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TV Shows on DVD ruined by music replacement or cuts/edits: Restoring them back to original state (a project) (Update: The Andy Griffith Show: Season 3 DONE)

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 (Edited)

This is something I've been wanting to do for a while. There have been many TV shows released on DVD; a good portion of them have no issues whatsoever, but there are quite the handful of shows that have their issues, such as syndicated episodes or music replacement. Let's gather up a list, our resources, and see what we can put together for this one...

 

For starters, myself and a good friend of mine, Josh, have been working on one for "Married...With Children". Starting with season 3, "Love and Marriage" was removed, and replaced with generic music. So what I've done was rip the audio from the DVDs, replace the generic music with "Love and Marriage" on the intro and credits, and remux from there. Seasons 4-11 are where things get a little trickier, because of the end credits being altered to remove the song credit all together. Season 4 also has syndicated versions for 7 episodes, and the Christmas episode is split as two parts (and also loses about 2-3 minutes of footage as a result, mostly on part 2). To fill in those gaps, I'm using the German DVD for those 7 episodes, since the episodes are presented uncut (but with the same theme changes), and a VHS of It's A Bundyful Life, which Josh hooked me up with a VHS-to-DVD transfer of, for the uncut version of that episode. I still have a lot to go with this one, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.

 

That's just one show, though. What other shows have been ruined, in some form, by music replacement or cuts/edits...or both?

 

Update 1: Married...With Children: Season 3 and Birds of Prey: The Complete Series DONE

Update 2: The Andy Griffith Show: Season 3 DONE

 

Look for all finished projects on Demonoid (my username is nocomments87) or PM me for downloadable links.

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Here's one to get the ball rolling.

 

The Andy Griffith Show. Now, for the most part, the DVDs have no issues, but for whatever reason, the episode "The Darlings Are Coming" is only 22:22, which doesn't seem right for a show from the 60's. On top of the official DVD sets, there's also a ton of public domain DVD releases, featuring a handful of episodes, mostly from the third season. One of those episodes is "The Darlings Are Coming". It's interesting to note that the episode on those releases lasts 25:30. So I've decided to rip the episode from one of the public domain DVDs. The DVD had the theme song changed, most likely due to copyright reasons, so I went ahead and changed it back to its original form.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QG2G4OSR

VOB file of the UNCUT "The Darlings Are Coming", 782 MB. No subtitles, and only language option is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in English (192 kbps).

 

Not sure if there's anything else cut from The Andy Griffith Show, but this one was one of the more obvious ones. I'll continue to add what I have ready to go, or any works-in-progress.

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Quantum Leap =/

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I remember reading that a lot of the music was replaced in WKRP in Cincinnati.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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I recently ordered the complete series of "The Birds of Prey" on DVD, courtesy of WBShop.com's blowout sale (they have the DVD set for only $8.90). From what I know, the episodes are uncut and widescreen, but non-anamorphic, but some of the music has been changed. I have the episodes from the original run in my collection, so there's another one to the list, and one I can actually handle...

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nocomments87 said:

For starters, myself and a good friend of mine, Josh, have been working on one for "Married...With Children". Starting with season 3, "Love and Marriage" was removed, and replaced with generic music. So what I've done was rip the audio from the DVDs, replace the generic music with "Love and Marriage" on the intro and credits, and remux from there. Seasons 4-11 are where things get a little trickier, because of the end credits being altered to remove the song credit all together. Season 4 also has syndicated versions for 7 episodes, and the Christmas episode is split as two parts (and also loses about 2-3 minutes of footage as a result, mostly on part 2). To fill in those gaps, I'm using the German DVD for those 7 episodes, since the episodes are presented uncut (but with the same theme changes), and a VHS of It's A Bundyful Life, which Josh hooked me up with a VHS-to-DVD transfer of, for the uncut version of that episode. I still have a lot to go with this one, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.


Why did they use syndicated episodes for a DVD release?

Did they do that to any episodees for seasons 5-11?

“Anakin had those qualities so rarely seen, exuding an unmistakable confidence and yet still able to touch one’s heart in simply knowing how he was so flawed… wounded.”

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Well I know the ALF dvds use syndicated episodes and then there's the cutting and splitting that's been done to Young Indiana Jones. I've been hoping someone would come along and start up a project to restore Young Indy.

