Current Masters of Seasons 11 & 12

[TheLogoMan94]

I've always known that "current" masters of S11 (starting with E13) and S12 look horrible, but after looking at them more closely and comparing them with episodes from S09, they're even more horrible than I thought. Everything is blurry, and the sound is very muddy.

I understand CBS was trying to save as much money as possible by transferring old taped masters, but wouldn't it have been more cost-effective if they transferred actual 16mm prints? For example, all episodes of "The Millionaire" are sourced from 16mm, and from what I've been told, they were mastered to tape recently (nobody aired the show until Me-TV aired it in 2012). Sure, the quality may not be the best, but compare it to these current masters of S11 & S12. The sound is much better, and the video quality is sharper on a majority of the episodes. Maybe transferring and color-correcting 16mm prints costs a bit more than just straight transferring of tape?

We all know CBS owns 16mm prints, just look at current DVD releases of S03 & S04. The quality is much sharper than the tape masters Me-TV aired before.

[stevea]

Those seasons need to be remastered from either a GOOD QUALITY 16 mm or 35 mm source.

Season 12 is in the worst shape of all 12. Not just quality, but edits. Old, horrible syndication edits, including wrong opening credits and and accelerated, chopped closing credits.

[TheLogoMan94]

CBS has them, and I think it's shameful they just let them deteriorate. If it were me, they would've been transferred a long time ago. It's incredible how rare some seasons are on 16mm. S08 is the most common, from what I've seen. The B&W episodes are rare, but S11 & S12 are the rarest. A huge majority of the 16mm prints I've seen are old Viacom prints from the early '70s, with their first logo which sounds like a Pinball machine (V-IA-COM). Four out of my seven prints have that logo, and are complete.

[someguy23475]

I remember when the Odyssey Network reran the second half of 11 and all of 12 in the late 90s. Prints were horrible, and like was mentioned, wrong opening in 12 (Don Grady still listed, no Ronne Troup). I read at the time only 6-first half of 11 were widely syndicated at that time.

I didn’t catch MeTV running these last year, but now that we are on season 11, perhaps we will get lucky and they will finally have quality prints.

[TheLogoMan94]

Originally Posted by someguy23475

I remember when the Odyssey Network reran the second half of 11 and all of 12 in the late 90s. Prints were horrible, and like was mentioned, wrong opening in 12 (Don Grady still listed, no Ronne Troup). I read at the time only 6-first half of 11 were widely syndicated at that time.

I didn’t catch MeTV running these last year, but now that we are on season 11, perhaps we will get lucky and they will finally have quality prints.

Last year, Me-TV's prints of the first half of S11 (E01-E12) were great. They were sourced from old Paramount prints, but those prints were mastered from 35mm prints, so they look about the same as S06-S10. The second half of S11 and all of S12, however, were not so great. Me-TV used the same prints Odyssey used, with some even keeping Viacom's very first logo (V-IA-COM logo). Interestingly, Viacom's logo came after CBS's, which I found odd. The video quality was muddy, and the audio was grainy and very low-fi.

So far, Me-TV is still using the same prints as last year. I'm anxious to see E13, the start of the second half of S11. I'm anxious to see whether they kept their prints from last year, or if they were issued updated prints which also removed Viacom's logo.

[stevea]

Me, too. We are seeing mostly heavily edited 16mm prints for S11-1/2 and S12. S12 is the pits, with (as mentioned) wrong opening credits, and sped (not MeTV time-shifting) closing credits. Also the closing credits on this (and only this) season edit out the main cast. So on this season, these 16mm prints do not show Ronne Troup or Dawn Lyn anywhere in the credits.

I know Nick has or had many of these episodes complete (but still with the credit problems), but still derived from old 16 mm syndication copies.

I'm convinced the original 35mm prints haven't been used since the original telecasts, and to produce the syndication copies for back in the 70s. They need to be pulled from the mothballs. I'm also anxious to see the second go-round of these episodes, but I doubt anything has changed.

[TheLogoMan94]

E13 starts Wednesday. This is the first of the Odyssey prints to air. I'm expecting the prints to be the same, unfortunately.

[stevea]

They had around a year to find the 35mm prints. I doubt anything's happened.

[TheLogoMan94]

I've waited for more S11 and S12 episodes to show up on 16mm on eBay. Except for the print I have of S11 E11, zero have showed up. The most common season appears to be S08.

[1960'sTVfan]

I can't watch My Three Sons on MeTV because during the hour in the morning when it's on, the local affiliate cuts in for an hour of news . Too bad but that's the way it goes.

[someguy23475]

Considering S11 E11 doesn’t look as good as the previous episodes, we will most likely be seeing poorer quality prints from decades ago. I’m only able to see three episodes a week at most (no DVR!)

Feel bad for the previous poster, as I have access to two MeTV affiliates, one in my home market and another in an adjacent market via antenna.

[stevea]

Glad you mentioned that, I didn't think today's episode looked quite as good as previous S11 episodes. It still looked to be sourced from 35mm though. The first half of S11 was in syndication in the 90s, and it was mastered to videotape along with S6-S10. Not so for the last half of S11 and all of S12.

For unknown reasons, the first half of S11 was removed from syndication, while the second half and all of S12 has never been syndicated in the videotape era. Thus we continue to see masters derived from 16mm syndication episodes from the 1970s, because these episodes are officially unavailable from CBS TV Distribution.

[someguy23475]

Episode 12 looks much better than 11. Speaking of which, you could make a drinking game with the amount of times Ernie says “Cool it Paula”.

[stevea]

LOL! Once the elopement arc was over, the episodes aren't quite as memorable.

The next episode, St. Louis Blues, will be syndication-length edited from old 16mm copies. UGH! I do have the full-length episode from Nick at Nite, which is one place CBS might find better masters.

[TheLogoMan94]

And the prints will be the same. Today's episode, like the last time it aired in June 2018, had Viacom's logo from the '90s following CBS's, which means that prints of S11.2 and S12 will remain unchanged.