Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released) — Page 18

Sluggo said:

MattMahdi said:

SKot said:

henryperu77 said:

http://www.fuzzymemories.tv

Is this version available too??

 That's the WBBM-TV 2 Chicago version.  I haven't added it to the list yet.

Inferring from general silence, in the community, I'm guessing that the KCCI, KCMO, and WMAR discs are are the only ones floating around in the wild.

I'd never looked closely at the WBBM files because I assumed they were 

I wish I knew more about the versions, but I don't.  I only have the KCCI and I think the KCMO versions.

I don't actually have all the versions shown on my site...yet.  And some of them I have as a poor quality .avi or .mpg file, but was able to get a passable screen shot from them.

Would be nice to have a torrent site specifically dedicated to the HS and its various versions, commercials, and related video clips.  Hmm...

--SKot

SKot said:

I don't actually have all the versions shown on my site...yet.  And some of them I have as a poor quality .avi or .mpg file, but was able to get a passable screen shot from them.

Which makes a lot of sense. The ones we have out here are the ones worth having for viewing and enjoyment. Kind of like a Star Wars theater bootleg, some of which are out there: an historical curiosity, and a valuable reference, but not at all a thing to be enjoyed in its own right. For that you'd want reasonable clarity of picture and sound.

Would be nice to have a torrent site specifically dedicated to the HS and its various versions, commercials, and related video clips.  Hmm...

Too true. It's amazing how much material is surfacing these last months, and I'm obsessively archiving it just... because.

Started with the video clips from your site, SKot, because back then my Internet access was occasional at best and I wanted to be able to enjoy them at home. But then bits and pieces of stuff kept coming and coming.

The thing that really fired my imagination was the animatic to the animated segment. THAT's exciting: the possibility of having that and the finished version with either choice of audio. Or simulated picture-in-picture.

balsho said:

Yeah that's why I asked earlier if there's a full WMAR dvd still out there. 

I have one, if you're still interested.

I also have DVDs of the KCMO and CBS.

Could anyone hook me up with a KCCI?

Thanks,

Fritz

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!

Video Collector said:

balsho said:

Yeah that's why I asked earlier if there's a full WMAR dvd still out there. 

I have one, if you're still interested.

I also have DVDs of the KCMO and CBS.

 

Could anyone hook me up with a KCCI?

Thanks,

Fritz

Thanks but someone already was nice enough to get it to me.  Is the "CBS" one the one with all the frizzies talk?  Is it the same commercials as WMAR, but just with different bumpers or something?  I was tempted to throw in a frizzies bit somewhere in this one that I've been working on, but it just seemed wrong to deviate from the broadcast too much. 

I have KCCI. PM me if you'd like to work something out.

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.

..and my collection frightens my wife too :-)

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

Okay, maybe you guys could help me pinpoint the origin of my mystery Holiday Special?

Like I said, there appears to be no station IDs of any kind. The first ad break comes about 19 mins. in, and features two commercials only; One for General Motors ("People building transportation to serve people"), and then one for the "Trailtracker" car toy.

The ads seem to match the main programme in general image quality (reddish tint, uniform bluriness etc.) so I believe they are part of the actual, original recording.

This is identical to the one I have with the Rifftrax commentary, actually, but the image on the Rifftrax seems to be darker, and with more neutral colors. Maybe the same source with some post colour tweaking?

So, where are these from? Ring any bells?

(The other ones I have are the KCMO and WMAR2.)

SKot, I'm a longtime admirer of your Holiday Special site. You should get a book out. This info needs to be organized and preserved.

SKot said:

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.

I am an admirer of Puggo's work and have enjoyed the Puggo Grande many times.

I am in the process of having that 16mm commercial transferred by my brother-in law, actually. He's a wizard with the old school tech, but I may pass his transfer on to someone on this forum for the final, digital tweaks and restoration. I'll alert everyone once all the stars are in alignment. (Figuratively speaking)

Video Collector that one sounds like WMAR to me with the reddish tint that you say it has, thats kind of the main flaw of WMAR.  Maybe its a mix of sources like the first Rifftrax dvd is, that one is still a mystery to me.  Its also doesn't have any ids, but the commercials are obviously edited in.

I've only ever seen that one "Frizzies" bit floating around the web.  It would be fun to have them all but it sounds like if the whole WCBS version isn't that great in quality WMAR still is the go to version as far as the commercials are concerned.  Its funny I noticed while working on this version of mine that the Rifftrax guys even reference Fighting the Frizzies, even though they did their riff to WMAR.  All the original Frizzies bits and the South Park recreation would be yet another great extra to have on some super edition someday.

I'll settle for this being the KMAR version for the time being. Thanks for all your help.

Does anyone know anything about the European and the Australian broadcasts? The special was obviously shot on video, so these would have to be converted to PAL for broadcast outside the US.

What was the network procedure for such conversions at the time, I wonder. Did they have the ability to go directly from NTSC to PAL, or did they make a 16mm preservation and shoot a PAL version from that?

If anyone has them, I'd love to take a look at them. The Swedish broadcast is so close to home (Norway) I can't believe I'd never heard of it before.

Speaking of frizzies, has anyone ever figured out what the news report was actually about? Was it about frizzy winter hair?

Video Collector said:

I'll settle for this being the KMAR version for the time being. Thanks for all your help.

I assume you mean the WMAR version?  I agree that's most likely to be the one you have, especially since it was one of the most highly distributed copies.

