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Wiseguy - has it been abandoned? (1 Viewer)

Brian_Linnen

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Hi everyone!
I was happily (more or less) buying all of the Wiseguy boxes, but it seems like there hasn't been one released in quite some time. Was the defective disc fiasco of the last set the nail in Wiseguy's coffin or will we see it return at some point?

Thanks!!
Brian
 

Dax P

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All indications are that it has been abandoned.

I hope somebody picks it up and puts out the remaining 24 or 25 shows 'someday'. Eight missing from Season 2, eight missing from Season 3, and all of the Vinnie-less mini-fourth season...

Run a search for the Wiseguy 4 box thread- some more info in there...
 

Mikah Cerucco

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I wish they'd just do a decent Seasonal box sets complete with either Closed Captions or English subtitles. The current sets have been a letdown from the word "go". Maybe Blu-Ray.

Way back when, the 3 TV-on-DVD titles I most wanted were Moonlighting, Get Smart, and Wiseguy. Moonlighting has a decent box set. Get Smart, none of us know about. But I would never have guessed Wiseguy would be on DVD and I wouldn't own it. That's what happens when we get "arcs" instead of seasons, and don't make the discs accessible for the hearing impaired.
 

george kaplan

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As far as I'm concerned the abandoned it for all practical purposes when they released the first set without a key song. :thumbsdown:
 

Brian_Linnen

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Yeah, I was bummed about it not having the Moody Blues song too - it really made that scene. But I still loved buying the sets because it truly is my favorite TV show.

I hope someone else will see some wisdom in releasing the rest of the episodes.

Thanks for the info everyone!
 

Jeff#

Screenwriter
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Well, I don't know what music they had to abandon. Ken Wahl mentioned that some of the music on the soundtracks were changed in a few episodes that he did commentaries on. "Reunion" had some really lame music, but since I neglected to get into the series when it originally aired in the late 1980s, I don't know what I missed musically.

As much as I like classic rock, I never heard a Moody Blues song (other than the 1970s song of that name sung by Elvis Presley).
 

Michael Alden

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All Cannell shows have music replaced because he is too lazy to do any work in getting songs cleared. Nights in White Satin, which is the song replaced, appeared in the set of another series (I don't recall which). Someone asked the Moody Blues about why they allowed it for one series and not for Wiseguy and the answer was they were never even asked about it. People love to blame the music industry's greed for music replacements but sometimes it has nothing to do with them but rather it's just a lazy producer not willing to pick up a telephone.



If this is really true and not just a joke, you really need to turn off the TV for a while and listen to the radio. The Moody Blues had hits spanning over a 20 year time period and had extensive play on both AM Top 40 radio as well as FM AOR stations.
 

george kaplan

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If you love classic rock, then you should definitely check out the Moody Blues. Start with the album "Days of Future Passed".
 

David Lambert

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Jeff, I bet if you picked up a "Best of Moody Blues" CD or DVD, you would know at least a third of the songs on it. About 15 years ago I thought that I didn't know any songs from Boston, and then a friend played their first CD and I realized I knew every song on it for my entire life...I just never knew which group the songs were by, and there was sufficient difference in style that one may not realize that it was all from the same group. I suppose Moody Blues could be taken the same way.


Michael, it was Randy A. Salas of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The other show was Freaks & Geeks. Read his posts here, here, here, here, and here for his various posts on the subject.


As for continuing Wiseguy releases, I really doubt they will at this point. The original plan was for 6 volumes, but they've only released 4 volumes. Music-stripping issues, defects, and the non-season-set format have pissed off enough customers that I would be surprised if sales figures would support more releases.
 

Michael Alden

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Yet another example of people THINKING they know what the public wants as opposed to actually KNOWING. That, plus doing things on the absolute cheap shows how putting out inferior releases, even of a great show, can undermine the property. And make no mistake, Wiseguy really is a great show.
 

george kaplan

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Although I don't own any of the dvds (I returned the first when I found out about the music replacement), I absolutely agree that this is a great show (which deserved far better).
 

EmmaAU

Agent
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Aug 24, 2005
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Wiseguy is one of my all-time favorite shows. When I first heard it was coming out on dvd, I was thrilled. But then when I heard that they had replaced "Nights in White Satin" I was so angry I refused to buy any of the dvds. That scene between Vinny and Steelgrave is one of the most intense and dramatic scenes I've ever seen on tv, and so much of it is said without words, just with the music and the way Sonny and Vinny look at each other after the fight. I had the whole Steelgrave arc on tape and then taped over it, thinking there would always be the reruns or a dvd. Even if they didn't clear any other songs, that one song was necessary and integral to the end of the Steelgrave arc. I"m still mad about it.
 

Jeff*H

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According to TV Shows on DVD, WISEGUY is returning to DVD, this time from Mill Creek, and a "WISEGUY: The Complete First Season" has been announced for August 25th. This would suggest that they are putting both the Sonny Steelgrave arc and the Mel Profitt arc (with Kevin Spacey) in the set, along with the standalone episode that came between those 2 storylines in the first season. All for $14.95. This brings to mind a few questions:

*How are they spreading 22 episodes over 4 discs (I'm counting the 2-hour shows as 2 separate episodes)? This means around 5-6 episodes per disc, which would indicate serious compression.

