Perry Mason - Season One/ Vol.1 (1 Viewer)

[Sylvia*ST]

Re: Theme Music--the title of the Perry Mason Theme is entitled "Park Avenue Frail" if I remember correctly.

Re: closed captions--they are done by people using a stenotype machine, these days connected to a sophisticated computer set-up. Nearly every studio has both original scripts as well as continuity and dialogue scripts done by secretaries immediately after a film's completion. Thus they reflect exactly what was said and done on screen. The studio I do some work for has these online on their private employee website, which captioners should have access to. These were done for foreign distributors for dubbing and subtitle transcription and translation.

I always watch with closed captioning on for various reasons, and the mistakes are legion. Law & Order, e.g., where the cops invariably refer to their boss as "Lieu" (short for lieutenant) is captioned as "Lou," "Loo," "Lew" and "Lieu," often all in the same episode. Captioners use proofreaders, who should catch such inconsistencies, and computer dictionaries specific to each job, which should automatically translate that word sound into "Lieu," but, look at who paid for the captions. Law & Order's were done by USA network. If they had been done by NBC, they would probably be better as they would probably have paid more.

My favorite mistranscriptions are from one program which mis-captioned "Toulouse Lautrec" into "Tulusla Trek," and the DVD of the film Funny Lady, where, when Streisand says "Perfect" to Jimmy Caan, but it's subtitled "Pervert."

As for the Perry Mason show, I love, love, love it and will buy every single episode as soon as available.

 

[JeffCNY]

Thanks for the info/background on how CC is actually done (and frequently mangled.)

Interestingly, while I almost never notice errors in CC for theatrical films, the standards seem to be lowered considerably for television product. Almost a "just get it over and done with" ethic.

Sad!

Jeff

 

[Jeff_HR]

Info that I found says the title of the theme music is "Park Avenue Beat"
There is a CD called "100 GREATEST TV THEMES" recorded by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on the Silva Screen Records label which sounds like the "original" ochestration of the music. There are a lot of wonderful themes on that CD. I'm thinking about purchasing it.

 

[JeffCNY]

Worth mentioning too, that sometimes the CC transcriber seems to go a bit overboard in the other direction.

On the latest release (Season 3) of "Charlie's Angels," there's a continual barrage of CC's I've never seen used much anywhere else, such as:

(sniffs)
(smacks lips)
(sighs)
(sucks teeth)
(dry cough)
(inhales)
(snorts)
(swallows)

A sharp eye and ear indeed.

Jeff

 

[DawnV]

Hello, I know this discussion is primarily about the Perry Mason episodes on DVD, but I was wondering how many of the episodes were put on the Columbia House VHS tapes. Was it about 120, 160? How does one know when you have a complete set? (tapes)

 

[Steve...O]

Perry trivia: the pilot episode was not the first aired (Restless Redhead). The Pilot was actually "Moth Eaten Mink" which was the 13th aired. It was filmed in October 1956 which explains why Burr looks a bit different than in other episodes. William Talman appears but, as far as I can tell, is never referred to by name. I thought that was a bit odd given the writers seemed to go out of the way to refer to the other characters by name several times (presumbably to get the audience familiar with the characters). This is also one of the few episodes that I've been able to see the shadow of the boom mike.


From what I read elsewhere, Columbia House issued 61 VHS tapes (equating to 122 episodes) and 23 DVDs (around 60-70 episodes using the same release order as the VHS).

Two VHS tapes (containing 4 episodes) cost more than this S1V1 set (with 19 episodes). Hence the reason I only bought a few VHS from CH. Even ebay prices were ridiculous. With these retail releases I would imagine the market for these VHS will go down and they'll be available for a song now. The tapes were concentrated on the first 3 or 4 seasons which are likely to get retail releases now that this first set has apparently done so well.

Steve

 

[DawnV]

Thanks for the info Steve. I have always noticed something about DVD's which I've never seen anyone else talk about. The motion seems to have a herky jerky motion to it...people moving, camera panning from side to side doesn't seem to be smooth. It reminds me of old movies with clay figures (like King Kong) that are animated by changing the position of the figure slightly and then shooting a single frame! Looks like every other frame is missing. Am I the only one that notices this? Is this a phenomenon that you just have to put up with with modern digital technology? Images do seem to be clearer, but motion isn't smooth as in old (analog?) technology. This is why I asked about the VHS tapes. They look more natural to me than any of the DVD's I own and would prefer to buy them. Maybe my equipment is too old to play them properly?
I actually cancelled my DirectV subscription because of this phenomenon. My local satellite tv store said that this is one thing they don't tell you about digital technology, a lot of people, maybe most people don't notice it.