Does anyone know anything about the European and the Australian broadcasts? The special was obviously shot on video, so these would have to be converted to PAL for broadcast outside the US.

I do know that Australia was the only known market to show the Holiday Special multiple times, as well as showing giving it the latest broadcast!  It was shown at least twice, and likely even 3 or more times, throughout the 80s...confirmed as late as 1984.

What was the network procedure for such conversions at the time, I wonder. Did they have the ability to go directly from NTSC to PAL, or did they make a 16mm preservation and shoot a PAL version from that?

That's an extremely good question.  I've never heard of a 16mm conversion (apart from an extremely dodgy eBay auction claiming to be for a 16mm copy of the show, which turned out to be false), though it's not out of the question.  It was definitely shot on video, and the masters were stored on professional grade tape.  My best guess is that they used those masters to create a PAL or SECAM version.

If anyone has them, I'd love to take a look at them. The Swedish broadcast is so close to home (Norway) I can't believe I'd never heard of it before.

You'll be interested to know that there have even been reports of a version having been broadcast in your own country as well.  Unfortunately, we haven't turned up any hard evidence to support the claim.  Here's what I have in my notes for it:

Stjernekrigens helligdags-spesial
("Star Wars Holiday Special")
Norwegian HS differences

Aired:
- [airdate unknown, but probably around May 31, 1979 when it aired in Sweden]

Running time:
- [unknown]

Subtitles:
- [unknown]

Notes:
Information has not been verfied with hard evidence.

-----

So basically all we have is a title, and a claim that it aired there.  Can you do some research on that in Norway to see if you turn up anything?  Maybe check with the TV stations there, or see if you can find any old listings.

The Swedish version, by the way, had material edited out.  It would be interesting to find out if the Norwegian version was edited as well.

--SKot

My fault I seem to keep writing WMAR with the K for some reason.  Maybe its some sub-conscience pride thing because I do live on the west coast :)

Yeah while editing/syncing the MMM commentary, them being Australian, they mention that they remember it showing multiple times.  Its odd that it was shown and quickly shunned here but put out a few times over there.

I do wonder if there's some sort of master preserved or not.  In that recent Carrie Fisher interview she mentions that she made GL give her a copy, I wonder what it is from and how it looks.  Its kind of funny, she's the only one with a somewhat official copy.

SKot said:

You'll be interested to know that there have even been reports of a version having been broadcast in your own country as well.  Unfortunately, we haven't turned up any hard evidence to support the claim.  Here's what I have in my notes for it:

Stjernekrigens helligdags-spesial
("Star Wars Holiday Special")
Norwegian HS differences

Aired:
- [airdate unknown, but probably around May 31, 1979 when it aired in Sweden]

Running time:
- [unknown]

Subtitles:
- [unknown]

Notes:
Information has not been verfied with hard evidence.

-----

So basically all we have is a title, and a claim that it aired there.  Can you do some research on that in Norway to see if you turn up anything?  Maybe check with the TV stations there, or see if you can find any old listings.

The Swedish version, by the way, had material edited out.  It would be interesting to find out if the Norwegian version was edited as well.

--SKot

I'm on it! At the time there was only one, state owned television channel in Norway. I'll try to get in touch with them and see if they can't confirm this.

Erikstormtrooper said:

Speaking of frizzies, has anyone ever figured out what the news report was actually about? Was it about frizzy winter hair?

According to that ultimate source for all truth and knowledge, Wikipedia, "probably in reference to a story on hair care". Obviously a slow news night. Speculation, but it's probably correct.

Poor man, to be remembered and immortalized by a group of uber-focused Star Wars fans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolland_Smith

RowMan said:

Will this latest "restoration" of the Holiday Special include the lost animation that supposedly was made to play just before and/or after the animated segment? Not necessarily edited in the program, just included somewhere.

Does anyone have a better source than this? It's pretty ghastly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6re5fLsELE

Just a heads up that I've been playing around with some new avisynth filters the last few days and the WBBM video is looking better than ever. (It pays to check out the doom9 forums more than once every blue moon.) I'll post some screens tomorrow or Monday.

Alright, screenshot time.

To expand on what I've been working on, I've been experimenting with using a few avisynth filters I've previously never used, such as QTGMC for deinterlacing, GradFun2DBmod to remove color banding, and SSSharp for sharpening. The results so far are amazing.

For my v1 release, I used the unsharp mask filter in Premiere, which did a decent job, but unfortunately left unsightly jaggies everywhere. Also, I didn't use any noise filtering whatsoever (and it appears I forgot to deblock as well). Notice how much cleaner v2 is in comparison.

(Screens were taken using AvsPmod. First frame is the original interlaced source, the second is v1 taken from the DVD, the third is v2 without any color correction.)

Here is the workflow I'm using for v2:

- D2V source (Deblock, ColorMatrix)
- QTGMC (deinterlace)
- FFT3DFilter (denoise)
- GradFun2DBmod (remove color banding)
- SSSharp

Customized scripts will be created for the commercials and the animated segment. The output will then go into Premiere for color correction. The one thing I'm not really happy about at the moment is the ghosting, but I don't know of a good way to get rid of it.

Out of interest, why are you deinterlacing? What is your final release format to be?

Good point. I am planning both a DVD and an h.264 MKV for use on PCs. I guess I don't have to deinterlace at this stage, it would just add an extra step before encoding the mpeg4 video.