The Monkees complete TV show on Blu-ray box set.

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Pizza, Sep 8, 2015.

  1. empirelvr

    empirelvr "That's *just* the way it IS!" - Paul Anka

    Location:
    Virginia, USA
    I wonder if Warner/Rhino legal were going on the assumption that with them owning the Monkees trademark lock, stock, and barrel, they would automatically have legal clearance to release any post-TV series appearances in toto, including complete control of the 33 1/3... special.
     
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  2. Dee Zee

    Dee Zee Once Upon a Dream

    Interesting because my alternative version plays correct 4X3. Hmmmm. The stretched restored version is ok but obvious distortion is a distraction.
     
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  3. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    No one in the biz would EVER make that assumption, especially where video is involved. Any video release requires contractual agreements with: A) The parties that own the video material; B) The parties who own the record master rights; C) The parties that own the publishing for any music performed. Without all three, it won't happen. Owning the Monkees trademark and master recordings and TV show rights doesn't give you any of A->C with respect to non-TV-show appearances.
     
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  4. empirelvr

    empirelvr "That's *just* the way it IS!" - Paul Anka

    Location:
    Virginia, USA
    This is why I'm an audio engineer, not a lawyer. :D
     
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  5. Upsiditus

    Upsiditus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    Is closed captioning available for the Monkees episodes presented here on Blu-Ray?
     
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  6. Tracy Robison

    Tracy Robison Forum Resident

    Yes!

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  7. Upsiditus

    Upsiditus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    That's good, those 1960s laugh tracks are very annoying. Perhaps I will buy this one day. First, I will need a blu-ray player...
     
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  8. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    Are the songs closed captioned too, or when the songs are playing, do they just have a few little musical notes like I've seen on other shows with music within the episodes?
     
  9. Tracy Robison

    Tracy Robison Forum Resident

    Yes, the songs are captioned.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2017
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  10. minerwerks

    minerwerks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    Interesting, as no matter what I change, I can't get one version of 33 1/3 to play differently than the other. Both versions are encoded on the disc as 480i SD video. Depending on the settings of your player and/or TV, the output can be stretched in a couple places. If the player is set to pass video in the original resolution, the TV could be set to default to 16x9 on SD video. If the Blu-ray player is upconverting, it could be set to take non-16x9 video to "full" mode instead of "normal" mode (that's what the setting options are on my Sony). Or in a real extreme case, a Blu-ray player could be accidentally set for a 4x3 screen instead of 16x9. Too many choices there are.
     
  11. wingsoveramerica

    wingsoveramerica The Dude

    Location:
    Chambersburg, PA
    How does the restored 33 1/3 special look?
     
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  12. hurple

    hurple Forum Resident

    Location:
    Clinton, IL, USA
    Looks good. Unfortunately, they couldn't fix the suck.

    :biglaugh:
     
  13. hurple

    hurple Forum Resident

    Location:
    Clinton, IL, USA
    I think you're spending WAAAAAAAYYYY more time analyzing all this than 33 1/3 deserves. Hell, you spent way more time typing all that than 33 1/3 deserves. In fact, so did I just now. :shake:

    :biglaugh:

    Of course all that is IMO. I could be wrong. :whistle:
     
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  14. HELLOLARRY

    HELLOLARRY Forum Resident

    I think it looks fine however (in case you weren't aware) they had to cut the Jerry Lee Lewis number out due to licensing issues. Didn't bother me all that much as it did some others as I have the complete special from two other sources (the previous standard DVD release and a bootleg from the network broadcast with the commercials). Heck, it isn't the only thing I have multiple copies of in my collection for one reason or another.
     
  15. hurple

    hurple Forum Resident

    Location:
    Clinton, IL, USA
    But, it's probably the worst thing.

    :targettiphat:
     
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  16. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" is worth viewing for their musical numbers, particularily their "solo" spots (well, not so much Davy's), the "50s medley", and the "Listen to the Band" freakout.
     
  17. Can somebody recap the problems with the set? I'm deciding whether to spend $200 and don't want to wade through 76 pages . . . TIA!
     
