Shout Factory Press Release: Route 66: The Complete Series (2 Viewers)

[WaveCrest]

The complete series boxset of Route 66 is a set I'm considering getting, because Martin Milner is in the cast and it's one of a few black and white TV series (both US and UK shows) I'm interested in (along with Mr. Ed). Only concern at the moment is whether the set would get damaged in the post (as it appears it will have outer cardboard packaging). Will it be a limited edition release?

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regulus /t/318411/shout-factory-press-release-route-66-the-complete-series/60#post_3921279
Here's where we can thank Heaven for Companies such as Shout! Factory, Timeless, Mill Creek and others, who have put out DVDs of older TV Shows, many of which haven't been seen since they were cancelled decades ago. If it weren't for people such as these, I'm sure there would have been HUNDREDS of TV Series that we'd NEVER be able to see. Yes, there are those series we want that simply are not available, we all have our "Holy Grails" that we hope beyond hope will one day be available. Let's all be thankful for what we've been able to obtain. Nothing but "Reality" Shows to watch tonight on "Appointment TV" Tonight? Fire up the Video Player, here's an "Oldie but Goodie" I'm sure you'll like. It's about a Fellow who built himself a...

Very well said, William. I for one am very thankful for what we do have!


Gary "not that I don't always want something new, but I've got a library amassed that will last me the rest of my life if nothing else ever comes out that I want" O.

 

[Regulus]

     Quote:
Gary "not that I don't always want something new, but I've got a library amassed that will last me the rest of my life if nothing else ever comes out that I want" O.

Me Too!

 

[younger1968]

Me Too!

I am same boat as many of you about my dvd collection. I did an inventory the other day and i have 86 completed shows, which is more than enough to wet my pallet for rest of my life. Many of the shows i have are ones that i never actually seen growing up, which suits me fine. I like have the flexibility on choosing what i like to watch commercial free!
I agree that networks are about money and if they can reap benefit of kardashians/lohen/jersey shore, etc then they will. However, studios know many shows have limited shelf-life and it is just a matter of time that people will get sick of the kardashians and/or other reality shows. We have seen over the decades that TV has changed and its a rarity if you see a show go beyond three seasons anymore.

 

[WaveCrest]

Originally Posted by Regulus /t/318411/shout-factory-press-release-route-66-the-complete-series/60#post_3921279
Here's where we can thank Heaven for Companies such as Shout! Factory, Timeless, Mill Creek and others, who have put out DVDs of older TV Shows, many of which haven't been seen since they were cancelled decades ago. If it weren't for people such as these, I'm sure there would have been HUNDREDS of TV Series that we'd NEVER be able to see. Yes, there are those series we want that simply are not available, we all have our "Holy Grails" that we hope beyond hope will one day be available. Let's all be thankful for what we've been able to obtain. Nothing but "Reality" Shows to watch tonight on "Appointment TV" Tonight? Fire up the Video Player, here's an "Oldie but Goodie" I'm sure you'll like. It's about a Fellow who built himself a...

Regulus,

Had to re-read this part of your post, especially the last sentence in bold. Is this meant in general? It has been very welcome seeing the many TV shows from years and decades ago making their way to DVD (and Blu-ray). When suggesting TV shows we'd like to see released on DVD (and Blu-ray), in the Holy Grail thread and countless other threads, some may get a release and some may not get released. If they do get a release (and this also applies to when asking questions about a DVD and Blu-ray release), if we get an answer it's a bonus - a bonus on top of discussing TV shows with fellow DVD (and Blu-ray) collectors and fans of TV shows (and films).

It's not difficult to believe there have been loads of TV shows released on DVD and Blu-ray in the past several years, bringing back shows which haven't been shown on TV in a long time. So news of shows being released is great news for people (and people have their own favourite TV shows. It would be a boring place if we all liked the same TV shows).

Back in the late 90's there used to be a channel on TV called Granada Plus which showed a lot of cult US and UK shows (Hawaii Five-O and The Equalizer spring to mind). Sadly that channel was dropped a few years later. Some modern day shows I don't mind watching over and over again, but often there are too many channels which show repeats of reality and non-reality TV shows on a constant loop. That isn't to say there aren't good channels which show entertaining and thought-provoking programmes.

We're passionate about the TV shows we like being released on DVD and Blu-ray (and to sound balanced, I realise these shows on the whole are fictional, just so I don't come across as being over the top), so we're going to want the best product possible with their DVD and Blu-ray sets (which isn't always possible).

