I hope the panel went well!
It did go well! I’m guessing there were around 400 people in the room. And I’m hoping video of it will surface at some point.
–SKot
Finally!
Awesome! Glad somebody was able to record it, at least.
–SKot
I’m browsing eBay, and I came across a set of four SWHS trading cards. I’ve seen them there before, but today I’m going to actually buy them.
The question is: were there only four, or should I keep looking for another or two?
(And now that I look more closely at the photos of the cards I discover that I already own them. They’re from the first series of Star Wars Galaxy, which is in a binder somewhere at home. But of course I already purchased them. Oh well.)
In addition to those three (I think there’s only three, is there a fourth?) cards, there is also a set of 11 SWHS trading cards given out by the Star Wars Store with orders back in 2008, and a series of cards from the 2007 Topps 30th Anniversary set including 5 cards with pictures from the Holiday Special and 2 cards featuring simulated animation cels from the Holiday Special.
–SKot
I hope the panel went well!
It did go well! I’m guessing there were around 400 people in the room. And I’m hoping video of it will surface at some point.
–SKot
Also want to know why do people always include the WMAR commercials and not the original WCBS ones.
I believe it’s because the WMAR commercials are in good quality, and it’s not common to find a copy of the WCBS broadcast with commercials in any decent quality.
–SKot
My Dad turned me on to listening to old radio show rebroadcasts back in the 70’s, so I think I’ve heard the radio version a few times. The title is certainly familiar. I somehow missed the Sci-Fi channel airings, and I was an avid viewer in the 90’s.
I knew about the Lights Out! radio program from my mother quoting it. I guess she used to listen to it when she was little. Not sure she ever saw the TV show, though.
I think there were a lot of things that quietly aired on SciFi once and slipped through the cracks. I was surprised to hear about this one. Apparently other episodes were aired too, including at least one (Season 3’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”) that hasn’t appeared on any release and doesn’t exist in the Paley archives either. I only hope someone out there recorded it.
As with lost BBC shows, who knows what will turn up or where.
'Tis true! ReelclassicDVD recently (2016) released a rare Season 1 kinescope (“The Invisible Staircase”) that was privately owned. To date it is the only Season 1 episode available publicly, and also the first time I’d ever seen the original TV show narrator Jack LaRue doing his appearance - all the available later episodes are done by the eerie Frank Gallop. Who knows how many more privately-owned kinescopes are out there (or are being destroyed by people who don’t know or understand their value). More of these, please!
–SKot
Seems like I might have gotten just a little bit too obscure with this one. Being that this is from some of television’s earliest days, most people have never even heard of it.
–SKot
Is there a way to download even the watermarked full images from the site? I can only get 1024 px high and can’t understand the source code that much.
Well, using Microsoft Edge I was able to click on the images to show the larger 1024 size, and then right-click and “Save Picture As”. They’re alll watermarked of course, but it works.
–SKot
SilverWook said:
I’ve racked my brains for years trying to recall what I think was a one off tv special, that had an even larger grouping of the Cantina guys, plus what looked like the suit from Alien! That would place it around late 1979 or early 1980.
Could it be Starstruck, from 1979? It was a one-off made-for-TV Star Wars rip-off that I think featured some very Cantina-like alien creatures. I have a copy of it but have not watched it yet.
–SKot
Or maybe Lucasfilm still had the insert sets lying around?
That’s a great question I think I’ll have to ask Tom Spina, who is the only guy I know of who might actually know the answer.
–SKot
Would the drunk driving PSA have been shot around the same time, and utilized the cantina set built for the HS?
https://youtu.be/lxpz3Lp-PCk
The makeup on the bartender seems similar to one of the new characters made for the HS.
Interesting idea, but it’s not the same set. I’m guessing they just mocked one up on the fly, ala the Cantina pick-up shots done for the movie. The commercial apparently aired in 1979, so the time period is right for them to have used anything left over from the Holiday Special, but I guess they didn’t. They captured the hazy look and seedy feel of the Cantina far better than the Holiday Special did, though!
Funny to see how they utilized crappy plastic ice cream sundae cups all over the bar, though!
–SKot
Stumbled upon a treasure trove of high res promotional stills from the Special:
Pretty awesome, eh? Shame about the watermarks, though. I’m told Getty takes images that aren’t even their own and watermarks them. That always irks me. But they really are apparently representing the CBS photo archive…though I don’t know that even CBS really owns these images anymore either. Lucasfilm bought all the rights to the Holiday Special back in the 80s, so technically they/Disney should own all of it now, I would think.
