Night Gallery re-master probs?
 

I was just checking out what I expect to collect on next tues and ran across some rather unhappy folk on amazon regarding this release.

If they are to be believed, Night Gallery has not been re-mastered or cleaned up for its DVD debut. There's even a concern that these were simply bumped up to DVD from shoddy old VHS tapes?

Anybody heard anything one way or another concerning any purported problems?

check this link...

http://www.nightgallery.net/ondvd.html

These are the idiots to whom congress has given almost absolute control over our cultural heritage by their rewriting of copyright law.

They don't deserve a single penny for this release, it is a perfect example of how the monopoly of copyright results in the same problems that monopolies produce in other industries -- top-level prices for bottom-level quality.

Thanks for the heads up & info. I'll be holding off on this one til a proper edition is released.

interesting philosophy- and if enough people share it, its certain we'll NEVER see a better release of the material-ON ANY FUTURE FORMAT as well.
this 'outrage' strikes me as just a little presumtuous- especially considering i have yet to run across one single review of the set.
yes it has no extras, yes it hasn't been remastered within the last decade, and yes there may be one or two brief flaws contained in one or two of the current masters- but for Petes sake- is this really enough to warrant the apoleptic ranting over on Amazon?
i'm looking forward to this release, flaws and all, and its a shame that there won't be more people doing the same, because if there were, if Universal saw there was a market for show, it would have been more likely that they would have thrown us a few bones when it came time to release the second and third seasons- but all this kvetching and whinning over what we should be rightfully entitled to is sure to sink that prospect.

never seen a clearer case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

While I appreciate and understand your dedication to quality treatment of NG on DVD, I'm afraid if you and others do hold out on this, you will likely be holding out a very long time waiting for that better quality DVD set to come along. Since Universal already has such little faith in the release of NG on DVD that they are unwilling to do a high grade release, poor sales of this release is unlikely to inspire any confidence in them to do a better release in the future (or even worse, to release subsequent seasons).

Personally, in spite of the perhaps less than great quality of the first season set, I will definitely be picking it up as soon as it is released, and then keeping my fingers crossed for subsequent seasons.

the material is there to put out an extras packed set , but people have to be realistic.
Universal is just now starting to make strides to get itself out of the DVD ghetto they have been in in the last 4 or 5 years.
they are sitting on a TON of great tv product and they just don't have the deep pockets of Time Warner behind them to put out everything they can and make it as good as they can.
the only way these things get done right, is if they sell the first time around.
the only reason Image is going back to the well with Twilight Zone is because the first bare bones discs and then the first thin packed sets sold well enough to justify it.

I'm desperate to see seasons 2 and 3 of NG show. There are some super freaky wonderful horror stories in those seasons, and frankly Season 1 only contains about 3 or 4 eps i really want, but i'm considering it an investment in future seasons.
After the Mary Tyler Moore fiasco, you just can't take any of these things for granted.

i'm hoping that fans just give this first release the benefit of the doubt and look at it as a tentative first step by a studio that really doesn't understand what they have and who need to be educated.
boycotting or ignoring the release is not only going to certainly jeopardize the future seasons, it might also spill over in a reticence to release more vintage fantasy/horror.
that would be a shame.

There's a time to hold out on principle to "make a statement" and there's a time to make a statement of support by buying....

...in this case, it sounds like it is time to buy as a "statement of support for the future release of additional seasons".

just thought i would also mention that Columbia House is offering this set for pre-order at $44 and it counts towards two fulfillments.
right now they also have a free shipping promotion going on (on orders of 3 titles or more).

i ordered before the promotion but even with the shipping charges i think i swung a pretty good deal.
after factoring out my usual per title cost of $7.50 (NYS taxes always bump up my averages),
the set is going to run me about $30- shipping and tax included

I've already ordered this set, flawed or not. I'll be pissed if this is another one that gets only the first season released.

Just because the copyright industry has bought themselves perpetual copyright today, doesn't mean it will always be that way. In fact, the less money we give to them, the sooner their influence in washington will wane and the sooner we will see a return to sanity. If anything, giving them money today for shoddy work is the real cutting off your nose to spite your face, you would rather have instant short-term gratification rather than make a very small sacrifice with an eye towards effecting a much larger social change.

