Time/Life Press Release: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series (1 Viewer)

[MartinP.]

I am just thrilled that Laugh In is finally out in its entirety.

On some level I still can't believe it happened!

Here's a little curio that I just happened to see about a year ago. It's called "Rowan & Martin at the Movies" and was made in 1968. It's a short MGM produced film ostensibly to sell U.S. Savings Bonds and was played in movie theatres. It's very much done in the style of Laugh-In, with some guest stars. It even has a laugh track. Apparently TCM played it on their channel at some point. Let me know what your opinions are!

 

[nobajoba]

On some level I still can't believe it happened!

Here's a little curio that I just happened to see about a year ago. It's called "Rowan & Martin at the Movies" and was made in 1968. It's a short MGM produced film ostensibly to sell U.S. Savings Bonds and was played in movie theatres. It's very much done in the style of Laugh-In, with some guest stars. It even has a laugh track. Apparently TCM played it on their channel at some point. Let me know what your opinions are!

That's really neat. Done very much like Laugh In. But boy blink and you'll miss Carol Burnett.

 

[Lecagr]

The 10 minute clip "Rowan & Martin at the Movies" was fun, too bad it wasn't included on the DVD's as an extra. Thanks Martin P. for posting it.

 

[moviebuff75]

My box isn't holding up well. Not very sturdy, and easily dented/scratched.

 

[nobajoba]

My box isn't holding up well. Not very sturdy, and easily dented/scratched.

I wish I'd left mine in the original plastic wrap, that's what I've started doing on box sets like this to help preserve the box longer.

 

[Lecagr]

Last night I watched Season 2 Episode 19 on the DVD, and I did notice a few times intermittently during the episode when the video did a weird looking speed up/slow down motion for a few brief seconds. It's not really too distracting and didn't ruin the viewing experience of the episode, but it was noticeable. Maybe this is what Jesse Skeen and a few others are talking about when they say Time-Life screwed up the video.

 

[MartinP.]

No, I don't think that's what they mean, but I don't care what they mean anymore. These "few others" seem to be the only ones with the complaints. I'm happy!

I also just got through watching Season 2 again. I didn't notice anything happening on Episode 19, GS: Davy Jones.

 

[Lecagr]

No, I don't think that's what they mean, but I don't care what they mean anymore. These "few others" seem to be the only ones with the complaints. I'm happy!

I also just got through watching Season 2 again. I didn't notice anything happening on Episode 19, GS: Davy Jones.

Season 2 is my favorite season. Take a closer look at episode 19 and see if you can spot the occasional speed up/slow down motion in the video. It occurs just a few times and lasts only a few seconds, but it's noticeable.

There's another episode, I forget which one it is currently, but there's a scene where one of the women is introduced, it appears like she's about to sing a song, but instead she strolls past the piano and walks out the stage door. As she's walking off, that weird looking, speed up/slow down motion occurs again.

 

[nobajoba]

Last night I watched Season 2 Episode 19 on the DVD, and I did notice a few times intermittently during the episode when the video did a weird looking speed up/slow down motion for a few brief seconds. It's not really too distracting and didn't ruin the viewing experience of the episode, but it was noticeable. Maybe this is what Jesse Skeen and a few others are talking about when they say Time-Life screwed up the video.

I guess

Season 2 is my favorite season. Take a closer look at episode 19 and see if you can spot the occasional speed up/slow down motion in the video. It occurs just a few times and lasts only a few seconds, but it's noticeable.

There's another episode, I forget which one it is currently, but there's a scene where one of the women is introduced, it appears like she's about to sing a song, but instead she strolls past the piano and walks out the stage door. As she's walking off, that weird looking, speed up/slow down motion occurs again.

Dinah Shore in season 4 is introduced and walks past the piano and out the stage door to outside and gets on a motorcycle thing. I know there's an episode where she does that. But the slow/speed up thing is done on purpose, so that may not be what you're talking about.

 

[Lecagr]

Dinah Shore in season 4 is introduced and walks past the piano and out the stage door to outside and gets on a motorcycle thing. I know there's an episode where she does that. But the slow/speed up thing is done on purpose, so that may not be what you're talking about.

Yes I believe the scene with Dinah Shore is the one I was thinking about. If the speed up/slow down motion was done on purpose, maybe it was also intentionally done in episode 19 of season 2. It's a weird looking effect. Maybe the producers wanted to mess with peoples eyes.

 

[Neil Brock]

Soap opera effect is a disparaging term used by the jerks in the HD crowd. There's nothing as great looking as classic color 2" videotape and to degrade it to a fake film look is disappointing. Its one thing if you want to say you are too clueless to see a difference, but don't say that its not there. All one has to do is to pull out the discs from the Rhino Laugh-In set and compare. Or watch it on a real (4x3) television set.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

This continues to be an epidemic- the Sesame Street 50th Anniversary set has the same problem and looks awful. I don't know what is going through the heads of whoever approves these masters. I've seen the same thing on a few broadcast stations too, while others are actually forcing motion-smoothing on filmed material (of course those channels also vandalize the picture with their logos constantly onscreen, and MeTV has also been cropping everything to widescreen.)

 

[Lecagr]

The TV's I have are the old style 4x3 type, I wouldn't want anything else because modern flatscreen/widescreen TV's are garbage. While it's possible Time Life screwed up the video when they produced the Laugh In DVD's, when I watch episodes, overall they look fine to me so I'm not complaining.

