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The Adventures of Superman (4 Viewers)

John*Wells

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John,

I highly doubt Warners will do anything further with this series.
This was just a quick buck DVD release, using a video transfer from 30+ years ago of fine grain 16mm film.
Word has it that some of the original 35mm prints are too damaged to work with without a costly restoration.

John
I am not surprised. I am not a fan of Warner and the way they have handled releases in the past with some of their properties ..this is one. Mayberry RFD is another
 

greenscreened

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I bought the first two seasons on DVD.
I liked having them, but was kind of let down because of a certain thirty second or so musical passage wasn't to be found on any of the episodes,
It must be on the latter seasons.

I then went ahead and purchased the two(?) CD soundtrack to the series afterwards, but it wasn't on there either.


John,

I highly doubt Warners will do anything further with this series.
This was just a quick buck DVD release, using a video transfer from 30+ years ago of fine grain 16mm film.
Word has it that some of the original 35mm prints are too damaged to work with without a costly restoration.

John

Don't know anything about streaming, including the business end, but would it be financially feasible to stream the 35mm prints that are in good shape through WB or another source, to generate enough money and interest in the series to restore the others, then put them out as full season discs?

If some of the episodes weren't worth restoring because of funds, figure the cost of the restored episodes and price the discs on that basis, and more or less, throw in the (fine-tuned)16mm prints in their place (to complete the full season), almost as an extra, since they were previously available in that quality from the get-go?

Somehow, I think I already know the answer to this thinly disguised low-key grumble.
 
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Capt D McMars

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I bought the first two seasons on DVD.
I liked having them, but was kind of let down because of a certain thirty second or so musical passage wasn't to be found on any of the episodes,
It must be on the latter seasons.

I then went ahead and purchased the two(?) CD soundtrack to the series afterwards, but it wasn't on there either.




Don't know anything about streaming, including the business end, but would it be financially feasible to stream the 35mm prints that are in good shape through WB or another source, to generate enough money and interest in the series to restore the others, then put them out as full season discs?

If some of the episodes weren't worth restoring because of funds, figure the cost of the restored episodes and price the discs on that basis, and more or less, throw in the (fine-tuned)16mm prints in their place (to complete the full season), almost as an extra, since they were previously available in that quality from the get-go?

Somehow, I think I already know the answer to this thinly disguised low-key grumble.
I feel your pain, there are many series that should be given some love and never are. The case of the squeeky wheel getting the oil is one approach. There is no seemly logical method to thier madness....it feels to me, more like darts at a small dart board, blindfolded - LOL!!!
 

RobertMG

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I feel your pain, there are many series that should be given some love and never are. The case of the squeeky wheel getting the oil is one approach. There is no seemly logical method to thier madness....it feels to me, more like darts at a small dart board, blindfolded - LOL!!!
This series has been a money-spinner for decades since day one does anyone know if it has been transferred in HD? Adv of Superman, The Lone Ranger, Sgt Preston, Cisco Kid all early color shows should be restored they are history. Lone Ranger and Sgt Preston now with Classic Media Universal they have deep pockets they should be remastered. Heck we cannot even get Jeff's Collie in season sets
 

RobertMG

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I bought the first two seasons on DVD.
I liked having them, but was kind of let down because of a certain thirty second or so musical passage wasn't to be found on any of the episodes,
It must be on the latter seasons.

I then went ahead and purchased the two(?) CD soundtrack to the series afterwards, but it wasn't on there either.




Don't know anything about streaming, including the business end, but would it be financially feasible to stream the 35mm prints that are in good shape through WB or another source, to generate enough money and interest in the series to restore the others, then put them out as full season discs?

If some of the episodes weren't worth restoring because of funds, figure the cost of the restored episodes and price the discs on that basis, and more or less, throw in the (fine-tuned)16mm prints in their place (to complete the full season), almost as an extra, since they were previously available in that quality from the get-go?

Somehow, I think I already know the answer to this thinly disguised low-key grumble.
I would think tv prints of Adv of Superman would be 16mm not 35mm
 

Sky King

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I would think tv prints of Adv of Superman would be 16mm not 35mm

RobertMG,

The series was originally shot on 35mm film. Sometime in the late 80’s, early 90’s it was transferred from 16mm to videotape prior to its debut on the Nickelodeon channel.
I was told that many, if not all 35mm negatives were edited after Kelloggs took sponsorship, possibly for commercial breaks, not really sure.
I knew someone in the late ‘70s who worked for a TV station in Worcester, Ma (WSMW) and they received several prints with the original Kelloggs openings and closings. He chose to show them rather than edited them out. Was a real treat to see and just shows what Warners still has and refuses to show.

