Idea & Info: Westworld / Futureworld / Beyond Westworld - preservations of?

These films and the short-lived series are a bit dated and cheesey, but they have a few historic sci-fi moments and are still worth watching and/or preserving:
 

Westworld (1973)
Directed by Michael Crichton(!), the first film has only seen a bare-bones DVD release so far.  However, there is an additional “Making of Westworld” DVD that was released separately.  There was also a TV airing featuring a couple of extra scenes that would be a good candidate for a preservation effort.
 

Futureworld (1976)
The sequel to Westworld has never seen a US DVD release, but is available streaming on Netflix and as a digital download or manufacture-on-demand DVD-R on Amazon.
 

Beyond Westworld (1980)
This short-lived series only managed to air 3 of the 5 completed episodes.  It has never been released on DVD (or even VHS, to my knowledge).  All 5 episodes are out there, though, and have been available as torrents in the past.  This is another item that screams for a preservation.

I’ve recently watched Westworld and Futureworld, but have not been able to get my hands on the Beyond Westworld series, beyond a couple of  segments posted on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXWa_TfWxrA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhx-Kq4-g_Q

and a promo for the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USl3Jkp1Aok
 

So a preservation for at least the TV cut of Westworld and the TV series would be worth doing, I think.

–SKot

SilverWook said:

Didn't know there was a making of DVD. Is this the same as the Westworld featurette that airs on Turner Classic Movies once in a while?

I'm not sure.  The one I've seen I streamed from Netflix here.

Amazing that there hasn't been a bloated remake of Westworld yet.

Funny you should mention that...

I think there's a good chance we'll see the series as a MOD release sometime. I never thought we'd see a release of "The Man From Atlantis" show, so anything is possible now.

I love the MOD release concept.  It's given us hundreds of movie titles on DVD that otherwise would be deemed "unmarketable" or "unprofitable".

--SKot

There's a Westworld HDTV rip floating around.

satanika said:

There's a Westworld HDTV rip floating around.

Now THAT would be worth preservation...at least until a BD of Westworld comes out (whenever that might be).

--SKot

Look for c-westwrld-rp for the transport stream.

EDIT: Looks like there could be a German BD of Futureworld soon? http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=7501

EDIT2: Australian BD of Futureworld out today it seems.

satanika said:

Look for c-westwrld-rp for the transport stream.

EDIT: Looks like there could be a German BD of Futureworld soon? http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=7501

EDIT2: Australian BD of Futureworld out today it seems.

Then it looks like the films themselves are both available (or will be) in HD on BD, so we're set there.  All we need to do now is dig up the TV cut of Westworld and the Beyond Westworld series in decent quality.

--SKot

I have access to one of those torrents, with the complete 5 episodes of Beyond Westworld.

Having viewed the 5 Beyond Westworld episodes from the torrent now, I made a few observations:

S01E01 "Westworld Destroyed" - Taken from a videotaped broadcast source, as evidenced by the announcer's voiceover on the credits.

S01E02 "My Brother's Keeper" - Also from a videotaped broadcast, but for some reason this particular copy had no sound. An alternate version I watched from a different videotape source had sound but was missing the opening teaser segment.

S01E03 "Sound of Terror" - This is the last episode that was actually shown on TV, but this version was not from a videotape: it was taken from a low-budget telecine of an actual film copy of the episode.  You can tell by the "hairy frame" around the edge of the picture, which looks exactly like the 8mm and 16mm films I've had transferred in the past (only a bit worse).  The focus is very soft, and there are actually "INSERT COMMERCIAL HERE" bumpers at the breaks.

S01E04 "The Lion" - Not broadcast.  Same kind of telecine transfer from an original film copy.

S01E05 "The Takeover" - Not broadcast.  Same kind of telecine transfer from film.  This final unaired episode unfortunately cuts off before the credits...but features George Takei as a robot doctor!  Also, this episode and the one preceding it feature Russell Johnson of Gilligan's Island fame in what was probably going to be a recurring role, had the series continued.

So someone out there somewhere had the actual film reels for episodes 3, 4, and 5 and had them transferred.  How many generations the torrent copies are from the original, it's hard to say...but I'm guessing the first generation looked a little sharper.  As far as the videotaped first two episodes go, they were broadcast copies recorded off the air.

On the whole, these were not as bad as I kind of expected they might be.  In fact, I rather enjoyed them.  The acting was a bit hammy, as to be expected, and the whole "hiding a nuke-carrying robot in a rock band" concept was a bit of an eye-roller, but this wasn't a half bad show for 1980.  Much better than Galactica 1980, for sure!

--SKot

delos said:

I've been scouring the internet looking for a copy of My Brother's Keeper that actually has sound. Haven't had any luck. Anyone got an idea where I could find a copy for my preservation collection? Post on here or send me a message if you could. Many thanks in advance! I really want to see this ep. It's the only one I haven't seen now.

Check your PMs.

I'd really love it if MGM would release Beyond Westworld as an MOD title, too. Hope somewhere that some decent quality versions exist to do that. 

Beyond Westworld as an MOD title would be great.  I hope they do manage to do that at some point; I'll be among the first in line to purchase a copy!

Have they been doing any TV show MODs?  Seems like all the ones I've seen through Warner, MGM, etc. have been older movies and not TV shows.

--SKot

SilverWook said:

MGM's assets have been through a lot of hands over the years, the series may belong to Warner now.

Warner announced the Logan's Run tv series as a MOD title last year, but it's not out yet. Logan was definitely an MGM show. :)

http://space1970.blogspot.com/2011/01/news-logans-run-tv-series-on-dvd-in.html

Ah, Logan's Run is another show in the category of Beyond Westworld, with no DVD release on the horizon for many years...that is, until now.  Thanks for pointing that out to me; I had no idea it was being considered for release.  And apparently it's now going to be given the full treatment, as a regular release in April 2012 and not a MOD - probably because of the imminent remake.  Maybe if the remake happens for Westworld we may finally see a release of the Beyond Westworld series.  I guess remakes, even if they're bad, can still have the positive effect of getting sometimes unavailable originals released in hopes of cashing in...

Oddly enough, I've just started watching the Logan's Run series (as recorded off SciFi before it was "SyFy").  But I may stop now and wait to watch the better quality, uncut full series once it comes out in April.

--SKot

It’s nice to be able to see that a lot has changed since the original post here. Both Westworld and Futureworld are available on BD in the US, as well as what appears to be a sharper transfer on French BD. Beyond Westworld was released finally as an MOD with all 5 episodes on it in decent quality. And now we have a rather good Westworld remake series on HBO with at least a second season in development and up to 5 seasons total.

It’s a good time to be a Westworld fan.

–SKot