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V - The Series announced (1 Viewer)

david_slater

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
229
ps..
i go to TVShowsOnDVD.com daily.
i keep a close eye on waits comeing out.
i buy 1000's of dvd,s. im even one of them people that hate waiting... :D

but im vary picky about shows being release in the right order.
 

Sven Lorenz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 30, 2002
Messages
529
If 'Breakout' had just been dropped when it first aired then I would agree with you - but they dropped it and altered another episode to take it's place.

This way 'Breakout' would actually hurt the continuity of the series for people who do not know about what happened and are seeing the show for the first time - so 'Breakout' should be considered more as an extra than a "normal" episode.
 

John Berggren

Senior HTF Member
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I'm pleased with the set as it is. I'd love to have bonus features, but I'm giddy over the fact that I can have a complete "V" collection in a few short months.
 

AndyMcKinney

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Apr 2, 2004
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Kentucky, USA

You mean you can't get up off the sofa and change the disc? It's not like the entire series is presented out-of-order, just the "alternate" introduction of Kyle Bates.

All this stuff has always made me wonder: were scenes cut from the original "Deception" to fit in the Kyle intro stuff, or did they change this during actual filming (i.e. did word already come down from the network that Breakout was unacceptable)?

If what they did was make cuts to the original show 4 to fit Kyle in, I'd be all for removing the "second" introduction, re-integrating cut footage, and presenting shows 3 and 4 as they were originally intended.

Of course, if this missing footage doesn't exits (if it ever did), then naturally, I'd have preferred "Breakout" to have been on the first disc, but I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist about it.

A MARred aspect ratio would've been another consideration entirely!

About extras: Yes, there's a lot of potential extra stuff lying around that could be considered. I know Jane Badler appeared on both Carson and Letterman while the show was on the air (I remember Letterman was particularly amusing as he and Badler were poking fun at the 12" Visitor doll she brought along). There should also be some out-takes (some from the mini-series aired on Dick Clark's old Bloopers and Practical Jokes show).

Other extras that would be even easier for them to present: network episode promos, "next week" promos and the special credits sequence that was made for the two-hour "movie" rebroadcast of Liberation Day/Dreadnaught.

Maybe even an interview with series producers, in particular explaining all the reasons for the mid-season changes. A text version of the script for show 20, the possibilities are endless.

Don't think Warner will pony up the goods, though.
 

John Berggren

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Perhaps we'll see some miniseries/series extras on the eventual DVD release of V: The Second Generation. Surely we've got time enough to petition for that.

I'd love to have extras on this release, but I'm so pleasantly surprised that it's coming to DVD at all, the lack of extras is a non issue for me.
 

Paul Arnette

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Jul 16, 2002
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I thought that you all might be interested in this little blurb from The Digital Bits:


They seem to confirm that the set will not be MAR. Generally, their information is very reliable. Let's hope that is the case here as well...

Getting psyched! :D
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
690


No. "Breakout" was the third episode filmed and then NBC would not accept it for being shown since it was 'too intense' for children (in their opinion). "The Deception" and Kyle's introduction is weak compared to "Breakout" (there is some important plot information in there, obviously the Kyle introduction was grafted onto this episode).

"Breakout" SHOULD be the third episode on the disc, it would be nice if the cut elemented from "The Deception" still existed and were integrated back to "The Deception" and the grafted Kyle bits were put on as a 'extra', but considering the time that has passed, I doubt this would be possible.
 

Sven Lorenz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 30, 2002
Messages
529
If I remember correctly 'Breakout' leaves Kyle in that prison camp and he just appears without explanation in 'The Deception' - so that's two continuity errors.

If they started re-editing the episodes I'm sure that many people would complain about not getting the episodes in their originally aired form.

So I think Warner made the right choice - I remember being annoyed by the continuity errors when I first watched the episodes and didn't know what had happened.

In Germany they didn't air the show on TV until the early 90s - both the miniseries and the TV show were first relased on video only.

Most of the tapes were rated '16' and my mother insisted on watching them with me so she could turn them off in case they got too violent (I was 10 or 11 at the time) - she never did and she ended up being a bigger fan of the show than I was. :D
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
690


Sven..

yes, as I said, I had JUST finished encoding these to archive myself and was trying to figure out how to put those two on disc (episode 3a and 3b?). I had toyed with just 'editing out' the languid introduction to Kyle and references to it and seeing how the ep played (I may do it yet, just to see) and to see how much was actually changed..

sad that many of these old shows we may only see in their final mutated form after all these years, but back then, not may would have thought that far ahead.
 