–SKot
LexX said:
I actually found the English subs around the web but the timing is off. Still, I’ll use it as my base for translation.
Yeah, I imagine the timing is probably off depending on the version they used to create it.
Would there be any interest in creating a multi-language version of this using the Editdroid version as the base? Getting different dubs and subs for it etc. I don’t know if any dubbed releases are around fully but it could be a fun project for 40th anniversary beside the bonus disc if it’s happening, too.
I think that would be great. EditDroid has the official Spanish dub available as an alternate audio track. The French version is out there, but that airing was edited down quite a bit so you’d have to create an alternate cut of the film for it to fit.
–SKot
Lights Out - episode guide
TV Specials (1946)
First Person Singular (6/30/1946) [likely not kinescoped]
Something in the Wind (8/11/1946) [likely not kinescoped]
DeMortius (9/1/1946) [likely not kinescoped]
The Brave Man with a Cord (10/13/1946) [likely not kinescoped]
Season 1 (1949-1950)
Edna Warren (7/19/1949)
Promise (7/26/1949) [no on-screen narrator, at Paley Center]
Long Distance (8/2/1949) [no on-screen narrator, at Paley Center]
Crater (8/9/1949)
Souvenirs of His Dead Wife (8/16/1949)
The Housekeeper (8/23/1949)
Dressing Gown (8/30/1949)
The Whisper (9/23/1949)
Conqueror's Isle (11/7/1949)
Pengallen's Bell (11/14/1949)
The Fall of the House of Usher (11/21/1949)
I Dreamt I Died (11/28/1949)
Something In the Wind (New Production) (12/5/1949)
Justice Lies Waiting (12/12/1949)
The Elevator (12/19/1949)
The Man Who Couldn't Lose (12/26/1949)
The Riverman (1/2/1950)
Judgment Reversed (1/9/1950) [at Paley Center]
The Green Dress (1/16/1950)
The Devil to Pay (1/23/1950)
Reservations For Four (1/30/1950)
Dead Pigeon (2/6/1950)
The Invisible Staircase (2/13/1950) [Narrator: Jack LaRue, on ReelclassicDVD.com disc]
Graven Image (2/20/1950)
Portrait of a Dead Man (2/27/1950)
The Strange Case of John Kingman (3/6/1950)
The Emerald Lavalier (3/13/1950)
The Scarab (3/20/1950)
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (3/27/1950)
The Queen Is Dead (4/3/1950)
The Faithful Heart (4/10/1950)
A Toast to Sergeant Farnsworth (4/17/1950)
The Man Who Couldn't Remember (4/24/1950)
The Gloves of Gino (5/1/1950)
The Silent Voice (5/8/1950)
The House That Time Forgot (5/15/1950)
Rendezvous (5/22/1950)
How Love Came to Professor Guldia (5/29/1950)
The Heart of Jonathan O'Rourke (6/5/1950)
The Determined Lady (6/12/1950)
A Child Is Crying (6/19/1950)
An Encore (6/26/1950)
The Whisper (New Production) (7/3/1950)
I Dreamt I Died (New Production) (7/10/1950)
The Devil to Pay (New Production) (7/17/1950)
The Strange Case of John Kingman (New Production) (7/31/1950)
The Queen Is Dead (New Production) (8/14/1950)
The Heart of Jonathan O'Rourke (New Production) (8/21/1950)
Season 2 (1950-1951)
The Ides of April (8/28/1950)
Benuili Chant (9/4/1950)
The Dark Corner (9/11/1950)
The Leopard Lady (9/18/1950)
Sisters of Shadow (9/25/1950)
The Posthumous Dead (10/2/1950)
Just What Happened (10/9/1950) [on Volume 8 DVD]
The Thing Upstairs (10/16/1950)
The Skeptics (10/23/1950)
The Martian Eyes (10/30/1950)
The Half Pint Flask (11/6/1950)
The Waxwork (11/13/1950)
Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (11/20/1950)
The Mule Man (11/27/1950)
Beware This Woman (12/4/1950) [on Volume 4 DVD]
