Hanna-Barbera DVDs in 2007

[AaronHandy3]

Earl Kress has posted in his blog a list of H-B DVD sets tentatively scheduled for release next year. And here they are:

1. Birdman and the Galaxy Trio
2. Space Ghost and Dino Boy
3. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Season 1)
4. Wally Gator/Touche Turtle/Lippy the Lion (Complete)
5. Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (Season 3)
6. The Banana Splits Adventure Hour
7. Quick Draw McGraw (Complete Series)

And 3 more titles are tentatively primed for DVD release. They are busy piecing together the interstitials and all the other fun stuff, but, judging how us diehard fans have been continuously burned by the slipshod fashion Warner Home Video have handled the H-B DVD releases of late—especially how they shortshrifted Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt, which I found the least forgivable of all!—I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still, let's hope (and pray!) WHV does better this time out.

[vashti1999]

Looking forward to Wait Till Your Father Gets Home and Quick Draw McGraw if they do come out.

[tv star collector]

QUICK DRAW McGRAW is the one I'm waiting for, esp. for the many early guest
appearances by Snagglepuss/Snaggletooth before he became a star character.
He appeared with Quick Draw, Snooper & Blab and Augie Doggie various times.
What a great character! Somehow, for me the character lost some of his appeal
when he was elevated to star status and Daws Butler changed his voice to a
higher register. Oh, he was still a great character (on THE YOGI BEAR SHOW),
but not as great in my opinion.

[Scoobiedoo30]

I am also looking forward to Wait Till Yourather Get's Home.

[bry]

wait til your father gets home?
won't be complete without "love and the old fashioned father" from LOVE AMERICAN STYLE. but i'll still probably get it.

[MuppetDanny]

Originally Posted by AaronHandy3

[*]Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (Season 3) [*]The Banana Splits Adventure Hour [/LIST]

Sweet! at last

[Tha Kid eX]

i was hoping for "Flintstone Kids" and "The Addams Family" HB toons to hit dvd soon as the others are less to my liking but oh well. good to see they still have plans to put out a consistant list yearly

[MuppetDanny]

Earl Kress has posted in his blog about The Banana Splits :

I’m sorry to report that The Banana Splits Adventure Hour is being taken off the release schedule. As I reported a long time ago, the state of the masters for this show are a mess. You can blame me for this decision, but I advised Warner Home Video not to release them in their current condition and there isn’t enough money in the budget to remaster them.

I’ll explain what the rpoblem is, but if technical specs and minutiae bore you, you can skip the next three paragraphs.

After the initial two season run, NBC had all the film elements transferred to 2″ tape, also known as quad tape due to the fact that the broadcast video tape recorders used four rotating heads that crossed the tape vertically. Each of the heads laid down a portion of the picture each time it crossed the tape. This differs from your home VCR, which uses a helical scan system. In quad recording, if the four heads aren’t in perfect alignment, it will create color banding (different colored stripes) through the picture. We didn’t look at every episode, but a random sample found that two of the 18 hours had bad color banding. There’s no way to correct this after the fact. The quad tapes are long gone and all that exists now are 1″ tapes that have these flaws recorded in.

To further complicate this, NBC re-edited the original hours, which now include the Season 2 opening and closing, plus other Season 2 elements mixed in. These are the only hour tapes that exist. There are also 36 half-hours of The Banana Splits and Friends, which are essentially the original hour shows chopped in two… but not exactly. The quality of these is much better than the NBC revised hours, but they would require a lot of research and editing to put them back into the hour configuration. And even then, some of the Banana Splits bits would still be missing or have to be lifted from the inferior hour tapes.

The good news, though, is that there is a complete set of 16mm films that are in the original hour configurations. They also have about 80% of the 35mm film, but it’s all cut into separate elements. Again, all the film transfers and editing required to restore these shows properly is cost prohibitive.

Finally, don’t lose all hope. They need product and at some point in the future when technology improves further, the cost of restoration may come down and they’ll revisit this title.

