TOS On MeTV?

[cooleddie74]

jayrath wrote:

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Watched with my girlfriend last night, and again I had to explain all the cuts to her. We had just the barest glimpse of Kirk looking at a single medal in his quarters, and she didn't understand at all why he then got so angry in the transporter room, immediately afterward.

Syndication and commercial edits suck. They always have. Always will. The lust for more commercial revenue is going to eventually reduce a one-hour television program to barely thirty minutes of actual content. Just because I understand the networks' and local stations' logic in making trims doesn't mean I agree with it.

I'm just glad I have DVDs and Netflix. TOS is always better uncut.

[WisTrekFan]

cooleddie74 wrote:

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Syndication and commercial edits suck. They always have. Always will. The lust for more commercial revenue is going to eventually reduce a one-hour television program to barely thirty minutes of actual content. Just because I understand the networks' and local stations' logic in making trims doesn't mean I agree with it.

I'm just glad I have DVDs and Netflix. TOS is always better uncut.

The alternative to editing a syndicated show for more commercials is to stretch a one hour episode to two hours like WGN does with some shows. I'm not sure which method is better.

[cooleddie74]

WisTrekFan wrote:

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The alternative to editing a syndicated show for more commercials is to stretch a one hour episode to two hours like WGN does with some shows. I'm not sure which method is better.

When the Sci-Fi Channel aired TOS uncut and digitally restored in 1998 and 1999 it ran them in 90-minute time slots to allow for the entire original episode, commentary by Shatner and Nimoy and commercials. It's the only time in my life that a channel whether broadcast or cable has aired uncut TOS in a 90-minute slot. Every other version shown on American television has been a syndicated edit of 43.5 to 46 minutes.

Unless the G4 network's airings of the show were uncut. I don't get G4 as part of my cable package so I don't know if the network aired uncut TOS or not.

[gastrof]

SciFiChannel's approach stunk.

In one case (and I plainly remember this) they actually came back from a break, ran about one minute of the episode, and then went into another break.

They were cutting in where no breaks were intended, the whole thing was a mess.

People got so disgusted, the ratings dropped terribly.

Right in the middle of the second go-round (this time with Nimoy hosting instead of Shatner) they dropped the "Special Edition" and the following week suddenly we were back to host-free, edited episodes in a one hour timeslot.

Nimoy was ticked royally. He'd filmed his host segments first, and Shatner finally agreed to come on board later. SciFi ran Shatner's version first, and so a huge number of Nimoy's segments never aired.

The "Special Edition" was never seen again.

[gastrof]

jayrath wrote:

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...In defense of MeTV, so far as I can tell they present all their other programming uncut. That's one of the joys of the network. I suspect that they're just airing what they were given -- that's what TOSR is...

Is that what they're running?

TOSR?

[cooleddie74]

gastrof wrote:

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SciFiChannel's approach stunk.

In one case (and I plainly remember this) they actually came back from a break, ran about one minute of the episode, and then went into another break.

They were cutting in where no breaks were intended, the whole thing was a mess.

People got so disgusted, the ratings dropped terribly.

Right in the middle of the second go-round (this time with Nimoy hosting instead of Shatner) they dropped the "Special Edition" and the following week suddenly we were back to host-free, edited episodes in a one hour timeslot.

Nimoy was ticked royally. He'd filmed his host segments first, and Shatner finally agreed to come on board later. SciFi ran Shatner's version first, and so a huge number of Nimoy's segments never aired.

The "Special Edition" was never seen again.

Great concept. Terrible execution.

I remember some of those abrupt, rapid commercial breaks. They got on my nerves pretty badly. I'm happy they showed the entire uncut episode, but with all the commentary and commercial breaks the flow of each episode was sullied. It was hard to enjoy the restored, enhanced footage when 30 seconds later you'd get a Chevrolet or Trix ad popping on the screen.

[ssosmcin]

gastrof wrote:

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Is that what they're running?

TOSR?

Yes, sir.