  18. Silver Surfer

    Silver Surfer Love Is Understanding

    - Shoddy packaging
    - Jerry Lee Lewis song edited from 33 1/3
    - Complete appearances on Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell TV shows are not complete
    - alternate Saturday morning rerun soundtracks that were promoted weren't on the set (there are a couple of episodes with alternate soundtracks, but most of the Saturday morning alternates included are song segments only)
    - some interviews from the Rhino DVDs were not carried over

    That's all that comes to mind initially. I would say, if you can afford it, buy it. The episodes look amazing. The outtake and alternate footage from HEAD is unlikely to turn up elsewhere. The 33 1/3 footage has never looked better. Plus, lots of unique stuff on the bonus disc that hasn't been made available previously.

    You may wait for whatever streaming option may become available and hope that it will be perfect in a way this set isn't, but I think this set is the series' final appearance on physical media and I'm glad it was made available and that I bought it.
     
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  19. None of that sounds like a deal breaker to me. I was expecting things like "wrong mixes used," etc. of course, it can be upsetting when there are any such issues, but more often than not, that is the case. Glad the issues are minor.

    Question: are all the alternate mixes/performances from the Saturday morning reruns presented (even if not incorporated into full episodes?). That's the way I originally watched the show.
     
  20. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    No, they are not.

    Two episodes have alternate soundtracks: #1 "Royal Flush" can be played with the original songs ("This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day" and "Take A Giant Step") or the summer 1967 rerun redub soundtrack songs ("You Told Me" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"). #32 "Monkees On Tour" can be played with "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" and a partial "I'm A Believer," or with the 1969 songs "Steam Engine" and a partial "Words." Now, in the case of "Monkees On Tour," "Steam Engine" is different from how I saw it on TV -- the opening snare drum hit is missing from the song, as if it was a new redub as opposed to the authentic Saturday morning era soundtrack. All I can tell you is, if you see that episode in reruns on television or cable (even today IINM), that song is there and the opening snare hit is present and accounted for. Now, whether either version matches how it was shown in the Saturday morning era, I don't know.

    On the final disc (the one with all the extras) the following redub song segments are presented on their own, from Andrew Sandoval's personal collection of 35mm film prints (IIRC), which I think is the only way these got included at all:

    A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You (from #4 "Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers")
    French Song (from #6 "Success Story")
    I Never Thought It Peculiar (from #8 "Gift Horse") (drum intro from "All The King's Horses" is partially still there)
    Midnight Train (from #9 "The Chaperone")
    Do You Feel It Too (I don't have in my notes which episode this is from, sorry)
    All Alone In The Dark (from #5 "The Spy Who Came In From The Cool")

    Also, the "Oh My My" promo film is included as well, though that's not from a TV episode. (Is it?)

    The bonus disc includes loads of stuff no one had ever seen anywhere else, ever. Definitely worth having. Would have been nice to have the options to play every episode with every soundtrack, but that didn't happen. At least we have some of it. As others have said, the shows themselves are in the best shape I've ever seen them.
     
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  21. Thanks. I have to take back what I said above--it was not the Saturday morning reruns that I watched, it was the mid-70's syndication reruns. I believe those were shown weekday afternoons in my television market.
     
  22. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    I don't know if they aired the same everywhere, but in Chicago, WFLD-Channel 32 ran the shows off and on from 1975-1985. The majority of the first season shows were summer 1967 rerun versions (if there was one). But the original songs were still listed in the credits. The pilot still had the slow version of "I Wanna Be Free," but otherwise there were a lot of Headquarters/Pisces songs. That changed when the shows were remastered to tape in 1986. The majority (though not all) of the original songs were restored, and a couple Saturday morning songs were in the mix too.

    I'm curious if the 70s reruns had the same songs everywhere or not. Lots of interesting stuff happened when local stations were still running actual film.
     
  23. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    I don't own the set as of yet, but I seem to remember reading that there was supposed to be a *new* commentary track with Micky Dolenz that never materialized?
     
  24. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    I may have this incorrect, but I was always under the impression that the "Oh My My" promo film was shown during some episodes, but that it was shown in place of original Monkees "performance clips"? For instance, say the original episode had the "She Hangs Out" clip of the guys miming the song, that clip would have been excised and the "Oh My My" clip shown in its place? I don't say that is how it went, but that's what I'm guessing is the way it was presented.
     
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  25. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    I'd like to know this as well. I'd also like to know, after they redubbed the songs to promote their then-current albums, did the shows stay that way through the rest of the Saturday morning run? IIRC they were on Saturday mornings through 1973, by which time there were no "new" Monkee records to promote. (Yet.)
     
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