"The Honeymooners Lost Episodes: Complete Restored Series" Coming To DVD

Were there Trip to Europe episodes in 1957 as well or is that a typo? I know they did those in the Miami shows which was '67 and those have been released. I didn't know they had another set of Trip to Europe shows.

 

Yes, those (as well as many of the other 1960s "Color Honeymooners") were remakes of storylines first done in the 1950s. There was a book that listed them all with airdates, even timing in minutes and seconds for the sketches.

As someone mentioned above, I also would like them to release the full Jackie Gleason Shows in their original format, with the Honeymooners skits presented in their original contexts. I understand why they didn't do that in the 1980s -- the "Classic 39" had been run into the ground and those were the characters that everyone knows and loves -- but in this day and age of everyone wanting every show in the history of television restored, uncut and complete, it's odd that there doesn't seem to be much demand for Gleason's shows beyond The Honeymooners. Maybe it was just too long ago and the "demographic" has skewed way too old (or dead)! Even the few 1960s Miami shows that featured Honeymooners sketches alongside other non-Honeymooners material were skipped over in the Color Honeymooners DVD series and not released at all. What is up with that?

Back in the mid-1980s a local Chicago station carried a half-hour version of The Jackie Gleason Show pulled from The American Scene Magazine (the series which immediately preceded the color Miami Honeymooners) on pristine black and white videotape. Those shows had Joe the Bartender, the Poor Soul and other Gleason characters I've read about in books, and it was fun to finally see them.

 

"I don't doubt the bills are high, but how much of the food are you getting?"

Just a hilarious show....

 

"Can't speak French"

 

and each time every line is recited it just as funny as the last time! Timeless...no other show can boast that!

 

I received my copy of the new "Best of The Lost Episodes" disc that MPI released last week, and watched "Stand In For Murder." I can confirm that this is the 1955 remake of the sketch as the original show ran long and CBS cut off before the ending. The version on this disc has the complete ending. Another way to tell was that in the original performance a door got stuck and Art Carney exited the stage through a window! This version the door worked fine and he made it through.

The other four shows on the disc have been previously released. While I did not watch them completely through, I did scan them. Just from going by a quick view it looks like some restoration work had been done on the kinescopes on this release. There did not seem to be as much flicker or lines going acorss the screen as on previous releases. Was the quality perfect? No, not even close, but what few lost episodes I have on DVD I'm hoping to compare with this release and have a better idea in the next few days. I have all that were released on VHS, I may pull those out and look at those as the same masters used for the VHS releases were used for the original DVD releases.

If you want a sampling of "the lost episodes" and can't wait until October I recommend this purchase. Otherwise, the bigger set will be out in October

 

Does anyone know if the new "Best Of" DVD contains anything that won't be on the upcoming box set?

 

From what I understand no, the five shows on this "best of" will be included on the big box set. I only purchased this because I found it for $6 online and I wanted to see the recently discovered "Stand In For Murder" 1955 version. The case does not mention this being the remake which is a shame because MPI could probably sell more before the box from Honeymoonies like me who can't wait to see this show.

The disc is a good sampling of what is to come, but as far as I know what is on this disc will be in the big box set.

 

Thanks Benno123, you just saved me $10 I'll wait and get the complete set in October (assuming there's at least some restoration work, which based on your quick observtions appears to be the case).

 

From TVshowsondvd.com:

Can't wait!

 

Great confirmation that the original "Trip to Europe" musicals from the winter of 1957 will be included! I have these from a collector - very entertaining! The remakes in 1966 were ok, but the originals are a lot of fun!!!

Plus the skits were restored by UCLA! Wonderful news indeed!!!

 

Anyone who is interested in comparisons of releases, here are screen captures from "A Weighty Problem." I never bought all the DVDs of the "Lost Episodes" since I had them on VHS, but this sketch was one that I did have on DVD so I was able to compare this picture with various releases. What does everyone think, does it look like MPI used restored episodes on the new "best of" disc? (I posted a similar message in the Honeymooners section of sitscomsonline.com message board and thought I'd share this with the fans here as well.)

From original VHS release:


From original DVD release:


From Jackie Gleason: Genius At Work DVD (from 2006 PBS special, DVD released in 2008):


From brand new "The Lost Episodes Best Of" DVD:

 

50 hours!??!? Wow!

Ooooo, I hope my old MPI sets sell well...I'm gonna need some help to afford this one!

 

Praying that these are in chronological order...

 

Assuming these are the exact same two frames, it looks like both are cropping the picture (the VHS at the top, the new DVD at the bottom). And based on these two images alone, I think the VHS looks a bit better.

 

I wonder - or hope and pray! - that MPI and UCLA went back to the original films to do the restoration and not used a newer master to restore. Is it even possible to do any restoration with a master that may be on video instead of film? I guess the original kinescopes that were in Gleason's archive were on 16mm film.

 

I tried to match it up as close to the moment as I could. This is the very first time I have ever tried to do anything like this, to compare scenes from releases of any movie or show. I didn't crop anything from the top, and in fact I noticed the same thing about the picture appearing to be cropped on the VHS. Somewhere in a Honeymooners book I have it talks about how they restored those shows in the mid-1980s, and it mentioned the picture being "blown up and enlarged" to remove a line that appeared on most of the shows on the left side of the screen I believe. I'll haveto see if I can find that and post that info later on.

I still can't decide if I like the VHS or the new release better. What did shock me was the quality from the Genius At Work release. That was very poor and looked like a 5th generation dub filmed through my shower curtain.

 

Amazon has it up for $90.00 pre order price..I was hoping for less...we need to get an internet price watch going...

 

That's a shame. They could've done a bunch of things:

1) signal processing to compensate for the horizontal smear in the CRT used to make the kinescope

2) grain reduction to minimize the video noise and film grain

3) field processing to eliminate the 2:3 pulldown problem and make it look like video again

4) very slight sharpening to crispen it up

5) and color-correction (mostly gamma, whites and blacks) to tweak the levels.

None of this is rocket science, and really only the first one is a little expensive. Even with traditional mastering technology, it would've been possible to make it 25% better than these photos.

And the first thing I would do is zoom back and show the aperture of the frame, edge to edge. There's some tweaks that can be done to fill that in if there's a scan line or so showing, but I'd always rather see more rather than less information, specially in an old kine.

I don't mean to slam MPI, but this is typically what happens when cheap companies make bad decisions and aren't aware of how to use modern technology in mastering.

 

I hear that. Don't want another "Car 54" fiasco...

 

I understand where you are coming from...BUT, this may be the only time we'll get these all in one place...I'm thrilled to say the least.

 

Oh yea, set was great! running order sucked! I'm hoping as well we get them in order! I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

 

Was Car 54 in filming order and not airing order, or just cherry picked and episodes placed here or there? I don't follow Car 54 so I'm not aware of this.

 

The DVD company said they put the episodes in order of popularity. Who's popularity? I know not. A stupid move, done for no good reason at all. I'm still glad to have the set, though.

 

Now that is probably the strangest move done by a company releasing a TV show that I have ever heard! On a "best of" set I guess I could see it, but on a season set? No way!!!