Mountie Free Mr. Novak thread (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

Since we apparently have a new rule here at HTF regarding posting of pictures and frame grabs being determined by thread starters, I'm staring this thread for those who want to discuss the show without having to wade through a hundred different frame grabs, mountie drawings and who knows what else.

I haven't seen mention of it yet, but what are everyone's thoughts and feelings about the fact that Warner Archive went back to their original premise of using whatever were the best elements on hand for Mr. Novak and they used the old 1980s Turner one-inch tape transfers rather than going back to the 35mm elements as they have been doing for most every other series. Does this mean that they feel that this and any other older shows they may release have such a limited sales potential that it doesn't pay for them to remaster them? Will this now limit future old TV series to those which were put on tape decades ago and eliminate the possibility of any shows being released which do not have existing tape transfers? As we know, when Turner bought MGM, all of the TV series they owned were mastered to one-inch tape. Not so with Warner/Lorimar shows so there are many obscure shows which they own which do not have videotapes.

 

[howard1908]

Since we apparently have a new rule here at HTF regarding posting of pictures and frame grabs being determined by thread starters, I'm staring this thread for those who want to discuss the show without having to wade through a hundred different frame grabs, mountie drawings and who knows what else.

I haven't seen mention of it yet, but what are everyone's thoughts and feelings about the fact that Warner Archive went back to their original premise of using whatever were the best elements on hand for Mr. Novak and they used the old 1980s Turner one-inch tape transfers rather than going back to the 35mm elements as they have been doing for most every other series. Does this mean that they feel that this and any other older shows they may release have such a limited sales potential that it doesn't pay for them to remaster them? Will this now limit future old TV series to those which were put on tape decades ago and eliminate the possibility of any shows being released which do not have existing tape transfers? As we know, when Turner bought MGM, all of the TV series they owned were mastered to one-inch tape. Not so with Warner/Lorimar shows so there are many obscure shows which they own which do not have videotapes.

I don't know if Warner is exclusively switching to tape sources for it's tv shows, but if they are it would make little difference in their output, since they've all but stopped making regular releases of the classics shows long ago.

By the way, totally agree that the picture posting has gotten way out of hand on the original Mr Novak thread.

 

[John Karras]

Since we apparently have a new rule here at HTF regarding posting of pictures and frame grabs being determined by thread starters, I'm staring this thread for those who want to discuss the show without having to wade through a hundred different frame grabs, mountie drawings and who knows what else.

Amen

 

[bmasters9]

Amen

Absolutely! One or two (or maybe three) pictures on a post is one thing, but not more than that (at least that's how I see it).

 

[Neil Brock]

I contacted Warner Archive regarding the use of the old one-inch tape transfers for Mr. Novak. Here is their response:

The market potential for these rare shows has diminished to the point where remastering was no longer financially viable. The existing masters, while they have their flaws, were the only alternative to not releasing the series at all. We felt the quality was good enough to warrant the still significant expense of compression & authoring & packaging to get this otherwise-unavailable series to the audience that is still there to support it.

 

[Bert Greene]

The Warner Archives' set to "A Man Called Shenandoah" looked like older tape transfers. I enjoyed the series a lot, but was disappointed in the video quality. I didn't purchase the "Lucan" set, but I recall similar responses. The only other Warner mod-dvd that I bought that came out this year was the little b-comedy "Baby Face Harrington" (1935), and again, it looked like an older transfer to me. When the Archive line started (feature films almost exclusively at first), they did have a mix of old and new remasterings, but within a year or two, they were serving up obviously newer and consistently high-standard transfers. But it seems this year they backslid on this, considerably, on the mod-dvd source material, while at the same time becoming ultra-high quality sticklers on their Archives' blu-ray releases, which have been getting rave reviews.

 

[disctrip]

Thanks for getting rid of the mountie pictures

 

[disctrip]

I contacted Warner Archive regarding the use of the old one-inch tape transfers for Mr. Novak. Here is their response:

The market potential for these rare shows has diminished to the point where remastering was no longer financially viable. The existing masters, while they have their flaws, were the only alternative to not releasing the series at all. We felt the quality was good enough to warrant the still significant expense of compression & authoring & packaging to get this otherwise-unavailable series to the audience that is still there to support it.

What he means to say is that the people who remember these "old" shows are old and dying off, so what's the point of spending more money. They should be content to have us release them at all.

 

[Neil Brock]

What he means to say is that the people who remember these "old" shows are old and dying off, so what's the point of spending more money. They should be content to have us release them at all.

Realistically, you can't say they are wrong. Considering the fact that even with the proliferation of these digital subchannels, like ME, GET, Antenna, COZI, etc., there are some shows which have no broadcast sales potential at all and with physical media collecting diminishing greatly, the ability to just break even, let alone see a profit, is becoming less and less likely.

 

[disctrip]

Realistically, you can't say they are wrong. Considering the fact that even with the proliferation of these digital subchannels, like ME, GET, Antenna, COZI, etc., there are some shows which have no broadcast sales potential at all and with physical media collecting diminishing greatly, the ability to just break even, let alone see a profit, is becoming less and less likely.

