However, with regards to Eric's earlier post (and others)
"The seven "Mystery Movie" Columbos of the first season are all 90 minute shows, but the two pilot movies are two hour shows"
That's the length of the slots, including ad breaks - the season 1 episodes really run about 74 minutes each while the pilots are about 95 minutes each.
At a stretch, you could get three 70 minute episodes on a single disc - it's not ideal but they got away with it adequately for the Region 2 releases...
I'm confused. There seem to be a number of links to sites claiming to supply the complete 10 season collection of Columbo in region 0 form. For example tvondisc.com which is shown in the upper right corner of this forum.
I'd really like to buy these, but was not sure if they were legit since they are not on the usual sites like dveempire.com etc.
More than likely, they are DVD copies of the Japanese laserdisc sets. While I do own these sets, and the quality is very good, I will still be buying the U.S. version because:
1. DVD picture quality is superior over laserdisc.
and
2. The laserdiscs contain occassional Japanese subtitles which can't be removed. The DVD set won't.
If I recall, they also have the entire Seinfeld series for about $300...also a bootleg. I'll wait for the legal stuff, thank you very much. But I am disappointed that the Google ads that HTF has added recently have this link.
Thanks for the warning about tvondisc.com. It did seem too good to be true. I'm a bit surprised to see them as an ad on this thread. Is "Ads by Google" some sort of automated system that the forum does not really control?
The 70s episodes of the show have been released (legitimately) in Japan on DVD and are available from the likes of CD JAPAN for instance - they're not bad actually - the disc which has ETUDE IN BLACK includes the original 74 minute version and the one aired when it was decides to add twenty minutes for a 2 hour slot which is horribly padded.
They're a little pricey though and like all Japanase video, is actually NTSC but region 2.
I'm pleased with the September 7 release date for Season 1, and I hope there will be extras. It would be a missed opportunity big time to not get a commentary from Falk and co-creator William Link on the first pilot.
The five disc description though I find a bit puzzling. Evidently, the two pilot films are going to get a separate disc for each while the seven regular episodes of season 1 will break down 2-2-3 in terms of what appears on each disc.
I'm ecstatic to see that it's a five disc set, since that means they probably aren't going to try to cram too much on a disc (ala the Universal series).
Disc 1 "Prescription For Murder" "Ransom For A Dead Man"
Disc 2 "Murder By The Book" "Death Lends A Hand"
Disc 3 "Dead Weight" "Suitable For Framing"
Disc 4 "Lady In Waiting" "Short Fuse"
Disc 5 "Blueprint For Murder"
I did a quick check of the set this morning. The first pilot runs about 99 minutes, while the second runs about 93, so it's possibly edited.
The remaining episodes all run about 75 minutes each, so they appear to be complete.
The transfers are fantastic! They appear to from recently struck prints. While there is occassional film dirt (mostly during the credits and stock footage), the episodes have incredible detail and color. The transfers are similar to other film-based TV shows from the era. (Night Stalker, Star Trek, Mary Tyler Moore, MASH, etc.)
It seems odd that this set is spread out over 5 discs, since Universal has been using DVD-18's for most of their TV sets recently. It's a welcome change. The digipak's hubs are the easy-to-remove type, unlike "Magnum P.I."'s disc-breaking-hubs. The fold-out set is very nice, with only simple graphics and several of Columbo's quotes.
Fans should be very pleased with this set. Hopefully someone will be able to verify if pilot #2 is edited or not. A 2-hour show from 1971 should have run 99-100 minutes, not 93 minutes. So I am a bit worried it may be edited.
Not necessarily. Like "Duel", there may be an alternate version. It's possible that the producers had the UK theatrical release in mind, so the U.S. broadcast may have been "padded" with a few extra commercials, or footage that has since been cut, to fill the two-hour timeslot.
With few exceptions, the running time of most TV shows then (and now) were very structured and consistent. The broadcast networks and local stations require this format to fascilitate the process of selling the commercial space. The commitments from advertisers are secured months in advance, sometimes before an actual episode has been finalized, so the running time needs to be "fixed" and fairly consistent.
Over the years, the increase in commercial time has gradually shortened the net running time of the actual show. A current one-hour show is about 44 minutes, where "Columbo", and others from the era, was about 50 minutes.
The placement of the commercial breaks used to be predictable the way they were structured. The breaks usually came at the 20-minute and 40-minute points, and right after/before the credits. This allowed viewers a "scheduled" break. Nowadays, commercials are thrown in intrusively, to catch the viewer "off-guard". Also, the breaks aren't designed as "crescendos" in the drama as often as they used to be.
The VHS from Columbia House also runs nearly 95 minutes. My personal opinion is that this episode is complete and un-edited. It may be time-compressed (which makes no sense whatsoever)but I don't believe it's been cut. I enjoyed seeing it again regardless of worrying myself about its running time.