Planet of the Apes TV series. Where are the TV spots, still photos? (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

My brother picked up Planet Of the Apes ultimate edition w/ the ape head packaging. When the set was first announced, there was news that the tv series was going to have the tv spots, and still photos from the episodes included on the discs. Apparently this is false, because he checked everywhere on the discs, and hasn't found them. Also, the screen menus are exactly the same as the original release from 2001. Does anyone have any info on this? maybe they are easter eggs hidden in the menus somewhere.

 

[MattHR]

It was previously reported the TV show discs in the new set would be identical to the discs already available -- with no added features.

 

[Cheetah]

While tvshowsondvd.com reported that the discs would be identical, from the time that the set was made available for pre-order and even up until today, amazon.com lists in its DVD Features listing that TV spots and still photos will be included for the TV series. I had sold my set of the original series and The Evolution movie series shortly before purchasing the Ultimate Collection. While I probably would have bought this newest release anyhow because of how it includes all of the films, the prime time series and the animated series all under one complete set along with the special packaging, I was hoping that the listing on amazon.com would have been correct as it would have made the set even more of an ultimate collection. Therefore I was quite annoyed and disappointed to find out that the spots and photos were not there. You would think that by now, well over a year later, that they would have corrected the DVD features listing for this set.

 

[GuruAskew]

The "Ultimate" set actually really isn't all that "Ultimate" because the individual release of the animated "Return to..." series featured additional remastering compared to the discs included in the "Ultimate" set.

While the packaging is admittedly far from uniform (you get one style for the 2-disc CE of the first film, uniform packaging for the sequels, another for the live-action TV series, yet another still for the animated series and finally another new design for the remake) but the animated episodes do look wonderful outside of the "Ultimate" set and everything else is accounted for, too.

I remember watching the individual animated release when it first came out having not seen the "Ultimate" discs but having read the reviews about the shoddy picture quality and not knowing about the unannounced remaster and being truly puzzled by the "Ultimate" reviews complaining about the picture quality.

The good thing for "Ultimate" owners is that picking up the remastered "Return to..." is pretty cheap in addition to their big ape head purchase but the fact of the matter is that it's not the all-encompassing definitive release that we all thought it was at first.

There's also some stuff on Image's "Behind the Planet of the Apes" release that should have been included, like Roddy McDowall's unedited "Behind" interview which is feature-length itself. Ideally they should have waited to include the remastered animated episodes, added a 15th disc for the Image stuff, included the theatrical cut of "Battle" via branching, etc.

 

[SilverWook]

I have an issue of Starlog magazine from way back when the tv episodes were recut into movies for syndication, mentioning that Roddy McDowall did intros in character as an older Galen for the initial airings. Anybody ever see those?

 

[GuruAskew]

Yeah they're available to watch on one of the more popular "Apes" website. That's another thing that could have been added to make the set more "Ultimate".

 

[Cheetah]

Thanks Bill for informing me that the individual release of the animated series has remastered episodes. There are three on the "ultimate" set that are already remastered and it is a shame that they couldn't have delayed the release of that set to give the same treatment to the other ten. After I read you post and compared the three remastered episodes with the other ten, I went and bought the individual animated release. While my Planet of the Apes collection is no longer completely uniform in its packaging, it is great to have the enhanced versions. The colors are much more brighter, the video and the audio is much more sharper, and they have removed 99 per cent of the artifacts. Then there's the next week promos which are certainly a nice addition.

Releasing a set that is called the "Ultimate DVD Collection" and not giving every episode of the animated series the same treatment is totally inexcusable. Then there are of course the other omissions pointed out by yourself and SilverWook which I already had been aware of. Why the interview with Roddy McDowall was not included is somewhat of a mystery to me. With the McDowall introductions for the recut episodes, they are exclusively the product of the compilation movies. The compilation movies are a presentation of the series in a format that was never originally intended, so perhaps they were never considered to be official material for a Planet of the Apes collection. Then there is also the possibly that they were just simply overlooked. Either way, it still would have been nice if they were included in the "Ultimate" collection and I am sure that all fans would agree. In addition, still on the thought of the series as it originally aired, this gets back to the reason for my initial post, not adding the TV spots which were clearly stated as being included by amazon.com

I don't know whether I would have bought the "Ultimate" set if I knew then what I know now. Since I already own it however I will definitely be keeping it because overall it still is a great set. It makes no sense for me now to repurchase the movie and the prime time series sets individually.

 

[JimmyT]

Bill,
Can you point me in the right direction as to which site I can view the Roddy/Galen intros?

 

[Cheetah]

Here is a link for you.

http://potatv.kassidyrae.com/galenslastappearance.html

 

[JimmyT]

Thank you for providing the link!

 

[Jay Pennington]

Yes, thanks for that link! It's always such a pleasure watching McDowell's work. Here they're just banging out some intros for TV and he's giving it his all, exuding so much personality.

 

[SilverWook]

Thank you as well. I'd never seen those intros before, not even photos. And it's interesting that Galen has a old Commodore PET computer in his study.