 

[David Von Pein]

My goodness! What are those "Angels" up to in these episodes anyway??

"Smacks lips", "Sucks teeth", and "Swallows" (in that order) might just make me re-think a purchase of this show on DVD.

If there are any "Coos Satisfyingly" captions, I'm definitely buyin'!

 

[Jeff_HR]

Yes, he seemed to have shorter hair. It also seemed like the quality of the video was just so ever slightly lower, a little grainier perhaps. I thought during a court scene that Talman was refered to as Burger.

 

[Steve...O]

I don't know what to tell you. I've seen the effect you mention very rarely and I always attributed that to poorly authored DVDs. I'm not sure why you had the trouble with your satellite TV though. Maybe the installer gave you a poor connection?

Having now completed this Mason set I can say you shouldn't have any problems here. All the episodes look wonderful and the transfers are first rate.

Blooper alert: in the last episode on the set (Haunted Husband) there is a scene where Perry and Paul are standing outside a hotel door (where his client was supposed to be) and in the lower right corner you can see part of the crew's equipment clearly in the shot. It stays there for the whole scene!

Another blooper occurred several episodes prior where a close-up of one of Paul's reports to Perry is shown. The trouble is that the close-up shows a typewritten report, but in the long shot, it's obviously handwritten.

I also like to freeze frame shots of newspapers to read all of the non-relevent writing printed below the headline and initial paragraph. I believe David VP mentioned something similar with regards to the Beaver DVDs.

Of course fifty years ago nobody thought these would ever be noticed by, ahem, overzealous fans, using a pause button to look for this kind of stuff

Steve

 

[Tom.W]

I do this too. The front page shots in early Superman episodes invariably contain headlines about corruption in city hall or public works projects. How times haven't changed. I'm looking forward to starting Perry Mason now and zeroing in on these period snapshots. It's great that the transfers are getting positive feedback. Finally get to see them complete.

 

[John Stell]

Yes, 1950s' hour-long shows run about 52 mins and the half-hour shows about 26 mins. This would indicated Paramount's set is complete.

 

[Stephen PI]

Apparently, several people have been complaining about the audio on some of the episodes. Paramount have been offering replacements.
I found this out today because I am annoyed with the noise gating which causes the sound level to vary wildly.
This is a mastering problem and, unless they went back and properly fixed the masters, a simple exchange isn't going to solve the problem.
My question is, has anybody got one of these replacements and can comment on the condition of the audio.

 

[RickER]

The audio on some of the Columbia House DVDs sucked too. Very warbly and tinny sounding. If thats the correct way to state it.

 

[Steve...O]

What episodes of the new set are causing problems? I thought the episodes sounded great, but my ears may not be as adept as others at picking up these kind of things.

If someone can identify the problematic episodes I'll double check my set.

By the way, someone has to ask: when the heck is S1 Vol 2 coming out
Thanks.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Here's some very good news: I've just found out that Season1, Vol. 1 of Perry Mason is currently #19 on Amazon's sales chart! A positive sign for more seasons of our favorite criminal attorney on DVD!

 

[Steve...O]

Even better news, the #19 is the lowest it's been in awhile (presumably because we're a couple weeks past release date). It was in the top 10 for a very long time. Looking at other e-tailers I similiarly high rankings and a check at genre message boards indicates a lot of interest in this title.

I'm still hopeful that we'll get Vol 2 before the year is out and that CBS will go to complete seasons after this one. They'd only have to add 2, sometimes 3, discs to the set to get a complete season for S2 - S9.

I'd also like to take a moment to remember veteran character actor Bob Cornthwaite who passed away last week. He's one of those "know the face not the name" kind of guys who appeared in tons of stuff. He played the role of the nerdy "Herbert" in episode 3 of Perry Mason ("Nervous Accomplice").

Steve

 

[Bob Hug]

I'm afraid this is another case of "bad news comes in threes" with the very recent passings also of Jack Warden and Mako.