Masque (12/11/1950)
The Men On the Mountain (12/18/1950)
Jasper (12/25/1950) [not on DVD, SciFi Channel broadcast]
The Haunted Skyscraper (1/1/1951)
Bird of Time (1/8/1951)
The Bottle Imp (1/15/1951)
For Release Today (1/22/1951) [on Volume 7 DVD]
The Masque of the Red Death (1/29/1951)
The House of Dust (2/5/1951)
Curtain Call (2/12/1951) [on Volume 6 DVD]
Strange Legacy (2/19/1951) [on Volume 5 DVD]
The Dispossessed (2/26/1951)
The Man With the Astrakhan Hat (3/5/1951)
Leda's Portrait (3/12/1951)
Western Night (3/19/1951)
The Power of the Brute (3/26/1951)
The Mad Dullaghan (4/2/1951) [on Volume 3 DVD]
The Crushed Rose (4/9/1951)
The Witness (4/16/1951) [at Paley Center]
The Fonceville Curse (4/23/1951) [on Volume 6 DVD]
Grey Reminder (4/30/1951) [on Volume 4 DVD]
The Lost Will of Dr. Rant (5/7/1951) [on Volume 8 DVD]
Dead Man's Coat (5/14/1951) [on Volume 5 DVD]
Cat's Cradle (5/21/1951) [on Volume 6 DVD]
The Pattern (5/28/1951) [on Volume 3 DVD]
The Martian Eyes (New Production) (6/4/1951) [on Volume 8 DVD]
Pit of the Dead (6/11/1951)
Dead Freight (6/18/1951)
The Passage Beyond (6/25/1951) [on Volume 1 DVD]
And Adam Begot (7/2/1951) [on Volume 5 DVD]
The Meddlers (7/9/1951) [on Volume 5 DVD]
The Devil In Glencairn (7/16/1951) [on Volume 4 DVD]
Zero Hour (7/23/1951)
The Fingers (7/30/1951)
The Faceless Man (8/6/1951) [on Volume 2 DVD]
The Man With the Watch (8/13/1951) [on Volume 1 DVD]
Follow Me (8/20/1951)
Season 3 (1951-1952)
Mrs. Manifold (8/27/1951) [on Volume 7 DVD]
Blackwood Hall (9/3/1951)
Prophet of Darkness (9/10/1951)
To See Ourselves (9/17/1951)
Rappaccini's Daughter (9/24/1951) [SciFi Channel broadcast]
Will-O'-the-Wisp (10/1/1951) [on Volume 6 DVD]
Dark Image (10/8/1951) [on Volume 2 DVD]
I Spy! (10/15/1951) [on Volume 3 DVD]
The Deal (10/22/1951) [on Volume 7 DVD]
The Veil (10/29/1951) [on Volume 2 DVD]
The Chamber of Gloom (11/5/1951)
The Beast In the Garden (11/12/1951)
Friday the Nineteenth (11/19/1951)
The Far-Off Island (11/26/1951)
The Silent Supper (12/3/1951) [on Volume 3 DVD]
The Angry Birds (12/10/1951) on Volume 7 DVD]
Perchance to Dream (12/17/1951) [on Volume 2 DVD]
This Way to Heaven (12/24/1951)
Of Time and Third Avenue (12/30/1951)
The School For the Unspeakable (1/7/1952)
Blood Relation (1/14/1952)
The Intruder (1/21/1952)
The Third Door (1/28/1952)
The Chain (2/4/1952) [at UCLA archive]
Cries the String (2/11/1952)
The Eyes From San Francisco (2/18/1952)
The Perfect Servant (2/25/1952)
Private - Keep Out (3/3/1952)
The Upstairs Floor (3/10/1952) [on Volume 4 DVD]
The Borgia Lamp (3/17/1952)
Another Country (3/24/1952) [on Volume 7 DVD]
The Pit (4/7/1952)
The Men On the Mountain (New Production) (4/14/1952)
A Lucky Piece (4/21/1952)
For Rent (4/28/1952)
A Journey Into the Shadows (5/5/1952)
The Green Thumb (5/12/1952)
Little Girl (5/19/1952)
The Death's Head (5/26/1952)
Night Walk (6/2/1952)
Blind Man's Bluff (6/9/1952)
Nightmare (6/16/1952)
The Coins of Death (6/23/1952)
The Lonely Albatross (6/30/1952)
The Corpse In Room Thirteen (7/7/1952)
The Bog Oak Necklace (7/14/1952)
Death Trap (7/28/1952)
Man In the Dark (8/4/1952)
The Killer's Moon (8/11/1952)
Twist of Fate (8/18/1952)
Death Is a Small Monkey (8/25/1952)
The Verdict (9/1/1952)
The Red Rose (9/8/1952)
The Darker Night (9/15/1952)
Flight Thirteen (9/22/1952)
The Hollow Man (9/29/1952)
TV Pilot (1972)
When Widows Weep (01/15/1972) [at Paley Center]LIGHTS…OUUUUUT!!
