Actually, when my set was shipped I got a series of emails, one a day from January 17 - 22.  My set shipped on the 19 th.  All the emails said the same thing, telling me my set had shipped and all but the first one gave me the tracking info.  I did wonder then if they would ever stop emailing so they do have my email address.  I have not tried to contact them about the problem, as I had not looked at the episodes and only heard about the problem yesterday.  My understand was that whether or not you had contacted them about the problem that you would get an email and eventually a replacement.  Odd.

It is nice to be back agian.

Raholt

I purchased the 91 DVD set just so I would have it, but the whole widescreen thing, for a TV series that was not originally shown in widescreen just escapes me.  There may be legitimate reasons for doing this as far as marketing goes, but while I have nothing against widescreen format, for films shot that was, the use of it with this release is just beyond me.  I just don't get the reason for doing it or what I don't get is the reason someone gave for thinknig this would be a good idea.

Richard Holt

From what I read on Friday, the characters of Maggie and Sam Evans will not appeear in the pilot, but will be used later, if the pilot goes to show.

Raholt

I do plan on buying Set 8 and have it on order.  Set 9 is due out in November and now I see that set 10 is due out in January.    I'm very pleased to see that because last year we had a release in October but no more until this past February and that was a long time between releases.

Raholt

Maybe if it was just the blacked out part that was being edited, then I wouldn't feel as I do.  However, since some of the blackout parts are also taking small portions of existing good material with it, as in the case of the first edit found in Set #7, just before Harry Johnson arrives,  and some of the blacked out parts have dialogue which I think is just as imporant as anything seen on the screen then those things do bothers me.  What bothers me more is that bloopers are potentially also being edited out, like the one that I mention in that 1795 scene.  I was not the first to mention that one, nor was I the only one to complain about that little edit.  Most people who had that set didn't seemed very pleased to find that part missing.

I am a purest at heart as far as my tv and film watching is concerned.  I don't like seeing shows or films edited on television so that more commericals can be added.  I don't like seeing choppy scenes when edits are made where they were not originally intended to be.  I think that is less enjoyable than watching a bad technical problem.  I have seen too many good shows cut up for the sake of money and the all mighty dollar and scenes omitted that explain the next scene.  I just don't like and I don't like seeing it especially in a home video version of anything.

To me, I will say again, completed and unedited on the box should mean exactly that and nothing less.  Labels on packages are suppose to be honest and true and there are laws to back that up.  If material is faulty, there are plenty of VHS and DVD releases that state clearly that there are occasional technical difficulties in the original material and that alerts anyone buying the product that it is just part of the material in question and there is nothing one can do about it.  If material is edited, even slightly, that also is suppose to be put on the box.  What bothers me most about all this is that we are seeing one thing on the box and finding another thing inside.

If one wished to really take it to the extreme and say they wanted DS to not include technically inferior material, then that would mean skipping several episodes along the way because several of the kinescope episodes don't look or sound very good at all.  That material was originally skipped in the syndication package until they found that fans would rather see the material, even in an inferior condition than not see it at all.  The same could be said about edits made where any portion of the material is still there be it audio or video.

Raholt 

First off, the blacked out portions would have not aired on ABC because they didn't exist then.  It is not an original error on the master tape, but caused by the aging process.

Secondly, the edits in this volume may have been only in scenes where there was damage, but earlier DVD release contained damaged scenes and they remained on the DVD version, identitically like the VHS version.  Plus as Midnite informed us when the first one was found, there was more left in tact of the scene where the first edit in Set 7 was found, than exists on the DVD version so not just the damaged or blacked out parts are being omitted.

Also some of the blacked out portions still have their audio in tact so you don't miss any of the dialogue.  When that is edited so is the dialogue.

I'm sorry but I don' t buy the commerial release theory of this.  If it was good enough for the VHS versions and trust me they have all the bad scenes in them so it should have been good enough for the DVD version.  Frankly anyone who would buy the DVD's or VHS versions, for that matter, are primarily already fans of the show.  They may not have seen it in years, but it is rare that somoene who has not previously been exposed to the show actually decides to buy a video or DVD.  It is considered a cult classic, which means it appeals to a certain fan base and it will never be bought on a wide scale by the general public.  MPI knows this, but the audience for the material is so large and so diverse that it make it profitable to produce the material.  Therefore, cleaning it up is not going to sell more videos or DVD's.  It just is not and fans are used to the condition of the shows and most are just grateful that all but one episode survived the decades between their original airing and their release on home video.  Most other soaps of that day cannot say that.

