"Well, it's a small universe!" - Judy Robinson, from "Space Beauty" (LOST IN SPACE Season 3, Episode 21)
But, that "small universe" has just become wider in scope thanks to this TRULY UNEXPECTED item from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment!
Dropping literally from the sky (or, if you prefer, from SPACE) - particularly so for someone like me who would make it his business to know, this sudden and unforeseen gift package corrects what might very well be the final "wrong" that was done to LOST IN SPACE on home video that you can OWN (as opposed to stream [that is "merely rent someone else's property"] ...Property that they can take away from you at any time and on any whim!)
Yes, those FOUR GLORIOUS WORDS: "Digitally Remastered in Widescreen", mean that no longer do folks with widescreen HD TVs have to see LOST IN SPACE look like THIS! (Actual images I've taken off of the prior LOST IN SPACE DVD sets for use at this Blog - "black-sidebars" and all!)
Now, the image has been remastered to fill the widest of screens! "Oh, joy! Oh, bliss!"
And I couldn't be happier!
In 2015, I thought I "couldn't be happier" with this amazing Blue-ray set!
All episodes, some with surviving-cast commentaries, and more bonus features, promotional spots for both network and syndication, and other archival pieces than I imagined possible.
Episodes with optional "original bumpers" and even some original-run advertising thrown in.
I eat this stuff up, especially as it applies to vintage, or classic, television!
But, save for a single episode described as a test (and added to the set as yet another bonus feature), none of the episodes were remastered for widescreen! That one episode sure showed us how great LOST IN SPACE *could* look in widescreen!
But, I figured this set, specially released for the show's 50th anniversary, would be the ultimate - and FINAL - manifestation of LOST IN SPACE in the DVD or Blu-ray format!
...And it was certainly a universe better than the original "season volume" releases of 2004-2005!
As LOST IN SPACE was one of the very first classic TV series to be released when the DVD format was still new and finding its way, the bonus features were minimal, and the transfers were not fully up to the best DVD standard, much less that of the later Blu-ray format.
But, it was also one of the very first TV series to be COMPLETED in DVD release so, even then, I (...all together now) "couldn't be happier"!
And, having all its episodes complete and uncut, with SOME extra features, and all the elusive "Next Week Previews" - and it being MINE, ALL MINE, with no TV or cable network deciding when (or even IF) I could see LOST IN SPACE, I was satisfied.
I also figured these sets, released so early in the DVD game, (...all together now) would be the ultimate - and FINAL - manifestation of LOST IN SPACE in the DVD or (yet-unknown) Blu-ray format!
The final season-volume set of the original DVD run of LOST IN SPACE!
Since those original standard format DVDs, there has been:
The aforementioned "Complete Adventures" Blu-ray release.
A CD Mega-Set of ALL music scores composed for the series by such luminaries as the great John Williams, Alexander Courage, Leith Stevens, Herman Stein, Joseph Mullendore, and others.
A 2016 limited-series COMIC BOOK title.
A new, different but unexpectedly GOOD, 2018 series on Netflix - going into its second season!
And even a comic book based on the new series!
Pretty impressive for "The Little Sci-Fi Show that Could", after spending most of its life in the giant shadows of BATMAN and STAR TREK!
And now, on February 05, 2019 - and with no fanfare that I was able to discern - here is LOST IN SPACE - The Complete Classic Series - Digitally Remastered in Widescreen!
And, believe it or not and while there IS some overlap, this set offers NEW Bonus Features that were not even on the All-Encompassing Blu-ray set!
And (presently, at least) it can be had at Amazon for slightly under 30 dollars! THAT IS REALLY A BARGAIN!
Now, it is only a STANDARD DVD release (not a Blu-ray), but, if you ever had any interest in owning LOST IN SPACE on DVD, but do not... Or, if you do, but you're a completest-who-loves-his-widescreen-TV like me... THIS IS A MUST BUY!