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Darth Hade said:

 

nocomments87 said:

For starters, myself and a good friend of mine, Josh, have been working on one for "Married...With Children". Starting with season 3, "Love and Marriage" was removed, and replaced with generic music. So what I've done was rip the audio from the DVDs, replace the generic music with "Love and Marriage" on the intro and credits, and remux from there. Seasons 4-11 are where things get a little trickier, because of the end credits being altered to remove the song credit all together. Season 4 also has syndicated versions for 7 episodes, and the Christmas episode is split as two parts (and also loses about 2-3 minutes of footage as a result, mostly on part 2). To fill in those gaps, I'm using the German DVD for those 7 episodes, since the episodes are presented uncut (but with the same theme changes), and a VHS of It's A Bundyful Life, which Josh hooked me up with a VHS-to-DVD transfer of, for the uncut version of that episode. I still have a lot to go with this one, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.


Why did they use syndicated episodes for a DVD release?

Did they do that to any episodees for seasons 5-11?

 

Seasons 5-11 are fine...all of those episodes are intact, aside from the closing credits being altered like season 4. Sony's excuse for season 4's syndicated episodes was that the original elements weren't available, or something along those lines. Sounded like a load of crap, if you ask me, especially when Germany got the uncut episodes on their DVD set.

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Tobar said:

then there's the cutting and splitting that's been done to Young Indiana Jones. I've been hoping someone would come along and start up a project to restore Young Indy.

During one of my hiatuses from ot.com, a user named 5acrifice PM'ed me saying he had the full set of episodes, which could be used as bases to recreate the originals. I PM'ed him back, but he didn't return my PM. Hopefully, he, or someone else with all the episode, resurfaces.

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Quantum Leap:

The DVD releases of Season 1 and 5 are unaltered.

 

I have the syndicated versions of season 2-4 recorded from Sci-Fi Channel , which does not have the music replacement, but does have the syndicated versions of the opening credits.  Im sure there could be other edits to the syndicated versions.

 

The streaming versions currently available via Netflix are unaltered.

Strangely, the Hulu versions are altered.

aka nostromo777 on myspleen

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I've heard that the PAL DVDs are supposed to be unaltered too, but I've only read it on Wikipedia, so...

I have seasons 3 and 4, and I also noticed something else. I only checked episode 301, so I don't know if they're all like this, but it had this really weird sounding echo effect, like they held a microphone up to a TV to record it. I don't know if it had anything to do with the fake surround sound or what (was listening to it in stereo).

Hopefully if it is just a fake surround thing, there's a way to fix it with hardware or software, as opposed to reencoding the whole thing.

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Asaki said:

Quantum Leap =/

Seasons 2 and 3 have their music retained from Region 2 UK PAL land. Season 4 is where the real trouble lies. No studio release has the music retained.

So yes, one needs to import both Season Two and Three for music retainment from England which I've already done many years ago. Grab the audio from Netflix and place it with the video from the DVDs for Season Four.

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Unfortunately, Netflix has this thing where they don't let you stream every episode of a television series. At least a couple of episodes from each season will be grayed out and tell you you have to rent the actual DVD discs (in the mail) to watch them.

So unless they shuffle them around, or just happen to have only withheld episodes that were untouched on the DVDs, we've still got a few missing episodes.

Unless there are VHS/LD alternatives?

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nocomments87 said:

Seasons 5-11 are fine...all of those episodes are intact, aside from the closing credits being altered like season 4. Sony's excuse for season 4's syndicated episodes was that the original elements weren't available, or something along those lines. Sounded like a load of crap, if you ask me, especially when Germany got the uncut episodes on their DVD set.


That is very depressing.

Syndication editing has always annoyed me. It's not like they are not making enough cash.

Nope. They have to chop up the show to throw in a few more commercials to squeeze every damn penny.

After hearing this crap about some of season four, well, I'm really looking forward to your project, noc87.

“Anakin had those qualities so rarely seen, exuding an unmistakable confidence and yet still able to touch one’s heart in simply knowing how he was so flawed… wounded.”

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Shows on DVD with music replacements:

-The Super Mario Bros. Super Show

-The PJ's

-Daria

Shows on DVD with cuts/edits:

-The Ren and Stimpy Show (an insult I tell ya)

 

I may update this later.

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I know they shredded the music for the DVD releases of That 70's Show.

“Anakin had those qualities so rarely seen, exuding an unmistakable confidence and yet still able to touch one’s heart in simply knowing how he was so flawed… wounded.”

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ThiefCobbler4ever said:

Shows on DVD with music replacements:

-The Super Mario Bros. Super Show

-The PJ's

-Daria

Shows on DVD with cuts/edits:

-The Ren and Stimpy Show (an insult I tell ya)

 

I may update this later.

