The Archive of Incomplete TV DVDs - Buyers Beware! (Updated 3/27/05) (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Methinks Baron needs to take a little Valium...

 

[Dane Marvin]

Kind of mean-spirited. The existing list (which is no longer being updated, mind you) at the beginning of the thread features several of my favorite shows, which would not have made it on there had they not be altered in some way. Sometimes the alterations are favorable (extended pilots), sometimes they are negative (replaced music, missing episodes, true syndication versions). Some of my favorite shows may not ever make it to DVD ("The Wonder Years", the remaining seasons of "Malcom in the Middle", etc) and some have unfortunate edits ("Quantum Leap", which I have not purchased and may not and "ALF", which I refuse to purchase). Suffice it to say, I've had my share of letdowns with the institution of TV on DVD. Some of them could not be avoided or could have been avoided if the studio was okay with making little to no profit. Sometimes the studio is just plain idiotic. But these are facts of DVD life.

That said, I visit these forums and Gord's site because I just feel lucky to be able to see most of these shows from my childhood and well beyond again on a format that allows for greater preservation of the material than VHS, better sound and picture quality, the absence of commercials (and network logos or "bugs" 99+% of the time), and oftentimes some great bonus features that allow us to see how these shows began, how they might be placed in a cultural and historical context, what went on behind the scenes, and what the cast and crew who helped make them have to say about them now.

It seems you are truly fed up with what we here love. If it angers you so, it is your right to vent. No one's going to ban you if you haven't excessively flamed anyone. But pretty soon, people will just start rolling their eyes and turning the other cheek.

That's really all I have to say about the issue.

 

[JasonLa]

Yes there was some talk here in this thread and over here as to what possible cuts were made.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=223488

Based on running times a few of them may be missing some footage. I have syndicated recordings off of I believe it was USA network. See my posts for details. Someone with original airings is supposedly going to check them vs the DVDs but we do have confirmation that "thief of budapest" is syndicated as I and may others figured on running time alone.

It also seems that one or more people missunderstood my post here from that thread linked to and I'm not sure I want to register just to say so. I had mentioned the credits were complete compared to syndication so thats one possitive aspect of the DVD.

I don't have time to read the rest of that thread right now. I hope I find info in it or elsewhere soon confirming the intactness of the rest of the episodes.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

I don't know if you're still around to read this, but...

I just checked the Columbia House version of the pilot, and it runs 30 minutes, 32 seconds, including the closing credits and the CBS logo. So it clearly was never intended to be aired on TV in that form, and you clearly are mistaken about its running time.

And I would point out that if "complete" really meant "every bit of every episode produced," that would obligate them to include all alternate takes, deleted scenes, bloopers, etc.

 

[Kevin Porter]

The 4th Season of the West Wing has a bit of a cut. In "20 Hours in America" when coming back to the 7th act, there was a scene between Abby and Jed arguing. This is named the infamous Medea/Jackass scene by the folks over at TWoP. This scene was only shown for the inital airing and was cut for all reruns and syndication and hasn't been restored for DVD. So that sucks.

 

[Dane Marvin]

I used to visit that site back when I was watching the syndicated episodes on Bravo. Was this considered a good or bad scene by those folks? And any idea why it got cut after the initial broadcast?

 

[James Luckard]

On the "Moonlighting" Seasons 1&2 set, the episode "The Lady In The Iron Mask" has been completely rescored.

The original score, a haunting female vocal, has been replaced by totally incongrous thriller music, Bernard Herrmann-lite, which includes, bizarrely, a waltz. (To hear the music originally used, go to the later episode "Witness For The Execution" at about the 10:00 mark, the show reused the score there, and it's untouched.)

Also, during the final chase scene, the hilariously placed recording of the William Tell Overture has been replaced with more of this awful score.

Since only original score and public domain music were replaced, it cannot have been about rights, especially since the series is loaded with ridiculously expensive pop songs. It's a mystery to me.

 

[Jean-Michel]

Some unfortunate news regarding the "At Last, the 1948 Show," courtesy Cook'd and Bomb'd. Of the 13 episodes of this series, seven survive only in bits and pieces, so Goldhil decided to take the extant sketches and combine them into "new" half-hour episodes. This by itself wouldn't be a huge problem, if not for the fact that they've done the same with the surviving full episodes -- there are at least six complete episodes out there, but Goldhil has divided them up into individual sketches and combined them with sketches from other episodes. In other words there isn't a single actual episode of "At Last, the 1948 Show" in this set, just Goldhil's (or someone's) re-edited versions. At least one sketch has been deleted altogether. Very disappointing.

(Some good news: the "Do Not Adjust Your Set" release apparently does not suffer from this problem.)

