June 4: 50th Ann. Set w/ “The Brady Brides”!

[Bachu]

Originally Posted by stevea

I wouldn't have a clue on how to do that. But I asked a trading parter, to see if she has them from any other source.

I use something called clipgrab.

https://clipgrab.org/

You paste the web address from the page with the video into the clipgrab space and you can download it. Failing that, send me a PM and I should be able to email you grid sections.

I watched The Brady Girls Get Married this evening though on the disk menu it is called The Brady Brides. It is the first time I have seen it in the TVM format. I noticed the following differences between this and my off air copies:

When Wally and Marcia are in the canteen and Marcia goes to pay for the meals, there are a couple of extra lines in the sitcom version however, the sitcom version then cuts out about 1-2 minutes of action with Jan and Phillip and starts from Phillip producing a list of songs.

After Carol finishes her telephone conversation with Peter about him not being able to make it to the wedding, Alice and Carol have a couple of extra lines in the sitcom version. The sitcom version, like the TVM cuts to the restuarant but the TVM has extra scenes in that it starts with Wally and Marcia lone together before Jan and Phillip join them. On the sitcome version the scene starts from the girls talking over each other. A cut towards the middle of the
restuarant scene also occurs in the sitcom version with perhaps 30-60 seconds cut.

The TVM has extra lines between Alice and Carol after Carol mentions putting Gilbert and Sullivan back together again.

At 1hr 6mins and 40 seconds there is some tape damage visible on screen so these prints came from a video tape and were not remastered.

In the TVM Phillip is walked into the house blindfolded. In the sitcom version this scene starts from Philip saying he hates the idea of them all living together.

In the TVM Marcia has a scene with the movers, followed by a scene with Jan and the movers. The Jan scene is not on the sitcom version.

EDIT - And of course part of Carol singing is cut from the dvd but is in the sitcom version and no doubt is in the TVM version but just not this version because of the rights no doubt.

[stevea]

I'm not surprised that a videotape was used. I think many DVD sets involving CBS-owned material are sourced from 80s or 90s videotapes.

[Bachu]

I would agree. I think that is probably the easiest way for things to be distributed. Nowadays when a network buys a tv show the seller probably puts all the episode on a usb stick and sends them through the post in a jiffy bag.

I am sure I read, possibly and most likely on this board when the original dvds came out that the original negatives for Bunch were damaged and that is why they had to track down many scenes in the first season or two from a variety of sources. The impression I have is that complete episodes were hard to find and that only edited versions mainly existed. I know I sound like a broken record but has any other show ever had so many spins off with either the original cast or people spoofing them? Desipte this, it's release on dvd has been very poor. It really does feel like someone reached up to the shelf and used the first copy to hand of all the shows for their releases even if the picture quality wasn't much good.

[stevea]

I think I read that too. It might have been a link on this board.

I find it hard to believe that all 100+ episodes have damaged negatives. A few, yes. They did manage to track down those BB in color bumpers that preceded the first couple of seasons.

A more likely explanation would be, "we can't easily find the negatives". And like I said, this is not unique in the CBS/Sony arena. There are a lot of older sitcoms they own that you can tell were not remastered (picture quality, color quality inconsistencies, garbled audio, etc.). Yet we're paying prices as if they were.

[1960'sTVfan]

Not including the episodes that have the grids/fill in squares missing, only 3 episodes have scenes edited from them. "The Honeymoon" and "Greg Gets Grounded" are missing their tag scenes, and the small edit in "Pass The Tabu".

CBS sure gave Lucy the royal treatment on DVD, I don't have I Love Lucy on DVD but I have The Lucy Show, as far as I know only one episode in those sets is edited, "Lucy And Pat Collins" from season 5 is edited but the other shows are complete.

The TV series that gets my vote for worst DVD treatment by CBS is Gomer Pyle USMC. Each of the five seasons has several edited episodes, most of the edits are because of music. And to make it worse, CBS couldn't even keep the sets uniform. Seasons 1-4 have the 30 episodes on five DVD's, six episodes each disc. But with season 5, CBS chose to cram the 30 episodes on to four DVD's, two discs with seven episodes each and the other two discs with eight episodes each. Shoddy DVD treatment all the way around given to this series by CBS.

[stevea]

Oh yeah, here are claims that the BB negs. are toast, but from 1951 or so, we have ALL of Lucy beautifully remastered.

