Fat Albert set appears to be PAL sourced (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Adkins]

I've finally obtained one of the TL discs to compare to the Urban Works set.

They probably won't. But to me, the sped-up audio is just far too distracting for me to keep this set. I could even live with the ghosting, but the speedup is the deal-breaker for me. The TL discs are the only ones that I could enjoy watching.

Jeff

 

[Mark_Wilson]

Did UW change the intros for the episodes? I didn't watch them all but it looked like they used the same intro for each episode. The intro change from season to season.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

That's really a shame that PAL transfers were sourced for these episodes... Is the production company UK based or were the digital transfers just more accessible in PAL format and if so, why?

I wonder what the chances of UrbanWorks revisiting the episodes from NTSC masters would be?

Does Time-Life still hold license over their releases or did they simply contract the distro rights from Filmation like UrbanWorks and can therefore continue to profit off their current discs? If they no longer hold license to distribute episodes from the series on dvd, I wonder if UrbanWorks could work something out with TL to use their tansfers currently available on disc?

I'm still looking forward to the upcoming releases from UW, but I know first-hand the effects of PAL-NTSC transfers and it's a big let down in spite of what was recently announced by the company...

 

[Glenise]

I watched the UrbanWorks 1 disc set yesterday.
My eyes kinda hurt/felt funny when I watched it.
Did the 4 disc set from UrbanWorks affect anyone this way?

 

[Carlos Garcia]

All I can say is...I'm glad I didn't get rid of my Time-Life sets, and decided to buy the UW season sets instead, because I'm now positive the UW sets were not mastered from original NTSC elements. The Time-Life sets look great, experience no flicker, no fuzziness, no color shimying, no speeding up of sound, etc. Ok, so the Time-Life set is missing a few episodes, I'd rather enjoy most of the episodes with excellent quality, than I would enjoy season sets where I keep questioning the picture and sound quality. That would take away from the enjoyment of the show.

 

[Don]

I'll be passing this one up i did want it. also anyone know how many episodes there are in a total. also beginning in March there are supposed to be partial complete sets coming out.

 

[Dave Mack]

Is the new Season 1 Vol. 1 disc just out the same? From a PAL transfer? If so, I'll pass...

d

 

[AnthonyC]

I purchased the UE set last night, watched the first episode, and was puzzled by the fact that it lasted less than 20 minutes. Since the boxes on most of these Fat Albert releases brag about syndication, I was thinking the worst and now I'm happy to know it's just PAL-sourced.

98% of consumers won't know the difference and won't care (whereas something like ALF, if a consumer remembers a scene that's not on the set, they'll realize it). Plus, it comes with a bonus CD with all the songs from the season--that's a pretty cool bonus right there.

 

[RickER]

The episodes SHOULD run 22 minutes. I would assume this only because i own Star Trek: Animated on LD. Same studio (Filmation), and same era, the early 70s. So if the Fat Albert are less then 20 minutes long that would mean they are cut, or sped up.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

If you read Anthony's post above, it would seem that the time difference is a result of PAL speedup.

However, I remember the 1980s VHS releases that came out and the episodes on those ran only about 19-20 minutes, so it's possible that these aren't sped up.

I know Filmation's live-action shows like Shazam and Isis ran about 22 minutes, but that was because they added the extra "Moral" tags to those. On Shazam's first run, the moral tags weren't there, so basically, CBS lost a 30-minute commercial spot for those morals to be placed.

 

[Jay Pennington]

A PAL speedup of a 22 minute film would result in a program running 21 minutes 3.6 seconds.

Now, I haven't seen these, and it's possible they've removed bumpers and interstitials, if the show ever had any ("we'll be right back" cards and the like), but that would only amount to 15 or 20 seconds at the most.

Are the live action segments with Cosby at the open and close of each episode intact?

 

[AnthonyC]

Yes.

I don't have perfect pitch or anything but the voices sounded normal to me. Then again, I don't think I'd ever seen the show before I got the set, but it really doesn't affect my viewing pleasure.

 

[Dave Mack]

Anybody ever figure this out?

On the fence...

d

 

[AnthonyC]

I don't know if it means anything but some of the episodes are 21+ minutes.

 

[StacyV]

I'm not technically inclined when it comes to knowing about PAL - NTSC transfers, so forgive me for not being able to answer that question with any certainty. The Urbanworks discs do indeed appear to be noticeably sped up. I never did get rid of my Time Life discs, but picked up the UW set anyway. I finally watched the entire UW release today, making note of episode time lengths. Nine of the 12 episodes clocked in at just under 20 minutes. The other three were at least 21 minutes long.

I sampled two episodes for comparison: "Beggin' Benny" and "Four Eyes," viewing the Time Life set in one player and the Urbanworks release in a portable player simultaneously. Starting from the same point, the UW release did indeed move at a faster pace than the Time Life set, you'd have to pause the UW release a number of times in just after half a minute to give the Time Life version a chance to catch up.

That's not the worst of it though. The UW episodes are shorter in length because they aren't complete. There's about a minute or so (give or take) of footage after the musical performance but before the closing credits included on the Time Life discs but not included on the Urbanworks discs. If I'm not mistaken, they're referred to as tag scenes. Concerning the two episodes I used for the comparison, the closing credits begin immediately after the musical performance on the UW discs, while the Time Life discs include the tag scenes.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Can you explain what is in these "tags"? Is it Cosby talking directly to the viewer, hammering home the moral of the story?

I was aware that these tags were added to later Filmation shows Shazam and Isis (and in Shazam's case, were added after the original run) but wasn't aware of any such tags on earlier works (like Fat Albert). As I don't remember watching this show on its original run, I can't vouch for whether the tags were originally a part of the episodes, or if they were added later. Certainly, though, it would be desirable to have the most complete version available.

If you can compile a complete description of the tags, please let me know and I'll forward the information to the Filmation Brand Manager at Entertainment Rights as proof that the episodes on the discs are altered.

BTW, are you talking about this month's "Fat Albert Volume 1" or one of the earlier "Best of" releases?

 

[StacyV]

Yes, the release I'm talking about is the recent two-disc Volume 1 collection of 12 episodes. The tag scenes are animated, part of the cartoon, as opposed to a Cosby live action segment. At least on the two episodes I noted anyway. When I get a chance, I'll list a description of any "missing" scenes for all episodes where I can compare differences of the Urbanworks release against the Time Life releases.

 

[Eric Paddon]

There is now no question of this set becoming a permanent "No Sale!" with me.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Curiously, these tags were left off of the three or four 1980s VHS releases that I've seen at rental stores (I think they were put out by Worldvision).

These shorter versions (along with the 3-4 syndicated ones on disc one) looks like a case of "pull the first one off the shelf" without even looking at them.

Just shows why you should always go back to the original material (in this case, 16mm*) or at least pay someone who knows something about the subject to evaluate the materials.

*-assuming the 16mm prints still exist.

 

[Jay Pennington]

I would think they were produced on 35 like everything else at Filmation. The animation, anyway. Cosby's live action segments never did look that good.