What are your biggest remaining video wants?

what killed the chances of more AG on BD was the original list price of $129.99! for S1! remember that?

 

and can be had for a song! $13.79 over at Amazon...

 

Number 1 want? Still, the complete as aired,
ABC-TV “In Concert” series, which ran from late ‘72 to early ‘75. Complete with stereo mixes, as simulcast on FM radio would be a plus.

I started searching for these in the very early 80’s, via what was then a very robust traders market. This was probably the most elusive show that I’ve ever sought. To this day, I only have a portion of what was aired.

 

Too early for VHS or Betamax so home recordings would have had to have been on 3/4 or EIAJ 1/2 inch. AFAIK, ABC wiped the tapes

 

OVER THE EDGE - BLU-RAY
FOUL PLAY - BLU-RAY
SUMMER CAMP NIGHTMARE - BLU-RAY
BRONCO BILLY - BLU-RAY
DEATH TO SMOOCHY - BLU-RAY
HOT STUFF - BLU-RAY
SMOKEY IS THE BANDIT - ANY PLAYABLE FORMAT

 

Saw this a few times on HBO back before they were a 24 hr. channel (early 80's). Would love to see it again on DVD.

 

Yea, I’ve heard about the tapes being wiped. Tragic. Regarding the tape formats that you mentioned, I did once have a manager (I work in television) who did in fact tape some of these off the air direct to 3/4”. Those looked pretty good. It’s too bad that he didn’t have more.

 

I took the Beverly Hillbillies box set home with me. Watched two episodes. The 2004 UK DVDs are region free by the way. It was watchable and amusing if a little plodding. I laughed a few times. I’ll probably plod through the 40 or so episodes but it won’t be a priority.

The PQ and SQ seemed okay for an old sitcom that clearly hasn’t been treated with tender care. The first episode had a nasty abrupt cut in the middle of a scene with people suddenly moving positions. It looked like a good 15 seconds or more was chopped. Probably extreme print damage on the source.

 

20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
Breakdown (1997)
Goin’ South (1978)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Popeye (1980)
War of the Worlds (1953)

Just a short list of my most desired Blu-ray wants!

 

Catch-22 on blu-ray (hopefully from Criterion)

 

At $30 to $40 per one hour tape, one had to be either selective or wealthy.

 

If a Time Machine existed, I'd go back and tape many game show episodes. The $10,000/$20,000 Pyramid, ABC Password, and even common ones such as Match Game and Press Your Luck are just some of the examples. And I'd post them to YouTube in 60fps for true smoothness and fluidness.

 

I'm currently transferring a ton of off-air recordings made in the 80s which I inherited from a late friend. None of these shows, such as Life of Riley, Whirlybirds, etc., were ever put to tape by their syndicators and ceased to be available since TV stations discarded their film chains. They aren't ever coming out on DVD either. So, better quality isn't in the cards for many, many series and I can upgrade and have them look like 10th generation dubs or I can watch them on my obsolete equipment and have them look decent.

 

I would love to have some of the 60s game shows that I grew up watching, like Match Game, Say When, Concentration, Jeopardy and PDQ. Only the last one still exists as more than a handful of episodes but they're locked away and not likely to ever be run again.

 

A decent quality version of The Last Man On Earth (1964). R1 Blurays of the Hammer films that haven't been released so far. Same for those by Tigon and Amicus. And an R1 Day of the Triffids. The Rolling Stones 25x5.

 

I want an extended cut of The Wizard Of Oz with all of the deleted (and now mostly lost) footage restored.

 

Yes, definitely digitize them and hang on to the copies. These should be available, but I think there's a copyright cloud on them. There are quite a few 1950s shows that accidentally slipped into the public domain, and the studios & distributors fear that if they legitimately release them, then the P.D. people will just copy those and re-release them. That happened to me and @Bob Furmanek on our (surprisingly good) transfer of Africa Screams for laserdisc.

 

Amazon has Pollyanna and The Parent Trap on BR but they're around 40 bucks apiece and have no extras. Reviews vary but it seems these aren't stellar. Then again, this is a problem many have with Disney vault reissues.

 

I would love to have the down-under Bliss movie.

I always a wanted someone to do DVDs of really good music videos. It could have been a video on demand version, where from a huge catalog of back titles, from Much Music days, which I could choose to have, in a sequence I wanted. I'm sure the owners could have made money.

 

BDs of:

Buster and Billie
Law and Disorder

 

I actually have both of those movies which I got through the Disney movie club. They are DMC exclusives. They actually look very nice.

 

I'll just name my holy grail: The Last Valley (1971) Michael Caine Omar Sharif Todd-AO 6-Track sound (if indeed stereo). Disney owns it, so probably will never get the needed restoration. One of the secondary labels said they were possibly going to release on HD, but it hasn't happened, probably due to an unusable master. All we have is a horrid non-anamorphic DVD.

 

I'd also like any kind of DVD release for Disney's The Prince And The Pauper but it needs to be the version that original aired in 2 or 3 parts. Also Moon Pilot.

 

I believe this series had somehow slipped into the public domain, and there were a lot of different PD releases on DVD before Paramount finally started releasing "official" seasons starting with the second season in 2008. The Paramount releases look significantly better than any of the PD ones, and don't exhibit the kind of damage you describe. I think they were sourced from the original elements, which had been well-preserved, but I don't have the details at hand.