Gomer was an atrocity (and I'm betting it's another one they didn't remaster), as was Odd Couple (they might have gotten enough complaints to go back and remaster at least S1 of that). My Three Sons S1 and S2 (although remastered) were a mess due to music. They're always too cheap to license music (unless, of course, it's Lucy.) My Three Sons S3, out recently, appears to be mastered from 16mm syndication prints (6 edited), and two songs edited out. Yet it's divided into two sets at ridiculously high prices.

Sorry, way off topic!

[stevea]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

Not including the episodes that have the grids/fill in squares missing, only 3 episodes have scenes edited from them. "The Honeymoon" and "Greg Gets Grounded" are missing their tag scenes, and the small edit in "Pass The Tabu".

Has anyone ever seen the tag scene from The Honeymoon, to know it actually was done?

[1960'sTVfan]

I tend to believe "The Honeymoon" episode originally had a tag scene when it first aired. The episode runs a little under 25 minutes on the DVD, whereas the other season 1 episodes run about 25:30, so the shorter run time of "The Honeymoon" likely indicates it's missing the tag scene.

[Bachu]

I would agree that the shorter runtime suggests the Honeymoon had a tag but at the same time, it was a pilot and sometimes those are different from regular episodes.

[1960'sTVfan]

Someone over at Home Theater Forum also says that "The Honeymoon" episode has a tag/epilogue scene. It's mentioned in post #3 of the 50th Anniversary thread.

[Bachu]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

Someone over at Home Theater Forum also says that "The Honeymoon" episode has a tag/epilogue scene. It's mentioned in post #3 of the 50th Anniversary thread.

Or it could be the Mandala Effect.

'The Mandela effect is the pseudoscientific belief that some differences between one's memories and the real world are caused by changes to past events in the timeline. Many Mandela effect believers believe it is caused by accidental travel between alternate universes, although some others propose that history has been deliberately altered after the fact by malicious extradimensional beings within the same timeline or by experiments at CERN.

It was named after Nelson Mandela, whom some people erroneously believed to have died in prison in the 1980s. (Instead see Steve BikoWikipedia's W.svg, who did die in prison and even had a movieWikipedia's W.svg made about him starring Denzel Washington.) Another common false memory is thinking the title of the children's book series The Berenstain BearsWikipedia's W.svg is spelled as The Berenstein Bears.'

I watched Gorilla of My Dreams last night. Despite some forced comedy it was still funny to me. Sadly, the picture quality was poor. I am watching the SD disk on a blu ray player on a 50inch widescreen tv BUT in its correct 4:3 aspect ratio (I don't get people who watch full screen tv shows stretched to widescreen!???). There is a kind of ghosting effect to the image. In establishing shots and on close ups as well, the mouths and eyes of the cast have a kind of shadow effect. The 'prints' they used for this episode should have been binned and a better one found. This set deserved better!

[Bachu]

Couple of other points. The half hour sitcom version of the final half hour of the TVM for Brides features white lettering in the opening credits as well as a credit in the opening credits for Barbara Cason who was the neighbour. The final 6 episodes all featured Alice as a neighbour. I guess when they decided to make a series that Alice being a regular Brady seemed a better fit though Casons character was good. I do find it odd that Carol appeared in all the episodes as a guest star. Perhapps if the series had continued the other Bradys could have dropped in.

The TVM has, I'm guessing, what is the original Paramount logo at the end. The sitcom versions for Brides all feature a modern one so the final second or thwo of the closing theme is cut short. Not in a major way that spoils enjoyment but if you are listening with the sound up you will probably notice it.

[Bachu]

The Newlywed Game was a very funny episode. Breast and thighs! Thighs and breasts!

Picture quality is still poor and fuzzy. In the wide shots when Carol is hosting the game and then when Bob is just looks at their mouths and eyes; a horrible fuzzy mess.

EDIT - The very modern paramount logo at the start of the episodes is also suffering from the ghosting effect. I now feel that it is to do with some awful production technique rather than the quality of the episodes though they themselves are not in good nick.

[Bachu]

The Mom Who Came To Dinner IS CUT! When Harry cannot sleep, this scene cuts out after Harry tells Wally he will be breathing on his neck if they cannot sing him to sleep. Phillip should then sing Moon River to him. Almost two minutes is missing! It means that Wallys last line of the episode about a Huckleberry friend makes no sense. And the cut scene is seen in a freeze frame during the closing credits.

Picture quality is still poor and to my ears there was a slight sound issue noticeable during the opening. The song seemed to dip and rise in sound volume.

[Bachu]

Have now finished all Brides episodes. Picture quality never improves. Shame on CBS/Paramount as the show would no doubt look wonderful remastered from the original negatives.