Yes, it's that time of the year.

Just watched The Fugitive, one I have not seen before.

I watch it sometimes, but I have the entire series on DVD and can watch anytime I like. Uncut, with no commercials. Except for a few vintage form the era.

SyFy is using some kind of video smoothing software and these episodes simply do not look right. They look less like film and more like video. I saw this creeping in, in years past. It was just a few episodes at first, but I guess they're getting around to all episodes.

These episodes were shot on 35mm film at 24 fps. They shouldn't be screwed with.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: parabellum,

I was hoping to once again see my favorite episode, The Grave, with Lee Marvin, James Best, Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef, but they aired it yesterday morning.

Here's a nice write up of the episode, detailing the origin of its concept:

http://twilightzonevortex.blog...16/05/the-grave.html

Also, I was not aware that a few years back, there was a syndicated radio series of some of these episodes. Here's The Grave with Michael Rooker in the role of Conny Miller.



Very cool! I had no idea.

And, here's 10 minutes worth of bumpers for the show. Like me, many of you have seen each episode countless times, and I think such ephemera, along with the radio verions (most of which are available on youtube) are the only ways to get closer to the series.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
SyFy is using some kind of video smoothing software and these episodes simply do not look right. They look less like film and more like video. I saw this creeping in, in years past. It was just a few episodes at first, but I guess they're getting around to all episodes.

These episodes were shot on 35mm film at 24 fps. They shouldn't be screwed with.

Interesting. I noticed something not looking right after watching for awhile yesterday but had no idea what it might be. Thought maybe my streaming app wasn't working right.

Just saw an episode I never saw before. it's called "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge". Rod Serling said at the beginning that it was done by the French (in English) and won an award at the Cannes festival. About the hanging of a Civil War soldier at the end of the Civil War. Very well done for the time. Originally on Twilight Zone in Feb. of '64.

Yeah, Serling saw it at Cannes IIRC and bought it from the French producer of the film for 15 or 20,000 bucks, and aired it in the US, thus saving CBS about 100,000 in production costs for the episode. This is the only time an episode was created outside of the TZ production crew. The story is by Ambrose Bierce.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Interesting. I noticed something not looking right after watching for awhile yesterday but had no idea what it might be. Thought maybe my streaming app wasn't working right.

What they've done is remaster the video for TZ episodes. This is not exactly my area of knowledge, but it looks like the new masters are 60fps. The original film has 24 individual frames per second. That is all there is in terms of visual information- 24 frames. To increase this frame rate - whether it's 30 fps or 60fps, what they have to do is to duplicate individual frames and insert them in the interstices between the original 24 frames. This makes motion picture film- which to my eye has an unmistakeable look- appear more like video. This increasing of frames and frame rate has the effect of smoothing the appearance of film and giving it the look of video, not film. As a purist and a longtime fan of The Twilight Zone, I object to what they've done to alter these episodes from their original. Of course this had already been done long ago, as video masters had to be created in order for these episodes to be broadcast on TV, and SyFy has been airing these episodes since before they were called SyFy. But the creation of those video masters was a necessity and they did not change to any noticeble degree the appearance of the episodes. Don't get wrong, the new HD masters are gorgeous, truly they are. Flawless, sharp and contrasty- the people who did this work should be proud.
But, they've moved too far away from the original.

I finally broke down three years ago and bought the entire series on DVD because I kept missing my favorites when they were on TV.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
SyFy is using some kind of video smoothing software and these episodes simply do not look right. They look less like film and more like video. I saw this creeping in, in years past. It was just a few episodes at first, but I guess they're getting around to all episodes.

These episodes were shot on 35mm film at 24 fps. They shouldn't be screwed with.

Six episodes in season 2 where videotaped instead of filmed due to budget reasons.

https://thenightgallery.wordpr...-the-videotape-zone/

The episode with the Navy ship finding the sub was my favorite. Don’t want to give away too much, if you haven’t seen it.

quote:

Originally posted by cmparrish:
Six episodes in season 2 where videotaped instead of filmed due to budget reasons.

https://thenightgallery.wordpr...-the-videotape-zone/

Yes, of course, and those episodes are well known to fans of the series. I'm referring to the overwhelming majoroty of the show's production, which was shot on 35mm film.