Mark To

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Messages
570
I have them all off-air on VHS but it'll be nice to get them on DVD. Another good thing is that a DVD release probably means they are serious about doing the new mini-series. For those of you who don't know, Kenneth Johnson, who did the classic original, is doing the new one and all references to the Final Battle and the weekly series will be removed. The 2004 V will be a continuation of the original 4-hour miniseries and all of the other stuff did not happen. Once they took the project from Johnson the hacks went wild and he is ignoring what they did to his show.
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
690
Mark..

are your's the 'original airings'?? I'm curious because as I said, I had just finished recording them from a recent broadcast on SPACE (canadian SciFi Channel) and they are very, very good at not cutting anything, yet the edited run times for the episodes varied wildly... from 48:30 for "Liberation Day" to 45:00 for "The Sanction". Makes me wonder if over the years how much the syndication prints have been cut and if these releases will be 'the originals' or 'syndication edited'.
 

Sven Lorenz

Supporting Actor
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Sep 30, 2002
Messages
529
I think Kenneth Johnson should try to get over himself.

I like 'The Final Battle' and even the series wasn't THAT bad - ignoring both is extremely childish and I'm not interested in a new miniseries that does so.

Although it would be fun to see him explain why Diana's "human-mask" has aged 20 years. :D
 

Deb Walsh

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
Messages
210
Well, the novelization of the Finale Battle (by Ann Crispin) was based on an earlier version of the script, and there are some significant differences, IMHO. While I love the Final Battle, I really loved the original concept presented in the book. If Johnson's "reimagining" of the continuation of the story follows that path, I'd be pretty satisfied.

I remember going to a convention in NYC to listen to Kevin Yagher (Kyle) speak while the show was still on the air, and he said that some of the changes made in the latter part of the regular series were to "sex it up" to boost ratings. There were lots of odd things with the series that resulted from cast availability (Frank Ashmore, Michael Ironside), assumptions about the audience (that we were generally much younger than we really were), etc. I still love it, though, and despite the annoying double-sided discs, I'll be happy to add it in my collection.
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
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Mar 18, 2003
Messages
690


So, it was SHOT in 1.85, and was shown on TV OPEN MATTE. The OAR was 1.85, the TV airings were MAR.
 

WillG

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Well, not to split hairs, but I think that many are still going to consider the OAR 1.33:1 since that is how it first appeared on American television. Johnson may have shot it safe for 1.85:1 but I think there will still be debate. For the record, I did not have a problem with V at 1.85:1 on DVD because I knew that Johnson had 1.85:1 framing in mind.
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
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You have to at some point say it's going one way or another... either the way it was on the tube or the way the director/creator intended it..

Case in point: FIREFLY

Joss filmed it widescreen, composed it widescreen, no open matte.
FOX showed A COUPLA of episodes in Widescreen/LBX, the rest in cropped pan/scan. Except of course on the HD signals, then it was widescreen.

So, should the box set have been WIDESCREEN (like the creator did it), FULLSCREEN (like it 'first appeared on Amercian TV'), BOTH (the ones that were LBX on the 'majority' of TV's)?

new term: CPAR - Creator's Perferred Aspect Ratio.
 

MikeStanbridge

Auditioning
Joined
Apr 14, 2004
Messages
7
David, you are a Dr. Who fan and bitching about series' not being in order?????? Also, 1000's of DVDs???? In the relative end, this is a show ive wanted for vegetation for so long, I don't care about the format.
 

Steve Phillips

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
1,521
I'm not so sure this new mini-series will ever get made. There is still no green light. Don't get too excited just yet.

At least it seems Warner realized fans want the OAR on the series release. That is good news!
 

AndyMcKinney

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Location
Kentucky, USA

This statement seems to show that he was widescreening primarily to safeguard against bad cropping in a foreign cinema release (as had happened to Battlestar Galactica), not for TVs of the future.

Johnson knew he was shooting a TV show. Just because he says he prefers widescreen (he's probably got one of those sets, too) doesn't make it the original aspect ratio. His comments about them fitting a widescreen TV set sounds a bit revisionist to me. At least he's not doing a total Lucas and changing any of the FX (of course, no one offered him the budget to do that with).

Despite what he says, there will always be people (myself included) who will declare that the mini should be in 4:3, as that is the original presentation, and importantly, unlike Firefly, V was intended to be shown in 4:3 on television. The widescreen image was meant for a theatrical exhibition.

So, in my mind, the V mini-series has two aspect ratios: a television ratio (4:3) and a theatrical ratio (widescreen).

This is why I feel that the DVD presentation is MARred. Don't guess it matters much anyway. It's not like we're ever going to get a reissue on this or anything.
 

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