 

I did not know about The PJ's having music replacements. That sucks!

Here's a few more to add to the list:

 

The Fugitive (supposedly, the new Complete Series release restores some, but not all of the cues that were replaced in the first place)

Tales From The Darkside (the scores to most of the episodes were replaced)

 

And shows with cuts:

 

In Living Color: Seasons 2-5 has a bunch of cuts due to music rights

The Flintstones: Only one episode, thankfully, but it's one that's questionable. The episode "The Big Move" from season 3. I say it's questionable, because Boomerang airs the same episode uncut, so no idea why it would be cut on the DVD.

The Odd Couple: Mostly music-related cuts in seasons 3-5

Bosom Buddies: Same situation as The Odd Couple; affects both seasons.

Sanford and Son: 3 episodes are syndicated cuts; TV Land airs one of those episodes with the missing scene intact, though. Another one may possibly be uncut on the Columbia House tapes.

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Here's a preservation/reconstruction project I'd love to see: SCTV. Although Shout! Factory tried to clear as much as they could for their DVD releases, some stuff still couldn't be cleared. Also, not all of series 2-3 were released on DVD, and none of series 1 and 6 were released either.

In Canada, Comedy Network and Comedy Gold are running SCTV, I'm guessing that they're the late-90s half-hour syndication edits (which do have some music-related alterations, but I bet that there's some music that's intact on those versions that's not on the DVDs).

Using the Shout! Factory DVDs, the Comedy Network airings for the episodes not on DVD and to provide audio for any sketches that retain original music on Comedy but not on DVD, footage from older recordings to restore any sketches or music missing from the Comedy airings (and maybe even to matte out the Comedy Network watermark), and using the comprehensive episode guides online (specifically, at SCTVGuide.ca), I think it could be possible to create reconstructions of the uncut, unaltered versions.

Any SCTV fans around here who wanna take up this challenge?

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I think one of the really sad ones is Northern Exposure.

Some really interesting music was unapologetically replaced.  Be nice to see that restored some how.

Dr. M

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nocomments87 said:

Here's one to get the ball rolling.

 

The Andy Griffith Show. Now, for the most part, the DVDs have no issues, but for whatever reason, the episode "The Darlings Are Coming" is only 22:22, which doesn't seem right for a show from the 60's. On top of the official DVD sets, there's also a ton of public domain DVD releases, featuring a handful of episodes, mostly from the third season. One of those episodes is "The Darlings Are Coming". It's interesting to note that the episode on those releases lasts 25:30. So I've decided to rip the episode from one of the public domain DVDs. The DVD had the theme song changed, most likely due to copyright reasons, so I went ahead and changed it back to its original form.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QG2G4OSR

VOB file of the UNCUT "The Darlings Are Coming", 782 MB. No subtitles, and only language option is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in English (192 kbps).

 

Not sure if there's anything else cut from The Andy Griffith Show, but this one was one of the more obvious ones. I'll continue to add what I have ready to go, or any works-in-progress.

Wow. Another Andy Griffith Show fan out there who cares that much.

Along with the Darlings episode you mentioned, I have restored Season Three's "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" episode which was missing its epilogue on the official DVD release. It came from a 1993 VHS tape from UAV Corporation which featured an edited form of the episode, but included the epilogue.

In the Season Four official DVDs Paramount's first release omitted laugh tracks on several episodes, but later issued "fixed" discs which was supposed to correct the problem. Unfortunately, the episode  "The Sermon For Today" along with "A Black Day For Mayberry" still lose their laugh tracks at the 18 minute mark of each program. I was able to restore the laugh track from this point with the soundtracks from a Columbia House VHS tape for "Sermon" and a Premiere Promotions VHS tape for "A Black Day".

"We defy the Mafia!"

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The Netflix streaming version of the wonder years has a different version of the theme song and most of the  other songs have been replaced. Real shame.

FE<3OT

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RowMan said:

nocomments87 said:

Here's one to get the ball rolling.

 

The Andy Griffith Show. Now, for the most part, the DVDs have no issues, but for whatever reason, the episode "The Darlings Are Coming" is only 22:22, which doesn't seem right for a show from the 60's. On top of the official DVD sets, there's also a ton of public domain DVD releases, featuring a handful of episodes, mostly from the third season. One of those episodes is "The Darlings Are Coming". It's interesting to note that the episode on those releases lasts 25:30. So I've decided to rip the episode from one of the public domain DVDs. The DVD had the theme song changed, most likely due to copyright reasons, so I went ahead and changed it back to its original form.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QG2G4OSR

VOB file of the UNCUT "The Darlings Are Coming", 782 MB. No subtitles, and only language option is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in English (192 kbps).

