Highway To Heaven(UNCUT) Sn. 2? (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

Seasons 4, and 5 never got released in the States, so I will pick those up from Mill Creek regardless of the content.
I used to have an attitude toward tv on dvd that anything was better than nothing. Mostly in the sense of music rights being cleared in order for a release. But when there are no hurdles to overcome for a tv on dvd release, why on earth won't they use the original broadcast versions instead of edited content. I just don't understand this practice.

 

[smithbrad]

Seasons 4, and 5 never got released in the States, so I will pick those up from Mill Creek regardless of the content.
I used to have an attitude toward tv on dvd that anything was better than nothing. Mostly in the sense of music rights being cleared in order for a release. But when there are no hurdles to overcome for a tv on dvd release, why on earth won't they use the original broadcast versions instead of edited content. I just don't understand this practice.

Someone here already posted a response from Mill Creek. I emailed Revelation that is putting out the R2 release and the response is pretty much the same in that they are just using what they were provided when they licensed the product. Assuming that is true than you really can't ask for much more from them, especially considering how cheaply Mill creek is pricing them.

The odd part is that the revelation R2 release total minute count is higher than the Mill Creek R1 release for season 2, but you can't always trust Amazon for the total runtime length. Are they licensed form the same source? Hard to say for sure. The only other advantages to the R2 releases is that they will all soon be released and they spread the episodes appropriately across more disks. However, the R2 releases are more expensive.

 

[younger1968]

I watched the Devil and Mr Smith as it aired as a halloween episode. Conrad Janis was the con artist and did an amazing job!!

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

Does anyone know what the original runtimes are for S2 or where we could find them?! Could someone who has purchased S2 post the run times, I noticed that there has been no further replies in this thread guess that means not very many people are interested in this series?!

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

S3 has been announced and I noticed that the cover art no longer features any disclaimer about the episodes?! I wonder if that means S3 will also feature edited eps like S2 did?! Total letdown IMO, we thought Mill Creek would be delivering uncut episodes but in the end they drop the ball and offer edited crap just like A&E did.

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Highway-Heaven-Season-3/19150

 

[smithbrad]

I had contacted the company releasing Highway To Heaven in the UK (Revelation) about whether the episodes are uncut. There response was that they are distribution just what they received, and that they believe they are uncut. However, if you check the running times from their releases the times do go down on a per episode average as the seasons go along. Is this because some are cut in the later seasons? Not sure, but it sounds like it.

If someone much bigger than Mill Creek had picked this up then maybe more could have been done. But seeing it was Mill Creek I really can't blame them for the result. From what I have seen they basically license the content and throw it on a disk for a cheap price. That is there model and this is what they had access to. My guess is that they probably thought they had complete episodes based on how season 1 worked out. Then they realized season 2 was cut and changed the label at the last minute. Now going forward they aren't really trying to say anything about it.

While I wish someone could have picked it up that had the resources to give us complete episodes, no one came to the plate. With Mill Creek we at least didn't have to pay the high prices for what we get. I just wish they could have spread the episodes out across more disks. Four epsidoes per disk is better than five, and they did have control over that.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

A couple of posters who have worked for the industry for many years have stated time and time again that one can easily tell which episodes are syndicated, and which aren't.

Usually, Syndicated episodes begin with a slate that says "U.S. Domestic Syndication Master. TRT: 22:00 (or 44:00).

 

[smithbrad]

A couple of posters who have worked for the industry for many years have stated time and time again that one can easily tell which episodes are syndicated, and which aren't.

Usually, Syndicated episodes begin with a slate that says "U.S. Domestic Syndication Master. TRT: 22:00 (or 44:00).

That's fine, but I fail to see how this changes anything with Mill Creek. It looks to me that they had an opportunity to license a product with prints given to them and that is what they did. The Revelation releases in the UK may be no different. Obviously, A&E released syndicated prints as well. So if unedited prints are available and can be prepared for DVD distribution without losing money in the process no one appears willing to do so. That alone gives me the impression that this is the best we will get, at least for some time.

Maybe someday this title will warrant being remastered in HD with a nice blu-ray to follow. But at $10 to $14 a season these releases will hold me over until then.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Okay, Mill Creek's website says S3 will be 18hrs., 43 min. total running time for 24 episodes.

http://www.millcreekent.com/highway-to-heaven-season-3.html

The R2 release is listed at 1140 minutes for 24 episodes, which averages out to 47.5 minutes per episode.

I suck at math. Does Mill Creek's 18 hr, 43 min equal out to that 1140 minutes? Or, is their S3 running short?

 

[smithbrad]

Okay, Mill Creek's website says S3 will be 18hrs., 43 min. total running time for 24 episodes.

http://www.millcreekent.com/highway-to-heaven-season-3.html

The R2 release is listed at 1140 minutes for 24 episodes, which averages out to 47.5 minutes per episode.

I suck at math. Does Mill Creek's 18 hr, 43 min equal out to that 1140 minutes? Or, is their S3 running short?

If accurate, the difference is about 40 seconds an episode with Mill Creek being the shorter of the two. When you get to season 4 the R2 set quickly works down to 45 minutes an episode according to Amazon. Is that a natural decrease after one year or a sign of cut episodes. I don't know for sure but it looks a bit suspicious.