If the terms of the original copyright bargain as specified in the US constitution were still in effect today, this show would be in the public domain. At which point anyone who could get their hands on a copy could do the work to improve it - perhaps a few nuts who live and breath the show, or maybe just a company that runs a tight and lean ship (something entirely foreign to the 99% of the current copyright industry) and would be able to show a profit for their restoration work with a price point drastically lower than what Universal wants for this set.

With the original copyright term, Universal would probably license the masters to somebody like that hypothetical shop during the last year or so of their monopoly, with the goal of squeezing the last little bit of profit out of it before it entered the public domain, so it isn't like they would rot away never to be seen again. In fact, it would probably be a less commonn occurance because today there is very little incentive to keep their archives intact - sure they can do a crappy job of realesing it on DVD but that still costs extra money and is a risk. If they were to sell the rights to the masters on the last day of the copyright term, they'd make money with almost zero risk.

One thing you can count on is that a return to the original term of copyright (or preferrably even shorter term today since society runs so much faster and all the big dollars are made in the first couple of weeks, with probably the 90th percentile of total profits being covered within two years of release) would create more competition and thus lead to more and better quality product. As it is now, hollywood is so risk averse that they would rather shoot themselves in the foot than take a chance that they might trip over a molehill and the quality of the stories we get shows it. Give them some real competition to worry about and molehills won't be an issue anymore, boring their customers into sticking with the old tried and true and now free titles with a reputation for high-quality will be what they worry about late at night. I would vastly perfer that than what we have today.

i refuse to buy something of little quality just so big studios can see there is demand. sounds kinda like consumer blackmail, if you want better next time, buy crap this time and maybe we will throw you a few bones in the next set. what makes you think if you buy any crap they put together, they wont just keep releasing crap simply because you buy it ANYWAY?

sorry, thats not how my consumer dollar operates, my dollars will go to other quality DVD movies and sets. until i run out of other things to buy, NG will be on the back burner. if there are no future sets, oh well. thats life.

i just think people should hold off on branding this set as "crap" until its actually in the hands of consumers and reviewers.
the flaws that have been identified with the masters they are using, while they could have been addressed with some expense, are still relatively minor-
this set will have basically the same specs as the Outer Limit sets from MGM, although with probably less compression and slightly better encoding.
i don't remember Outer Limits fans bellyaching to this degree- nor do i recall Lost In Space fans voicing more than just civil disappointment.
they were just happy that the show was getting ANY half way decent release- as i am with this.

Absolutely!
I was extremely pleased with the Lost In Space - Season 1 boxset. Was it the megaset that I had hoped for? no. But it has an excellent transfer, IMO. And I now have the show (first season anyways) on a durable medium.

I hope that this isn't another case of hypersensitivity to quality. It wouldn't serve ANYONE's best interests if the quality issue was blown out of proportion. Consumers would boycott unnecessarily, the studio would not get the return on investment they expected... not a good scenario.

From: http://www.nightgallery.net/ondvd.html
That has to be the stupidest logic I’ve ever heard. You might as well say, “If this turd sells, we will polish it and sell you another!”

I'm intrested in getting this but now i'm a bit skeptical cause of all the outrage about the quality. I can't say if I'll get this or not right now but i'll keep it on the back burner untill I can get a few reviews in after the set is out, then i'll make my choice on wether to get it or not.

that set also used 90s era masters.
Night Gallery fans can only hope that Universal will bend over backwards to serve this series as Fox is serving LIS- and i'm not being facetious- they are now going to 1/2 season sets which some fans find disappointing but to me that shows the studio is trying to find ways to make the show available to its fans.
full seasons sets with a high msrp, they concluded would not work- even taking into account they hadn't spent money on remastering or compiling extra content- the show was just expensive for them to release given the size of the fanbase supporting it.

I received Night Gallery today.

It does include extras, in a way. Although labeled as "The Complete First Season," it also has the pilot movie and six episodes from Seasons 2 and 3 that featured major guest stars. With the bonus episodes, the three single-sided discs total almost nine hours.

