The Avengers and The New Avengers OOP on DVD. The Saint and The Persuaders!? (1 Viewer)

[Osato]

I noted that Amazon on demand and iTunes HD is only 720p. Interesting.

 

[Reed Grele]

I was going to purchase the iTunes season 5, but then I saw that Amazon had it for the same price, so I went with Amazon in HD. One slight problem though. Episode 18 (Death's Door) was missing. I complained, and they gave me ep.18 in SD. Other than that, I thought the quality of the HD streaming was pretty good.

UPDATE 6/19/14: Amazon has now included episode 18 (Death's Door) in the season 5 HD package. At least it's showing up on my Sony PS3 anyway. Question: Are the iTunes versions also without audio over "The Avengers in Color"?

 

[DVDvision]

Ah yes, funny bit. I'm not sure anymore there was the audio on the originals. They were on the VHS (Lumiere masters, which were used for the A&E DVDs), but it was the first time I saw them. Maybe Lumiere did edit the audio in? Anyone who saw the original UK transmissions, thanks if you can offer your input.

 

[Harry-N]

"The Avengers In Color" was a bumper produced by the program producer for use on ABC-TV in the US. NBC had its peacock to announce color shows, and in 1965, ABC and CBS came up with their own animated network bumpers for color shows. ABC's circles rolled across the screen and turned into colors, CBS's dropped from the top and bottom of the screen and turned color with a left-right "eye" logo.

In 1966, ABC dropped the circles bumper in favor of having each program supplier generate their own, making them program-specific.

Harry

 

[Darby67]

I wish A&E Home Video (or whoever is their current distributor) would rerelease The New Avengers '76 and The New Avengers '77. They are both out of print and the prices for them are quite high.

I was late to the party in terms of my appreciation for and purchasing DVDs of the original 1960s series and the 1970s series, My first and only purchase so far has been the Emma Peel Megaset, but I would love to own more. I am absolutely hooked on the show now!

Darby

 

[Reed Grele]

Do you think that the transfers currently being shown on iTunes and Amazon will be the same ones released later this year on BD?

I've read about some problems with color timing, day for night shot screw ups, etc. I haven't watched them all yet, but so far I have been very pleased with what I've seen.

 

[DVDvision]

Yes they won't redo them.

 

[Osato]

I wish A&E Home Video (or whoever is their current distributor) would rerelease The New Avengers '76 and The New Avengers '77. They are both out of print and the prices for them are quite high.

I was late to the party in terms of my appreciation for and purchasing DVDs of the original 1960s series and the 1970s series, My first and only purchase so far has been the Emma Peel Megaset, but I would love to own more. I am absolutely hooked on the show now!

Darby

I have The New Avengers on DVD and I really like that series as well. Hopefully a blu ray release is in the works.

I'm not sure what A&E's problem is. There is an obvious demand for these shows and yet they are no longer distributing them here. I assume they still have distribution rights as they just re-issued the same 90's DVD transfers from the Emma Peel series. It's a shame they didn't use the new remastered prints...

I also noted that The Prisoner is no longer available on blu ray in the US from A&E..

Looking forward to hearing about blu ray release information about The Avengers...

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

I wish there there was original mono on an eventual American Blu-Ray. I really do.

 

[Darby67]

I just emailed Lionsgate Home Entertainment the following:

"I purchased The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset 16-disc DVD set that was released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in October 2013 and absolutely fell in love with the show!

Does Lionsgate Home Entertainment have any plans for a Region 1 release of the 39-disc The Complete Avengers 50th Anniversary Edition DVD set that was released in Region 2 by Optimum Home Entertainment in May 2011 and subsequently rereleased by Studio Canal?

Additionally, does Lionsgate Home Entertainment have any plans for rereleases of the 4-disc The New Avengers ’76 DVD set that was released by A&E Home Video in July 2003 and the 4-disc The New Avengers ’77 DVD set that was released by A&E Home Video in July 2004. Both sets are out of print and go for exorbitant prices on the aftermarket.

Thank you advance for your consideration and thank you to Lionsgate Home Entertainment for supporting such a wonderful television series."

Darby

 

[Osato]

I just emailed Lionsgate Home Entertainment the following:

"I purchased The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset 16-disc DVD set that was released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in October 2013 and absolutely fell in love with the show!

Does Lionsgate Home Entertainment have any plans for a Region 1 release of the 39-disc The Complete Avengers 50th Anniversary Edition DVD set that was released in Region 2 by Optimum Home Entertainment in May 2011 and subsequently rereleased by Studio Canal?

Additionally, does Lionsgate Home Entertainment have any plans for rereleases of the 4-disc The New Avengers ’76 DVD set that was released by A&E Home Video in July 2003 and the 4-disc The New Avengers ’77 DVD set that was released by A&E Home Video in July 2004. Both sets are out of print and go for exorbitant prices on the aftermarket.

Thank you advance for your consideration and thank you to Lionsgate Home Entertainment for supporting such a wonderful television series."

Darby

Hopefully you get a decent response.

 

[DVDvision]

The New Avengers will never be remastered unless a company does them like Network did for The Professionals.

The rights are a different from The Avengers, and more akin to The Professionals. It could be about time the series is remastered showing the full left to right width and more top and bottom. The current masters from TF1 are awful and cut.