To me, uncut and unedited means I'm seeing it all, warts and all, just like it was released on the VHS versoin.  Now I know that syndicated versions for Sci fi were edited, but again that is for broadcast and I can see doing that, but not for home video release.

The first edit found on the DVD versions was not a technical problem and was not a blackout scene, but the omission of one of the most famous bloppers in the history of the series.  The character of Bathia Mapes having to have her lines fed to her in the scene in the   tower room during the 1795 flashback.  The person off camera can plainly be heard on the VHS version but it is cut out completely in the DVD release.  It is like someone started there and decided that they were going to polish this show up.  I'm sorry, I don't want it polished up and I sure don't want to buy polished versions when they are said to be complete and unedited.

Now, I'm not blaming MPI because the blame for this could lie anywhere in the process of this from Dan Curtis Productions all the way to MPI, but someone is definitely trying to clean the series up and if it embarasses them, then I'm sorry but that is their problem.  To me the errors, goofs and technical glitches are just part of enjoying DS and if cleaning it up causes me to lose one second of one episode then I don't like that and I do not call that complete.

Raholt

A few weeks ago I posted a message about finding an edit in the DS DVD set 7.  Well, now that I have about finished watching that set, I have now found 4 places in those episodes where the material was edited.  The places where the edits occurred were in spots where there was damage to the original materal and on the VHS version the screen would momentarily go black.  The latest edit I found dealt with a scene where Cassandra and Tony Petersen were in the study talking and it was a two shot with Tony back facing the camera,  Cassandra said "look into my eye" and suddenly it jumped to a closeup of Cassandra.  It was clear it was an edit.  Another edit took place in the scene where Lang was going to use Jeff Clark's head on his creation and Barnabas was debating whether he could go through with it.  I remember clearly that scene being damaged in the original VHS version and the screen going black for a moment or two.  Again on the DVD the edit is clearly visible because Barnabas is saying one thing and then is saying something totally different a second later.

It is clear now that with this set anyway the technical problems with the episdoes are definitely being edited out.  There is no question of it.  Once might be a mistake, but several times is someone, on some level, trying to clean up the series.  To me that is doing a disservice to the material and the fans alike.  If someone is embarrassed by the glitches that exist in the original DS material, I'm sorry, but that goes along with the charm of the show and is a part of the show.  Most fans understand and accept that.  Sometimes the glitches may be with the picture only and the sound still be there, but by editing that portion out, the sound material is lost as well.  To me this is like Joshua Collins rewriting history to suit himself and have history see what he wants it to see.  I'm sorry DS is not perfect but that is just part of it and trying to clean it up and take out all the blimishes may make it look better on the surface but is also taking away from the charm of the series, not to mention taking away some material as the edits don't seem to just take away the error but small bits proceeding the error as Midnite found was the case in the first edit I found.  This practice be it by Dan Curtis Productions, the place that is putting the show in digital format or MPI needs to stop or the material needs to stop being advertised as complete and unedited because even though entire scenes are not being cut, there are edits in the material which means it is not complete and not unedited.

Richard Holt

With regard to the storyline, the edits are minimal and don't affect the overall story at all.  It is not like edited versions one might see in syndication.  The edits so far have been tiny and all connected, in one form or the other, to flubs be they acting (in only one case so far) or technical.

I do find it regretable that any edits exist at all, due to the dupicating process or what have you.  If someone ordered them done that way to clean them up, even if it was Dan Curtis himself, the intention was misguided.  I can understand that someone might want it to look the best it could look, but that is not what that show was.  It was not a glossy piece of perfection like the 1991 version was suppose to be.  It was live on tape and with live on tape came errors from actors and technical ones as well.  I can see that some might find it embarassing to have an error live forever, but for the fans of DS, we love the show warts and all.  That means we love the errors as much as we love any other part of the show.

Someone may have been thinking they were doing a good thing trying to clean up the show, but what you are doing is taking away part of the charm of the show and part of what made watching it fun and special.

I hope that MPI does investigate these edits and why they occurred and I hope they also share with us any results they get from the investigation.

Raholt