 

[Richard Gallagher]

For those of you who have already received the set from Shout, I will be doing the HTF review and would like to get some feedback.

I'm seeing and hearing a couple of glitches on the first episode of Season Four, "Two Strangers and An Old Enemy." While Tod Stiles is being questioned by the press, there are two momentary audio dropouts. The first occurs at the 37-second mark. The second occurs at the 57-second mark, where Tod Stiles says "I just started working here" but the word "just" drops out. Then, at the 2:07 mark, the picture freezes for two seconds but the audio is unaffected.

I played the disc on two different players and encountered the same glitches on both. However, I may have just received a problem disc, so before I write the review I would like to know if others see and hear the same problems.

Apart from that, so far I have scanned through the first five episodes of Season Four and they look very good.

 

[silverking]

Wavecrest
"Back in the late 90's there used to be a channel on TV called Granada Plus which showed a lot of cult US and UK shows (Hawaii Five-O and The Equalizer spring to mind). Sadly that channel was dropped a few years later. "
Far better than Granada Plus, who cut old programmes to ribbons, was Bravo which showed amongst others, uncut 'The Fugitive', ' Dan August' , Wild Wild West.', 'Route 66', 'Yancey Derringer', 'Death Valley Days','Hopalong Cassidy' all the ITC swashbucklers, Danger Man, Man in a Suitcase , Dept S & the other ITC series & many many others. Not to mention old movies which have not surfaced anywhere since. About 1/2 my videotapes are comprised of material from Bravo.

 

[David Com]

For those of you who have already received the set from Shout, I will be doing the HTF review and would like to get some feedback.
I'm seeing and hearing a couple of glitches on the first episode of Season Four, "Two Strangers and An Old Enemy." While Tod Stiles is being questioned by the press, there are two momentary audio dropouts. The first occurs at the 37-second mark. The second occurs at the 57-second mark, where Tod Stiles says "I just started working here" but the word "just" drops out. Then, at the 2:07 mark, the picture freezes for two seconds but the audio is unaffected.

I have the set and experienced the same problem. I'm into Disc 2 at this point and have seen no other problems. Looks like an authoring or pressing issue.

 

[WaveCrest]

Originally Posted by silverking /t/318411/shout-factory-press-release-route-66-the-complete-series/60#post_3924834
Far better than Granada Plus, who cut old programmes to ribbons, was Bravo which showed amongst others, uncut 'The Fugitive', ' Dan August' , Wild Wild West.', 'Route 66', 'Yancey Derringer', 'Death Valley Days','Hopalong Cassidy' all the ITC swashbucklers, Danger Man, Man in a Suitcase , Dept S & the other ITC series & many many others. Not to mention old movies which have not surfaced anywhere since. About 1/2 my videotapes are comprised of material from Bravo.

Bravo was a good channel which repeated programmes which haven't been shown again on satellite since the late 90's/early 2000s. However, I disagree, in that I preferred Granada Plus over Bravo. Sadly, Bravo was dropped in I think late 2010 (it was due to show Hawaii Five-0 and White Collar). In the present day, with more adverts being fitted into a programme's timeslot, shows from decades ago are being trimmed. Not very often that they extend a timeslot for a 60 minute programme to 65 minutes, which TCM has done with Rawhide.

There was a good cult tv magazine back in the late 90's (called cult tv), which covered a lot of the series you mention in your post, along with Hawaii Five-O and The Equalizer.

Going back on topic, depending on the review of Shout's Route 66: Complete Series set, may consider getting this complete series set.

 

[Walsh61]

For those of you who have already received the set from Shout, I will be doing the HTF review and would like to get some feedback.
I'm seeing and hearing a couple of glitches on the first episode of Season Four, "Two Strangers and An Old Enemy." While Tod Stiles is being questioned by the press, there are two momentary audio dropouts. The first occurs at the 37-second mark. The second occurs at the 57-second mark, where Tod Stiles says "I just started working here" but the word "just" drops out. Then, at the 2:07 mark, the picture freezes for two seconds but the audio is unaffected.

I have the set and experienced the same problem. I'm into Disc 2 at this point and have seen no other problems. Looks like an authoring or pressing issue.

Same with my set. Plus a couple of small glitches at the 1:14 and 1:22 mark.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Thanks to Chris and Garth for their input. I wouldn't be mentioning it in the upcoming review if it had appeared that I received a bad disc.