 

[Jeff Willis]

Dane, Dave,

Thanks for your posts regarding the HH set. HH is also one of my all-time favorite shows and since the S1 set contains the eps as they were originally aired, that is what I believe the majority of TV/DVD consumers are looking for in any TV/DVD set. Extras, etc are nice but if we get the un-cut eps (as originally aired...not any unaired pilots, etc) then I'd think we should be 'ing. Now, I also want to "chime in" and say clearly that I don't approve or have much understanding/patience of any official TV/DVD set release that contains the dreaded "cut/syndicated" eps in the set. It seems to me that the consumer should expect to get all uncut eps in any set or at a minimum, an honest disclaimer on the set.

 

[Dave Farley]

Thanks, Jeff. I agree with you completely.

Unless the uncut versions no longer exist, I won't buy a set with cut episodes.

 

[JasonLa]

Most definately when it comes to buying on DVD sets episodes should be uncut. And like you said if for some valid reason one or more had to be cut the reason(s) should be clearly stated on the product. None of this generic on all of a companies releases to protect their butts disclaimer because this just confuses the consumer. Excuses like what we got for ALF which we know to be false since uncut versions of some of the episodes exist with video quality as good or better than the season set(s). Besides I'm sure many would be happy with a slightly lower video quality to have uncut shows on DVD. Besides I'm sure 99% of those that have uncut copies recorded from original airings anything released uncut on DVD would be an improvement on the aged tapes.

 

[Brian Himes]

I'm sure that this has been mentioned before, but SOAP season 1, episodes 16 & 17 are the syndicated versions and not the uncut versions. I find this REALLY strange considering that I bought the entire series on VHS from Columbia House and on the VHS tapes, these exact same episodes were the complete uncut versions. Now isn't Columbia House owned by Sony? Doesn't Columbia House have to get the master tapes from Sony to make their home video library tapes? Did Columbia House loose the master tapes for these two episodes? I find this all very strange. I'm glad that I saved each and every one of the Columbia House VHS tapes of SOAP. Between those, broadcast syndicated versions (especially the 4th season where the last 6 episodes were combined into 3 one hour episodes and are missing the 'On the last episode of Soap' and the recaps at the end of the episodes) and the DVDs, I will have the real complete uncut series.

 

[ElijahS]

Actually, I believe that Columbia House and Sony are two separate entities.

 

[Brian Himes]

Well, either way, they had to get the master tapes from Sony. So the big question is still, if Columbia House had the master tapes to the two uncut episodes of Soap, what happened to them and why weren't they on the DVD of season one?

 

[Katherine_K]

Just speculation, but it's possible that Columbia House refused to give them the masters or asked too much money. It's possible that Sony was unaware that uncut masters were available. It's possible that the masters Columbia House used to make those tapes have been damaged/lost/destroyed in the time since their release.

And that's just off the top of my head.

 

[Brian Himes]

This is the more likely the case. A bummer, but at least those of us who purchased the enire Columbia House series did get the uncut versions of the episodes. Heck, even the 2nd episode of Soap with the missing music are available on the Columbia House releases. I checked when season one came out on DVD.

It's a bummer, but at least between Columbia House and the DVD releases I have the series complete and uncut.

 

[Jay_B!]

to Urbanworks.

Word is spreading through people with review copies that THE COSBY SHOW: Season 1 is full of syndicated versions of episodes, not the uncut shows we haven't seen in twenty years.

I'll wait until someone posts a review before verifying it, but from the looks of it, it's grim. I'm glad I didn't preorder it or anything because if I wanted cut episodes, I could just record episodes off Nick At Nite.

Let's just hope we're not set up for the same disapointment when A Different World comes out, I like this show even more than The Cosby Show.

 

[AnthonyC]

That's insane. I don't know why Carsey/Warner wouldn't let Fox handle this release. Not sure if I'll be getting this then.

EDIT: Where did you read this? The only review I found is a review of the season, not the set itself. I'm hoping this isn't true, but if it is, major to Urbanworks. I'm trying to find some way of contacting them but their website doesn't have an email address listed.

 

[Jay_B!]

I read it at www.sitcomsonline.com/boards, there's a Cosby Show board in the 1980's section and that is where I read about it. Somebody received a review copy for it and the episodes are the 21-22 minute syndication edits.

This really sucks, I was looking forward to this. However, while I disagree with edits in general, edited Cosby is a tad different than edited ALF or edited Too Close For Comfort (thankfully Rhino heard the outcries). Those two shows are not shown anymore that some fans will be willing to suck up syndicated cuts to see the show again, The Cosby Show is one of the most overexposed shows in syndication, releasing it edited and cut will be a total disaster on DVD, because it's not like people haven't seen the show in years and are pining to catch episodes again regardless of complete or edited.

 

[AnthonyC]

According to a post there, a press release read: