j12752

I read Francis Rizzo III's DVD review of MacGyver: The First Season at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=14056 and...

I am so disappointed that the quality is bad I have all the originals taped from when the show aired, and most of them still look great.

Liquid Death

I'm 26, so I wasn't tooo old when Macgyver first aired, but I have fond memories of watching it with my dad. However, I have to admit I canceled my preorder after reading the review - the series doesn't sound like it aged well (at least the 1st season). I was a big fan of Dukes of Hazzard when I was five, and couldn't watch more than a few episodes off the Season 1 set.

TheNightFlier

One of my favorite shows growing up. The MacGyver vs Murdoc episodes were great.

It's sad that they didn't clean this up at all or include any extras.

I still catch it from time to time when it's on Spike or TVLand, I think it's on at least twice a day on each channel.

sandra_dee

I have to admit I canceled my preorder after reading the review
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Oh no you shouldn't of done that Liquid Death! I know someone who ordered it and got it early. He said the dvd was fine.

FrancisRizzo3

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Unless there was another pressing with new transfers, I don't see how that can be. I'm not a reviewer who obsesses over little visual problems, and this set's problems were making me crazy.

dcprules

Too bad about the poor quality. I guess this is why it's so cheap everywhere. It's a fun show and I like to watch it, but probably wont pick it up.

Iron_Giant

I'll skip this one.

AOD

Not to disagree with the reviewer (well, ok I will) but I thought the quality was suiting to a tv show from 1985. Back before the days of Hi Def and even digital cable. I think Paramount did a great job. Who knew, even just a few short years ago, I never would have thought this would come to home video. All being said, I think it is a well packaged set, not to mention a lot of the places I checked were even sold out! The only thing I would have added were some killer extras, but hey CC has it for 25 bucks. A bargain.

tucker

i totally agree, it is must have for the die hard fans like me

FrancisRizzo3

Tucker,
As I said in my review, hardcore fans will want it. There's no reason to deny yourself something you love, but the presentation is disappointing (as is the norm for Paramount DVDTV.)

AOD,
I've seen plenty of shows from this time or much much earlier (check out the "The Twilight Zone" DVDs) that don't look like the MacGyver DVDs in terms of quality. This was a lazy "get it out there" presentation. Admittedly, they were cheap, but DVDs aren't about being cheap, they are about being good. Otherwise, we would have stuck with cheap old VHS.

Josh Z

Not really a fair comparison. Older TV series were entirely shot and post produced on film. The completed product is available as a fully-edited archival film copy that can be remastered with a new telecine transfer. TV shows starting around the mid 80s were shot on film but post-produced on video, which means that the quality of the completed episode is dependant on the video transfer done at the time. This is why the original Star Trek looks so much better on DVD than The Next Generation. And why Seinfeld had to be completely re-edited from the film negatives for its DVD transfer (at enormous expense to the studio).

It would be more valid to compare MacGyver to another show from the same time period.

j12752

I disagree with the first review of this set. I have now watched all the episodes and I found them to be very good. Sure, there's no special features, but the quality of the episodes is good. The only episode I found to be a bit dark in color was the last episode on dvd #6, The Assasin. Regardless of how many times it airs on netwroks now, the fact is that the episodes are cut heavily to fit into new viewing time formats, and frankly some of the scenes they cut are excellant! I heartily recommend this DVD set.

FrancisRizzo3

I've compared this set to other shows released on DVD from the same time period, and this looks very bad in comparison. I stand by my review, there should have been an effort to clean these episodes up before releasing. If it's good enough for Punky Brewster to be released at top-quality, MacGyver deserves the same.

FrancisRizzo3

Didn't catch your post, but as I said in the one above this, I compared to Punky Brewster, and Punky blows MacGyver out of the water in terms of pure transfer quality (not taking into account the differences in style and shooting location.) Of course, this only points out the difference between a DVD Studio like Shout! Factory (quality) and Paramount (profit).

pilot

I have to sort of disagree with Francis as well..I've gone through almost all of it (have like 3 more episodes to watch) ..granted the stock footage looks like crap (and you can tell when it's stock) ..but most of the episodes look "decent" for what it is..I've definately seen worse..I noticed in one episode it looked a little like some film damage, or maybe when they shot it something was on the camera lense..was a odd black line in the picture...but it's not *too* terrible...I think the costumes and the dubbing in of the lines for some of the episodes is worse than the picture quality but that's a whole different matter

FrancisRizzo3

I haven't seen much worse myself, especially from a major studio.
And if I did, there's no reason to welcome that as acceptable. I just expect more from Paramount, and they have continuously shown they are just interested in slapping episodes on discs instead of producing quality sets (except for the usual exceptions (Star Trek, CSI, South Park).

