The Adventures of Superman (1 Viewer)

[Robert Saccone]

I picked up The Adventures of Superman Seasons 1 - 6 on DVD today used at a local vintage shop. Turns out that the set that covers season 5 & 6 is missing disc 1. Wondering if I might be able to get a replacement by contacting Warner or if I am better off just buying a second set off of eBay?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It never hurts to write to Warner but I’m not sure you’ll get a lot of luck there, unfortunately. Might be worth trying as you never know but keep expectations low.

(The sets themselves are technically out of print; the extraordinary customer service coordinator they had was laid off a couple years ago as part of one of their mergers; and the home video department has been spun out into a new company in partnership with Universal. There’s likely no one remaining at Warner who could answer that query and no replacement product to pull off their shelves even if their was.)

 

[Robert Saccone]

It never hurts to write to Warner but I’m not sure you’ll get a lot of luck there, unfortunately. Might be worth trying as you never know but keep expectations low.

(The sets themselves are technically out of print; the extraordinary customer service coordinator they had was laid off a couple years ago as part of one of their mergers; and the home video department has been spun out into a new company in partnership with Universal. There’s likely no one remaining at Warner who could answer that query and no replacement product to pull off their shelves even if their was.)

Thanks. Given what you said I went ahead and am procuring a set off of eBay. Seems to be the quickest way I can complete the set.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Thanks. Given what you said I went ahead and am procuring a set off of eBay. Seems to be the quickest way I can complete the set.

Best of luck towards a complete set - hope you enjoy them as much as I have

 

[Matt Hough]

It never hurts to write to Warner but I’m not sure you’ll get a lot of luck there, unfortunately. Might be worth trying as you never know but keep expectations low.

(The sets themselves are technically out of print; the extraordinary customer service coordinator they had was laid off a couple years ago as part of one of their mergers; and the home video department has been spun out into a new company in partnership with Universal. There’s likely no one remaining at Warner who could answer that query and no replacement product to pull off their shelves even if their was.)

I could be mistaken, but it seems like that was the disc that went bad in my sets. I just went ahead and bought the entire run on Vudu streaming when it was on sale. It's in SD, so it's the same quality as the DVDs, but at least I won't be worrying about any of the other discs going bad. I kept the discs for the bonus features.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I could be mistaken, but it seems like that was the disc that went bad in my sets. I just went ahead and bought the entire run on Vudu streaming when it was on sale. It's in SD, so it's the same quality as the DVDs, but at least I won't be worrying about any of the other discs going bad. I kept the discs for the bonus features.

I’ve copied all of the episodes and bonuses to my Plex server so I will also be safe should the discs suffer a premature demise

 

[cineescape]

So TOS Blu-Rays are OOP?

 

[John Sparks]

So TOS Blu-Rays are OOP?

They were never in BD, only SD.

 

[cineescape]

Hard to believe considering that Warners issued the Batman TV series on BD years ago. Of course, the lossy audio was a big disappointment, no thanks to Fox's overly compressed original soundtrack.

 

[Sky King]

cineescape,

The Adventures of Superman was scanned in standard definition, off of 35mm prints then transferred to tape in the 1980s. These taped copies were later used to create the DVD set.
The exception to this was The Stolen Costume episode which was taken from a well worn 16mm print.
I’d be surprised if Warners ever issued this series on Blu ray.

John

 

[Matt Hough]

I agree. It would cost a fortune to clean up and repair and make viable for Blu-ray. We're stuck with what we've got.

 

[cineescape]

The Adventures of Superman was scanned in standard definition, off of 35mm prints then transferred to tape in the 1980s. These taped copies were later used to create the DVD set.


John

WTF! What the hell happened to the original 35mm prints? Why would anyone do anything so lo-fi-if there's even proof that this happened? And what proof is there that the prints were trashed? Given that Warners continues to profit mostly from all of the far more modern Superman TV and movie properties-and perhaps also the unlovely story of George Reeves-how do we know that Warners would just as soon forget about TOS?