John
 

RobertMG

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WPIX in New York ran the black and white episodes in 35mm until the mid-70s.
Thank you for teaching something I NEVER knew WOW I would have thought 16mm would have been cheaper for stations to run on TV shows I knew PIX ran 35 Technicolor prints on films like Stairway to Heaven.
 
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RobertMG

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RobertMG,

The series was originally shot on 35mm film. Sometime in the late 80’s, early 90’s it was transferred from 16mm to videotape prior to its debut on the Nickelodeon channel.
I was told that many, if not all 35mm negatives were edited after Kelloggs took sponsorship, possibly for commercial breaks, not really sure.
I knew someone in the late ‘70s who worked for a TV station in Worcester, Ma (WSMW) and they received several prints with the original Kelloggs openings and closings. He chose to show them rather than edited them out. Was a real treat to see and just shows what Warners still has and refuses to show.

John
Thank you for the great info --- so why was it so hard for Warners to find a decent print on The Stolen Costume
 

Sky King

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Thank you for the great info --- so why was it so hard for Warners to find a decent print on The Stolen Costume

RobertMG,

That particular episode might have had a heavily damaged 35mm element which lead to a subpar 16mm print. I don’t know for sure. As I stated before, Warners was offered better prints from private collectors. How they got them I don’t know. These “collector prints”
might have been really old prints made from a time when the original elements were in better condition. In any case, Warners turned them down.

John
 

Capt D McMars

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I would think tv prints of Adv of Superman would be 16mm not 35mm
Well keep in mind, the series like Superman and Cisco Kid also ran in conjunction with filmed features as part of the kids Saturday Matinees...so, 35mm is completly plausable, but thier conditions may be another story!!
 

greenscreened

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As I stated before, Warners was offered better prints from private collectors. How they got them I don’t know.
Don't know if this applies to that particular episode or series, but...
Projectionists?

It is widely known that one such **projectionist (don't know where he worked), made quite a few copies of movies and such, many of which were never released on any sort of media.
He had directors come to him for copies of older films that they themselves never had a copy of!

Another projectionist source I learned of was from a co-worker in the seventies, who said his dad was a projectionist on the Johnny Carson Show.

Back then, when an actor came on to plug their movie by showing a clip, he 'claimed' the studio sent the whole movie, which was then cued to the clip to be shown per the instructions on the can.
His dad just made a copy before it was sent back.

Could this same practice have been done by a movie theater projectionist as well?

** He was mentioned by name in either the Preface section, or the back of the book section (if in fact the book had one) for where to go for rare videos, in one (or more) of the 1980's version(s) of Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guides.

I had at least six of those books I bought annually, but erroneously donated them in the nineties, so I'm kind of sketchy on where that info actually was.
I wish he was still currently putting them out.
 
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ScottRE

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Bob,

It always seemed to me that WPIX sourced the best prints of any show they aired.

John
Depends on the show. Space:1999 looked hideous. Star Trek got pretty threadbare by the time they switched over to the Paramount tapes. But that's probably because they ran the series non stop since the Monday after the original series left NBC...
 

Jaytee

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It's such a shame that there are no plans for a Blu-ray upgrade for this series, as not only as it would be good to see the series in high-definition, but I'd also finally be able to retire my DVD collections. This last point is important since there have unfortunately been several reports of some of the AoS DVDs no longer playing properly due to the known issues with DVDs manufactured from 2006-2008 by Warner.

Indeed, after checking through all my sets, one of the discs on my Season 5/6 set no longer plays correctly around the layer-change point, and I don't know how much longer the others will last. It would be costly to buy another set and hope that I'd be lucky enough to get a working replacement disc.

I don't believe the series was ever given a later DVD re-pressing or re-release, therefore any sets out there are at risk of the discs degrading since they were originally manufactured back in 2006.
 

John*Wells

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I just finished watching HollywoodLand for the first time in a while. It was made by Miramax. But was George Reeves not under contract to Warner when he died? The Adventures of Superman was and is a Warner property. Why would they allow Miramax to make a film about the Star of a Warner property?
 

TravisR

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I just finished watching HollywoodLand for the first time in a while. It was made by Miramax. But was George Reeves not under contract to Warner when he died? The Adventures of Superman was and is a Warner property. Why would they allow Miramax to make a film about the Star of a Warner property?
Warners doesn't own George Reeves' story so anyone could do what they want with that. I'm pretty sure that the movie didn't get use the Superman logo (which Warners does own).
 

ScottRE

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Warners doesn't own George Reeves' story so anyone could do what they want with that. I'm pretty sure that the movie didn't get use the Superman logo (which Warners does own).
Actually he appeared in full costume. No change to the Superman logo at all.

sup.jpg
 

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