It is now my THIRD iteration of LOST IN SPACE in the DVD or Blu-ray format, and I (...all together now) "couldn't be happier"!
But, for once, I no longer am absolutely certain that this set, will be the (...all together now) ultimate - and FINAL - manifestation of LOST IN SPACE in the DVD or Blu-ray format!
After all, there is STILL no BLU-RAY that is "remastered for widescreen"!
...Iteration FOUR, anyone?
"Yesss, that one is a definite possibility!"
13 comments:
Huh. Why was Lost in Space shot in widescreen, I wonder? Did they foresee at the time that someday it would be released on data-discs that worked not with squarish screens, but with rectangular plasma ones? Surely not.
Achille:
While I’ve always regarded Irwin Allen as a forward-thinking and very imaginative producer, from his early feature films such as “The Story of Mankind” (1957) in which Ronald Coleman and Vincent Price argue (before God?) whether mankind should continue or be done away with, to his four groundbreaking television series, and through his cycle of big-budget / big name “disaster films”, I don’t think even HE could have foreseen the situation you describe!
Nope, this is a digital remastering of the original “full-screen-as-filmed” 1960s series into widescreen! And nicely done, at that, as you can see by the images I posted!
One reason I was so satisfied with the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray set was that my widescreen TV had the option to select different aspect ratios, one of which WOULD allow LOST IN SPACE to completely fill a 55 inch screen. You’d “lose a little on top and bottom”, but it still looked breathtaking to someone who’d first seen the show on a little black-and-white TV with rabbit ears!
But certain other shows and older movies on DVD or Blu-ray have already been remastered in such a way to format to widescreen when the TV is in its normal 16:9 aspect ratio setting! ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS on DVD, to pick an “earlier-to-contemporary” series, fills the screen with no adjustment to the TV’s aspect ratio – and looks as if it were MADE for widescreen!
I suppose that, if there WERE a director capable of foreseeing that “… someday it would be released on data-discs that worked not with squarish screens, but with rectangular plasma ones”, it WOULD BE Alfred Hitchcock, but no! This is the doing of the DVD producers, with a preemptive nod to those who enjoy widescreen presentations, whether or not the product in question was originally so! …But, not all series are released that way – Allen’s LOST IN SPACE (until now) and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA being two of them.
When watching either, I would always adjust the aspect ratio to fill the screen! It just looks so much better that way!
Even my yesterday’s DVD viewing of DOCTOR WHO (Patrick Troughton) “Tomb of the Cybermen” (1967) was remastered for widescreen! And there’s NO WAY a BBC production from 1967 would otherwise look as majestic!
Now, I can enjoy LOST IN SPACE in widescreen (as it was not intended but, nevertheless, SHOULD BE), and I (all together now) “couldn’t be happier”!
…And, as tastes vary as they are wont to do, anyone NOT wishing to see it this way (preferring the “centered image with black sidebars”), has other existing and available options mentioned in this very post! It’s win/win for everyone… especially for the very reasonable price of the widescreen version!
While I understand not everyone will agree, I generally prefer to see things the way they were filmed. I don’t mind the black bars on the sides if it means we get to see the entire image (especially with animated fare, where I care the most because I’m not just watching, I’m studying the images for things like layout, animation techniques and character design). I’d be pretty ticked off to see a widescreen cropped version of the Max Fleischer, MGM, Walter Lantz or early Disney cartoons (even those cheap 1960-61 Popeye TV cartoons) I want to see the whole picture!).
Unca Walt was filming episodes of his various anthology series in color and widescreen from the get-go. This enabled him to cobble together two theatrical features from the five Davy Crockett TV shows. Conversely, some programs originally planned for TV wound up released to theaters instead, such as Johnny Tremain (1957),and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), among others.