Which means we can all forget about 77 Sunset strip, Hawaiian Eye, or even "East Side,West Side" Which i would love to see again)

 

[Lecagr]

The title of this thread is funny, "Mountie free" Mr. Novak.

I'm not ordering at this time, but season 1 of Mr. Novak is on my "plan to purchase" list. Hopefully the 2nd season will also be released but it sounds like a few episodes might have music clearance issues.

 

[Neil Brock]

Which means we can all forget about 77 Sunset strip, Hawaiian Eye, or even "East Side,West Side" Which i would love to see again)

East Side West Side isn't a Warner owned series.

 

[Stephen Bowie]

The Warner Archives' set to "A Man Called Shenandoah" looked like older tape transfers. I enjoyed the series a lot, but was disappointed in the video quality. I didn't purchase the "Lucan" set, but I recall similar responses. The only other Warner mod-dvd that I bought that came out this year was the little b-comedy "Baby Face Harrington" (1935), and again, it looked like an older transfer to me. When the Archive line started (feature films almost exclusively at first), they did have a mix of old and new remasterings, but within a year or two, they were serving up obviously newer and consistently high-standard transfers. But it seems this year they backslid on this, considerably, on the mod-dvd source material, while at the same time becoming ultra-high quality sticklers on their Archives' blu-ray releases, which have been getting rave reviews.

More than half of Warner Archive film releases on DVD that I've seen (at least a dozen) seem to have been sourced from pretty dire older tape transfers since at least the beginning of this year. Tons of film dirt, video artifacts, and motion issues (I can't decide if we're seeing standards conversions or just transfers sourced from really "video-y" looking old formats). There's still a wide range of image quality, but I don't think it's exaggerating to suggest that the worst WA releases are now at the Alpha public domain-level.

I haven't looked that hard, but I've seen almost no discussion of this on the home video sites and forums, and the quote that Neil got out of them is the first confirmation from the studio of a policy change I'd guessed at. Given that for most of the 2010s Warner Archive was the gold standard for catalog releases on home video, this is a hugely undercovered story. Meanwhile I've seen half a dozen hand-wringing clickbait stories about whether Netflix will still be streaming Friends next month.

 

[howard1908]

Have any of the Warner/lorimar shows been transferred to tape?

 

[Neil Brock]

Have any of the Warner/lorimar shows been transferred to tape?

AFAIK, only the ones which they either had TV sales on, such as the big batch of show they sold to Good Life years ago, and those that they put up on their streaming site. So, if you are talking about shows which don't fit into either category, like say The Alaskans or Roaring 20s for instance, I don't know. Not that they could do anything with either of those, thanks to all of the songs Dorothy is belting out.. But, as far as other shows they own, such as The Little People, No Time For Sergeants, Mr. Roberts, etc., your guess is as good as mine. I think not but I don't have any knowledge one way or the other.

 

[Stephen Bowie]

(EDIT: Sorry for any confusion. I posted something here that was intended for another thread.)

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm forging ahead with transferring my tapes of second season Mr. Novak. I'm just getting a feeling that music issues are going to preclude a DVD release.

 

[Lecagr]

I now have the 1st season DVD of Mr. Novak and so far have watched the first two episodes on disc 1. I wasn't really too impressed with the first episode but the second episode was better.

The 1960's was a great decade for TV shows, in my opinion it's the best decade. Not every show made in those days is a classic, but the overall quality of the programs is so much better compared to the dreck that's on TV today.

 

[Neil Brock]

I now have the 1st season DVD of Mr. Novak and so far have watched the first two episodes on disc 1. I wasn't really too impressed with the first episode but the second episode was better.

The 1960's was a great decade for TV shows, in my opinion it's the best decade. Not every show made in those days is a classic, but the overall quality of the programs is so much better compared to the dreck that's on TV today.

If you're a fan of great drama, nothing beats the early to mid 60s era. Excluding the cookie cutter Warner Brothers sausage factory shows (2 parts private eye, 1 part cutie pie), and the even more abysmal copycats, like Follow the Sun, The Islanders, The Aquanauts, etc., you had a melding of continuing characters with anthology stories, resulting in the greatest drama era in TV history.

 

[Lecagr]

If you're a fan of great drama, nothing beats the early to mid 60s era. Excluding the cookie cutter Warner Brothers sausage factory shows (2 parts private eye, 1 part cutie pie), and the even more abysmal copycats, like Follow the Sun, The Islanders, The Aquanauts, etc., you had a melding of continuing characters with anthology stories, resulting in the greatest drama era in TV history.

What do you think of Barbara Stanwyck's anthology series "The Barbara Stanwyck Show"? Also, how about Robert Young's anthology series "Window On Main Street"? What do you think of that one?

The majority of the Barbara Stanwyck shows have been released on DVD in two separate volumes. Shout Factory included some episodes of Window On Main Street as bonuses on the Father Knows Best DVD sets.