Pre-Order I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[ScottRE]

about the b/w seasons being colorized with the color turned off ,that was debunked in a old thread . that was one of the first things (besides the fugitive music replacement issues )that i researched on this forum. i ended up buying the separate b/w seasons of both IDOJ and Bewitched bc the original complete series sets only had the color versions.

Great! That's awesome to know, thanks.

 

[Randy Korstick]

That being the case, why would Hogan's Heroes on CBS be in color from the top (that one after a B/W pilot), and the same w/The FBI on ABC (being that both also started in the same 1965-66 season as NBC's Jeannie)?

Color TV shows started in 1959 with Bonanza being an example. From 1959-1963 there were only a handful of shows in color. But starting in 1964 a big increase in the number of shows being made in color occurred as color tv sets became more affordable and by 1966 all primetime shows were being made in color.
The FBI is an excellent show by the way. I was collecting the series and watched halfway through season 5 and then stopped as I got sidetracked with other releases. Its I show I want to start watching again. I will need to purchase seasons 6-9 once I do.

 

[RobertMG]

Color TV shows started in 1959 with Bonanza being an example. From 1959-1963 there were only a handful of shows in color. But starting in 1964 a big increase in the number of shows being made in color occurred as color tv sets became more affordable and by 1966 all primetime shows were being made in color.
The FBI is an excellent show by the way. I was collecting the series and watched halfway through season 5 and then stopped as I got sidetracked with other releases. Its I show I want to start watching again. I will need to purchase seasons 6-9 once I do.

NBC was selling a lot of Color TV's because they were NBC, Bonanza in color was a big reason. Hazel too went to color quickly, the second season although one episode of season one was in color, the brilliant episode where everyone wanted to know what color Perry Como's eyes were. So not only selling color TV's but also selling Perry Como's records and boosting his hit show too! Jeanie in black and white (NBC) and the first two seasons of Bewitched (ABC) kept the budget down. Did Donna Reed ever go to color before the end of it's eight year run?

 

[Lecagr]

That FBI w/the late, great Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., I've been definitely looking into (despite it being a Warner Archive MOD series)-- from what I've seen, it looks like a mid-60s version of the late-50s to early-60s Robert Stack ABC Untouchables series.

I can definitely recommend The FBI, great series, I have the complete 9 season run on DVD from Warner Archive, I would say go for it if you're considering buying the DVD's.

 

[BobO'Link]

In addition to NBC cutting corners and both NBC and Screen Gems feeling the show would never make it to S2 (Sheldon *wanted* to film in color, offering to pay the difference out of his own pocket, but Screen Gems' Jerry Hyams advised him against it), I Dream of Jeannie's first season was in BW also because of the visual effects used. They were very difficult, and more expensive, to pull off in color. By the start of S2 advances in the techniques involved allowed the transition.

 

[ScottRE]

Color TV shows started in 1959 with Bonanza being an example. From 1959-1963 there were only a handful of shows in color. But starting in 1964 a big increase in the number of shows being made in color occurred as color tv sets became more affordable and by 1966 all primetime shows were being made in color.
The FBI is an excellent show by the way. I was collecting the series and watched halfway through season 5 and then stopped as I got sidetracked with other releases. Its I show I want to start watching again. I will need to purchase seasons 6-9 once I do.

There were a few color TV shows from 1950 on. Some, like The Cisco Kid and The Adventures of Superman (in color from the 3rd season) were syndicated. Considering the majority of sets were monochrome , the decision to hold back full color network broadcasting was understandable. We didn't get a color set until the mid-70's.

 

[Nelson Au]

Sorry to digress from Jeannie, regarding The FBI, it is a series I’m interested in collecting. What I found really cool is the end credits when Zimbalist drives off in that year’s Mustang. I’m a vintage Mustang owner, so it’s cool to see that.

Sorry to hear about the lacking quality of this Jeannie blu ray release. I was going to invest in it, but I just might stick with the Sony DVD set. This might not bode well for Bewitched.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

The Roku Channel only has season 1-3 available. tubi has seasons 2-4 but I'm pretty sure they only stream in 720p.

Update: Now if you go to Roku, they only have season 4-5 available, but the prints aren't 16:9 like the first three seasons were, They are 4:3 and don't look HD. The picture quality looks like my DVD's so maybe the last 2 seasons weren't remastered in HD after all???

 

[Lecagr]

It's unfortunate if the I Dream Of Jeannie blu rays are a disappointment but Mill Creek seems to be a company that does things on the cheap. The only release I have from them is the complete series DVD of SWAT, if it had been done correctly it would have been a 9 disc set, but no, Mill Creek had to be cheap and make it a 6 disc set with too many episodes crammed on to the discs which results in over compression and I have occasional problems/freeze ups in the video when watching episodes.

 

[sjbradford]

Did Donna Reed ever go to color before the end of it's eight year run?

Unfortunately no. Donna Reed ended its run in the spring of 1966, the last season there were B&W series in primetime. All of primetime went to color in the fall of 1966. The 1965-66 season was a transition year. That was the first season CBS broadcast any weekly series in color (NBC and ABC had select series in color in previous years), and had a mix of B&W and color series. ABC was the same. NBC only had two B&W shows in 1965-66 (Jeannie was one of them) and the rest of its schedule was in color.

 

[bmasters9]

That was the first season CBS broadcast any weekly series in color

To that point-- was Hogan's Heroes the first one that CBS ever had in color?