 

[Sky King]

cineescape,

Don't know where you heard that the 35mm prints were trashed…they weren’t.
They just weren’t handled with care as they were passed down from several owners.
Unfortunately when Kelloggs began sponsorship of this series, edits were made to the actual 35mm negatives…not copies.
Warners has more Adventures of Superman elements that they are just not sharing. They produced the DVD set on the cheap and wouldn’t even pay Noel Neill and Jack Larson for their commentaries included with the set. Lucky for us that Noel and Jack thought so much of the series that they did it for free.
Its too bad that a crowd sourcing effort couldn’t be done to restore this show to pristine condition. Classicflix crowd sourced its restoration of The Abbott and Costello show from the original 35mm prints and it looks fantastic.

John

 

[cineescape]

cineescape,

Don't know where you heard that the 35mm prints were trashed…they weren’t. They just weren’t handled with care as they were passed down from several owners. Unfortunately when Kelloggs began sponsorship of this series, edits were made to the actual 35mm negatives…not copies. Warners has more Adventures of Superman elements that they are just not sharing. They produced the DVD set on the cheap..........Its too bad that a crowd sourcing effort couldn’t be done to restore this show to pristine condition. Classicflix crowd sourced its restoration of The Abbott and Costello show from the original 35mm prints and it looks fantastic.

John

At least the film negatives weren't trashed but they might as well have been since the DC Comics wing of Warners, like all the majors, are highly covetous of any of its properties, and unlikely to consent to any such restoration efforts unless it could be assured of fat profits. And maybe not even then. A real shame.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

3-D Film Archive restored the Abbott and Costello Show and did the Kickstarter campaign.

ClassicFlix is the distributor for our restorations.

 

[cineescape]

3-D Film Archive restored the Abbott and Costello Show and did the Kickstarter campaign.

ClassicFlix is the distributor for our restorations.

Hello Bob, and thanks for all of those Capitol Legendary Masters and Collector series CDs, as many are still among the best sounding transfers of music from artists of the 60s. So, regarding the Superman TOS, not much chance of Warners commissioning you to do restorations for a BD edition? I'm especially curious about how much the overall sound quality might improve if the film's magnetic or optical track was re-digitzed with cleaner analog hardware and better A/D converters.

 

[Jay*W]

Hello Bob, and thanks for all of those Capitol Legendary Masters and Collector series CDs, as many are still among the best sounding transfers of music from artists of the 60s.

That was Mr. Furmanek’s brother, Ron, who was responsible for those wonderful CDs.

 

[Sky King]

3-D Film Archive restored the Abbott and Costello Show and did the Kickstarter campaign.

ClassicFlix is the distributor for our restorations.

Hi Bob

Sorry for the error there.
Dont know how I forgot to give the 3-D Film Archive its proper credit.
I’m really enjoying season one of The Abbott and Costello Show and looking forward to season two.

John

 

[cineescape]

cineescape,

Don't know where you heard that the 35mm prints were trashed…they weren’t.
They just weren’t handled with care as they were passed down from several owners.
Unfortunately when Kelloggs began sponsorship of this series, edits were made to the actual 35mm negatives…not copies.
Warners has more Adventures of Superman elements that they are just not sharing. They produced the DVD set on the cheap and wouldn’t even pay Noel Neill and Jack Larson for their commentaries included with the set. Lucky for us that Noel and Jack thought so much of the series that they did it for free.
Its too bad that a crowd sourcing effort couldn’t be done to restore this show to pristine condition. Classicflix crowd sourced its restoration of The Abbott and Costello show from the original 35mm prints and it looks fantastic.

John

Criterion, Kino, VCI, MPI/Dark Sky, ShoutFactory, Arrow, TwilightTime PowerHouse, Scorpion Releasing, Imprint, Eureka, Cult Films and at least a half dozen other boutique distributors who have released many of your favorite popular and not so popular titles, superbly restored on BD, and with loads of extras. All of these labels either do the restorations themselves or farm it out to others; typically the results are excellent. All Warners would have to do is lease them the rights to do a BD edition.

Actually, I've never played any of the Warners DVDs. How is the sound quality for most of the B/W and color episodes? Any clipping distortion: raspiness from breif but overloaded program level peaks?

I know it's all lossy Dolby Digital, but is the sound generally compressed, or are there some dynamics? Any robustness in the low end that you might here through your subwoofers?

 

[Tom St Jones]

An individual Blu ray release of the theatrical/pilot movie SUPERMAN & THE MOLE MEN would be a good way for Warner (or WarnerArchive) to test the BD waters