In the meantime, there’s talk of filling the open slot with The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. I stress that no decisions have been made, it’s just talk at this point. I also suggested again that they look into the much written about Alice in Wonderland or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? and the Gene Kelly Jack and the Beanstalk.

None of this really bothers me. I’m allergic to bananas

- That's all I can say

[Lee G]

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home might be cool to see again. But when I think about it, after The Flintstones and The Jetsons, I don't consider anything else in the Hanna Barbera library a real must see. They have some other good/memorable characters like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Top Cat, etc. But when you think of Hanna Barbera, right away The Flintstones and Jetsons come to mind. Those are the big two.

By the way- Does anyone know why we got an edited version of THE BIG MOVE on The Flintstones season three DVD? It sucks that WB snuck in one cut episode on us, as far as I can tell the other 165 episodes are uncut.

Well, regardless of what happened with the Warner Bros. DVD, I now have THE BIG MOVE episode uncut. It aired recently on Boomerang.

[bossradio93]

Originally Posted by AaronHandy3

Earl Kress has posted in his blog a list of H-B DVD sets tentatively scheduled for release next year. And here they are:

1. Birdman and the Galaxy Trio
2. Space Ghost and Dino Boy
3. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Season 1)
4. Wally Gator/Touche Turtle/Lippy the Lion (Complete)
5. Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (Season 3)
6. The Banana Splits Adventure Hour
7. Quick Draw McGraw (Complete Series)

And 3 more titles are tentatively primed for DVD release. They are busy piecing together the interstitials and all the other fun stuff, but, judging how us diehard fans have been continuously burned by the slipshod fashion Warner Home Video have handled the H-B DVD releases of late—especially how they shortshrifted Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt, which I found the least forgivable of all!—I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still, let's hope (and pray!) WHV does better this time out.

I agree. Don't forget Magilla Gorilla: The Complete Series that was also very unforgiving when I've been reading horror stories of poor quality transfers and the like. If WHV is giving masterful treatments to Looney Tunes and later this Summer, Popeye (1933-1938), why can't they do that to some of television's greatest animated gems of all time?

[tvje]

Originally Posted by Lee G

But when I think about it, after The Flintstones and The Jetsons, I don't consider anything else in the Hanna Barbera library a real must see. They have some other good/memorable characters like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Top Cat, etc. But when you think of Hanna Barbera, right away The Flintstones and Jetsons come to mind. Those are the big two.

I disagree, there is a big three. Weather you like it or not, Scooby Doo is on that level of the Flintstones and Jetsons as importance to HB and iconic character. In the late 60's Hanna Barbara was slowly declining, Scooby Doo saved their butts. You might not like Scooby Doo, but you can't deny his success.

Speaking of which, Do you think they will release the Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo show? Or will they never release any Scooby Doo series in which a from what a hear the very unpopular Scrappy Doo is in?

I never really cared for Scrappy Doo, but I do hope one day they release the 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo, while it breaks from tradition greatly, I liked that show for some reason.

[mayberry66guy]

Would love to see nice treatments for the old Secret Squirrel/Atom Ant series. Loved watching these half hour treasures as a kid. And the voices are all the top talents of HB's Glory Days. In addition to the two title characters, you have episodes of Winsome Witch, Squiddly Diddly, Precious Pupp, and Hillbilly Bears in these shows.
Not sure whether I would rather see them separated, or packaged like they were for TV. As long as the 7-minute gems are complete and remastered, I would be happy.

[tv star collector]

A thread on the Golden Age Cartoons forum stated that, due to low sales of
the HUCKLEBERRY HOUND, YOGI BEAR, and MAGILLA GORILLA DVD sets, that
plans for QUICK DRAW McGRAW and WALLY GATOR have been shelved. Very
disappointing news to this baby-boomer (esp. QUICK DRAW).

[ethelmaepotter]

PLease LEAVE the laugh tracks in. That is so annoying!

[comedyfreak]

They all sound like great releases can't wait!