Ah, I see. Well, I suppose we've identified one of the (surprisingly few!) cases where our tastes diverge: I don't care much for after-the-fact alterations to change a film's aspect ratio, and watch most things these days with the requisite "black sidebars". Partially a matter of "artistic integrity"; but perhaps this also has to do with the fact that I still grew up with a 4:3 television (a large, luxuous model, natch) of which I was very fond, and that 4:3 has thus always seemed to me like the "proper" format for television.
Deb:
I understand your position, and even concur to some degree!
If there is any cutoff of the image on the LOST IN SPACE remastering, it is certainly not as egregiously noticeable as it was on THIS SET! And, I’ve seen these ENOUGH TIMES over the years (decades, actually) to notice! I’ve viewed FIVE episodes at random (across all three seasons) as well as ALL of the Bonus Features, and, having done this much, expect no unpleasant surprises as I enjoy the rest of the set over time!
If you take the provided link, and I feel you definitely should as an indicator of where I was on this matter in 2010, it is all the more significant that you take the link embedded therein to THAD’s (Yes, our beloved “Core Four Thad”!) comments on the subject!
As I said back in 2010, Thad “…discusses and illustrates this better than I ever could”!
TCJ:
Somehow it is not at all surprising that, if anyone could account for 21st Century widescreen home-viewings of his product (even if his reasoning was more “grounded in possible then-contemporary theatrical release”), it would be Walt Disney!
Such a lifetime innovator… and to think his name is now removed from the comic books that once displayed it proudly! Disgusting! (…Oh, wait! I was only supposed to THINK that last part, not write it!)
Achille:
You write: “but perhaps this also has to do with the fact that I still grew up with a 4:3 television (a large, luxuous model, natch) of which I was very fond, and that 4:3 has thus always seemed to me like the "proper" format for television.”
Makes perfect sense to me! We all tend to gravitate toward “what we grew up with”, even when it has been vastly improved upon by modern methods and technologies!
It would certainly explain my undying devotion to the Gold Key Comics of the 1960s – and pretty much ANYTHING from the 1960s, including LOST IN SPACE and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA… though seeing them sharp, clear, and in widescreen today doesn’t hurt!
Still, even more than its original 1965-1968 run, I tend to associate LOST IN SPACE with the early-mid 1970s – rushing home from high school in time to see it rerun at 4:30 PM, then quickly changing clothes, and off after a bus to take me to my evening job at a local mall! …I still get those feelings, even when I watch it today!
I actually wrote about it HERE in one of my earliest Blog posts! Enjoy a little “slice-of-my-life”, circa 1973!
Most TV shows from the late 50's on would use freelance movie cameramen who were used to filming "safe" - That is, they were aware that a full frame 4:3 35mm image would be cropped to produce a wider format for projection - around 1.78:1 which just so happens to be almost 16:9! This is why most stuff from that era scans well for our widescreen tvs. Programmes from the 80's shot on video with younger cameramen however, is another story!
That’s very interesting, Gaz!
As a writer, I tend to concentrate my thirst for knowledge in that particular direction, rather than the technical aspects of things. So, this is clearly news to me – and I thank you for it.
The later shows shot on videotape, especially when viewed on today’s equipment, tend to have a “cheaper” look to them, vs. the older shows, which after a half-century or more, still have a visual “richness” to them! This helps explain why!
A movie shot on good 35mm film stock actually contains more detail or "pixels" of information than modern HD tvs need so that's why they look so good. In the 90's Star Trek 6, Terminator 2 and Titanic were among many films shot on a fine grain high definition SUPER 35mm format with 2.35:1 cinema, 4:3 video AND 16:9 widescreen tv in mind....but this is getting a bit deep!
This sums up how good it can be!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b61MAqktMc
Gaz:
It may be “a bit deep”, but it’s a whole lot interesting. And the video is wonderful. It would seem that this was in the works as far back as 2013! Amazing!
I may do a new post around the video… once I get out from under the 66-page comic story I’m presently working on. So, come on back occasionally!
Meanwhile, HERE is the video for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
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