Next Hanna-Barbera set?

Some of the stuff they used, they got from me, from home recordings of fairly recent vintage. Mostly in the extras, but there were a few cartoons where their masters were picture only with no audio, so they used the audio from mine.

I gave them whatever they asked for if I had it (and I think I had everything they asked for), but when I got the sets (Underdog and Tuxedo) I was so frustrated because so many cartoons (King & Odie, Tooter Turtle and Hunter) were missing and I could have sent them if they'd asked for them. Same thing with a few Underdog segments where the cliffhanger parts had been cut off.

But the stupidest bungling was on the King & Odie, which were almost all 2-part storylines (except for one which was 4 parts), where they included one part but not the other. Unbelievable. They also had the wrong audio for the Tennessee Tuxedo opening and closing. The one they used was similar to the one originally used in the first season (with studio singers vs. the voice actors) but it was an alternate take.

They attempted to reassemble the Underdog set into "shows" and they had a consultant who guessed at what the running orders and combinations of cartoons might have been. For Tennessee Tuxedo, they didn't even attempt that, they just had the cartoons separately.

 

Yes the Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo sets were a mess and disappointments but better than nothing. Didn't know you helped with those. Good to hear.

 

Thanks. Everything they asked for, they wanted at the 11th hour and Mark Arnold (who wrote a book on the studio that produced the shows) personally reimbursed me for overnighting stuff to them. I guess this is why I'm not in charge, but if I was, I'd make sure I had all the elements and THEN set a release date...

 

Shout Factory doesn't sound like a company to wait at that long to put a set together. If they did have to cut it that short it was probably due to Columbia/Sony waiting too long to give Shout the masters before work could begin. Sony owned the Classic Media library until it was acquired by Dreamworks in 2012 and then recently in it was acquired yet again, this time by Universal in 2016.

 

Apparently they had a rundown of the cartoons which were to be included, and booklets printed, and then they discovered some had picture elements but no audio. I wonder if they had audio, but maybe in a foreign language -- since there had been a big megaset released in Europe some years before, just using existing TV masters I guess.

 

Yeah, so I picked up the DVD of this Banana Splits horror movie. There is a documentary on the making of the movie as an extra. At the very end of the documentary, this comes on the screen...

 

I noticed this as well but figured it’s just a sloppy mistake, referring to the UK release.

 

That is my guess as well. But I also note the documentary has a few brief clips of the original show -- from the sole one-hour episode that's been released (on "Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s Volume 2"). So taken from something that's already out there.

It would be nice though, if they threw a set of the original series out there, even if it was just a cash-in. At least it would be available.

But given that this is direct to video -- and deserves it from what I've seen so far (I have made it 2/3 of the way through), there probably isn't anything to "cash in" on.

 

Scooby-Doo! Where Are You! Blu-ray was pathetic. Completely smeared with DNR, the original HD versions on iTunes and Amazon look far superior.

I hate WHV. Just give WAC everything, not hard.

 

OTOH, the Jetsons pops with vibrant colors and natural looking grain.

WAC even went the extra mile to include the Colgate and Scotch tape sponsor tags. I hope that when it comes time to do the Flinstones, that not only does WAC handle it, but they include the Winston cigarette ads.

 

I just found out that when Motormouse and Autocat was spun off as its own half-hour series for the 1970-71 season, in addition to the 17 episodes (two per week, meaning 34 total segments) that were part of its 1969-70 run on Cattanooga Cats, there were eight new episodes produced for 1970 (16 new Motormouse and Autocat stories and eight new It's the Wolf! stories).

So, the burning question: if Cattanooga Cats is ever released on DVD, would it be...?
a. the complete 1-hour series from 1969?
b. the 1970 half-hour cutdown with Around the World in 79 Days also included?

Would Motormouse and Autocat sell better on DVD by itself, considering there were eight new half-hours when spun off for 1970?

~Ben

 

Personally, I would be most interested in It's the Wolf and Around the World in 79 Days

 

alright i just checked the bluray forum, that has a thread where people actually post....
so 1 episode having missing laugh tracks seems to be the only issue with this set.
but the laugh track part for that episode seems to be lost anyway.

restored and original intro = yes
restored and original end credits = yes
The Jetsons "brought to you by..." = yes

not sure if every episode has the sponser tags included,
but they have at least 2 of them, that being the Colgate and Scotch tape one.

never expected that to even be included.

The Jetsons on Blu-Ray is a must buy for me

now all i need is The Flintstones (with the same treatment) on Blu-Ray.

 

I'm not seeing that.
I started watching this set recently. I think it looks fantastic!

 

They’ve essentially eliminated all the grain and the show just doesn’t look like it should. The Amazon HD streaming version is the remaster before DNR was applied. Once you’ve seen that you won’t want to watch the Blu-Ray ever again. They also went cheap and crammed the episodes onto BD-25s to trick the consumer into perceiving extra value. The contents of this set actually would’ve fit on two BD-50s but they wanted to charge $90...

 

Well it looks fine to me. I'm glad I picked it up. I will have to check out the Amazon streaming versions.

 

On Scooby-Doo BR I do see occasional DVNR destruction of lines and small detail. It's not a highly animated show so the effect is limited. Overall it looks okay, but not a stellar effort by WHV, especially for the price.

 

What about the laugh tracks and Ted Nichols' original instrumental main title music?

~Ben

 

I've more or less watched the first disc. Yes on laugh tracks. No on Ted Nichols.

 

Does anyone know if the missing laugh track on the single Jetsons episode was also missing on the DVD?