Mr. Terrific vs. Captain Nice print quality. Was it worth the wait?

[sbeamish]

As a fan of both series, but with a very special fondness for Mr. Terrific, I was long frustrated by the fact that Captain Nice had been available on the trading (and bootleg) markets for decades while eps of Terrific were virtually impossible to find. Of course that changed forever, when MT got an official DVD release in Germany.

I'd already had 5 or 6 CN episodes in my collection but was concentrating on finding my long lost favorite show. When I finally got pristine (substantially complete) prints of all of the Mr. Terrific eps, a friend decided to get me a complete bootleg set of Captain Nice for Christmas (2009).

These had been recorded off cable, and the print quality was pretty poor; very distracting. (And I am not a particularly discerning collector. As long as it's watchable I'm okay with it.)

I imagine that there are better prints of the CN episodes out there, but there probably aren't any to match the quality of the Mr. Terrific prints.

So, for fans of both shows, was the superior quality worth the wait, or would you have rather had poorer copies of Mr. Terrifc sooner?

[bencasey]

I actually had an off air set of Mr. Terrific that I picked up a few years earlier that someone had taped off German TV. And I don't know about your CN but mine looks great. I had it recorded right off of HA! They only run around 23 minutes but I believe they are timesped. I know you are a big fan but I never watched either show at the time so I have no attachment to either but I think CN is the better series.

[sbeamish]

I actually had an off air set of Mr. Terrific that I picked up a few years earlier that someone had taped off German TV. And I don't know about your CN but mine looks great. I had it recorded right off of HA! They only run around 23 minutes but I believe they are timesped. I know you are a big fan but I never watched either show at the time so I have no attachment to either but I think CN is the better series.

Yes, as far as I know, episodes of Mr. Terrific which were taped off German TV began popping up in this country back in 2005. The earliest batches were all German dubs, but, in March of 2007, another set appeared, and most of those had come with an English language Secondary Audio Track.

Truthfully, I was pretty happy with those. My only real problem was that three of the eps were only available as German dubs.

My Captain Nice set isn't quite as good. It freezes up at least once or twice in every episode; then rights itself. But, as I say, I'm not the most demanding collector, and this isn't my favorite show. That set is good enough for my purposes.

As far as the shows themselves, well, I find neither one to be laugh-out-loud funny today. For a long time, I subscribed to the popular theory that CN had more, and better constructed, gags. But now that I've seen all of the eps of both series, from a 21st Century perspective, I have a different opinion.

Mr. Terrific is harmlessly, sometimes pleasantly, silly. Captain Nice, aside from the pilot and a few bits here and there, can be painfully un-funny. It's almost as if the CN writers were trying too hard while the MT writers weren't trying hard enough.

[retroTVfan4ever]

These shows were created due to the success of Batman. They were rushed into production, not a lot of thought or imagination went into them, thus the lackluster result. Of the two shows, Mr. Terrific is slightly better but that isn't saying much. Batman was more imaginative, Adam West and Burt Ward were perfect as Batman and Robin. The Batmobile was a cool car, and the rotating cast of villians kept the series interesting. But by the 3rd season, Batman was on the way out as well. The superhero craze on TV was fading in 1968-69.

[sbeamish]

Strangely enough, I didn't "get" Batman as a kid. I knew that Captain Nice and Mr. Terrific were supposed to be funny. I thought Batman was serious; just really bad. Didn't realize it was a spoof until a few years later, when I was a teen. (By then I was only watching the reruns to look at Yvonne Craig.)

[retroTVfan4ever]

Another thing that was cool about Batman is the serial type format that was used for the first two seasons. The first episode of the story ended with a "cliffhanger", and viewers had to watch the next episode to see how the heroes escaped from their perilous situation. It was a fun show, campy comic strip stuff not meant to be taken seriously, but the fad didn't last too long.

[bencasey]

Y
My Captain Nice set isn't quite as good. It freezes up at least once or twice in every episode; then rights itself. But, as I say, I'm not the most demanding collector, and this isn't my favorite show. That set is good enough for my purposes.



You don't say but I'm assuming that Captain Nice aren't off-air recordings that you did on VHS and transferred yourself but rather are some 4th generation dubs you found on ioffer. Too bad as the quality of the tapes was actually quite good.

[sbeamish]

You don't say but I'm assuming that Captain Nice aren't off-air recordings that you did on VHS and transferred yourself but rather are some 4th generation dubs you found on ioffer. Too bad as the quality of the tapes was actually quite good.

They were a gift, but I'm sure they came from ioffer or eBay. And I'm guessing they were at least 4th generation.

[sbeamish]

Here's a coincidence. My friend in Germany (the same one who informed me about the release of Mr. Terrific) just told me that there's also going to be a Captain Nice DVD released in Germany.

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Geheimnis-blauen-Tropfen-komplette/dp/B0051BYOO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307142678&sr=1-1

Unfortunately, once again, there doesn't appear to be an English language option, and, at "213 minuten," the episodes only average approx. 14 minutes in length. Edited? Time sped? Both?

[bencasey]

Here's a coincidence. My friend in Germany (the same one who informed me about the release of Mr. Terrific) just told me that there's also going to be a Captain Nice DVD released in Germany.

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Geheimnis-blauen-Tropfen-komplette/dp/B0051BYOO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307142678&sr=1-1

Unfortunately, once again, there doesn't appear to be an English language option, and, at "213 minuten," the episodes only average approx. 14 minutes in length. Edited? Time sped? Both?


What seems to be happening is people over there are getting ahold of old German dubbed broadcast tapes and then bootlegging them on DVDs. If this were legit releases, like Mr. Terrific and Tammy, they would be complete runs with both audio options.

[Bob's TV Treasures]

Can anyone recall which MR. TERRIFIC episode features Dick Gautier (Hal) portraying a pigeon?

[tiredmike59]

I think it is " The formula is stolen "

[Bob's TV Treasures]

Indeed it is, thanks so much. You've saved me many hours of watching.

[ElectraAlan]

They were both rip-offs of the Batman TV show done by people who didn't have a clue as to what was the appeal of Batman in the first place. Captain Nice and Mister Terrific were both superhero shows with almost no action in them whatsoever.