I’ve always been a big fan of spooky anthology shows, with The Twilight Zone of course being the catalyst for that. Now, TZ of course is well-preserved on a stunning Blu-ray set (which I have), and The Outer Limits is just beginning to arrive on BD as well finally (hooray!). But there were a lot of these kinds of shows since the early days of television, and many of them have not fared so well as the big names. Here’s a fairly complete list someone compiled of such shows:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000520791/
Some of them are available in varying quality on full DVD sets, while others have only a few episodes that have ever been made available. A few of them (like 'Way Out or Great Ghost Stories) have had no commercial release ever. And then there are some with many episodes that may be missing or lost forever, and just maybe copies of a few episodes locked away in repositories like the Paley Center or Library of Congress.
Lights Out is great example of a show that has faced those troubles. It was based on the old radio show of the same name. There were 3 seasons from 1949-1952, but also a set of 4 specials that aired in 1946 to kick things off. However, since this was the age of live television, the 4 specials were likely never recorded and have vanished into the ether…so we just have to forget about ever seeing those again. For the 3 main seasons, though, a smattering of episodes out of the 156 total have survived as low-quality kinescopes (recordings of a live broadcast off a television screen)…and 30 of those (from Seasons 2 & 3 only) have been released on DVD in no particular order.
Now, outside of that there are a few more Lights Out episodes in the Paley Center for Media’s collection, taken from kinescopes that have been donated or acquired…including 3 from the elusive Season 1, and a pilot for a proposed new series that was aired in 1972 (but which never went any further than that). That episode is pretty dismally bad, but exists as a viewable recording in the Paley Center’s collection. So there are a few more that aren’t available elsewhere but can be viewed if you visit their New York or L.A. archive offices. And then there are some episodes of Lights Out aired on SciFi in the 90s (pre-SyFy), including at least 2 that are not otherwise available. So that’s a few more there. But how many still exist? Are there more in private collections?
This thread is meant as an exploration of what’s out there, and an attempt to see if we can turn up any more sources for further Lights Out episodes.
Are there any high quality subs done for the HS in English? For the latest TV master release I mean. I’d like to try to translate it. Would be fun to have a project Threepio type of thing for this one too.
I’ve got a set of subtitles, but I don’t know how great they are. Also don’t know which version of the Special they’re timed for, but they go through an hour, 50 minutes, and 32 seconds.
Original site says they’re for The.Star.Wars.Holiday.Special.1978.VHSRip.XviD-DaPOO.
I have not seen any English subtitles myself, but there are official subtitles in Swedish for the version that played over there. That one’s slightly edited down…but it’s a start. There is a rumored Norwegian version that is probably subtitled as well, but it has yet to turn up. The official French and Spanish versions I’ve seen are dubbed. It supposedly aired in Belgium with Dutch subtitles, but I’ve yet to see that either.
–SKot
Oh wow, congrats on the panel Scott! Do you know if it will be recorded? I’m sad I’m gonna miss this.
I’ll echo that. Very much want to see it! And my wife tells me there’s no way I’m traveling from Seattle … which in fairness I did already know.
I wish everyone here could be there for it; it’s bound to be interesting and a lot of fun. I religiously attended every previous Tom Spina Cantina or Jabba’s Palace panel at Celebrations because they are not to be missed. This time Tom will be putting his focus on the Holiday Special’s Cantina, while I’ll be speaking on the overall show and Pablo Hidalgo will be there providing official insider info (or so I hope!).
Of course we’d love to take this to Celebration next year, so maybe some of you who are going will be able to see it there if we get approval (crossing my fingers!).
Oh, and I don’t know if the venue/event films the panel at FanX, but someone did film the whole Tom Spina panel from last year there…so it will likely turn up on YouTube like that one did.
–SKot
SilverWook said:
Haven’t watched the Blu-Ray version in a while, but I swear it looked like it was taken from something s few generations down from a broadcast master? (They also windowboxed it into a smaller image?) The vintage documentaries look even worse, and those could have been transferred off the original film elements had they been willing to spend some money.
Yes, they made the decision to windowbox everything that was sourced from videotape in the Blu-ray. Definitely an irritating decision for purists and people who care about quality. But I don’t know if that says anything in particular about their source for the Fett cartoon, besides the fact that it came from video. It did seem to be not the most stunning quality, but I do think it was probably taken from one of the U-matic 3/4" master tapes that they were supposed to get when CBS transferred rights over to them.