Mark27

I have not seen the DVDs so I come at this with complete ignorance. However, I do have every episode of MacGyver videotaped from its runs on ABC and USA in the late 80's and early 90's. Clearly, I'm one of the "hardcore fans" you mention who will pick this thing up at the first opportunity. With that in mind, I have stored away in my memory many reviews of MacGyver from its time....and the show was always given the highest marks for its "look" and special-effects. The stock footage on episodes like "Thief of Budapest" and "Trumbo's World" was bad in retrospect, but was it bad by 1985 standards? At least excluding Miami Vice?

Keep in mind that shows like Alias and Viper that came of age post-computerized special effects didn't have to put nearly as much TLC in special effect development as did a show like MacGyver. The horse lift scene in the "Thief of Budapest" opening gambit was outstanding. Some of the shots from "The Golden Triangle" (bullets raining down on MacGyver from Nurei's helicopter) and the high-speed boat chase on "A Prisoner of Conscience" struck me as very impressive for TV in 1985.

While you are correct that the acting (including that of Anderson) in Season 1 left a lot to be desired and the female characters were an embarrassment, I still found it to be at least as compelling as some of the cheesy acting on some of the widely respected shows of that era such as "Hill Street Blues" and "St. Elsewhere", which seem fairly laughable now as well. And as for the show's "slow pacing"...compared to what? A few episodes like "To Be a Man" and "The Enemy Within" had some dull moments in the middle, but the last thing I've ever thought I'd hear about MacGyver is that it suffered from slow pacing. Watching "Miami Vice" today, at least a third of the episodes are paced so slowly that I have trouble staying awake through them. I can't ever recall that problem with MacGyver.

In short, your review makes some good points and I cannot opine effectively on DVD quality having not seen the actual DVDs, but I still think you have done a disservice to one of the greatest shows in TV history by questioning it's creative and visual quality for that era.

pilot

though I can't think of anything that maybe worse (maybe I shouldn't have said that..and I guess this is why I don't review dvds), I don't think it's that bad..but you are correct in that they'll only spend $ on something "big" (like your examples)...it's unfortunate but I don't think we'll be getting something better, so I guess what they've released is better than reruns on television..

Breather

Mark27,

You mentioned having the original episodes on VHS that you recorded. A poster on another forum has went through many of the first season episodes and is concerned about the run time on a few episodes. They seem a little short, in his opinion. He wondered if these could be edited, syndication versions and not the unedited, original ABC airings.

When you get the set, is there any chance you can do a comparison of these against some of the originals you recorded from ABC? You wouldn't know of a site that lists the run times of the original versions, would you?

Breather

I was talking about the first season episodes on the DVD set in my last post.

Mark27

Breather,

I don't have knowledge of the overall run times of first season MacGyver episodes. My VHS collection includes USA Network-edited episodes from seasons 1-4 and ABC original from seasons 5-7. I've seen the 1st season episodes enough to where I would pick up on any footage in the DVD's edited out of the originals, but I'm not sure if EVERY episode was edited down. Perhaps there was a little flexibility to run time in the scripts so that some original broadcasts were aired with three minutes shorter run time than others...and thus didn't need to be edited down when picked up for syndication.

If I'm understanding your question correctly, I don't believe I'll be able to provide an accurate response until I view the DVDs. I was only eight years old when I watched these episodes the first time, so there's only a couple of the episodes where I remember the edited scenes (one was in "To Be a Man" when Ahmad's mother cauterized Mac's bullet wound with a fireplace tool...not shown on USA).

Breather

Mark,

Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize that you're Season 1 VHS were the syndicated versions. I'm sure run times varied a little by episode too. If you find anything odd after you get it, post it if you get the chance.

sandra_dee

Hey FrancisRizzo3,

I got the 1st season dvd's and the dvd's look fine to me.. In my opinion it's 100% perfect. I didn't see any scratches or anything on it.. The color looked awesome. Macgyver rules!!!!!

mndtrp

I finally got around to watching these, and find them to be pretty good for a series from 1985. No extras, no touch-ups, but that's fine by me. It doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the movie. If someone is looking for high quality image and sound over the actual content on the disc, this set certainly is not for them. If they are looking for a good show, this is a good place to start.
In looking up different facts about the show, I noticed that Dana Elcar, who played Peter Thornton, died two days before my birthday, June 6th of this year. Due to pneumonia. I think there was a thread elsewhere on the forum, I just didn't realize who it was until recently.

Haven't seen or heard the word 'opine' used in a while, cool choice.