Hi Guys. Anyone have any info on Plans to release Voyage to the Bottom Of the Sea on DVD yet? I thought I read somewhere Fox was going to release all of The Irwin Allen shows on DVD at some time. Since the last box set Of Lost in Space will be out in June/July, It would be nice to add this Underrated(The first two seasons) Classic to my Collection.

I just DREAD this release.

I have read that a recent FOX tv release in the U.K. mentioned an upcoming VTTBOTS release there but I don't recall any details.

I would pray, PRAY that Fox licenses this title to Image, Anchor Bay or ANYBODY else.

The Lost in Space release was a disaster. Not only is it the worst quality I've ever seen from a major studio, the method of release was a total cluster f*#k. Nobody in town even bothered to carry the first HALF of season 3. Can you imagine that not even the huge BEST BUY bothers to carry any LIS and they have 2,000 sq. ft of DVDs.

God knows what Fox would do to VTTBOTS. It ran longer than LIS but has an arguably smaller fan base. Bet on Fox using the cheapest video source they can find and breaking each season up into about four box sets.

The movie was released along with Fantastic Voyage double set on one disk. Thought you'd be interested in that.

The Lost in Space release was a disaster. Not only is it the worst quality I've ever seen from a major studio, the method of release was a total cluster f*#k. Nobody in town even bothered to carry the first HALF of season 3. Can you imagine that not even the huge BEST BUY bothers to carry any LIS and they have 2,000 sq. ft of DVDs.


Since the first season sold poorly, the split seasons was how they were able to justify and complete the release of the series and justify it to the money people. It was that or nothing, and there simply wasn't the budget to restore the materials beyond a certain point. They're just not in very good shape.

If they do release the series, I hope they locate better source prints than what was running on Sci-Fi a few years ago. They were absolutely horrible. Looked like 4th generation dubs from 16mm to 3/4 to 1 inch to Beta.

Columbia House released 10 episodes on vhs and they looked great, way better than the LIS tapes or dvds. There were a lot of eps. released on laserdisc in Japan. Don't know if it was the whole series. I think it was about five box sets.

Since the first season sold poorly, the split seasons was how they were able to justify and complete the release of the series and justify it to the money people. It was that or nothing, and there simply wasn't the budget to restore the materials beyond a certain point. They're just not in very good shape.

That's the supposedly the Fox company line and I don't believe any of it.

Fox never released first season sales figures...no companies do so that's fine. Every indication from those closest to the release was that they sold very well. LIS was number one on both amazon.ca and amazon.com for a length of time. When the first season was released it was available everywhere in large numbers and, at least anecdotally (which doesn't really count) moved well.

Since the advent of the split sets, it's been almost imposible to find. The local stores couldn't be bothered to stock it. As mentioned, even the huge BEST BUY here never stocked the last half set.

The idea that the budget didn't exist to restore them is just another crock purpetrated by apologists for Fox. The fact is that virtually every major studio release looks better than LIS. Buy MR.ED on DVD and explain to me how small time syndicated show from 1960 looks perfect. Image restored the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW to perfection (same era) and added a load of new extras). EVERY SHOW from that era looks so much better than LIS.

Too many people are apologizing for the awful quality of the FOX release. Nobody cares to offer a technical reason WHY LIS should be the worst looking show from the mid 60's. The Fox apologists just say that the source material "wasn't in very good shape" and figure that should keep us quiet.

I can understand Fox trying to weasel out of it but we shouldn't help them.

BTW, FOX is about to releas REMINGTON STEELE on DVD. It will be available BOTH as a full season AND a HALF-SEASON set. Figure that one out.

That's the supposedly the Fox company line and I don't believe any of it.

Fox never released first season sales figures...no companies do so that's fine. Every indication from those closest to the release was that they sold very well. LIS was number one on both amazon.ca and amazon.com for a length of time. When the first season was released it was available everywhere in large numbers and, at least anecdotally (which doesn't really count) moved well.

The person who made that statement, Peter Staddon has proven himself over the last 7-8 years to be a very trustworthy and upfront guy. He has never lied to the consumers, and has never been anything but upfront. I've had some limited personal dealings with him, and have never found his public persona to differ from the private one. In other words, if he's saying his hands are tied, or that this is how it is, it's 99.9999999% likely to be true.

Since the advent of the split sets, it's been almost imposible to find. The local stores couldn't be bothered to stock it. As mentioned, even the huge BEST BUY here never stocked the last half set.

Amazon.com sales are skewed toward theose who are likely to mail order, who tend to be nerdy, who tend to be scifi fans. That doesn't mean that it did well at retail, which is what the fact that BestBuy isn't stocking it is a clear indicator, since of all the big retailers they are the most likely to stock the niche.

The idea that the budget didn't exist to restore them is just another crock purpetrated by apologists for Fox. The fact is that virtually every major studio release looks better than LIS. Buy MR.ED on DVD and explain to me how small time syndicated show from 1960 looks perfect. Image restored the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW to perfection (same era) and added a load of new extras). EVERY SHOW from that era looks so much better than LIS.