As far as quality, it does look a little soft, as one might expect from what apparently are decade-old masters. It also exhibits a fair amount of dirt in the form of sparkles and black spots. That having been said, the image is not at all difficult to watch. In fact, it looks better than any TV broadcast of it I've ever seen. I was watching on an 84-inch screen via front projection, so the quality should look that much better on a TV set.

thanks for chiming in, Randy.
i'll be watching on an FP too, though not as big as your screen.
i'll be curious to see just how soft the image looks because, on the whole i've found Universals TV product in the past (especially 70s era) to look really damn good.
but it will still be worth it to get a 'bug free' collection of these eps on a decent format.

i'm suprised and concerned about the extra episodes included- to me that doesn't look like something they would do if they were seriously intending to follow thru with the complete series.
i guess sales would be the final determinant, but i really don't expect this series to out perform expectations- especially going by some of the comments in this thread.
in which case i guess i should be thankful that some of the other seasons are at least represented.

if you get a chance can you list the 'bonus' episodes, besides the pilot ones?

The bonus episode idea could be something Universal is trying for their TV shows as I understand Magnum PI Season One will also have bonus episodes from future seasons including an episode of Simon and Simon which is the second part of a 2 part episode which began on Magnum PI. In reruns, on TV, the show was edited so that it could run as a single episode.

It does raise concerns. On the other hand, they do serve four purposes: (1) They're easy filler. (2) They give some extra name power to the first season (although only some of the stars are touted on the back cover). (3) They can be advertised as bonus material. (4) They help pitch future seasons.

Admittedly, none of those reasons are that attractive to hard-core fans, but they might lure casual viewers who recall the show from way back when.

But one wonders what will happen if future seasons come out. Will these episodes be repeated on their respective sets? Or will those seasons delete those stories? (I would bet they'd be repeated.)

They are:

All of the stories from Episode 14 (Season 2):
* "A Matter of Semantics" (starring Cesar Romero)
* "Diary" (Lindsay Wagner, Patty Duke)
* "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture" (Carl Reiner)
* "Big Surprise" (John Carradine)

Episode 29 (the first episode of Season 3):
* "Return of the Sorcerer" (Vincent Price, Bill Bixby)

Episode 41 (Season 3):
* "Whisper" (Sally Field, Dean Stockwell)

Those are definitely some great guest stars, but then the series was filled with them.

Interesting ... for those who don't know, Spielberg officially directed two episodes (both first seasons), 'Eyes' (in the pilot movie) and 'Make Me Laugh' ... but there's a persistent rumor that he directed this as well (this one is a brief two minute bit, not as long as the usual segments), but the credit was given to somebody else for some reason. So, by including this, they've definitely got all the Spielbergs.

[from the IMDb: "According to the book, "Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After Hours Tour", Spielberg was scheduled to direct the 1971 vignette "A Matter of Semantics" starring Cesar Romero. Those involved with the production are unclear in their memory as to whether Spielberg actually directed the piece, which was ultimately credited to Jack Laird. At least one actor involved in the 2-minute mini-episode recalls a director who more closely fits Spielberg's description than Laird's." I will say, though, that Spielberg claims, on the 'Duel' disc, to have taken a year off after working for 'Night Gallery'. But, then again, he only cites shooting *one* episode in that doc, so I think they were fudging things a bit.]

Ah, thanks for that cool bit of trivia, ThatGuamGuy.

I'm happy to see that the review posted herein shows that the set is actually worth picking up. My main reservation had to do with the "apparent" lack of quality alluded to in the linked website at the top of the thread. With rasalas's appraisal of the set, I feel far more comfortable picking this one up than I did before his review. So, it's back in the queue for Tues. Thanks for the info Rasalas.

Actually, from a business standpoint, I thought this was brilliant. "You better buy this, or else..." Then, if sales are strong enough among the faithful, they can release the other seasons, and when they're through, do season 1 "the right way" and get 2 sales out of that season instead of one.

It's all about upgrade path, baby.

That said, I just hope that it gives people unfamiliar with this series a chance to see it, as I have not seen it on broadcast TV, with the exception of the movie.

That hasn't happened yet with any TV show. Re-releases of a season's worth of shows are really rare. And the few that have been re-released have largely been repackagings--that is, the same discs in more convenient collections, such as when the separate volumes of The Twilight Zone and I Spy were gathered in sets but had the same content. Even the coming re-releases of The World at War and Star Trek, which do have added content, use the same transfers of the actual episodes as before.

