This commercial is from the mid-to-late Eighties, but I wanted to share it here. I was one of those guys who joined this "club," and I eagerly looked forward to getting my new tape each month. After years of only seeing the shortened syndication prints, the appeal of seeing - and owning! - all of the original Star Trek episodes in relatively pristine, uncut editions was irresistible. In fact, I had all of these tapes up until about a decade ago, when I simply couldn't justify the space they took and started picking up the DVDs. (I have the Blu-rays now, of course).
The other appeal, of course, was the prospect of owning the entire series. In the days before "Complete Season/Series" DVD sets, it was nearly impossible to collect complete runs of authorized, pre-recorded videotapes of your favorite cult shows.
I too started collecting these once released until I noticed something. In the episode 'The Devil in the Dark' I believed some dialogue I remembered was missing. I compared it with a single episode VHS release from Paramount and sure enough there was editing in the Columbia House Editions! I contacted Columbia, I was told that although they advertise 'uncut' episodes they ultimately relied on Paramount to supply them with the proper episodes. If I recall I believe I then found other omissions in other installments I had received previously. I cancelled my subscription. When they asked why, I told them 'you are not selling what you promised' and I bought the VHS singles from Paramount. Whether they corrected this or not in later issues ... I have no idea but I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right. A friend of mine worked at a major home-video duplication house, here in Toronto, back in the late-'80s/early-'90s. They were the company turning out the Star Trek VHS and Beta tapes for Paramount Home Video. The 1-inch master tapes were in fact the "TV broadcast" versions... meant for making other 1-inch or Betacam tapes to be sent to stations/networks. The running-times were clocking a few minutes under spec (about 45 minutes), which is what tipped my friend off that these shouldn't have been used for producing 'home video'.
DeleteI remember my buddy telling me that suddenly a new load of 1-inch masters arrived the company, replacing the 'old' tapes. The word hit the floor that people had been calling or writing in to Paramount, complaining of being ripped off. Good for them.
The broadcast masters are easily identifiable -- easy if you know the series really well -- by the artifical 'fade-outs' (and 'fade-ins'), that were never there before, obviously, and the sped up show. I remember watching an episode with a friend, and after watching a pivotal scene, my friend turned to me and said, "I remember that scene being longer than that". We can sense when the pace is off... when we know the series too well.
Is there any chance you have the commercial for the VHS release of ST:TNG from the early 90's?
ReplyDeleteIt had footage from what appeared to be a convention with Trekkies stating their favorite episode via quick cuts.
ex: "Data Lore!!"
Star Trek - The Next Generation falls outside the scope of this blog. Sorry. You might find it on YouTube.
DeleteI joined the Columbia House club. It got way too expensive. I actually bought Aliens for $79 on VHS.
ReplyDeleteI love the line about the collectors pin: "It's destined to become a collector's item!" Gotta love the way this was promoted and sold on television. That really takes me back to a time before the Internet and Amazon. No wonder our kids think that we lived in the dark ages. LOL
ReplyDeleteFrom the 25th anniversary pin and logo, I would say this ad aired in 1991. I skipped Star Trek on VHS but picked up laserdiscs of my favorite episodes. I couldn't afford to buy the whole series with only 2 episodes per disc and discs selling for $15(used) to $25 or so. Later, I bought my favorite episodes all over again on Star Trek's first DVD release, again only 2 episodes per disc. I skipped the original season releases that came out at the height of the TV on DVD craze. Finally, I bought the DVD/HD-DVD combo sets of the remastered series for the DVD sides (I never had an HD-DVD player). I refuse to buy the Blu-Rays, DVD on a great upscaling TV looks just fine.
ReplyDeleteI thought I would mention this other blog. It's mostly devoted to Star Trek but some Dr. Who as well:
ReplyDeletehttp://vibrant-oxymoron.blogspot.com/
I never got the Collectors editions. I had to buy them two at a time separately as I could afford them. I do remember several of the ones I did have suffering from poor editing-like they were made from a syndication run. It didn't matter to me that much at the time. It was the Original Star Trek and I didn't have to wait for a syndication run to see it. It struck me that while shows like the The Bunkers were thinking they had to bash people over the head to make a point. Here was an Alien Science Officer, A Black Chick at Communications, another African? doc ( (Dr. M'Benga) who knew more about the medical treatment of Vulcans than Dr. McCoy did , Asian as Astrogator, and we just thought it all perfectly normal for the future.
ReplyDeleteas an afterethought- I wonder if Gene Roddenberry later on thought shows like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield overdone as the show made the same point more effectively every week just by being on the air.
btw- I don't know if Ms. Nichols ever made Space Babe but I always thought she was a cutie.
The lovely Ms. Nichols was our Space Babe for January, 2011.
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