I almost went with the R2 sets but the price difference was too much without being sure they were uncut, and I couldn't find reviews to clarify or get a response from Revelation that assured me of the case.

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

An update to the Mill Creek releases, I decided to do a comparision between the two R1 releases and I was surprised to see that Mill Creek's releases for S2 & S3 both come in shorter then A&E's releases!? Here is the breakdown:

Season 2
A&E- 19hr. 12min.
Mill Creek- 18hr. 4min.

Season 3
A&E- 20hr.
Mill Creek- 18hr. 43min.

This confirms that Mill Creek's releases do indeed contain edited episodes but they are even shorter than the releases that A&E put out- how is that possible, are there different versions of syndicated episodes?! As a result of this, I have decided not to purchase any more seasons- this is just unacceptable for me.

 

[smithbrad]

The Hallmark Channel has been known to add additional cuts to syndicated broadcasts. I'm pretty sure Mill Creek is just releasing what they received, but based on those numbers I would agree it isn't acceptable.

So where did the numbers come from? Did you compare the two sets directly yourself, or were the totals posted elsewhere? If elsewhere, where? I ask because one can't always go by posted numbers on seller websites. Amazon has been known to be wrong in such listings.

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

I'm pretty sure Mill Creek is just releasing what they received,

I understand that, I was not trying to incinuate that they are deliberately releasing edited episodes. However, it appears as though there is no quality control at this company- they are not making any effort (it seems) to determine whether the content they are being given is uncut or edited?! This is unacceptable IMO because they actively promoted that their releases would feature uncut episodes and the S1 release had a huge disclaimer on the cover promoting that the episodes are uncut. Now after the S2 debacle, they have resorted to using the poor excuse that 'we only release what we are given'.

So where did the numbers come from?

The Mill Creek run times come directly from the release info on their website, while the A&E run times come directly from the actual releases. I compared the numbers from three different sources- Amazon.com listing, DVD Empire listing and the information that is written on the actual packaging, all 3 list the same run time. It's possible there might be a mistake but I don't see why they would lie about the run time when someone could easily go through each episode and verify it?!

 

[smithbrad]

but I don't see why they would lie about the run time when someone could easily go through each episode and verify it?!

Not lie...I've just heard that sometimes Amazon might just list ball-park figure at times if nothing more specific had been provided. It's too bad about the time differences. If I knew for sure the R2 releases were different I might go that route, even with the much higher prices. However, with both being released around the same time if makes me leery to chance it. I guess I just figure if a title makes it all the way down to Mill Creek then there really isn't much hope for anything special (unless they just get lucky with great prints), so my expectations were low from the start.

 

[Jakerman1988]

I'm sort of picky about purchasing TV sets, unless they're uncut, as well.

 

[Ron1973]

I'm sort of picky about purchasing TV sets, unless they're uncut, as well.

I'm the same way. I don't care how good the transfers are or what extras there are, if it's butchered I won't buy. The only exception would be if the original masters were lost.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

That's bull**** that the original masters for many of the episodes don't exist anymore. Complete and utter bull****.

The original uncut masters, along with the original 35 millimeter interpositives and 1/4 inch audio tapes, are housed in a Hollywood vault set up by Michael. This has been confirmed by a fellow named Rick who runs the Highway to Heaven Homestead, the unofficial fansite for the series.

They just did not want to go back to the original elements at all.

 

[smithbrad]

That's bull**** that the original masters for many of the episodes don't exist anymore. Complete and utter bull****.

The original uncut masters, along with the original 35 millimeter interpositives and 1/4 inch audio tapes, are housed in a Hollywood vault set up by Michael. This has been confirmed by a fellow named Rick who runs the Highway to Heaven Homestead, the unofficial fansite for the series.

They just did not want to go back to the original elements at all.

Whoever said there weren't original elements somewhere?

But you are right they didn't go back to the original elements or masters. My take is because they weren't available to them or that the cost was to high for their company. If you look at a typical Millcreek release you will see they get access to something already prepared and ready to go out. All they do is repackage the episodes and release for a cheap price.

Other than the studio's how often do these small distributors take on the heavy lifting costs for a release? Take for example, the Peter Gunn release that was available in the UK. Someone found a decent set of prints and prepared them for release. The company was bought or merged, the prints became available for licensing, and Timeless picked them up for a US release. They didn't do a lot of work on them other then to author them to DVD. HWTH is similar in that they were also prepared for release in the UK. I'm betting Millcreek just made a deal to get the same prints and release them in the US at a low cost since the previous US release was so expensive. Do they always know what they have? Nope, they are just in the business of quick turnaround releases at a cheap price.

The shame here is not Millcreek itself, but that someone bigger didn't see HWTH as an opportunity and do a release that we as fans could appreciate by going out and getting the best prints available. The fact that the previous release probably didn't sell well (most likely due to high price and cut episodes) didn't help matters.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/highwaytoheavenseason3dvdreview.html

Season 3 review. A little better. All but three episodes are uncut.

 

[jimmyjet]

i will wait for blu-ray on this. it is a favorite of mine, and i want to get unedited from the original.