*At 960 minutes for the set, this amounts to 44 minutes per episode for 22 episodes. However, shows in 1987 ran around 45:30 or 46:00 each, so are these episodes cut-up?

*Will the music substitution recur as it did with the Ventura sets? Cannell's company provided the masters with the substituted music to Ventura, if I recall, so does this mean those same masters are being provided to Mill Creek. (Those Ventura shows usually were un-edited (except for the music), and ran the full-length).

*Why not put Kevin Spacey on the box cover (surely adding him would help sell more units)?

Perhaps the 960 minute run time is not accurate, or perhaps Cannell has re-instated the music; we can only hope that we end up with all 22 full-length episodes without music substitution (fingers crossed, but considering it's $15, not hopeful).
 

chas speed

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jeff
I have been reading a lot of people trashing the DVD's of the Steelgrave arc. Let's be fair and mention the good with the bad. Those DVD's looked flawless and it was also as good a stereo mix as I have ever heard on a TV show. Which is amazing considering those episodes were not broadcast in stereo. The re-release doesn't look like it will be as good. I wasn't that annoyed by the music replacement since I already had a copy of the episode with correct music and just edited it back in to the episode. I would still go back and get the original set for the great video and audio quality.
 

Jeff*H

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An update for Wiseguy fans:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Wiseguy-Collectors-Edition/13129

A 13-disc edition that will feature 66 of the 73 episodes of the series is coming March 9th. As you might guess, the 7-episode "Dead Dog Records" arc from season 2 will NOT be included, as apparently there is too much music featured that is integral to the storyline. As I recall, one of these songs was the Debbie Harry one, which I think was called "Bright Side", which is featured repeatedly in key moments throughout the arc, along with numerous other background songs and lyric references. It's a shame, and we'll never know if Cannell ever seriously attempted to license the music for DVD, or if he didn't even bother to try. One of the characters introduced in this arc, Amber (played by Patti D'Arbanville), played a significant role in the post-Dead Dog storyline throughout the remainder of season 2 and the early part of season 3.

On the plus side, now fans of the show can see all of the other episodes that never made it to DVD in any previous release, including the Lynchboro arc and Public Poison arc from season 3, and the infamous (although still pretty good) season 4 episodes in which Ken Wahl was replaced by Steven ("Scarface") Bauer (to be cancelled 9 episodes later). Also, we will finally get the non-commentary audio track for the "How Will They Remember Me?" season 3 episode (the company that released the previous DVD sets screwed this one up by only featuring the commentary soundtrack from Ken Wahl...and didn't include the episode's regular audio track).

My thanks to Mill Creek for putting this set out despite the limitations you had to deal with from the Cannell company. As long as there are no audio-video glitches with this set, I will be reasonably pleased (and including my homemade Dead Dog Records discs in my copy of the release :)
 

Executive

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I was surprised that none of the electronics stores around here had last year's Mill Creek WISEGUY release until now.
Just today I walked into the local Fry's and they had it! 66 episodes in a box set for $22. What a great deal!

But I didn't buy it because I've seen the entire series, and I have the original WISEGUY box sets from 2004 / 2005.


I will purchase it eventually since previous releases were missing the Lynchboro and the other 3rd Season arc along with the wasted 4th Season with Steven Bauer as Vinnie's replacement disbarred lawyer Michael Santana ( hired by a bearded Frank McPike), but to anyone who already has....are the quality of the disc transfers excellent? I don't recall ever purchasing a Mill Creek product.


The Music Industry story arc missing from that set as I remember it from TV reruns was OK -- good but not great. It had to do with Vinnie pretending to be a record exec who works with Paul Winfield's record exec character....until Vinnie decides to branch out on his own and take a young musician under his wing. Patti D' Arbanville played Paul's young wife Amber, who later became a semi-regular..


Tim Curry was just fine as the rival producer, but unfortunately Debbie Harry wasn't given much to do and she was relegated to only a couple of episodes in the arc in a supporting role. It was Deidre Hall who had a much larger part in the storyline.
 

Jeff*H

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are the quality of the disc transfers excellent? I don't recall ever purchasing a Mill Creek product.

The video quality is good. Not as stellar as the earlier DVD release, mainly because there is slightly more compression required to fit 5 or sometimes 6 episodes onto a disc. However, I watched the Mill Creek shows on a 46-inch plasma upconverted on a blu-ray player and they still looked good, much better than their original CBS broadcasts.


The audio quality is mono on these, whereas the original DVD releases were Dolby 5.1 if I recall. Also, there are no extra features, just the episodes.


My experience with Mill Creek is that they put out good quality products, although their packaging leaves something to be desired, but I suppose the cheaper packaging keeps the cost down so that they are able to sell these at a much cheaper price than the old releases.
 

Executive

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Jeff Margulis
Re: the Studio Works releases of WISEGUY. Some of the episodes were originally broadcast in stereo, but others weren't.


That's how it was in the second half of the 1980s when using a stereo soundtrack was new to TV production, and the networks didn't want to budget that for every episode.
 

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