 

[Osato]

The New Avengers will never be remastered unless a company does them like Network did for The Professionals.

The rights are a different from The Avengers, and more akin to The Professionals. It could be about time the series is remastered showing the full left to right width and more top and bottom. The current masters from TF1 are awful and cut.

Thanks for the info. I would purchase The New Avengers on blu ray again if restored and mastered properly.

Looking forward to hearing more about the blu ray news on The Avengers soon!

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

Thanks for the info. I would purchase The New Avengers on blu ray again if restored and mastered properly.

Looking forward to hearing more about the blu ray news on The Avengers soon!

And original Mono, too!

 

[Harry-N]

http://www.amazon.com/Avengers-Season-Blu-ray-Patrick-MacNee/dp/B00MVIYKVE/

Currently $20.99 pre-order. Listed as 1.85:1

Harry

 

[nigel19]

The New Avengers will never be remastered unless a company does them like Network did for The Professionals.

The rights are a different from The Avengers, and more akin to The Professionals. It could be about time the series is remastered showing the full left to right width and more top and bottom. The current masters from TF1 are awful and cut.

The New Avengers is owned by Studio Canal just as The Avengers is .
The Professionals is owned by London Weekend Television (ITV). Network have deals with both studios but have so far only been directly involved in HD remastering for ITV content.

However I don't see why SC won't get round to remastering The New Avengers at some point .
They own a huge amount of British material and its taken them many years to be persuaded to actually start releasing most of it . They now seem to have realised the worth of future proofing their library .

For example - they've already created HD masters for at least 4 of the 12 Carry On films they own but ITV who own the other 18 don't seem to be bothered now . They've given up on Bluray in the UK mostly with current shows getting HD releases elsewhere but not the UK and most of the ITV owned content coming to Bluray is being released by Network

 

[DVDvision]

Nigel, The NA aren't owned strictly by SC they are several right owners including Clemens/Fennell/Johnson and TF1 (first french TV channel) who were co-producers. That is I.D.T.V., T.V. Productions + TF1 The rights are more akin to The Professionals in this respect. The negs are probably in Brian Clemens stable and he probably still bargaining the remastering with them.However SC did release the box set in France. So they have release rights, but the property is not solely theirs. That's why they weren't remastered back in 2008 along with the original series I guess.

 

[nigel19]

Nigel, The NA aren't owned strictly by SC they are several right owners including Clemens/Fennell/Johnson and TF1 (first french TV channel) who were co-producers. That is I.D.T.V., T.V. Productions + TF1The rights are more akin to The Professionals in this respect. The negs are probably in Brian Clemens stable and he probably still bargaining the remastering with them.However SC did release the box set in France. So they have release rights, but the property is not solely theirs. That's why they weren't remastered back in 2008 along with the original series I guess.

It was my understanding that while TNA had various owners this was dependent on country . So for the UK the rights belong to SC. So if a company owns sole rights in one country its their decision on what to do with it .
There are a lot of movies that have different owners in different countries .
For example - The Towering Inferno is owned by Fox in the US but Warner for the rest of the world and each decide what to do with it in their own territory . For the dvd Fox gave us 5.1 sound , Warner didn't etc.

In a rare move SC actually co-operated with ITV and allowed them to release a complete Carry On boxset here in the UK . Not very often we get that kind of joint effort between studios .

Having multiple owners really should be an advantage because the cost of creating HD masters can be shared with all the different owners then able to market it exclusively within their own territory. Too easy I guess.

Isn't The Professionals owned lock stock and barrel by LWT ? They commissioned it and funded it .
Back in that era rights to independent productions remained with the commissioning broadcaster.

As far as I was aware the first series of TNA is not a co-production . It was the second series which was co-funded by French and Canadian money which is why they had to ruin the show by filming half that season there.

Clemens maintains that money from French and / or Canadian investors never did get paid

 

[DVDvision]

Actually the NA started from the get go on french funding. Only for the last 7 episodes of serie 2, the money ran out to they shot those episodes in France and Canada to make it.

This is the Champagne french commercial which started it all



The producer of the commercial discovered during the shoot, to his dismay, that the Avengers had stopped production 6 years before, so he told Clemens he would get the money and he did.

The commercial stars Linda Thorson. I so would have wanted the NA to be Macnee and Thorson again. Thorson was then the same age as Diana Rigg when she was playing Emma Peel. That would have been perfection.

As the commercial shows, the french new better how to make something Avengerish at this point, than the british who decided to do it a very different way because they thought time had moved on.

In a way, the original aged like fine wine, whereas the NA had a much shorter lifespan to being too much of the times (big Starsky & Hutch influence). It's still a fascinating series, but it totaly lacks the beauty of the original. Any 60's Avengers is mind blowingly beautiful to watch. The NA look drab and dark and the worst of the 70's. Only Steed has somehow remained intact.

Here's another advert which is more Avengerish than the NA ever were "Saved by Big Ben! Nope, saved by Timex!"

 

[nigel19]

At the time I thought TNA was a poor shadow of the original . But today I much prefer most of TNA to the colour originals . The B&W Rigg remain the peak of the series for me but I find many of the colour Rigg to be too far removed from reality . Although the B&W Rigg were also they seem to maintain more of a link with reality .

I think if TNA were remastered to the same level as the original the drabness of the visuals would not be so apparent .
The current versions are a bit tatty and make the series look older than it is