Naked City (1 Viewer)

[jayembee]

There's a couple of the half hours that I have better 16mm transfers in my collection than what was on the box set. For anyone interested in the complicated history of the 2 properties, Stephen Bowie had an excellent and detailed write-up on his classic tv history website.

Yup. One of the things that disappointed me about the first half-season Route 66 set were that some episodes were cut, some episodes came from lousy sources, and I had XviD copies (ill-gotten, I confess) of some that were in better shape and/or complete.

The funny thing about cut episodes. Before getting the Naked City complete series set, I had some episodes on the older Image DVD releases, and I was recording other episodes on the DVR from RetroTV. Later on, the series left RetroTV and appeared on MeTV, and I recorded some because the previous broadcasts had glitches. The MeTV episodes were cut, just like the RetroTV episodes, but what was weird was that, more often as not, they were cut in different places!

Thanks for the reference to Bowie's piece. I'll take a look at it.

 

[Purple Wig]

I don't recall ever seeing The Naked City in syndication.

In 1973 it was running at 10:30 pm in our small southern Minnesota town. Possibly broadcast from Minneapolis but more likely Austin, MN or Mason City, IA.

 

[Lecagr]

For those who have seen the 4th season episode "No Naked Ladies In Front Of Giovanni's House", what do you think of it?

This episode seems to have generally negative reviews, so I wanted to check it out and see what I think. It's mostly a lighthearted type of episode, a comedy/drama, and the drama parts don't really take themselves too seriously. It's about an insecure young man who's lacking in maturity, he is landlord of the building where he lives, his father previously owned the building but has passed away, and the young man retains an unusual connection with his father. The young man has a girlfriend who loves him and wants to marry him, he loves her and says he wants to marry her, but is reluctant to make the commitment.

I won't go into further details so as not to spoil the story, but I thought this is a decent episode and not deserving of the low critique it's received. The episode ends happily so that's a good thing. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate it a 7, not great but also not bad. It's sort of a study on psychology and the human mind, this type of episode would have probably worked well, maybe even better, as an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Al Lewis has a role in the episode as one of the tenants in the building, he would soon go on to the role of Grandpa Munster in The Munsters.

 

[Lecagr]

Another 4th season episode I watched recently is "Stop The Parade, A Baby Is Crying". This one doesn't have much if any comedy, it's basically a straightforward drama. A decent episode, pretty good story. Starring Jack Klugman and Diana Hyland.

 

[Lecagr]

Also want to mention that the episode "Stop The Parade, A Baby Is Crying" has an element of mystery and suspense, it probably would have also worked well as an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

 

[PianoPlayer]

Delving back into my Naked City Complete Series set for the first time in awhile.

Remind me: Why do the episodes that weren't on the earlier Image releases look and sound so ... not great? Picture and audio are substandard.

I know: Be grateful that we got the whole series. And I am grateful.

But I recall seeing my first-ever Naked City episode in syndication back around 1990, and it was a sparkling transfer of the episode "A Wednesday Night Story." The picture and sound was excellent.

Why, then, was that stellar transfer not used on this DVD set? Is it really a case of distributor RLJ laziness, apathy, "be-glad-you're-getting-this-show-at-all"? or some preposterous legal reason that forced them to use poorer-quality transfers?

 

[jayembee]

Who knows. Back in the day, I had availed myself of some illicit digital files of episodes of various series that hadn't at that time appeared on commercial media. There was one person in particular, who seemed to have really good-quality sources, and had a real talent for encoding. Anyway, I remember when I got the first half-season set of Route 66 (from a label called Infinity/Roxbury or something like that, I think distributed by Image. I was quite disappointed by some of the episodes in the set, and in one case, it was a shorter, syndicated version. The XviD copy I'd already had of the episode was not only the full, uncut episode, but in better quality.

I suspect that some labels make a cursory attempt at finding good sources, but eventually decide they can't waste any more time looking for better ones and just put out what they have in hand. It's been a while since I've watched my NC set, but I don't recall being too disappointed in the quality. Well, maybe the half-hour episodes weren't up to the same level as the hour-long ones, but those must've been harder to source. I don't recall ever seeing those in syndication back in the day. When one of the classic TV cable networks (Retro TV) started showing them about 10 years back, after having shown the hour-long ones for a few cycles, I was thrilled.

 

[smithbrad]

But I recall seeing my first-ever Naked City episode in syndication back around 1990, and it was a sparkling transfer of the episode "A Wednesday Night Story." The picture and sound was excellent.

Why, then, was that stellar transfer not used on this DVD set? Is it really a case of distributor RLJ laziness, apathy, "be-glad-you're-getting-this-show-at-all"? or some preposterous legal reason that forced them to use poorer-quality transfers?

While it is entirely possible that RLJ used lessor sources for that episode. However, it is also possible that it is nothing more than the differences between your perception of quality back then in comparison with today. Thinking about it, your original perception is based on something viewed potentially 20+ years ago, when SD quality was standard, and TV's were smaller. Fast forward to today where we now have TV shows viewed in HD (some even classic shows from the same time period), some SD content on DVD coming from brand new transfers, and larger TV's. Simply put, based on one's perspective of quality back then and now might lead to the same print looking and sounding excellent back then, to only being sub-par to average today.