So this thinking that Universal is selling an inferior product now to make money and then will sell an improved version of the same episodes later to make even more money is flawed. There is no precedent.

The reality is that Universal has no idea how the show will sell, so it's cutting corners to hedge its bets. It's the same thing that Fox did with Lost in Space. Why these particular shows? Who knows? It might be a flawed business plan, especially with companies like Warner releasing great-looking versions of shows such as Wonder Woman and Dukes of Hazzard with great success. But Fox was proved right on Lost in Space, because the show's numbers were low enough that the studio rejiggered its thinking even more by breaking future seasons into two parts to help sales.

At least we're getting uncut episodes with Night Gallery.

i've dipped into material on the first and third discs, and while i have seen some dirt and speckling, this in no way to me looks soft.
it looks very sharp, very detailed.
excellant color, excellant contrast and generally excellant black levels.
in short, i'm extrememly happy with the way this set looks and would be very satisfied if they released the other two seasons w/ similar looking transfers.
My vote for the release with soft/disappointing transfers?
Dallas Seasons 1 & 2.
that show looks just fine on my small direct view tv, but blown up and front projected it looks soft/blurry, with artifacting/aliasing, color fringing, ringing.
NG looks considerably better, and yet i havent seen anybody complaining about Dallas's PQ.
i'm projecting about 65" diagonal - panasonic rp56 via progressive component out to a NEC Ht1000.

Scott Skelton has an exhaustive listing of what exactly are the deficiencies with these transfers- frankly it seems to me to border on obsessive detail at times-i doubt that i would catch 9/10s of the 'problems' here ( most of which amount to music cues truncated by seconds) since i'm not sure i have ever even seen the 'correct' versions of this show before.

all i've seen are syndicated versions of it (even going back to my first exposure in the late 70s)- and one thing is for sure, these are miles ahead of the butcherd prints that ran on the Sci-Fi channel.

I'm going to pick this up as well, having really gotten into the spirit thanks to the Mystery Channel marathon. To hold out for a better print/edition of a grand old series that may not even see a season two release is futile in my opinion. Hey, it's going to look better than videotape and it's going to be at my fingertips, that's much better than nothing at all.

bump

I just picked up Night Gallery Season 1 boxset. I held off buying it before because of reports of an inferior mastering/transfer. But having watched all of the first disc and half of the second disc, I can say that any such reports are a bit over-critical. Sure there's occasional specs and scratches, but not enough to be distracting. The colors look natural and warm (not over-saturated as sometimes happens with some discs)

It's a bit of a stroll down memory lane for me for sure... but I think it holds up very well today.

The Night Gallery set is about as good as we will ever get it without paying the Twilight Zone Definitive price. It is definitely worth 25-30 used so go ahead and pick it up. Here's hoping that the last two seasons come before the next millenium.

Considering that the Twilight Zone Definitive sets are jammed with 8 episodes per disc and a multitude of valuable extras, and that Universal charges a pretty high price for the Night Gallery set for what is basically 2 1/3 poorly filled discs (with disc 3 containing ONE episode, and a bunch of junk we'll end up paying for AGAIN if they continue the series), I find it incredible that anyone would consider that we are anything but ripped off by Universal, compared to what Image gives us for the our T. Zone bucks.

But with the Definitive Edition of the Twilight Zone you are paying for what you get. The set is at least double the cost of the Night Gallery set. Look at what Image gave Twilight Zone fans the first time around and what it cost the consumer.

I'm buying the set because I want to see the episodes. I figure it's better to buy bad quality and enjoy the episodes now, rather than wait for great quality, and die never having seen it! :)

The set that is out now is very acceptable. The only thing I would have liked to see besides a little improvement in the picture would be a few special features. Considering that this wasn't Rod Serling's favorite piece of work there was probably little if anything actually recorded outside of the episodes themselves. Besides, for the price that you can pick this set up for it is worth it. Like I said before, when you get the extra stuff and improved quality you're going to pay for it. The definitive editions of the Twilight Zone are packed with goodies but they're no drop in the bucket when it comes to price. My wife and I paid 69.98 plus tax for our set of season one Twilight Zone at Sam's and that was the cheapest price going. Take the Night Gallery for what it is and let's hope that Universal will finish the series at least. I have heard a rumor that the last two seasons will come out later this year. I believe the summer was the scheduled time for season 2.