 

[LeoA]

I feel sorry for the fans of this show.

While I wasn't planning to buy this any time soon, I ended up going through seasons 1-4 on Tubi a few weeks back and enjoyed it much more than I remembered.

Between that and being impressed with just how nice the episodes looked, I was starting to get tempted. Instead, Mill Creek and Sony have lost a sale that they almost had won over.

 

[Bryan^H]

I feel sorry for the fans of this show.

While I wasn't planning to buy this any time soon, I ended up going through seasons 1-4 on Tubi a few weeks back and enjoyed it much more than I remembered.

Between that and being impressed with just how nice the episodes looked, I was starting to get tempted. Instead, Mill Creek and Sony have lost a sale that they almost had won over.

It is difficult. On one hand the art on the discs is nice (better than CBS dull grey discs for example) and the video quality is better than the DVD sets. I haven't noticed any macroblocking at all, a complaint I have heard about over compression which I have not seen (average 22 MBPS). The color is much more vibrant than the DVD sets as well.

Anyway, I'm certainly not disappointed. Or at least not as much as most people are.

 

[Randy Korstick]

It is difficult. On one hand the art on the discs is nice (better than CBS dull grey discs for example) and the video quality is better than the DVD sets. I haven't noticed any macroblocking at all, a complaint I have heard about over compression which I have not seen (average 22 MBPS). The color is much more vibrant than the DVD sets as well.

Anyway, I'm certainly not disappointed. Or at least not as much as most people are.

I agree with your review. I do not see any compression defects at all. The color is much better than the DVD's. It doesn't look completely HD but its definitely a bigger improvement than 15% over the DVD's. I would say 25-30% improvement.

 

[Randy Korstick]

There were a few color TV shows from 1950 on. Some, like The Cisco Kid and The Adventures of Superman (in color from the 3rd season) were syndicated. Considering the majority of sets were monochrome , the decision to hold back full color network broadcasting was understandable. We didn't get a color set until the mid-70's.

Yes you are correct there were a few scattered color shows before 1959 I was just generalizing it in order to make it easier to follow the progression of color tv shows through the 1960's until it became all color.

 

[RobertMG]

Yes you are correct there were a few scattered color shows before 1959 I was just generalizing it in order to make it easier to follow the progression of color tv shows through the 1960's until it became all color.

Yes Cisco Kid, Adv Of Superman, Sgt Preston were shot for some of their seasons in color and black and white but were not seen in color until the mid 60's or so - the negs were just store until the color boom took hold.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Does this new Bluray set have the correct opening theme songs for each series (variations for the color series) or are they the same as the dvd versions with that little timing glitch?

 

[Harry-N]

Unfortunately no. Donna Reed ended its run in the spring of 1966, the last season there were B&W series in primetime. All of primetime went to color in the fall of 1966. The 1965-66 season was a transition year. That was the first season CBS broadcast any weekly series in color (NBC and ABC had select series in color in previous years), and had a mix of B&W and color series. ABC was the same. NBC only had two B&W shows in 1965-66 (Jeannie was one of them) and the rest of its schedule was in color.

Yeah, that was the thrust of the color conversion - the fact that NBC was out there promoting its near full color line-up caught ABC and CBS a little short in that department. Those two had gotten wind of NBC's commitment to color and had to play catch-up, so in that 1965-1966 season, they started with their really big shows switching to color. Some shows lagged behind - like DICK VAN DYKE and DONNA REED, as both were finishing up their network runs. But the Lucy's, Hillbillies, and Red Skelton's of the world switched to color in that transition year.

If I've figured it out properly, the last "new" show to debut on CBS in black & white was THE LONER.

 

[HubbaBubbaKid]

NBC had a “color week” in the fall of 1962, seven shows had a color episode to sell the new color tv’s . i know there was Hazel (her episode was in 61, then went full color in 62) , Dr Kildare , and Wide Country. does anybody know the other shows that had a color episode for this promotion? Hazel and Dr Kildare‘s color episodes are on their dvd sets but Wide Country’s color episode is unfortunately in b&w on the dvd.

 

[BobO'Link]

Yeah, that was the thrust of the color conversion - the fact that NBC was out there promoting its near full color line-up caught ABC and CBS a little short in that department. Those two had gotten wind of NBC's commitment to color and had to play catch-up, so in that 1965-1966 season, they started with their really big shows switching to color. Some shows lagged behind - like DICK VAN DYKE and DONNA REED, as both were finishing up their network runs. But the Lucy's, Hillbillies, and Red Skelton's of the world switched to color in that transition year.

If I've figured it out properly, the last "new" show to debut on CBS in black & white was THE LONER.

Well... NBC's parent company at the time, RCA, was the primary reason NBC was pushing color so hard. More color shows allowed RCA to sell more TVs so there was that vested interest in the process. ABC and CBS kind of drug their feet because they didn't want to promote a competitor's product. It's interesting as CBS had the first, standard, process for color TV but it was bulky, had a terrible picture, and was not compatible with existing BW sets. With production of color TVs halted during the Korean War, coupled with the other challenges, the CBS system failed (and CBS bought back as many of the sets as it could to prevent lawsuits). That pretty much opened the door for the NTSC system that was developed at RCA.

In spite of rather low penetration - roughly 3% in 1964 (color sets were expensive) - color broadcasting turned into a ratings war. Again, NBC had a vested interest and the larger color footprint.