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Info: 1983 UK 'TVS' Star Wars premiere - anybody still have a recording?

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Hi folks!

This is probably a futile search, but have any of you in the UK still got a copy of the ‘TVS’ premiere of Star Wars which aired in 1983? With all the ads intact? It’s my Star Wars Holy grail in many ways.

Fingers crossed!

7FN

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russs15 said:

TVS  ?? 

Is that one of the old ITV regions??

Yes, TVS = Television South.

I still have my taped recording (it was used as the source for the mono mix restoration project), it was actually from Central but it doesn't contain any idents or ads anyway.

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The one I got the screenshots from was probably Anglia or Central but also with no ads.

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Holy grail indeed!

I suppose it's not surprising that no complete recordings of the ITV broadcast have surfaced around here - if you factor in the perceived irritation of having to fast forward through ad breaks and the (then) high cost of blank tapes, you can see why the majority of recordings would be abridged if not subsequently erased altogether.

I still have in my possession Russ's excellent transfer of an original - albeit ad-free - recording (Russ, thanks again and I promise I'll get the discs back to you ASAP!) There's a bit of material missing from the beginning and end, but the ad break bumpers are intact:

Photobucket

It might be possible to do a reconstruction of sorts, particularly given that some of the ads are on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neDwj8oTBdM

Presumably we could also piece together some other breaks of a similar vintage, perhaps include some Kenner ads or TV spots for contemporary movies, what do you think?

A couple of final points. First, it seems that there was a screening of a complete tape at this event last year: http://inda80s.cgeu.info/ (scroll to the bottom - that's a DVD cover I made, bizarrely!) I contacted them but to no avail, but perhaps you'll have more luck?

Second, just for nostalgia's sake here's a PDF of the TV Times from that week:

http://www.box.com/s/56169ff8b190cf2dac29

http://www.box.com/s/d294966e7ffb94eb2a32

Enjoy!

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Thanks for the replies folks :)

Yes it does seem unlikely I'll be able to get a decent copy inc. all the ad. breaks and wotnot - sometimes the past remains the past I guess. I seem to remember (on TVS - not sure about the ITV region) that The Smurfs was on before-hand, though will have to check out the awsome TV Times PDF which Jonno has so kindly linked to - many thanks for that (those go for anything from £10-30 on Ebay!).

Jonno - thanks for all those links! Look forward to going through all those after posting this. Yes I saw that screener advert last year - so somebody must still have it in their possession (and if you're reading this PLEASE get in touch if so - I can put it onto DVD-R for you). Likewise I got in touch but no luck :/

We didn't have a video recorder back then so I recorded it onto cassette (and heaven help anyone who talked or DARE sneeze through it hahaha!). That along with the Story of Star Wars was my go-to version for years, along with some reel-to-reel recordings I made of the Star Wars Radio Drama (aired in 1980 on BBC One Radio). Good memories! :)

- 7FN

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7FN are you sure the radio drama aireed in 1980, did it not air in 1984?

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My mistake - I think it was actually 1981 here in the UK, and the States.

Would love to find someone with scans of the Radio Times original listings for all 13 episodes!

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Jonno: Just downloaded the TV Times scans you kindly provided - awsome! That issue bought back so many memories! Love the old adverts! I was 10 when Star Wars premiered, and distinctly remember that issue. Wish I'd kept our southern 'TVS' variant. Having said that might well be in the loft somewhere... must check!

Thanks again :)

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danny_boy seems to have a UK broadcast recording:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Tantives-Orange-Items-Thread-other-unintended-objects/post/540411/#TopicPost540411

but he says his was broadcasted in '82, you might want to check with him 7FN.

Personally I would like to know if there has been any of these UK TV-broadcasts made available for download someplace, as the transfer they used for them are quite unique among the many pan & scan versions of the film, I would very much like to see one of them preserved.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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<p>Hi msycamore, thanks for stopping by! The original broadcast was definitely October 1982 (see the TV Times listings magazine I posted earlier in the thread). One of my projects for the summer is a decent assembly of this version - I have some very good DVD copies from an original recording (courtesy of Russ), and I need to compile the best versions along with a bit of authoring polish.</p>
<p>I'll drop danny_boy a PM - the ideal version would include the broadcast ad breaks, which have their own nostalgic appeal for those of us who grew up in 1980s UK (the recordings I have unfortunately don't include these).</p>
<p>edit: what's up with the HTML today?</p>

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Jonno wrote:

edit: what's up with the HTML today?

