DVD Review in EW

[Midnite]

From Entertainment Weekly --

[ShadowsAtlanta]

*rolling eyes at EW and going back to my awesome new DVDs*

[Gothick]

Has anyone seen or written a detailed review of this set, one that compares the actual quality of the allegedly remastered episodes with the ones released on video?  I'd really like to read something along those lines.

I've been going through my videos and making notes of tapes I need to replace.  Sorry, guys, but that takes precedence for me over getting the DVDs.

I did hear from a friend that Walmart is selling some make of DVD player for 68 bucks. I hope the players don't all self destruct over the 4th of July weekend.

Gothick

[Gothick]

A PS to my previous post about replacing tapes--

when I went to play MPI vol. 50 (which covers the 3rd or 4th week of the recently broadcast 1968 storyline), my copy of the tape had a playback that was very washed out, as if the brightness button on the tube console had broken (which was what I had thought at first).  Has anyone else found anything like this with this specific volume, or any other tapes?  The others seem to have held up well, although there are obviously some I haven't played in quite some time.

Gothick

[joe integlia]

theres also a write-up in the current tv guide. i would like to know if anyone has had any problems playing the dvd like i had with the previously released ds dvd that wont play the nancy barrett segment.

[jennifer]

theres also a write-up in the current tv guide.

What does that guy know give his review an F Midnite>
Saw that article a few minutes ago Joe said DC
plans on making a new movie!

jennifer

[Stuart]

Steve, there's a very detailed review on the new discs on my site, which goes into the technical stuff in great detail.  Alan Hayes, the guy who wrote it, really understands his stuff on technical matters, so his opinion is one to be trusted, IMO.

Check it out on http://www.collinwood.net

And shame of EW

[Mysterious Benefactor]

DC plans on making a new movie!

DC has been "planning" to make a new DS movie for almost 10 years already. He had a completed script with the intent of transforming the '91 series into two features (with new twists and turns thrown in, some courtesy of Barbara Steele, who was also going to coproduce). But unfortunately no studio has been willing to finance/produce them.

So, no matter how many time I read that DC wants to make another DS movie, I won't get my hopes up that we might actually see it until I read confirmed word that a cast has been assembled and they've begun filming. That way there's less chance of disappointment.

[jennifer]

So true so true MB!Did laugh when i read it!
but i feel unless they go to the next generation
don't really want to see it remade again
i'm content to watch the old show over and over again
and we have all the wonderful fan fiction of everyone's
to read!

jennifer

[Midnite]

Carol sent this link to the NY Post DVDS THIS WEEK article by Michael Giltz:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05262002/entertainment/48668.htm

theres also a write-up in the current tv guide.

Thanks!

[Gothick]

Thanks for the link to Alan Hayes' review of the DVD set, Stuart.  It's too bad that MPI skimped on the actual presentation of the episodes on the DVD's, but that is pretty much what I had expected.  I'd also figured that the trumpeted "new" extras would be recycled from material previously presented on video, and such proves to be the case.

As far as I can see, the only advantage the DVD's have over the tapes is that they take up less shelf space.  

Gothick

[CastleBee]

As far as I can see, the only advantage the DVD's have over the tapes is that they take up less shelf space.  

Well, I have to say that really is a big plus for me as I was about to be forced to add another room on just to house the collection.  Not really, but it is getting really crowded behind my bedroom armoire - and the dust bunnies are very perturbed about it.  

Like several others on the board I got the first DVD set yesterday and happily unwrapped it like a kid on Christmas day.  I watched the first few eps and haven't noticed any problems with them...except the volume seems to fluctuate a bit.  Since I was doing homemade tapes (SLP, 10 eps per tape) I'm really getting into the overall better quality and the fact that I don't have to see a John Edward promo or a Blimpie commercial every 10 minutes (or zip past them).

As to that rude Entertainment Weekly review , well it just figures you might get something like this from a magazine that has the initials EW (ewwwwwwww!) . Wadda they know! In light of the crud they call horror these days (slash-gash-trash) it seems DS fans may be some of the few (but not only) to truly appreciate the subtlety of the early B&W eps and their innate eeriness.  The more I watch them the more I love them!  

[CastleBee]

Oh, by the by¢â‚¬¦does anyone know if they ever plan to go back and possibly do DVD's of the pre-Barn stuff?  I was guessing it might be considered if the first sets do well.

[Stuart]

Thanks for the link to Alan Hayes' review of the DVD set, Stuart...  I'd also figured that the trumpeted "new" extras would be recycled from material previously presented on video, and such proves to be the case.

A bunch of new interviews have been shot for the discs, which I guess we'll be seeing on future releases.  I can't remember all the names, but Alexandra Moltke, Robert Costello and Lela Swift were interviewed last year for MPI DVDs...

[Raholt]

I can see the point of those who are reviewing the DVD's, like E W and how they can question the show's popularity.  Based on just these episodes, if one was not already a diehard fan  they might understand what all the interest is all about.  Even at this point in time episode 210, the show is not yet in its stride.  This part of the show is the tail end of the transition phase that DS went through between being a gothic romance soap and being a gothic horror soap.  We are going from strange noises and imagined horrors to real horrors, but not yet like it will eventually become.  Imagine what a reviewer might have said, if they had started the DVD releases with episode 1.  It is nothing like what DS became.  The show evolved over time before finding what worked and what made the audience come back again and again, even now 35, years later.  The episodes in this DVD release, are the beginning of a turning point with the series.  We still have not totally left our gothic romance roots, with the body in the basement storyline being to wind down and vampire storyline just beginning, the show is far from what it will be just a few month from that point.  If I had never seen the show before and I saw just those episodes, I too might question what all the fuss was about.  

As to the person who had the question the video tape and the condition of their fape.  I will tell you, speaking as somoene who purchased every volume of the videos, I came across more than I can count that were defective in one way or another, including what you mentioned about the brightness.  I had one that would go from bright to normal and back again, tapes that had the picture curl at the top because it wasn't tracking right and no adjustment on the VCR would help and finally, my favorite, volumes with short black spots in them, which were not a problem with the master they were created on.  It is true that some of the master tapes are not in the best conditions and that some of the later volumes will have such a disclaimer, while some of the earlier releases do not, but still have problems.  One of the reasons that I am interested in getting the DVD's, which my first set arrived today, is because of the fact that some of my videos do have problems, and with age, there will be more.  

Richard Holt