them - but I think the Playhouse tapes themselves used the CBS/Fox fanfare at the beginning of playback - I can close my eyes and see/hear it like it was yesterday. The local library had one set, the local video store had the other.

 

[moviebuff75]

I watched them first run on Showtime with Shelley's original intros and all episodes uncut. Rumplestiltskin is missing a chunk of footage. Time to make this happen. I will be researching.