And every show from that era, like Mr. Ed or Dick Van Dyke didn't have to spend a huge amount of its budget every week on sets and SFX. It's COMPLETELY a different type of production, and the closest you're going to get is Star Trek, which had extensive restoration done in the late 90s.

Unlike Trek, LIS wasn't stored very well, which caused further degredation.

BTW, FOX is about to releas REMINGTON STEELE on DVD. It will be available BOTH as a full season AND a HALF-SEASON set. Figure that one out.

It's an experiment. To see which sells better. Especially on the older shows that aren't HUGE icons that tend to be expensive, they're trying to find out if more units will move with 2 sets of 10-12 eps for $20 or so on sale, or 1 $40 box.

I don't know about how the LIS seaon one sets sold in the entire marketplace, but I can tell you that when this set was released a few Januarys ago my local Future Shop, which had a fair number of copies arrive (so the guy in the DVD section told me), was sold out by lunch time on the first day.

I only got one because I called at coffee time and asked them to stick one behind the counter for me.

Huzz

The idea that the budget didn't exist to restore them is just another crock purpetrated by apologists for Fox. The fact is that virtually every major studio release looks better than LIS. Buy MR.ED on DVD and explain to me how small time syndicated show from 1960 looks perfect. Image restored the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW to perfection (same era) and added a load of new extras). EVERY SHOW from that era looks so much better than LIS.



Nothing was done differently with MR.ED than was done with LOST IN SPACE and a lot of classic stuff like Universal Monsters, Abbott Costello, Ma and Pa Kettle, Munsters, Green Acres, and on and on. They go over to to shelf and use whatever they already have laying around. It's called "using the best source material available". Mr. Ed was probably cleaned up for syndication sometime recently prior to the onset on dvd. Same with most half hour shows that run perpetually in syndication.The universal movies were digitally remastered for vhs release in the '90s. In none of these cases was one dime spent on improving the picture for dvd release. Had LIS been running in syndication all those years, always on somewhere in the world, then they surely would have had to make new prints from time to time. United Artists cleaned up and made new prints of The Rat Patrol in the early '90s for re-syndication, so if it makes it to dvd it will look really good and they won't spend a cent. LOST IN SPACE is a rare case where the studio had nothing but old, non restored prints and faced with the expense of cleaning them up specifically for a dvd release, which would be quite considerable for 70 or so hours of material.

Exactly. The problem is return on investment. It would cost more to restore than they're going to likely take in in TOTAL income from the show.

We'd have all of WKRP in Cincinatti right now if someone could pony up $3 million for the music rights. Gee..they raised $3 million for Enterprise didn't they? Not using it for anything in particular.... :)

We've gotta be realistic here. ST:TOS will be playing probably well through mid-century. Lost in Space simply won't be. Not that it's any less deserving mind you, but from a suit's point of view, that's the way it is.

That's not to say that old shows and movies aren't cleaned up and remastered specifically for DVD release. Battlestar Galactica is a good example. Don't have the Kung Fu Season 1, but if it's anamorphic then brand new digital masters were made. Don't know what criteria they use to make the decision but I'm sure it boils down money.

Actually they cleaned up Galactica because they were doing the new series and knew they'd be re-running it. For some reason the show's always been amazingly popular in Australia, and they'd already run new HD transfers for a set the Oz unit was going to do, that Universal proper knew nothing about (true story). That and Galactica has never really stopped airing, and like Trek has a strong fan following, a much larger one than Lost In Space. (plus the set was double the price of LIS and still moved over twice as many units)

Actually they cleaned up Galactica because they were doing the new series and knew they'd be re-running it. For some reason the show's always been amazingly popular in Australia, and they'd already run new HD transfers for a set the Oz unit was going to do, that Universal proper knew nothing about (true story). That and Galactica has never really stopped airing, and like Trek has a strong fan following, a much larger one than Lost In Space. (plus the set was double the price of LIS and still moved over twice as many units)

That's kind of weird, on the Lost in Space Forever DVD they mention LIS played on prime time Australian TV for over 20 years!

That's kind of weird, on the Lost in Space Forever DVD they mention LIS played on prime time Australian TV for over 20 years!

Well - when you think about it - there is a certain similarity to the Robinson's plight and that of the original white Australian "settlers".

That's kind of weird, on the Lost in Space Forever DVD they mention LIS played on prime time Australian TV for over 20 years!

Well, that would still mean that it stopped 20 years ago. It really doesn't mean much in relation.

Well, that would still mean that it stopped 20 years ago..

Actually, according to the DVD the prime time run ended about the time of the LIS movie in the late nineties. I just find it amazing they watched the same three seasons for 20 years.

It really doesn't mean much in relation.

I meant it was disapointing they remastered Battlestar for being a hit in Australia, but didn't bother with LIS. I didn't think the B&W first season DVD of LIS was that bad, but my wife got me Season 2 Vol 1 and in color the picture is pretty sad.

Any news about Land of the Giants being released in a Box set?
Columbia House DVD's are expensive!