I still wonder if the film for the Boba Fett cartoon even exists anymore. Nelvana lost a bunch of stuff in a fire that also destroyed the alternate version of Rock and Rule. A surviving video tape copy was used on the DVD and Blu-Ray extras.
What a shame. Although I have to wonder if they would have kept the Fett cartoon film or turned it over to Lucasfilm. Seems more likely it would be in LFL’s archives, and maybe they just didn’t bother to do a transfer from celluloid. Note also that LFL had that full Leica reel of pencil tests/animatics for the cartoon that they put up on StarWars.com back in 2008 (but which is now sadly gone, along with tons of other great content). That should have been on the Blu-ray as well.
–SKot
They kept the 1993 Laserdisc masters around. And Fox may actually own the video master. It’s technically not even a Lucasfilm production.
Lucasfilm does own it outright now, since May 1989 at least. They bought the rights from CBS and transferred the copyright over. But while they probably have at least one master copy, the condition of that copy is unknown - it may not be in great shape after all this time. I’m assuming they took the Boba Fett cartoon that’s on the Blu-rays from a master copy and cleaned it up as best they could.
–SKot
The EditDroid release is based on a broadcast master. The best possible quality one could hope for or obtain short of raiding the LFL vault.
The way that auction is worded sounds like it’s just a recording.
I contacted the seller, and unfortunately they weren’t much help. It sounded like it was likely a recording, but they couldn’t tell me for sure. Didn’t give me warm fuzzies, so I gave it a miss.
In the meantime, somebody bought it…and at the BIN price of $399!! Guess they really wanted it and had cash to burn. Anybody know who picked this up? Even if it is a broadcast recording, it would be great to know what station it originated from.
–SKot
I Did Stumble Across The YouTube Video That Was In 60FPS and it was The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Link Below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE
What the hell is that?
<Alexei Sayle>
I mean, I may be a bit stupid, but…
60i to my knowledge does not mean 60 frames per second but 60 fields per second (and 30 frames per second), in the same way the 720i would not mean 720 frames per second…yes?
(jumps around waving arms maniacally and making ridiculous noises and faces)
</Alexei Sayle>
I don’t know who this person is, or what they did to this video, or what their source was exactly (although I can guess), but it looks pretty nice regardless. I’d like to hear from them.
–SKot
1 year old message 😦. I have a VHS original copy of “Captain Kirk & Crew The Rehearsals and Blooper Tapes !!!” Copyright Glow Burn P/L 1997. It runs for approx 55 minutes. Unfortunately I no longer have a VHS player. Is this the tape you are looking for?
I didn’t find any info on that one. Any chance you could post a picture of the cover (and the back, if possible)?
–SKot
I like where you’re going with this. I had worked on a similar project some time back, and if you follow the link in my signature you may find some useful information there.
I did try to put all the Kenner commercials into proper chronological order, as close as I could get. Some were easy, others were not. In some cases I was able to look at images of Kenner catalogs detailing their advertising plans for that year, which often gave the exact month-to-month of when a particular commercial was scheduled to air.
I don’t have the bandwidth right now to do much with this (my year is going to be very busy with Star Wars Holiday Special-related things), but you’re welcome to use whatever info I have available.
–SKot
Wow, this is really surreal. I’m watching the new Rifftrax streaming version for the first time and it is definitely my version of the crawl. Same edit of the opening Rifftrax commentary, same music I chose, same double dissolve to black at the end of the crawl (a mistake I corrected on my v2 DVD, but present on my original DVD and most likely any other release that used my crawl).
It’s kinda weird knowing I just paid to watch something I created, but at the same time also fun and exciting. Maybe I should contact them and say “you’re welcome”. 😛
I thought it looked like your crawl, but I knew the actual footage came from another source. They must have figured the EditDroid-based footage was too nice to use, so they had to go to the effort to create a whole new spliced-together version.
–SKot
Another $20 sent. Though I’m not a huge fan of this film on the whole either, it’s very historically important and needs an original theatrical preservation. I’m all for it.
–SKot
PM sent to Puggo.
Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but Rifftrax.com just released a “NEW high-ish quality VHS Transfer” of the SWHS. I wonder what version they used.
Have you not seen the broadcast master EditDroid gave us a couple years ago, Zion? It has about 4 times the resolution of that Rifftrax clip.
-G
In fact, Zion did a hybrid version based on the EditDroid transfer which included the optional RiffTrax commentary and commercials. Doesn’t look like RiffTrax used that one, but they should have. I’m curious as well what version they used. I bought a copy, so I’ll see if I can glean any information from it.
–SKot