Video Collector said:
MattMahdi said:
Video Collector said:
I also have DVDs of the KCMO and CBS.Pardon me for asking, but... CBS?
I thought that all [US] versions were CBS. Different call letters, but all the same network.
BTW, your collection is frightening in its scope!
Okay, I believe it is the WCBS one mentioned at the Holiday Special site. That's just because it doesn't seem to have any identifiers of any kind, and there was a CBS Newsbreak in it. Do pardon my ignorance of the US networks, I'm Norwegian.
Ah...well, back then the main networks were CBS, ABC and NBC. CBS was responsible for the Holiday Special's broadcast. Each of the 50 states in the US (for the most part) should have had at least one local CBS station that broadcast it its region (the States are bigger than many people realize), so all of the stations that showed the Holiday Special were CBS-affiliated. Those on the west side of the country had call letters that started with a K, and those on the east side started with a W...same thing with radio stations. WCBS was the one for the New York area, and probably is/was the flagship station (hence the CBS in its call letters). Most if not all of the broadcasts had a CBS newsbreak, but that (and some of the commercial slots as well) would have been specific to that local area.
The WCBS recording of the Holiday Special definitely made the rounds in the past, though every copy I've seen personally was terrible quality. Maybe that's why: the more copies out there, the worse the degradation and the harder it is to track the original source. It does not contain any on-screen station IDs during the program itself (it only shows during the news break), so if the commercials are missing then it's very difficult to tell which version it is. I think there's one other version that doesn't show a station ID.
The WCBS version was the one with "Fighting the Frizzies" on it during the news break, and therefore was also the one that Matt and Trey must have had on hand when they spoofed that segment for South Park. An amazingly obscure joke considering not only did you have to have seen the Holiday Special to get it, but you also had to have seen that *specific* version with commercials and news breaks intact!
..and my collection frightens my wife too :-)
Very impressive collection...it's good to see someone who actually has most of the iterations of the videotapes and has documented them. I spent a while looking through all the images. You're in good company; there are a lot of people here eager to trade information with you, myself included.
Regarding your 8mm and 16mm films, you should definitely hook up with Puggo here if you haven't already...he is able to do and has done a number of transfers to DVD from those formats for preservation. I'm thinking of that 16mm Boba Fett commercial in particular: I'm betting it's for the large-size action figure, and it would be great to have it digitally preserved in excellent quality.
Offhand and off-topic, did you ever happen to pick up a copy of the actual film telecine of the theatrical Episode I that floated around shortly after release? It was astounding quality for the time, and might be the best source for a true direct theatrical version. I have half of it, but sadly never was able to get the second half. There is also considerable interest in finding a screener or telecine of the theatrical Episode II, since that one also had changes made to it afterwards.
--SKot