 

It's being investigated: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/browser-exposes-HTML-when-posting-a-reply/topic/14496/

Jay wrote: the next time the editor fails to load, check the main HTML element at the top of the element inspector (Firebug or Chrome Dev) and see if it has a class of "js". I need to determine if the problem is confined to the editor or if all JavaScript is failing when you see this problem. Thanks.

I had a similar problem and it self corrected after a restart.

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That's great Jonno! looking forward to it. :)

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Jonno said:

 

Hi msycamore, thanks for stopping by! The original broadcast was definitely October 1982 (see the TV Times listings magazine I posted earlier in the thread). One of my projects for the summer is a decent assembly of this version - I have some very good DVD copies from an original recording (courtesy of Russ), and I need to compile the best versions along with a bit of authoring polish.


I'll drop danny_boy a PM - the ideal version would include the broadcast ad breaks, which have their own nostalgic appeal for those of us who grew up in 1980s UK (the recordings I have unfortunately don't include these).


edit: what's up with the HTML today?

 

This sounds awsome! Would love to 'relive' that premiere - I remember it was a really big deal at the time! Now we take dvds and blurays for granted, but back then a TV premiere of a big film was still an event. I expect the TVS version (where we were) had different adbreaks?

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Compared to current VHS projects around here now, I consider how I transfered the tape that Jonno refers to as a complete hack job!!!! VHS to DVD recorder is far from perfect. Having said that, the tape played as a 25 year old TV to VHS recording and the DVD is no worse. It is what it is.

I am looking forward to seeing what can be done by Jonno with this.....

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Moth3r said:

I still have my taped recording (it was used as the source for the mono mix restoration project), it was actually from Central but it doesn't contain any idents or ads anyway.

Does your recording contain the end credits? if so, which ones?

Any updates on this Jonno?

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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For those who have some interest in the ITV broadcast, I asked Russs15 if I could post up some frames from one of his two captures of the tape (this being the slightly more compressed version). This is not meant at all as a preview to Jonno's work, but to give a taster of the raw materials for those interested in its strengths. Although the tape is marred by heavy colour casts on certain scenes, soft focus, and is the direct opposite of the home video releases in that tends towards being too dark/murky, the main buried treasure here is SATURATION. It's been suggested that this is from a 16mm print, if so it must be from a fresh print because it has the solid richness to it approaching a 35mm print (to my eyes). Here is an example of that rich quality, which in some scenes gives the images a burnished look similar to how negative1's teaser frames of his prints look via compression.

http://i48.tinypic.com/funhh2.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/2mrt8ix.jpg

The benefit of this saturation is more lifelike skin tone. Scenes that often look washed out on home video leaving oddly coloured, flat, skintone in certain frames, on this version look much nearer to lifelike tone/body. Also the reflective copper-gold of C-3P0 comes through more pronounced:

http://i49.tinypic.com/2zqa0l3.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/2lu9mg.jpg

This 'body' adds a greater sense of solid depth within a frame.

http://i47.tinypic.com/ixh5rt.jpg

Thirdly the death star attack has the blue tones intact which faded to grey on later transfers.

http://i49.tinypic.com/ie1auq.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/vya5fp.jpg

I will be posting up some more frames later in the day to give more of a sense of the pluses of this tape. Thanks to Russs15 for preserving this tape to look back on in 2012!

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Yeah, I recently got to see this one myself, and it's fantastic in its film-like quality, the theatrical timing is mostly intact.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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msycamore said:

Yeah, I recently got to see this one myself, and it's fantastic in its film-like quality, the theatrical timing is mostly intact.

