...and don't forget, they corrected the opening's misspelling of 'Jaime' on the first three eps from its original 'Jamie'. So the version of the S1 opening on the DVD set (seen on all 14 eps) is one that was never previously shown anywhere in that form.Joseph Burns said:
It's entirely possible the airbag was in the 'overscan' area on the original broadcast (and syndication), and when it was re-transferred for DVD from the original elements, it was now "extra" picture area (like with the Network remaster of Space: 1999 year one).mark40511 said:I wish they had cropped that out. It takes some of the magic away
I'm still waiting for my replacement disc as well, and got the same e-mail from Deluxe as you on July 11.MBrousseau said:
I received my replacement disc today. I emailed them July 28th, and got the response on July 29th. The package I received today was stamped Aug 3rd, and was mailed from Universal Studios Scarborough office in Toronto.MBrousseau said:
Hey Dave, Yes, we had tons of stuff collected for potential use as bonus material on the TimeLife SMDM set. Unfortunately, Universal nixed everything[/U ] we requested—with the exception of the few bits of the vintage Kenner Toy commercials edited into one of the featurettes. The hope was to include all the commercials in their entirety. The commercials were supplied by James Sherrard, who was a consultant on Universals's BW releases. It's really a bummer we weren't able to include any of the other material, as TimeLife was really excited about loading the set up as much as possible. But as I said, it was Uni's ultimate decision on what to allow. They just weren't interested in taking the effort to research, clear the rights, or pay for the inclusion of any of it. The good news is that some of it may still appear on the upcoming U.K. edition I mentioned in another thread. It's doubtful TimeLife (or anyone else) would re-release BW in a better form sometime down the road. The talent interview sessions for both SMDM and BW were recorded together, and then shared by both TimeLife and Uni for their respective releases (which is why there is some footage "overlap" between the sets). The SMDM interviews were much more extensive with very little editing from their original sessions, while BW's were tightly edited into one brief featurette for each season set. The full interview sessions pertaining exclusively to BW would be the only thing that could possibly be re-released later (but that's extremely unlikely). On the issue of the audio flaws on the BW:S2 set, I sure wish I had a chance to sample "The Return of Bigfoot—Part II" master while working on the SMDM last summer, as I most certainly would have noticed the audio flaws on that episode—and possibly had them addressed at that time. When the set was released in November, I notified Universal immediately about the problem with the audio on "RoB2"—knowing they would be releasing it as part of their own BW:S2 set six months later. My hope was that they'd at least fix it for that release. Unfortunately, it was not only not fixed, but several other episodes had the same or worse flaws! Well, I tried.Davisito said:
In case it wasn't obvious, the shows were also my favorites growing up in the 70s. I assume you must have The Bionic Book by Herbie J Pilato that was published a few years ago. I was a contributor to that book (along with Brendan Slattery who, like me, wrote some of the liner notes for the SMDM DVD set). Between the book and the DVD sets, just about ever piece of bionic information is covered in depth.Davisito said:
The changes were made for the recent R1 DVDs, not for syndication. I don't believe Universal's intent was to replace the opening for BW:S1. I think they simply wanted to correct the misspelling of "Jaime" on the first three episodes' text, without realizing there were two other visual characteristics exclusive to those first three episodes ("Second Bionic Replacement Complete" text and sepia-toned footage). At least the original audio tracks for the episodes were left intact, as the theme changed beginning with the third episode. That piece of film dirt on Jaime's tooth has always bugged fans. The process of adding titles (known as "supers") required the film to be double-exposed during an optical procedure that caused the sequence to become "softer" in appearance, while potentially introducing very visible flecks of dirt and debris on the resulting composite print. Any imperfections were likely not noticed until final prints were made, at which point it may have been too late/too expensive to re-do them.
Sci-Fi Channel did their own editing in-house, working from the uncut masters of the time. The previous syndication prints of the late 70s/early 80s were actual 16mm reels shared by the local affiliate stations. Those stations would often apply their own edits to those reels, resulting in severely spiced episodes after the trims were restored. I have several off-the-air recordings from that era, and the prints are very beat up, although they have a much more "film-like" appearance than the video-edited Sci-Fi versions.
By commercials, do you mean Kenner toy commercials or what? I would be curious to know what potential extras are out there.MattHR said:
I just got mine, too! Thanks again, Grant!derosa said:
It's just sad they didn't even tried to correct audio from Doomsday is Tomorrow part II, on the same disc.
I'd use a slightly different word than "unbelievable"... but there might be children readingMattHR said:
