SitcomsOnline.com Special: DVD Wall of Shame - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TJ · 07-08-2007, 09:07 PM

Read it here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...d-wall-of.html

Which sets make your DVD Wall of Shame?

HugeTVFan · 07-08-2007, 09:44 PM

I don't know....but I think my Scrubs Season Five set skips a little bit....but it's alright...I just try not to watch it...anyways...wall of shame....I honestly cannot think of any titles...but I did like that blog overall....I liked skees53's thoughts the best on WKRP in Cincinatti (even though I don't have the set or like the show from this website I have seen what crap it is for the fans) and the Happy Days one was funny too (Happy Bir-Oh that needs to be copyrighted too or something along those lines...lol) Overall I liked it and I thought it was dead-on and yeah you're right on all of those sets. Kinda/sorta shocked you didn't include Family Ties S1 though....but the edits were small but still...

HugeTVFan · 07-08-2007, 09:46 PM

In fact what I would really love is a rant on Paramount by skees....Solomon err maybe (his rants are pretty dead-on I guess)...and Sony and every bad company out there....and I don't know...I honestly think that would be awesome but it probably wouldn't happen.

Skywalker · 07-08-2007, 09:48 PM

ALF - Season 1
Too Close for Comfort - Season 1

The only reason I bought either one of those sets was because it had been a long time since I'd seen those shows. I really wanted to see them again and I knew they were never gonna be on tv, at least for a while. I paid about $40.00 for TCFC season 1 and $30.00 for ALF season 1. I think they should have lowered the prices a little bit since those sets had nothing but syndicated episodes. Well I believe the first season of ALF had ONE unedited episode(the hour long one), but still there were 24 edited episodes on that set.

I didn't even bother picking up the rest of the seasons of ALF. At least TCFC season 2 had unedited episodes.

HugeTVFan · 07-08-2007, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skywalker

ALF - Season 1
Too Close for Comfort - Season 1

I thought he mentioned that....or were you saying which you thought were the worst from the list?

Attmay · 07-08-2007, 10:46 PM

Spot on commentary.

The only thing I would add is that for Golden Girls Season 7, I called Buena Vista to complain, and they mailed me replacement discs.

As for the music, I think a lot of times they don't even call the publishers (not the recording companies, who are more cooperative) to see how much it costs and they just go ahead and replace the music right away. That's how Stephen J. Cannell Productions did it with the masters of his shows supplied to Anchor Bay.

There was a Canadian disc of ALF with three hour-long episodes, all uncut and with "NBC In Stereo Where Available" tags still there. They looked fine to me. The company was called VSC and I wish they could have gotten the rights to the whole series before Lion's Gate (lions are cats; Alf eats cats, maybe that has something to do with this debacle?). Maybe a company outside North America will get the rights there and do it right.

As for WKRP, they don't even have the rights for the music for broadcast; they expired while MTM was owned by International Family Entertainment. They could have renewed them at any time to include home video, they just didn't.

And another thing, studios need to restore and remaster the original elements, not just to sell more DVDs, but to save them for the future. You can't restore videotape in the same way that you restore film, but there are services who can rejuvenate degraded videotape. As for filmed shows, The Waltons (not a sitcom but the best example I could come up with) varies between adequate and awful in terms of picture quality. The 2-hour Thanksgiving episode from season 2 has noticeable color fading issues. Other episodes have tape splices from broken film. And throughout there are color fluctuations.

I also hate the removal of original logos. Sony's one of the worst offenders, but they occasionally do something good; Embassy managed to survive on Silver Spoons and 227, but not the early eps of Married with Children. Not to mention the fact that Screen Gems was on TV Land's copies of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, but not the DVDs! CBS/Paramount is pretty bad; before the Viacom breakup they occasionally kept them on (the miniseries Shogun has the Paramount Blue Mountain with the logo music in 5.1 surround sound!), but now they're gone. Fox is okay with MTM, but older 20th Century Fox TV logos they have trouble keeping (M*A*S*H and early Simpsons, for instance, are missing them).

I'm also surprised how many people say that screwed-up sets are "better than nothing." I agree, if you mean "not better than anything."

Raisingdad2004 · 07-09-2007, 12:40 AM

I love the arrogant nature of studios, isn't it great there is some pinhead in an office over in Burbank (?) deciding that those copies look dull or tired, lets stick the "revitalized" syndicated episodes on the DVD set ... its for our own good!
Has nobody ever sued for a "Complete Season" not being complete? They should be.

Cheaper packaging doesn't much bother me, if it means a cheaper price, its funny that Home Improvement Season 6 (& 7) are cheaper than the soon-to-be-released Wild Hogs movie, I can clearly see which is of greater value!
I'm not too sure on syndicated episodes on that set, at best 1 scene is missing (which seems to be confirmed), but I found nothing else - the 3D episode was no different than what I saw on UK TV and they don't air syndicated episodes here ... I suppose its possible that a full episode isn't availible at all now?
I'm not sure about that video compression issue, seemed fine on my set.

Roseanne: Season 1 is on my list, Season 6 & 7 are not far behind with their lack of features ... Anchor Bay, Starz, whoever must try stay on our good sides with their failures (or Carsey Werners) on Season 1 ... Australia got unedited episodes when a different company released it, albeit after the AB tradgedy.

I can't think of any others.

GoldenGirlsFan92 · 07-09-2007, 01:24 AM

The Golden Girls The Complete 5th & 7th Seasons.

friendsfan77 · 07-09-2007, 10:38 AM

This isn't a sitcom either (but the best example I can come up with that hasn't been mentioned yet). When BCI released The Best of The Match Game DVD set last November, many folks including myself had problems with disc 4. The photo gallery didn't work, and with most of the episodes, the picture pixelated, the audio skipped frequently and you couldn't recognize what's going on. I got a replacement set that had THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM. That was so frustrating.

Sterling Holobyte · 07-09-2007, 10:52 AM

The Mama's Family dvd gets my vote.

Here us Mama's Family fans waited and hoped and voted(at that Tvshowsondvd.com place) and wrote for them to release the show on dvd, and then when they do, not only are they the television versions with scenes cut out, but there are absolutely no extras whatsoever.

I didn't buy this dvd(did borrow it from the library though) and will not vote for them to bring out the next season(nor buy it) until and unless they give us the un-edited versions with extras.

TVFactFan · 07-09-2007, 11:09 AM

Jeffersons Season 5 DVD for not giving fans the full length ep of "George and Louise in a Bind"

That's My Mama season 1 and 2 for having all syndicated eps on both sets.

Three's Company Season 4 for not showing the TAG SCENE of "Ralph's Rival"

JulieSomoski · 07-09-2007, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAnalyzer

Jeffersons Season 5 DVD for not giving fans the full length ep of "George and Louise in a Bind"

I think that was on the season 4 set, but I could be wrong.

Every Paramount/CBS set you listed was dead-on. I own every one, and the only set I am happy with is Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Season 1.

And when you listed Home Improvement: S6, I could understand, because the packaging was absolutely terrible, but what episodes are edited? I've already watched the entire set, and I didn't find any edited episodes.

Raisingdad2004 · 07-09-2007, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roseanne88-97

I think that was on the season 4 set, but I could be wrong.

Every Paramount/CBS set you listed was dead-on. I own every one, and the only set I am happy with is Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Season 1.

And when you listed Home Improvement: S6, I could understand, because the packaging was absolutely terrible, but what episodes are edited? I've already watched the entire set, and I didn't find any edited episodes.

Somebody on Amazon wrote that the Halloween episode was missing a scene, a scene where Larry The Halloween Guy meets Al at Tooltime ... I seem to remember a scene like that in the episode, it wasn't there on the set.

The 3D didn't seem edited to me.

Attmay · 07-09-2007, 02:21 PM

More Sony screw-ups (they used to be the King of Screw-ups):

—Sanford and Son Season 2: "Blood is Thicker than Junk" is a syndicated print, yet one of the scenes missing from the DVD version was on TV Land's tape.
—Sanford and Son Season 3: "This Little TV Went To Market"; another syndie butchering
—Sanford and Son Season 6: "A Matter of Silence"; syndie on DVD, available uncut from Columbia House VHS.

—Soap, Season 1: Two cut episodes on DVD that were uncut on the Columbia House VHS, as well as the omission of Jodie singing "There is Nothing Like a Dame" in the second episode, which was cleared on the Columbia House VHS version.
—Soap, Season 4: The last 10 episodes were five hour shows, but they are presented here as half-hour shows with stuff missing. They were uncut on Columbia House VHS

—Good Times Season 6: Cut versions of Florida's Homecoming Part 1 and 2, while the Columbia House VHS presented them in their uncut hour-long format. Also Florida's Favorite Passenger Part 2, which was uncut on Columbia House VHS is cut on DVD.

—The Facts of Life Season 1: "Overachieving" has 30 seconds missing that were seen on Comcast TubeTime version and possibly Columbia House VHS.

—Archie Bunker's Place Season 1: Part 1 of pilot episode in syndie version. The uncut, hour-long pilot can be seen in full at the Museum of Television and Radio.

There is no excuse for this. None whatsoever.

clarkkent · 07-09-2007, 03:37 PM

The only dvd I have that is mentioned is Too Close For Comfort S1. I was a bit upset that the episodes turned out to be edited versions, however, that is one of my all time favorite series. That show hasn't aired on tv or cable in many many many years so if I had to choose between seeing edited episodes or not seeing them at all, edited is better than nothing. I have more than 60 tv box sets and I can honestly say that none of them are bad enough to be in the dvd hall of shame.

07-08-2007, 09:07 PM	#1
TJ Site Owner Administrator Forum Star Join Date: Feb 03, 2000 Location: Marietta, GA Posts: 10,728	SitcomsOnline.com Special: DVD Wall of Shame Read it here: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...d-wall-of.html Which sets make your DVD Wall of Shame?

07-09-2007, 01:24 AM	#8
GoldenGirlsFan92 Member Senior Member Join Date: Dec 21, 2005 Location: Louisana Posts: 2,243	The Golden Girls The Complete 5th & 7th Seasons.
	__________________ The Golden Girls Seasons 1-7 are out! Buy Dolly Parton's NEW Single on Itunes! VOTE FOR "THE GOLDEN PALACE" & "EMPTY NEST" TO COME OUT ON DVD.

07-09-2007, 10:52 AM	#10
Sterling Holobyte Harper House Senior Member Join Date: Nov 07, 2002 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,896	The Mama's Family dvd gets my vote. Here us Mama's Family fans waited and hoped and voted(at that Tvshowsondvd.com place) and wrote for them to release the show on dvd, and then when they do, not only are they the television versions with scenes cut out, but there are absolutely no extras whatsoever. I didn't buy this dvd(did borrow it from the library though) and will not vote for them to bring out the next season(nor buy it) until and unless they give us the un-edited versions with extras.
	__________________ "Let it go. Forget about it. Try smiling." -Michael Harris WPIV studio producer/shoe salesman/grocery store employee/Ex-sanitarium patient/Stephanie's boyfriend-then husband --------------------------------------------------- My 2nd First Blog:http://saturdaymorningfunnies.wordpress.com/

07-09-2007, 03:37 PM	#15
clarkkent Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jul 01, 2007 Location: New York Posts: 32	edited episodes The only dvd I have that is mentioned is Too Close For Comfort S1. I was a bit upset that the episodes turned out to be edited versions, however, that is one of my all time favorite series. That show hasn't aired on tv or cable in many many many years so if I had to choose between seeing edited episodes or not seeing them at all, edited is better than nothing. I have more than 60 tv box sets and I can honestly say that none of them are bad enough to be in the dvd hall of shame.

07-08-2007, 09:44 PM	#2
HugeTVFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jan 04, 2007 Location: Chicago, Illinois Posts: 326	I don't know....but I think my Scrubs Season Five set skips a little bit....but it's alright...I just try not to watch it...anyways...wall of shame....I honestly cannot think of any titles...but I did like that blog overall....I liked skees53's thoughts the best on WKRP in Cincinatti (even though I don't have the set or like the show from this website I have seen what crap it is for the fans) and the Happy Days one was funny too (Happy Bir-Oh that needs to be copyrighted too or something along those lines...lol) Overall I liked it and I thought it was dead-on and yeah you're right on all of those sets. Kinda/sorta shocked you didn't include Family Ties S1 though....but the edits were small but still...

07-08-2007, 09:46 PM	#3
HugeTVFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jan 04, 2007 Location: Chicago, Illinois Posts: 326	In fact what I would really love is a rant on Paramount by skees....Solomon err maybe (his rants are pretty dead-on I guess)...and Sony and every bad company out there....and I don't know...I honestly think that would be awesome but it probably wouldn't happen.

07-08-2007, 09:48 PM	#4
Skywalker Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Apr 04, 2003 Posts: 14,204	ALF - Season 1 Too Close for Comfort - Season 1 The only reason I bought either one of those sets was because it had been a long time since I'd seen those shows. I really wanted to see them again and I knew they were never gonna be on tv, at least for a while. I paid about $40.00 for TCFC season 1 and $30.00 for ALF season 1. I think they should have lowered the prices a little bit since those sets had nothing but syndicated episodes. Well I believe the first season of ALF had ONE unedited episode(the hour long one), but still there were 24 edited episodes on that set. I didn't even bother picking up the rest of the seasons of ALF. At least TCFC season 2 had unedited episodes.

07-08-2007, 10:46 PM	#6
Attmay Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Feb 06, 2000 Posts: 137	Spot on commentary. The only thing I would add is that for Golden Girls Season 7, I called Buena Vista to complain, and they mailed me replacement discs. As for the music, I think a lot of times they don't even call the publishers (not the recording companies, who are more cooperative) to see how much it costs and they just go ahead and replace the music right away. That's how Stephen J. Cannell Productions did it with the masters of his shows supplied to Anchor Bay. There was a Canadian disc of ALF with three hour-long episodes, all uncut and with "NBC In Stereo Where Available" tags still there. They looked fine to me. The company was called VSC and I wish they could have gotten the rights to the whole series before Lion's Gate (lions are cats; Alf eats cats, maybe that has something to do with this debacle?). Maybe a company outside North America will get the rights there and do it right. As for WKRP, they don't even have the rights for the music for broadcast; they expired while MTM was owned by International Family Entertainment. They could have renewed them at any time to include home video, they just didn't. And another thing, studios need to restore and remaster the original elements, not just to sell more DVDs, but to save them for the future. You can't restore videotape in the same way that you restore film, but there are services who can rejuvenate degraded videotape. As for filmed shows, The Waltons (not a sitcom but the best example I could come up with) varies between adequate and awful in terms of picture quality. The 2-hour Thanksgiving episode from season 2 has noticeable color fading issues. Other episodes have tape splices from broken film. And throughout there are color fluctuations. I also hate the removal of original logos. Sony's one of the worst offenders, but they occasionally do something good; Embassy managed to survive on Silver Spoons and 227, but not the early eps of Married with Children. Not to mention the fact that Screen Gems was on TV Land's copies of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, but not the DVDs! CBS/Paramount is pretty bad; before the Viacom breakup they occasionally kept them on (the miniseries Shogun has the Paramount Blue Mountain with the logo music in 5.1 surround sound!), but now they're gone. Fox is okay with MTM, but older 20th Century Fox TV logos they have trouble keeping (MAS*H and early Simpsons, for instance, are missing them). I'm also surprised how many people say that screwed-up sets are "better than nothing." I agree, if you mean "not better than anything."

07-09-2007, 12:40 AM	#7
Raisingdad2004 Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 05, 2004 Posts: 715	I love the arrogant nature of studios, isn't it great there is some pinhead in an office over in Burbank (?) deciding that those copies look dull or tired, lets stick the "revitalized" syndicated episodes on the DVD set ... its for our own good! Has nobody ever sued for a "Complete Season" not being complete? They should be. Cheaper packaging doesn't much bother me, if it means a cheaper price, its funny that Home Improvement Season 6 (& 7) are cheaper than the soon-to-be-released Wild Hogs movie, I can clearly see which is of greater value! I'm not too sure on syndicated episodes on that set, at best 1 scene is missing (which seems to be confirmed), but I found nothing else - the 3D episode was no different than what I saw on UK TV and they don't air syndicated episodes here ... I suppose its possible that a full episode isn't availible at all now? I'm not sure about that video compression issue, seemed fine on my set. Roseanne: Season 1 is on my list, Season 6 & 7 are not far behind with their lack of features ... Anchor Bay, Starz, whoever must try stay on our good sides with their failures (or Carsey Werners) on Season 1 ... Australia got unedited episodes when a different company released it, albeit after the AB tradgedy. I can't think of any others.

07-09-2007, 10:38 AM	#9
friendsfan77 - Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Oct 02, 2004 Location: Duluth, GA Posts: 3,165	This isn't a sitcom either (but the best example I can come up with that hasn't been mentioned yet). When BCI released The Best of The Match Game DVD set last November, many folks including myself had problems with disc 4. The photo gallery didn't work, and with most of the episodes, the picture pixelated, the audio skipped frequently and you couldn't recognize what's going on. I got a replacement set that had THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM. That was so frustrating.

07-09-2007, 11:09 AM	#11
TVFactFan Member Forum Junkie Join Date: Aug 17, 2002 Posts: 99,120	Jeffersons Season 5 DVD for not giving fans the full length ep of "George and Louise in a Bind" That's My Mama season 1 and 2 for having all syndicated eps on both sets. Three's Company Season 4 for not showing the TAG SCENE of "Ralph's Rival"

07-09-2007, 02:21 PM	#14
Attmay Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Feb 06, 2000 Posts: 137	More Sony screw-ups (they used to be the King of Screw-ups): —Sanford and Son Season 2: "Blood is Thicker than Junk" is a syndicated print, yet one of the scenes missing from the DVD version was on TV Land's tape. —Sanford and Son Season 3: "This Little TV Went To Market"; another syndie butchering —Sanford and Son Season 6: "A Matter of Silence"; syndie on DVD, available uncut from Columbia House VHS. —Soap, Season 1: Two cut episodes on DVD that were uncut on the Columbia House VHS, as well as the omission of Jodie singing "There is Nothing Like a Dame" in the second episode, which was cleared on the Columbia House VHS version. —Soap, Season 4: The last 10 episodes were five hour shows, but they are presented here as half-hour shows with stuff missing. They were uncut on Columbia House VHS —Good Times Season 6: Cut versions of Florida's Homecoming Part 1 and 2, while the Columbia House VHS presented them in their uncut hour-long format. Also Florida's Favorite Passenger Part 2, which was uncut on Columbia House VHS is cut on DVD. —The Facts of Life Season 1: "Overachieving" has 30 seconds missing that were seen on Comcast TubeTime version and possibly Columbia House VHS. —Archie Bunker's Place Season 1: Part 1 of pilot episode in syndie version. The uncut, hour-long pilot can be seen in full at the Museum of Television and Radio. There is no excuse for this. None whatsoever.