I agree this does look pretty intact all things considered

 

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Thanks for your patience everyone, this project is still on its way! I don't want to rush the decision-making process here (Russ has provided multiple passes so I want to make sure I'm using the best version of each segment) so I'm still at the rough assembly stage.

I want to keep this preservation as transparent as possible so I'm initially grappling with Womble - I have other (arguably better) editing tools which can edit the MPEG-2 but they WILL re-encode it, particularly since I'll be adding material from other sources (e.g. the ads).

As a rough estimate I'll be looking to get this done in time for Christmas - the formats will be a DVD with menus (possibly dual layer, depends on the final tally) and an MP4. Any thoughts or suggestions in the meantime, send them this way...

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Jonno said:

Thanks for your patience everyone, this project is still on its way! I don't want to rush the decision-making process here (Russ has provided multiple passes so I want to make sure I'm using the best version of each segment) so I'm still at the rough assembly stage.

I want to keep this preservation as transparent as possible so I'm initially grappling with Womble - I have other (arguably better) editing tools which can edit the MPEG-2 but they WILL re-encode it, particularly since I'll be adding material from other sources (e.g. the ads).

As a rough estimate I'll be looking to get this done in time for Christmas - the formats will be a DVD with menus (possibly dual layer, depends on the final tally) and an MP4. Any thoughts or suggestions in the meantime, send them this way...

Thanks Jonno, did'nt want to pre-empt anything you're doing, just wanted to get some examples of the 'buried treasure' on this tape posted as I have recently done a compare and contrast with my 1982 PAL rental tape, which is washed out compared to this, despite being an earlier tape (!)

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Not at all Frank, this is an important version so the more exposure it gets the better!

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I would just like to give a potted history of this release as well as to join a few dots on recent activity.

Firstly, see this thread regarding the origin of this tape.....

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/1980s-ITV-Broadcast-of-Star-Wars/topic/4340/

Following my transfer of the tape and sending all elements back to the owner, the next person to see this work was Baxterianism in early 2009. The baton was passed to Jonno earlier this year and he is the lead on attempting to make a viable release of what I sent. The quality of the media I used back in 2006 was questionable (crappy DVD's) and I just hope there is enough material to make this work.

Before I sent this to Jonno, I managed to keep a few files which I have used these to answer lots of questions from numerous people and the conclusion is that this version of the film is simply so different to any other known version out there.

I now have the source material back and I have since shared the most compressed version as an avi with the three individuals who have shown the most interest in seeing the differences in this.

I for one am looking forward to seeing this given the treatment it deserves, albeit roughly 7 years late!!!

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Thanks for the update Jonno, take your time. And thanks again Russ for sharing this! Would be interesting to see how Moth3r's recording compare, did danny_boy get back to you regarding his copy, Jonno?

So, this was first broadcasted in UK October '82, did ITV continue to use this particular master several times in the 80's? I got very nostalgic watching this without really knowing why but then I realized that it simply must've been this same transfer I had recorded on a betamax tape in the 80's (unfortunately lost to time) it sounds silly yes, how the hell can you remember that? But this is Star Wars, that tape was basically burned into my memory, you cannot miss the greenish hues and film-like contrasty quality of this early pan & scan transfer.

Discovered that this version was apparently broadcasted in Denmark as well, so I guess Swedish Television could've broadcasted the same master back then. Ok, enough of my useless babbling, are you going to keep it in PAL format? Not really necessary but would be nice with an alternative version with the main feature in NTSC.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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msycamore said:

So, this was first broadcasted in UK October '82, did ITV continue to use this particular master several times in the 80's? I got very nostalgic watching this without really knowing why but then I realized that it simply must've been this same transfer I had recorded on a betamax tape in the 80's (unfortunately lost to time) it sounds silly yes, how the hell can you remember that? But this is Star Wars, that tape was basically burned into my memory, you cannot miss the greenish hues and film-like contrasty quality of this early pan & scan transfer.

This is pretty much the same for me. Of course, don't forget that this has the Monomix soundtrack with all the different audio dialogue differences that have now been so well documented.

To me, the retail releases of the 80's and 90's just were not right to my eyes and ears compared to what I was brought up with.

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