At least they've opened up some of the overnight line up finally. They still shut out some shows with paid programming, but to be honest, I have Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on DVD, so that's not too awful. I finally get M:I, Kojak, Cannon and The Big Valley. :-)

[Redfern]

And I fear programs will get ever more severely edited as time continues. And as the material actually plays, more of the screen will get obscured by things like network logos, "banners" for upcoming presentations, and probably in the near future, icons for products "sponsoring" the show. And the broadcasters (cable-casters?) will justify their actions by reasoning, "Well, if they want their shows uncut, uninterrupted and unobscured, they can buy the DVDs, Blu-Ray, what have you."

But, I swear...if that purchased media starts pulling the same crap (and likely, no reasonable way to override it), well, I'm not sure what I'll do, but it won't be pretty!

Sincerely,

Bill

[Galileo7]

retrogradeloop wrote:

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It's the only Star Trek I get at the moment. So, definitely.

And HEY! I couldn't ask for a better lead-in than "Lost In Space."

Agree.

[ssosmcin]

It's getting so much worse. Shows are down to 41 minutes and there are plenty of on-screen "I show" animated ads, some with sound, being plastered over "in between commercial breaks." It's really impossible to sit back and enjoy a show like we used to unless it's on a premium channel.

cooleddie74 wrote:

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Great concept. Terrible execution.

I remember some of those abrupt, rapid commercial breaks. They got on my nerves pretty badly. I'm happy they showed the entire uncut episode, but with all the commentary and commercial breaks the flow of each episode was sullied. It was hard to enjoy the restored, enhanced footage when 30 seconds later you'd get a Chevrolet or Trix ad popping on the screen.

The best format for airing classic Trek for me was back in the 80's when a local PBS station, WVIA Channel 44, played them three in a row on Saturday nights - uncut with no commercials (they also ran uncut Lost in Space on Saturdays). It was great seeing them like that and really gave me another reason to look forward to the weekends. They ran them like that once or twice, then replaced them with the Paramount "pre-cut" versions. Remember those episodes? I'd love it if they ran them that complete now. But it was annoying, because without commercials, there wasn't any reason to cut them. But I guess Paramount insisted and at least I got to record a bunch of the earlier episodes before they were pulled.

[cooleddie74]

Some syndicated stations actually received uncut episodes from Paramount back in the '70s and '80s and stations had to make their own edits in order to add extra commercial space or run the episodes unaltered and air only ten or eleven minutes of ads. Some did the former, others the latter. Author and TREK fan Phil Farrand writes about these "Unsyndicated Episodes" in his 1994 Nitpicker's Guide.

[ssosmcin]

Up until the 80's sometime, every syndicated station was left to cut their own. WPIX in NY sliced haphazardly, making some episodes incomprehensible. However, WTNH in Connecticut ran them uncut with next week's previews. WTXX in CT had limited cuts. So they all got them complete, The stations decided how much to keep.

In the mid-80's, I remember an announcement on WPIX that the series was being withdrawn "and the Enterprise was undergoing a refitting" or something and the series would be back soon. When it returned, the new prints were precut. I read Phil Ferrand's "unsyndicated" thingy and I never ran into them. WPIX and WVIA both had all 79 episodes edited down. I don't know if Paramount/CBS provides pre-cut episodes anymore. They may have put that back in the hands of the syndie stations.

[Elder Knight]

Why buy DVDs when you have the free shows, eh? Well, here's the way they looked locally:







It's kinda like Where's Waldo? "Heck, I think there's a spaceship in there somewhere."

No Photoshop. Images untouched by human hands, honest! (I posted these here a few years ago.)

[cooleddie74]

Oh, we believe you! I've been watching TOS on different local stations for years and the affiliate will always find ways to slip in logos, ads for other programming or weather reports in the corners of the screen and clutter everything up. I came to expect it. When TOS-Remastered aired on my local Fox and CW affiliates from 2006-2008 the show was constantly interrupted by flashing logos and banners. It got to be pretty tiresome, but the stations were determined to do it.

[retrogradeloop]

Help! I'm in the Bay Area, and my MeTV signal (on Comcast) cut out about 90 minutes ago. Anyone else?

If I miss Lost In Space, I'm going to be in a very bad mood. If I miss Star Trek... I don't even want to talk about it.