Shazam! (1974-77) gets restoration (1 Viewer)

[Mark Tay]

Warner/DC posted a video promoting the recent restoration of Shazam! (jump ahead to 4:23 in the video)...


Makes me wonder if we'll be seeing a Blu-ray release sometime soon. Also, makes me wonder if it would be possible to restore the other live action shows from Filmation (all of which looked rather drab on DVD in my opinion).

 

[Blimpoy06]

Very exciting news for fans of Shazam! Looking forward to the eventual release of the restored show. I remember watching those moral segments when they aired on Saturday mornings. It will be nice to see them back with the episodes.

 

[Jay*W]

Very cool.

 

[seanrt]

Warner/DC posted a video promoting the recent restoration of Shazam! (jump ahead to 4:23 in the video)...


Makes me wonder if we'll be seeing a Blu-ray release sometime soon. Also, make me wonder if it would be possible to restore the other live action shows from Filmation (all of which looked rather drab on DVD in my opinion).

Thanks for sharing, that was cool to see. I also hope we see a blu-ray, in the meantime WB does have all 3 seasons of the remastered HD Shazam! for sale on iTunes. The ones with Isis look so good. I wished WB owned that show, and gave it the same remastering treatment.

 

[Blimpoy06]

I wished WB owned that show, and gave it the same remastering treatment.

Didn't the video say that WB had acquired the Filmation library? I assumed that to include Isis. Maybe they even restored some of the Shazam!/Isis Hour bumpers!

 

[Radioman970]

i can't remember but don't you have to play the moral from Shaz at the closing manually? That might be something else.

Anyway, will gladly buy the show a 3rd time for a blu ray. and they can put Isis out again too. And (off OT but I don't care!!! lol) how about Krofft stuff I missed like Lidsville! it's $200 now!!

 

[seanrt]

The bulk of Filmation titles are owned by Classic Media (old Dreamworks animation company). I forget their current name. Warner owns the DC related titles (Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Shazam, Flash etc and the 2 Gilligan Filmation shows. Paramount owns the Brady Kids. Even though the Isis DVD is OOP, you can buy the episodes on Amazon Prime from the shows current owner it’s not remastered.

 

[Pmprod7]

I hope they put the remastered Shazam on DVD also. I wish Warner did have the rights to more of Filmation's library --then they could finally release "Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies" that Warner owns half of (the other half is owned by Filmation).

 

[JeffHow]

Didn't the video say that WB had acquired the Filmation library? I assumed that to include Isis. Maybe they even restored some of the Shazam!/Isis Hour bumpers!
View attachment 57271

I understood the video to say that as well but can't find any other confirmation on the web to back it up. Maybe they just meant Shazam but seems an odd statement to make.

 

[Blimpoy06]

i can't remember but don't you have to play the moral from Shaz at the closing manually? That might be something else.

I believe the Isis DVD set contains some of the moral segments separate from the episodes. They appeared to be low quality off air recordings.

 

[Mark Y]

I believe the Isis DVD set contains some of the moral segments separate from the episodes. They appeared to be low quality off air recordings.

What I read was that they were home recordings made by the actress who played Isis herself.

 

[Brian Himes]

I believe the Isis DVD set contains some of the moral segments separate from the episodes. They appeared to be low quality off air recordings.

Yes, that is correct. Not every moral segment was presented and they were presented as a Bonus Feature. The moral segments for Shazam! were of the same low quality on the Warner original Shazam! release but all of them were present and viewable after the appropriate episode.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Any word on the release of the animated Shazam episodes?

 

[seanrt]

Any word on the release of the animated Shazam episodes?

I’m surprised we didn’t get the animated series. I love the remastering done on the live action show but even Tarzan movie had the Filmation cartoon S1 released.

 

[DeWilson]

Yes, that is correct. Not every moral segment was presented and they were presented as a Bonus Feature. The moral segments for Shazam! were of the same low quality on the Warner original Shazam! release but all of them were present and viewable after the appropriate episode.

The ironic thing was they had the master elements on the moral segments in the vault after all. No one bothered to look. Heck, outside of the syndicated prints of the finished episodes, I don't think anyone has access this Filmation material in Warner's possession EVER!

....and it seems from the DC DAILY report they hold all the raw footage from every episode as well - not just the completed shows!

 

[B-ROLL]

The ironic thing was they had the master elements on the moral segments in the vault after all. No one bothered to look. Heck, outside of the syndicated prints of the finished episodes, I don't think anyone has access this Filmation material in Warner's possession EVER!

....and it seems from the DC DAILY report they hold all the raw footage from every episode as well - not just the completed shows!

But also from the video above - basically everything was a jumble with bits and pieces and cans that were mis-labeled ...

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Didn't the video say that WB had acquired the Filmation library? I assumed that to include Isis. Maybe they even restored some of the Shazam!/Isis Hour bumpers!
View attachment 57271

WB does not own the Filmation library. They only own the shows from which the rights to their characters were licenced, so basically, Shazam! and the 1960s animated DC heroes stuff.

This is also, sadly, the reason that Shazam! (but none of the other live-action Filmation shows) was able to be remastered and looks so much better than Isis, Space Academy, etc. When WB got the films back from Filmation, they were kept locked/safe in a vault. The other shows, however, bounced around from owner to owner, and the original film masters were allegedly trashed back in the '90s by then-owner Hallmark.

The bulk of the Filmation library (the stuff that wasn't licenced from other companies) was owned by UK company Entertainment Rights when the DVDs were put out. Classic Media succeeded them, and Classic was swallowed-up by Dreamworks, as I recall.

So, no, don't look for any Isis episodes from Warner Bros. anytime soon. Now, do WB have the Shazam/Isis Hour bumpers in their archive? If so, there's really no reason they can't remaster and include them, because the same rights of dual-ownership would apply here that applied with WB's Shazam! DVDs and BCI's Isis ones...as they are 'crossover' footage (both companies' characters appear) and don't belong to one show or the other, but both, then both companies can release them.

Those bumpers originated from tapes that I personally had in my possession at the time (they were on loan to me from Isis co-star Joanna Pang-Atkins). In fact, most (but not all) of the morals segments for both shows came from tapes that were in my collection.

When WB were getting ready to release the Shazam! DVDs, they did have good masters of the second-season morals, but didn't have any from seasons one or three. If you notice on the DVDs, the season 2 ones are good quality (some were even used on the TV Land broadcasts that preceded these releases).

I do, truly, hope that WB will see fit to release this upgrade on blu-ray (and with bonus features, such as film trims/unused footage that we now know exists). It should be noted, though, that DC Universe were the ones who worked on this project, so even if WB's home video division (or WB Archive) wanted to do a release, they'd probably have to at least have the approval of DC Universe (if not pay them a licence, etc).

 

[Brian Himes]

I hope that the remastered Shazam! gets released.

 

[Brian Himes]

WB does not own the Filmation library. They only own the shows from which the rights to their characters were licenced, so basically, Shazam! and the 1960s animated DC heroes stuff.

Bummer. I guess that dashes my hopes for a fully/correctly restored release of Fat Albert.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Bummer. I guess that dashes my hopes for a fully/correctly restored release of Fat Albert.

That and the fact that this has Bill Cosby all over it....