I meant it was disapointing they remastered Battlestar for being a hit in Australia, but didn't bother with LIS. I didn't think the B&W first season DVD of LIS was that bad, but my wife got me Season 2 Vol 1 and in color the picture is pretty sad.

Well, it's not QUITE that they remastered it just because it was a hit in Australia. The guy who started doing the sets for OZ was quite zealous and had access to materials :) They ran fresh prints of the series in the early 90s, so it's quite possible that they might have just transferred those anyway, I dunno. Universal also has a dedicated HD channel which helps.

There's a million possibilities, but it all boils down to the fact that Galactica is in good shape while LIS is not.

Intersting to hear the LIS colour episodes were so bad. Back in the late '90's the Canadian channel Space: The Lack of Imagination Station aired a lot of older sci-fi shows, including both the B&W and colour eps of LIS. I don't recall the colour episodes having a bad picture. Wonder what the source for the DVD's was.

Fox digitally remastered several episodes of LIS for a VHS release they did in the late '90's. I've got several of those tapes and they are superb. The masters used by Fox for the DVD release are the old 1" videotape masters made many years ago and used for the Columbia Houes release.

Fox retains ownership of the original 35mm film and they did a superb job of the remasters for VHS.

WE have to stop apologizing for their horrible DVDs. They have the original source material. They have shown that they can remaster it. They chose to go ultra cheap for the DVDs. It's that simple.

It's NOT a case of the material being in bad shape. The 35mm material is said (by Kevin Burns) to be pristine.

It's a straight forward case of using the cheapest material possible to do a job. No more, no less.

While every other show from MR. ED to THE TWILIGHT ZONE gets terrific transfers, Fox grabbed 20 year old videotape that they had on the shelf.

We can make all the excuses we want. Fox just chose to do a bargain basement, Madacy style transfer.

If it turns out that VTTBOTS actually IS a better transfer than the LIS series, then you KNOW that they got the message. The show SPFX budgets were similar, even though the props for Voyage were made and written off thru the movie production, but the cameras, production, and such are all the same. Same film stock, same cameras, etc. The fact IS that Faux should be ashamed of themselves, but being a bunch of Hollywood "Suits" they have no shame. I also DON'T agree that we have to have the crappy DVD's or nothing. If they are SO valuless, then eventually someone else would have a crack at it.

Well I wanted to get the LIS DVD's but since I heard so much complaining about the quality I avoided it like the plague.
I enjoyed the show, cheese supreme as it was, but I wouldn't pay good money for a crappy product.

WE have to stop apologizing for their horrible DVDs. They have the original source material. They have shown that they can remaster it. They chose to go ultra cheap for the DVDs. It's that simple.

It's NOT a case of the material being in bad shape. The 35mm material is said (by Kevin Burns) to be pristine.

It's a straight forward case of using the cheapest material possible to do a job. No more, no less.


Actually in this case it was "use the material at hand, or it doesn't come out". At least that's the impression I got. LIS had so many false starts coming out on DVD, and frankly, given that they're splitting it into half season sets I'm guessing the numbers on it isn't so good, and that they wouldn't have made their money back

You have to take into account the fact that LIS does not have a following with the under 30 (MAYBE 25 set) that other shows do, so the market for the show will die with the boomers

The Lost in Space screw up has been beat to death. To stay on topic, I hope there is some possibility for Voyage. They have released the most unknown crap on DVD through the years. Voyage was on four seasons. Longer than either Lost In Space or Star Trek. It also had better ratings. The first two seasons were excellent.I for one would like a remastered dvd set in my collection.

Over on the Irwin Allen Memories website they quoted Kevin Burns as saying the Voyage prints were in piss-poor shape.

Actually, according to the DVD the prime time run ended about the time of the LIS movie in the late nineties. I just find it amazing they watched the same three seasons for 20 years.
The quote is a little misleading. The show didn't run continuously for 20 years in the same market.

I'm 50, live in Melbourne, and watched LIS whenever it re-appeard on TV. When I was 11, the show debuted, ran for its three seasons, and was repeated during that run, which means it ran until about 1971/72.

In 1974, Australian TV went Color, and all color TV shows were dusted off, and rerun. LIS got its second screening in 1974/75.

The mid 80s saw a revival of the show, and it disappeared again for about a decade. It was shown in the mid 1990s, in the early hours of the morning.

In other markets, the show probably ran while it was not screening in Melbourne, which is probably how they claim the show ran continuously.

However, the show that did run continuously was Get Smart. GS ran from 1965 well into the early 1990s at 5:30 every afternoon, with few breaks. When the show was still in production, repeats ran at 5:30 every night, and new episodes screened on Monday Nights.

In the 1990s, GS was used as a filler on saturday and Sunday afternoons, and to this day, it still runs on Cable. It's easily the most successful show ever to run on Australian TV.

Glenn :)

Thanks for clearing that up Glenn, that makes a lot more sense! I would think even the most rabid fan would get a bit bored after 20 years of the same three seasons.

However,as a father of a three year old and one year old boys, you Aussies still owe us an apology for The Wiggles.