 

[Neil Brock]

The TV's I have are the old style 4x3 type, I wouldn't want anything else because modern flatscreen/widescreen TV's are garbage. While it's possible Time Life screwed up the video when they produced the Laugh In DVD's, when I watch episodes, overall they look fine to me so I'm not complaining.

Not saying they don't look okay, just not the way they are supposed to look. Videotape looks like a show is airing live whereas film just looks like film.

By the way, another show that was F'ed up was the release of That Show with Joan Rivers. Also, the Danny Kaye Show as well.

Sad that on a forum of supposed experts, people can't tell the difference between what videotape and film look like.

 

[Lecagr]

Not saying they don't look okay, just not the way they are supposed to look. Videotape looks like a show is airing live whereas film just looks like film.

I don't have the DVD's of Laugh In that Rhino released, if I had those I could compare them to the Time Life discs and I would probably notice the difference and the fake film effect that you describe.

The Time Life DVD's present the shows uncut which to me is a great thing because I dislike edits in shows/episodes.

 

[Pmprod7]

Not saying they don't look okay, just not the way they are supposed to look. Videotape looks like a show is airing live whereas film just looks like film.

By the way, another show that was F'ed up was the release of That Show with Joan Rivers. Also, the Danny Kaye Show as well.

Sad that on a forum of supposed experts, people can't tell the difference between what videotape and film look like.

I recognize when they make a show that was originally done on video look like film. I agree with you and also hate that process. I like a good video look for variety shows (like with the news and sports) it makes it look live on television.

I don't have the Laugh-in DVD or Blu ray sets but I'm disappointed that they would make the episodes look filmic. I don't understand why they had to do that. The Carol Burnett Lost episodes from 1967 look great and new for videotape made in the late 60's. They must have not taken as good a care of the Laugh-in tapes as the Carol Burnett show which is from the same period.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

They must have not taken as good a care of the Laugh-in tapes as the Carol Burnett show which is from the same period.

I don't think that's the problem, because the reruns on TrioTV (and the Rhino DVDs) had the fluid look of videotape. It's more than likely the Time/Life set is either using the same masters used for Amazon Prime, or they're encoded the same way, as 30fps/progressive, rather than 60fps/interlaced.

Here's as good an explanation as any as to why a 30 frame/progressive picture does not retain the video look of 60/interlaced (take from a site talking about PAL, so I've subbed 30/60 for 25/50):

60 frames interlaced is not equal to 30 frames progressive. 60 frames interlaced is twice the frame rate with each frame showing half the picture in alternating lines of information each frame.

30 progressive halves the frame rate and displays the full picture information in one frame, destroying the live studio look.

This is why "shot on video" content on most streaming sites doesn't look "live" anymore...most of it is encoded at 30 frames progressive.

Now, it's possible that if someone is watching on a TV with all those video processing features switched on, their TV will "fix" the faulty DVD (making it appear correct to them). Again, quoting from the same external source:

If I enable 120hz/frame interpolation on Britbox Doctor Who episodes, they have the video effect again, but that's because my telly is just reinserting frames that have been removed in the conversion from interlaced to progressive by Britbox.

This is also what's been described by many as "soap opera effect". In these isolated cases of DVD releases (or streaming) that have been botched by their distributors, switching on this signal processing/motion enhancement can actually fix the problems in those cases.

If you have never re-set your television to "game" mode when you purchased it, you are likely viewing your content with these enhancements turned on (they're usually "on" by default), so your TV is likely compensating for the faults in those DVDs.

This would explain why some people here are not seeing the difference we've been talking about. Their TV is fixing the mistake for them invisibly, behind the scenes.

 

[Neil Brock]

I don't think that's the problem, because the reruns on TrioTV (and the Rhino DVDs) had the fluid look of videotape. It's more than likely the Time/Life set is either using the same masters used for Amazon Prime, or they're encoded the same way, as 30fps/progressive, rather than 60fps/interlaced.

Here's as good an explanation as any as to why a 30 frame/progressive picture does not retain the video look of 60/interlaced (take from a site talking about PAL, so I've subbed 30/60 for 25/50):



This is why "shot on video" content on most streaming sites doesn't look "live" anymore...most of it is encoded at 30 frames progressive.

Now, it's possible that if someone is watching on a TV with all those video processing features switched on, their TV will "fix" the faulty DVD (making it appear correct to them). Again, quoting from the same external source:



This is also what's been described by many as "soap opera effect". In these isolated cases of DVD releases (or streaming) that have been botched by their distributors, switching on this signal processing/motion enhancement can actually fix the problems in those cases.

If you have never re-set your television to "game" mode when you purchased it, you are likely viewing your content with these enhancements turned on (they're usually "on" by default), so your TV is likely compensating for the faults in those DVDs.

This would explain why some people here are not seeing the difference we've been talking about. Their TV is fixing the mistake for them invisibly, behind the scenes.

Is this something that can be adjusted on a 4x3 set or is it only on HD? I would love to try this, especially on the season of All in the Family that Shout screwed up.
Last night I watched a Smothers Brothers Show episode from Time Life and it looked like it should!

 

[TJPC]

The TV's I have are the old style 4x3 type, I wouldn't want anything else because modern flatscreen/widescreen TV's are garbage. While it's possible Time Life screwed up the video when they produced the Laugh In DVD's, when I watch episodes, overall they look fine to me so I'm not complaining.

You are incorrect! The only real way to watch TV is with a Baird set which has a nipkow disc!

 

[Radioman970]

I think these are dual layer? There are a lot of cheap sets on ebay. Somebody has it for $55. I want to ask right up front if what they are selling is the real thing. I need may need to get a chinese translation "you bet your sweet bippy I'll get my money back!"