 

Not sure if there's anything else cut from The Andy Griffith Show, but this one was one of the more obvious ones. I'll continue to add what I have ready to go, or any works-in-progress.

Wow. Another Andy Griffith Show fan out there who cares that much.

Along with the Darlings episode you mentioned, I have restored Season Three's "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" episode which was missing its epilogue on the official DVD release. It came from a 1993 VHS tape from UAV Corporation which featured an edited form of the episode, but included the epilogue.

In the Season Four official DVDs Paramount's first release omitted laugh tracks on several episodes, but later issued "fixed" discs which was supposed to correct the problem. Unfortunately, the episode  "The Sermon For Today" along with "A Black Day For Mayberry" still lose their laugh tracks at the 18 minute mark of each program. I was able to restore the laugh track from this point with the soundtracks from a Columbia House VHS tape for "Sermon" and a Premiere Promotions VHS tape for "A Black Day".

"We defy the Mafia!"

This is great...I almost set my DVR to record "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" from TV Land, since the epilogue is intact there too. Good thing to know you did a restoration on that episode. I did some reading, and there's also a brief dialogue cut on "Barney and the Governor". Makes you wonder what else is cut from season 3, cause I didn't hear any issues on seasons 1-2, and 5-8 (4, as you mentioned, had the missing laugh tracks...I have the Complete Series set, so I assume that has the fixed disc with most of the laugh tracks restored)

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nocomments87 said:

This is great...I almost set my DVR to record "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" from TV Land, since the epilogue is intact there too. Good thing to know you did a restoration on that episode. I did some reading, and there's also a brief dialogue cut on "Barney and the Governor". Makes you wonder what else is cut from season 3, cause I didn't hear any issues on seasons 1-2, and 5-8 (4, as you mentioned, had the missing laugh tracks...I have the Complete Series set, so I assume that has the fixed disc with most of the laugh tracks restored)

Unless they've changed the edit, the epilogue shown on TV Land is not actually the true epilogue. But record it anyway, just in case. PM me if you want details on this issue so we don't bore people here. Also, I've already done a ton of research and the alleged "Barney and the Governor" missing dialogue is incorrect. Someone was getting the dialogue mixed up with a different episode. The official DVD of this episode is in fact complete.

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Ah, SCTV. The altered music is less annoying than the way they just stopped releasing it while reasonably close to finishing it. Shout factory still might get around to releasing more but if they ever make it official that they are done, I was thinking I'd make a disc of "musically-restored" skits using the audio (and video where necessary) of what I have and whatever I can get from various sources out there. Luckily the show was cheap and doesn't sound too far removed from VHS tape anyway).

(Off the top of my head the worst offenders were The Bill Murray/Graduate bit without Mrs. Robinson, the John Williams polka, and the Benny Hill horns during the replace Tex contest.)

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An update on the Married...With Children project: I just finished burning and testing disc 1 of season 3. One thing you'll like about this one is that, on top of restoring "Love and Marriage" on the intro and end credits, I also restored the original Columbia Pictures Television logo at the end of each episode (one thing I never liked about Sony's TV on DVD releases is how they change those closing logos...nitpicking, perhaps, since it's not really a deal breaker either).

First of all, I must thank the wonderful how-to guides on this forum (mainly, the MPEG/AC-3 thread) for pointing me to the right direction on how to go about doing something like this. I used the following programs:

Adobe Audition - to change the music

Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD - to replace the audio with the new one, keeping the video the same, and also replacing the closing logo

DVD Author GUI - to author the MPEG files to DVD files, adding chapters

VOBblanker - to replace the titles with the newly-created ones, keeping the original menus, promos, "extras", etc.

 

The end result is a DVD that looks and acts as the old one, but with the correct music this time. The video is exactly the same, since no recompression was done whatsoever. This is truly the definitive edition...at least until someone takes it a step further and adds extras or something. Since I'm using the original DVD, that means that, of course, it's dual layer (approximately 6.45 GB). I'll start seeding it soon, and I'll work on discs 2 and 3 as well. The other seasons will be trickier, since the end credits were changed to remove the song credit, so I'll have to be on the lookout and record what I'm missing from TV (hoping that one of the channels plays the credits without interruptions).