 

[jayembee]

While it is entirely possible that RLJ used lessor sources for that episode. However, it is also possible that it is nothing more than the differences between your perception of quality back then in comparison with today. Thinking about it, your original perception is based on something viewed potentially 20+ years ago, when SD quality was standard, and TV's were smaller. Fast forward to today where we now have TV shows viewed in HD (some even classic shows from the same time period), some SD content on DVD coming from brand new transfers, and larger TV's. Simply put, based on one's perspective of quality back then and now might lead to the same print looking and sounding excellent back then, to only being sub-par to average today.

This.

I remember, 30 years ago, getting Disney's CAV laserdisc release of Fantasia, hitting the "pause" button every now and then, and thinking that this resulted in just about the most perfect picture I'd ever seen on home video. I'm guessing (I need to replace my LD player, and even then, it probably wouldn't play well with my Samsung LED TV) that that wouldn't be the case anymore if I were to repeat the experiment.

 

[smithbrad]

When it comes to classic TV, I feel like I was basing everything on a pretty consistent quality scale for the longest time where DVDs based CBS new transfers were at the top, other major studios a minor step down, and the independents ranging from good to just watchable. However, in the past couple of years with blu-ray releases of some classic TV and more and more showing up streaming in HD that my standards bar has taken a shift with the previously "just watchable" sliding off the radar. Luckily, I already watched many of them in earlier years.

 

[Lecagr]

I recall seeing my first-ever Naked City episode in syndication back around 1990, and it was a sparkling transfer of the episode "A Wednesday Night Story." The picture and sound was excellent.

Why, then, was that stellar transfer not used on this DVD set? Is it really a case of distributor RLJ laziness, apathy, "be-glad-you're-getting-this-show-at-all"? or some preposterous legal reason that forced them to use poorer-quality transfers?

From the complete series DVD set, I recently watched the episode "A Wednesday Night Story" and thought it was a pretty good episode.

With regards to the video and audio quality of the Naked City complete series DVD set, I'm not having any issues, everything looks and sounds fine to me. The main and most important thing is that the episodes are complete and not edited, unlike what we got with the Barnaby Jones DVD set from VEI where the vast majority of episodes are the edited for syndication versions. This in my opinion is inexcusable and it needs to be corrected but I doubt that VEI will do anything about it.

 

[smithbrad]

With regards to the video and audio quality of the Naked City complete series DVD set, I'm not having any issues, everything looks and sounds fine to me. The main and most important thing is that the episodes are complete and not edited, unlike what we got with the Barnaby Jones DVD set from VEI where the vast majority of episodes are the edited for syndication versions. This in my opinion is inexcusable and it needs to be corrected but I doubt that VEI will do anything about it.

Based on my own opinion only, I believe that it is possible the use of edited episodes within Barnaby Jones may be linked to the bad reviews VEI received regarding the McMillian & Wife release. Based on my recollection, while the M&W release used complete episodes, they were slammed for the questionable quality of the prints. Soon after the Barnaby Jones release was delayed. I surmise the delay may have been to search out the best prints from what they received from CBS. Even if that meant using edited over complete episodes. If I recall correctly, the prints from the BJ release were received better than the M&W prints. However, BJ was slammed for using edited episodes. If so, VEI was going to get slammed either way depending on one's preference regarding a bad situation.

 

[Lecagr]

Based on my own opinion only, I believe that it is possible the use of edited episodes within Barnaby Jones may be linked to the bad reviews VEI received regarding the McMillian & Wife release. Based on my recollection, while the M&W release used complete episodes, they were slammed for the questionable quality of the prints. Soon after the Barnaby Jones release was delayed. I surmise the delay may have been to search out the best prints from what they received from CBS. Even if that meant using edited over complete episodes. If I recall correctly, the prints from the BJ release were received better than the M&W prints. However, BJ was slammed for using edited episodes. If so, VEI was going to get slammed either way depending on one's preference regarding a bad situation.

Thanks for posting with this information. My preference by far is to have complete episodes over anything that's edited.

CBS DVD released the entire series of Mannix, it's unfortunate they didn't do the same with Barnaby Jones. If CBS DVD had stayed with Barnaby Jones and released all 8 seasons, I imagine we probably would have gotten all complete episodes.

 

[Lecagr]

I just remembered that VEI also released on DVD the Cannon series with William Conrad, those episodes thankfully are complete but also makes it all the more aggravating that Barnaby Jones ended up being such a mess with mostly edited for syndication versions of the episodes.

Back to the subject of Naked City, I'm enjoying this series and glad that I purchased the DVD set. Overall I would say that I prefer the hour length episodes from seasons 2, 3, and 4 over the half hour episodes from season 1.

 

[jayembee]

Back to the subject of Naked City, I'm enjoying this series and glad that I purchased the DVD set. Overall I would say that I prefer the hour length episodes from seasons 2, 3, and 4 over the half hour episodes from season 1.

I also prefer the hour-long later seasons because of the focus on the personal drama of the guest-stars. The half-hour episodes were more "police procedural", understandbly because the original film was such. Which is fine. I like them, too, just not as much.

 

[ponset]

 

[ponset]

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

I'll be looking for a Naked City ad in a local Minneapolis TV magazine from the early 60s with a picture of Horace McMahon and snap a picture for posting!

 

[bmasters9]

View attachment 194927

Liked how the show was promoted then as being from Screen Gems (the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures Corporation), with the original Torch Lady; this was similar to when ads for shows from Columbia Pictures Television in the 80s would have the 80s Torch Lady of that studio, with the Coca-Cola Company byline under it (as one T.J. Hooker ad I've shown before did).

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

Here's the picture I promised you!