Predictions For 2014 (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

The cost of colorizing 180 episodes of I Love Lucy would have to be pretty high. I think your only hope of seeing a version where someone with no association with the original program is just blindly guessing at the color of people, sets, costumes and props is that CBS thinks that they can sell it in syndication because I can't imagine it selling well enough on DVD/Blu-ray to cover the cost of colorizing that many shows.

 

[Tooncy]

I can't imagine they would do them all at once. But I can see them maybe doing a set of them to see how they're received.

 

[Ron1973]

Yes. I have the Stooges discs and they are excellent. If they did as good of a job on Lucy, I can't imagine why anyone would complain.

It's funny. I have tons of albums that the songs were "reprocessed for stereo." I hate that and I use software to take them back to their original mono state. But if a show/movie is colorized right, it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Tooncy]

Reprocessed for stereo was a thing they did way back when. With the progression of technology, DES (digitally extracted stereo) and DCS (digitally constructed stereo) can be pretty convincing. There are a lot of them on YouTube.

 

[mannix]

season 5 of eight is enough
season 4 of cannon

 

[Steve...O]

Colorizing Lucy or anything else is just plain wrong and goes against everything a true film/TV buff stands for. Whether or not it looks "good" is irrelevant in my opinion; it alters the intent and the work of the artists who created it in the first place. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but this kind of thinking is so 1980s and Ted Turner and we're past that now.

I do think we'll see BD versions of Lucy and Andy Griffith sooner rather than later. Hopefully at a price point lower than the Honeymooners, but we'll see. The HD clips I've seen of TAGS look superb with exceptional detail and clarity. I've not seen HD Lucy or Honeymooners but would imagine they would be equally impressive.

The failure of Cannon and Barnaby Jones on home video is very disappointing. The BJ release was stellar and didn't sell. Cannon was released with subpar video and overpriced for what they were and didn't sell either. Would it have sold better had they been remastered? Dunno, but I wish consumers had been given the choice.

 

[Tooncy]

I personally would embrace anything b colorized that looks good. Watching black and white gives me a headache.

 

[Ron1973]

Colorizing Lucy or anything else is just plain wrong and goes against everything a true film/TV buff stands for. Whether or not it looks "good" is irrelevant in my opinion; it alters the intent and the work of the artists who created it in the first place. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but this kind of thinking is so 1980s and Ted Turner and we're past that now.

I do think we'll see BD versions of Lucy and Andy Griffith sooner rather than later. Hopefully at a price point lower than the Honeymooners, but we'll see. The HD clips I've seen of TAGS look superb with exceptional detail and clarity. I've not seen HD Lucy or Honeymooners but would imagine they would be equally impressive.

The failure of Cannon and Barnaby Jones on home video is very disappointing. The BJ release was stellar and didn't sell. Cannon was released with subpar video and overpriced for what they were and didn't sell either. Would it have sold better had they been remastered? Dunno, but I wish consumers had been given the choice.

We can go back and forth on the colorization issue all day long. Had color been available for a reasonable cost I'm sure Lucy would've been in color. I think Desi Arnaz would be leading the charge to see it colorized if done right. Of course, done right is the key word. If we're talking Ted Turner and his faded out pale colors, no thanks. That ruins it.

I hope at some point Barnaby comes back around. To watch that first season in HD was absolutely eye-popping!

 

[Tooncy]

CBS simply waited too long to get their stuff out on DVD, with a few exceptions. The sales would have been much better when the market wasn't so crowded.

 

[smithbrad]

CBS simply waited too long to get their stuff out on DVD, with a few exceptions. The sales would have been much better when the market wasn't so crowded.

WB takes extra time to make sure the music is cleared and CBS takes extra time to remaster their series in HD (improving the video of their releases). While I wish I could have the best of both worlds and there were no mistakes made on any releases, I'm glad to wait instead of having something less but quicker.

 

[Randy Korstick]

If it was available it is probably true they would have used it but it wasn't and colorization is not the answer because they don't know the proper colors and black and white film is different from color film and can't be colored in without losing details and destroying shadows and the original intent of the filming. Its no different than pan and scan or music replacement. The original intent is destroyed.

We can go back and forth on the colorization issue all day long. Had color been available for a reasonable cost I'm sure Lucy would've been in color. I think Desi Arnaz would be leading the charge to see it colorized if done right. Of course, done right is the key word. If we're talking Ted Turner and his faded out pale colors, no thanks. That ruins it.

I hope at some point Barnaby comes back around. To watch that first season in HD was absolutely eye-popping!

 

[Randy Korstick]

The problem is none of it does look good. It always has a pastel crayon look, the colorization destroys details of the original filming and intent. This is not the 80's so I'm surpised we are even talking about this.
Color is more taxing and demanding on the eyes, black and white is less demanding for the eyes and thus less strain so not sure if your second statement makes any sense.

I personally would embrace anything b colorized that looks good. Watching black and white gives me a headache.

 

[Tooncy]

Color doesn't destroy details. It enhances them. Even the horribly colorized King Kong bears this out. Compare the jungle scenes vs the black and white.

 

[JamesSmith]

I think we'll see a few more cult and short lived programs in 2014.James

 

[Randy Korstick]

If something is filmed in color then yes it has great details and if it is filmed in black and white it has great details. They are apples and oranges and different types of film and require different types of lighting. They can't be treated as the same to try to color in something that wasn't filmed and lighted for color destroys details.
The Jungle scenes in King Kong looks like a hokey cartoon or kids show in color, all the wonderful moody atomsphere and frightning aspects from the original black and white are gone. If it was filmed in color they would have gone for a different mood and it would be lighted differently to support the color.

Color doesn't destroy details. It enhances them. Even the horribly colorized King Kong bears this out. Compare the jungle scenes vs the black and white.

 

[Ron1973]

If something is filmed in color then yes it has great details and if it is filmed in black and white it has great details. They are apples and oranges and different types of film and require different types of lighting. They can't be treated as the same to try to color in something that wasn't filmed and lighted for color destroys details.
The Jungle scenes in King Kong looks like a hokey cartoon or kids show in color, all the wonderful moody atomsphere and frightning aspects from the original black and white are gone. If it was filmed in color they would have gone for a different mood and it would be lighted differently to support the color.

I have to back-track and at least partially agree with Randy. I caught The Munsters last night on Netflix. The b&w aspect simply set that show apart as it also does with The Addams Family. I just don't believe I would want to see either of those shows colorized as it would ruin the setting. Matter of factly, I would even say those shows wouldn't fare well in color to begin with.

 

[Tooncy]

The Munsters and The Addams Family are exceptions. They seem natural in black and white because they were mocking old horror movies that were black and white. Other sitcoms are different. Although The Munsters did have a feature film that was indeed in color.

 

[Ron1973]

The Munsters and The Addams Family are exceptions. They seem natural in black and white because they were mocking old horror movies that were black and white. Other sitcoms are different. Although The Munsters did have a feature film that was indeed in color.

I remember that! The show just works better in b&w.

 

[Randy Korstick]

WA confirmed on FB that the next new release date is Tuesday January 7th and also stated that they are currently working on some of their most requested TV titles. Judging by whats requested on FB I would say their most requested is 77 Sunset Strip so hopefully my guess is right and they cleared music rights. I would say Bronco is a very safe bet for a new Western show and maybe one more unreleased Western. Hopefully we will also get another of their detective shows.

 

[Mike*HTF]

I hope you're right about it being 77 Sunset Strip, it's one of my most anticipated titles.