Doris Day DVD set edited?

[mego73#2]

The shows run 24 minutes which is about 1-1.5 minutes less than shows usually ran back then. There also seems to be wipes and transitions done in the video realm, instead of the film realm, indicating some cuts that were not done originally.

Anyone know the show enough to be sure?

[ontheroof]

I noticed too, the out-of-place wipes and the shorter running time. But I still figured they weren't edited, b/c nothing seemed to be missing -- and I thought that if they were going to cut something for time, they'd cut the tag, as each episode could still logically end before that point.

It was sometimes common to use video wipes on a filmed product (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley are two prominent examples), but it really does look odd.

[mego73#2]

It is unusual on a few fronts. It is 24 minutes when shows of the period were usually roundabout 25 and a half.

My first guess would be a late 70's or 80's syndication version being used for these DVD's. The one to 1 and a half minute of editing usually done in those days were kinder to the shows and usually they were allowed to retain the tag. But the quality of the video is too good for that and still have the video based editing.

If it were more current and for syndication it would be cut down to 22 minutes (of course).

So, I'm wondering if these shows were only available on film in edited syndication versions. This show is rare and maybe full lenth broadcast versions are no longer available.

If they are from the 70's and 80's these edited films might have crude splicing that MPI chose to smooth over with the video edit transitions.

[JaneTVFan]

I agree these are edited. I also bought the "Here's Lucy" DVD. "Here's Lucy" was from the same era and same network, yet the episodes on that DVD are about 25:40 in length. I would doubt "The Doris Day Show" would have been shorter.

[bencasey]

I am sure that they are edited. You are correct that they should run 25:30 or so. Probably cut for syndication masters that were made up in the early 80s and they didn't want to go to the expense of going back to the originals for such a marginal property.

[mego73#2]

or perhaps they don't even exist anymore

[ontheroof]

On the Home Theatre message board (the one connected with tvshowsondvd.com, someone there claims that the DVDs are made of prints created for syndication in the 80s, and that they sped up the tapes to get them down to the time they needed -- a process which apparently used to be quite common. That's not to say that there aren't edited a bit as well, but posters there seemed quite sure that the shows were sped up.

[Shindigger]

So glad I came accross this thread because I too was wondering about this. At least now I know I'm not the only one who thought the transitions were odd...

[TJ]

The producer of this set for MPI has told me that these releases are unedited. I have to agree that they are probably sped up.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Just another opinion on the debate, I don't think they are sped up because early versions of the sped up technology in the 1980's made objects & things in the background of the screen slightly jump up and down....you can clearly see this on shows like dick van dyke on TV land, while watching a scene keep your eyes on background objects like picture frames, staircases, etc....you will notice they slightly move up and down....I did not notice this on the doris set.

[JaneTVFan]

Just another opinion on the debate, I don't think they are sped up because early versions of the sped up technology in the 1980's made objects & things in the background of the screen slightly jump up and down....you can clearly see this on shows like dick van dyke on TV land, while watching a scene keep your eyes on background objects like picture frames, staircases, etc....you will notice they slightly move up and down....I did not notice this on the doris set.

I agree they are not sped up, but definitely cut. The running times, as mentioned above, are a couple minutes shorter than shows of that era ran. I also notice lots of scenes ending abruptly, like something has been cut out. If the producer said these shows have not been edited, that perhaps meant they were not edited from the version they were provided, which is likely the already-edited syndicated version.

[mego73#2]

I agree they are not sped up, but definitely cut. The running times, as mentioned above, are a couple minutes shorter than shows of that era ran. I also notice lots of scenes ending abruptly, like something has been cut out. If the producer said these shows have not been edited, that perhaps meant they were not edited from the version they were provided, which is likely the already-edited syndicated version.

I concur. I bet that these are the only versions of the shows still available. Sometimes, when shows were cut down for syndication, the cut scenes were discarded. For DVD, The Brady Bunch had to be restored to full lenth using 16mm prints because nobody kept the scenes cut from 35mm masters when they went into syndication.

[TeeVeeCloset]

BREAKING NEWS....lol.......There has been a long discussion regarding the running times of the Doris Day episodes on the 5 MPI sets....each run around 23 minutes length...when the average early 1970's sitcom still ran over 25 minutes. While I still don't know if the episodes are edited by time speed compression or actually are missing small scenes I can now say definately that I recently compared the upcoming MPI Doris Day Christmas Memories DVD which contains the three previously released holiday themed episodes with the season versions after I read that the new release would contain episodes struck from the original negatives which made me run for a time check.....So far I have only checked one episode....

A Two Family Christmas on the season 2 set runs 23:43 but on the new release it runs 25:24 and does look much more colorful and cleaner! Now I have not done a side by side comparison, during fast foward I did not notice any scenes edited, so I am assuming the season sets are time compressed.

Finally let me say that I still consider MPI (next to Shout Factory) the leader in quality and content of classic TV on DVD and though the shows are edited they released a very rare 5 season series in a timely manner with great extras on every release, a far superior job to the hatchet jobs done by Paramount.
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[Jude The Obscure]

And no music edits!! :lol:

In any case, I still want to get seasons 1-3, no matter what. I enjoyed Doris and these seasons are the best IMO.