Otherwise I am happy so far with the way Season Four looks.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

I'm not cancelling my pre-order from Walmart, so I'll be getting it, and when I do, I'll get to unfinished business and watch the season 4 episodes first, then backtrack to the earlier seasons 1-3 later.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Excellent review of the Series set from Paul Mavis.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/54626/route-66-the-complete-series

 

[Mike*HTF]

I agree - a very thorough review and it appears that the first season was corrected from the previous release. At least he didn't mention any of the preexisting defects found on the Roxbury version.

 

[Noir Voyeur]

It's a terrific review - more like a labor of love. I wish I could write like that.
Roxbury themselves corrected the major defect of their original Season 1 Part 2 release (which had episodes 16-30 cropped in fake widescreen). Their full Season 1 release restored these episodes to their correct aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
The main bone of contention was and is that episodes 1-15 were sub-standard transfers, substantially worse than the Columbia House video (VHS) releases of the mid-1990s, and substantially inferior to the versions that are currently screening on various cable channels around the world.
Shout! have, according to reviews elsewhere, corrected nothing.
Instead they have apparently chosen to recycle Roxbury's sub-standard transfers rather than sourcing the best ones, and giving the show the release it deserves. Let's face it, ROUTE 66 is unlikely to get another release any time soon - if ever - so the now-definitive release is less, so much less than it might have been.
It's some small consolation that it's really only the first 15 episodes that look really poor. The rest, as far as I'm aware, are fine, notwithstanding the occasional soundtrack glitch.
Would it really have cost Shout! so much to put in the extra effort to get the better transfers (and we know they exist) of those first 15 episodes? After all, they're the episodes most people will watch first.
Paul Mavis signs off by saying "Who cares about the few iffy transfers" - but some of us care. A lot. Especially those of us who frequent this forum!

 

[Walsh61]

It's some small consolation that it's really only the first 15 episodes that look really poor. The rest, as far as I'm aware, are fine, notwithstanding the occasional soundtrack glitch.
Would it really have cost Shout! so much to put in the extra effort to get the better transfers (and we know they exist) of those first 15 episodes? After all, they're the episodes most people will watch first.
And those were among the best episodes of the entire series.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Not to beat a flat-tired Corvette, but Shout's effort to find better transfers were obviously anything but a ... labor of love. I guess we can't always expect a re-licensing DVD business to have a fervid fan for every show they tackle within their midst. But they had ample time to hear from fans on their website prior to the release of this set. My only consolation is that I have cough cough paid considerably more for considerably worse transfers (with a bug, no less) just to have this show to repeatedly view. And, after the first 15, the transfers do clean up considerably. And I'm glad to have the excitement of anticipating this complete set in the mail from Amazon next week.
Deep Discount, incidentally, is offering it for about $8 less at $72.56. Can we expect Amazon to match that before it's sent?
http://www.deepdiscount.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/productID/74A5889E-1BD7-4CBE-A190-F6205036A3C5

 

[smithb]

Would it really have cost Shout! so much to put in the extra effort to get the better transfers (and we know they exist) of those first 15 episodes? After all, they're the episodes most people will watch first.

Wasn't it stated that Shout!'s source was the studio? If so, they obviously received the same source prints as Roxbury to work from, and you would think they would be the best available. So where are these better prints that "we know they exist"? I've seen now many references to better prints but no details as to where they are or who has them. Can you (or anyone) shed some light on that? Just trying to get a better understanding of what is fact and what is fiction.

 

[Jack P]

My recollection is that Roxbury was not using prints from Sony/Columbia but other copies from the producer's estate. Thus, Shout instead of going to look for the better source material simply and lazily accepted the same prints from before, which doesn't speak well of their preparation work for this.

 

[smithb]

So if I understand correctly, Shout! licensed the title through Sony/Columbia but used prints received from the producer's estate. Obviously Sony/Columbia would most likely have the best prints available. But how easy/expensive is Sony to work with in getting master prints to work from? Could it be that going that route would have been cost prohibitive to take on the series? In which case we might still not have a season 4 released.
Also, i heard that Columbia House put out a decent VHS product in the 90's. Is Columbia House and the Columbia with Sony the same entity? Would that explain the quality of prints back then, or is that unrelated?
I'm more then happy to hold Shout! accountable for a product that could have been much better and still worked within a workable budget. But on a forum like this it is easy for fans to have unrealistic expectations when it comes to availability and cost/effort to put out a stellar title due to various constraints. Especially, since we really don't know what they did/didn't try to do for this release, or what costs were involved in the licensing. That's why i'm curious about how accessible other/better prints for this title really are.
Edit: I see that Sony/Columbia is linked with Columbia House.