Roots: The Gift-in widescreen and cropped (1 Viewer)

[ScottR]

I finally got Roots:The Complete Collection and was horrified to see that Roots: The Gift has been presented in a cropped widescreen format. Why? I mean, seriously, the other two films are presented in their correct AR. This was a senseless act on WB part.

So, we have....

Roots with the same 2001/02 discs, consisting of six slightly edited episodes instead of the original eight, and one audio glitch lasting the entire opening credits of Episode 3 (something I brought to WB attention in 2002, and promised it would be fixed at that time.)


Roots: The Next Generations which looks "okay" but is missing the bumper at the beginning of Episodes One and Two that appeared before the teasers (you can find that on the vhs version) and a 1980's closing logo (again, the original is on the vhs version.)

Roots: The Gift in a cropped and oddly framed version.

I love WB, but seriously guys, these particular titles should be treated with a little more respect. I'm ashamed of you!

 

[DeWilson]

Just sad and sloppy :frowning:

 

[chas speed]

I wonder if 10 years down the road if all the old TV shows will be cropped on DVD. It's a bummer to think about.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

WB are AFAIK the only studio doing this, but it's still pathetic, I want original 4:3 when it's supposed to be. Dammit.

 

[chas speed]

I think there have been a few other cases like the first season of Kung Fu and the 80's Dark Shadows revival were both cropped.

 

[Ethan Riley]

They most certainly were cropped--that is why I did not buy them. Is this the first release of "The Gift?" If not, was it cropped in its earlier releases??

 

[brett tolino]

Hi Scott -- I bought Roots The Complete Collection but didn't have a chance to watch them yet. I was wondering, you said WB included only six of the original eight episodes of Roots.

So what happened to the other 2 episodes? How can they call it 'complete' if it's missing 2 entire epidodes?

For those who were wondering, Yes, this is the 1st time Roots: The Gift is available. Why they cropped it, I have no idea.

 

[ScottR]

Brett, let me clarify...almost all of the show is there. There are no entire episodes missing....I'll explain the original format:

Night One: Two Hours
Night Two: Two Hours
Night Three: One Hour
Night Four: One Hour
Night Five: One Hour
Night Six: Two Hours
Night Seven: One Hour
Night Eight: Two Hours

.....so, for instance, Episode three on the dvds are Episodes Three and Four from the original broadcast combined. Unfortunately the opening scenes from part four are missing because they ran under opening cast credits for that scene. I can't confirm whether or not additional footage is missing, but I wouldn't be surprised. Also, the titles are slightly different, some end credits are missing from the eight, and others are patchworks with the combination of the two hours (with production credits missing for those individuals who may have only worked on say the first hour of that episode when broadcast.)
So, in other words, the story is the same, the presentation isn't.

 

[brett tolino]

Thanks for the information and for clearing things up Scott.

I watched the series when it first aired but was so young, I forgot how it was originally presented. Still, it would have been nice if they could have did the dvds as originally presented... Happy that all the episodes are there though.

The cropping of The Gift is sad, especially since this is the first and only release. I can't see Warners reissuing the disk in its proper ratio.

Keeping my fingers crossed for when Warner delivers Queen next month...

 

[Ethan Riley]

I think Scott said in the thread for the last release of Roots that they had to use the syndication masters?? And the syndication masters were all released as two hour movies? Well, here's a link to his earlier thread: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...ighlight=Roots

This new one sounds like a fair release but Roots is like the crown jewel of tv mini-series. It's arguably the best one ever produced and deserves the best on dvd. I think they should have taken the time to go back and look at it anyway, instead of just putting the same thing back on dvd. And then cropping things that don't need to be cropped! I don't get why the studios want to irritate us so!