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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2009 - 11:44 AM
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By: |
Major Sloan
(Member)
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Major Sloan, do you run a SIX site or something? Your input has been invaluable here.
I'm making an educated guess here which perhaps you could confirm... I imagine that the reason Gil Mellé's original (and great) score for "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" was replaced by tracked stuff by Oliver Nelson was because by the time the show was on syndication, the Nelson theme had become so linked to the series in the mind of the audience that it was deemed necessary to have it in place of the Mellé. And if that is true, why was "Wine, Women and War" left with the Stu Phillips score?
Major Sloan?
Thanks, Graham. I'm developing some material on Six for a project that's still under wraps, but I'm also one of the admins at the Bionic Wiki (http://bionic.wikia.com).
I think Gil Mellé's SGK score wasn't well regarded. I dig it, but I think I see why it was deemed replaceable. These things are so subjective, and speculative, that I hesitate to opine at length. I know that I missed certain audio visual combinations in the new cut. (music from lighting dynamite and hanging from the chopper at the beginning, sneaking Steve into the Paris Hospital in an ambulance, that sweet music outside the Contessa's villa, and the "theme' in Switzerland) I suspect paying Mellé for his work vs using Nelson material they had under a broader license had something to do with it. No doubt applying the more well-known theme was part of the thinking. Remember when Lucas was going to get Williams to insert Darth Vader's theme into Episode IV retroactively? Kind of glad that fell through, though it's intriguing to ponder.
As for Stu Phillips, they certainly clipped its wings: the score is "toned down" in the reedit, with some of its boldest parts removed (eg, the "theme" I mentioned, landing in Paradise Cay, as well as the big climax running bionically from the nuke). Perhaps it was deemed irreplaceable, but I suspect SGK just seemed like it needed more help. All speculative.
Mr. Banacek: Aaargh! Wish I'd known about that a year ago.... Good work finding it.
BTW, slightly off the Nelson topic, if you're a fan of the 70's Bionic stuff, some of Joe Harnell's work for The Bionic Woman has come out over the past year or so. The Return of Bigfoot Part II even references the Nelson Six theme, briefly.
http://joeharnell.com
Now if only FSM or another small caring outfit could put together the materials and legal stuff for a Six audio release, that could help tide us over while Home Video endures this literary rights fiasco. 
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Major Sloan,
What do you think of the picture quality? Is it better than the English edition?
Is it true that there are no subtitles? Not even English subtitles?
Thanks.
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2009 - 6:53 PM
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By: |
Major Sloan
(Member)
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Major Sloan,
What do you think of the picture quality? Is it better than the English edition?
Is it true that there are no subtitles? Not even English subtitles?
Thanks.
This is definitely better color quality than the UK Region 2 release of Six (but The Bionic Woman in the UK is better than this). Blacks are black, whites are white, flesh tones are fleshy- more so than in the old days. For example, in The Rescue of Athena One, Farrah's EVA shots were cut with stock footage with much higher contrast, making Farrah's shots look out of place. This has been corrected here, and while the difference in footage is still obvious, they don't distract as they did.
The interlaced thing is irksome, since it wastes bits on the disk for duplicate fields that can be recreated for NTSC sets by any DVD player from a "24p" DVD. Some compression issues here and there, and a couple of tiny "glitches." But the fact that it's NTSC and not PAL is the clincher: no speedup. For music fans especially, this is the set to get for now. Especially due to the inclusion of the original 1973 TV Movies, and the boat whittling scene in Operation Firefly, which was cut for some reason in the UK release.
No subtitles, you can watch it as it was. This is much better than say the Italian release, L'Uomo da Sei Milioni di Dollari, which has no burn in for dialogue, just a track, yet still has burn in for episode titles and signage translations - all in such primitive text generation it looks contemporary with the show, lol.
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Major Sloan,
What do you think of the picture quality? Is it better than the English edition?
Is it true that there are no subtitles? Not even English subtitles?
Thanks.
This is definitely better color quality than the UK Region 2 release of Six (but The Bionic Woman in the UK is better than this). Blacks are black, whites are white, flesh tones are fleshy- more so than in the old days. For example, in The Rescue of Athena One, Farrah's EVA shots were cut with stock footage with much higher contrast, making Farrah's shots look out of place. This has been corrected here, and while the difference in footage is still obvious, they don't distract as they did.
The interlaced thing is irksome, since it wastes bits on the disk for duplicate fields that can be recreated for NTSC sets by any DVD player from a "24p" DVD. Some compression issues here and there, and a couple of tiny "glitches." But the fact that it's NTSC and not PAL is the clincher: no speedup. For music fans especially, this is the set to get for now. Especially due to the inclusion of the original 1973 TV Movies, and the boat whittling scene in Operation Firefly, which was cut for some reason in the UK release.
No subtitles, you can watch it as it was. This is much better than say the Italian release, L'Uomo da Sei Milioni di Dollari, which has no burn in for dialogue, just a track, yet still has burn in for episode titles and signage translations - all in such primitive text generation it looks contemporary with the show, lol.
You can't order it. No luck! It's a telephone thing.
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I will wait for another 10 years for the American edition.
I will return to my cryogenic coffin and I set the timer for 2019.
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Posted: |
Oct 11, 2010 - 2:13 PM
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By: |
Major Sloan
(Member)
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FYI, I'm sure most are aware, but the new complete series boxed set of The Six Million Dollar Man being put out by Time-Life includes the original versions of the 3 TV Movies from 1973.
If you haven't bought El Hombre Nuclear, don't, get the Time-Life set, which includes all 5 seasons, all three crossover epics, the original versions of The Return of Bigfoot, Part II, Kill Oscar, Part II, and all 3 reunion movies. The three two-hour episodes are presented in the original "movie" form, and hours of new interviews have been included with Lee Majors, Richard Anderson, Lindsay Wagner, Martin E. Brooks, Kenneth Johnson, Harve Bennett, and stuntmen Vince Deadrick Sr + Jr.
Someone asked above if I ran a Six website; I can now reveal that yes, I do: http://thesix1973.com
Still waiting on a soundtrack release, however. If ever a time was ripe, the joint release of the two bionic shows this Fall has to be the ideal. Anyone?
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Wow, Major Sloan! I've waited 30 years for somebody to clear up that mystery. Thanks! And they all called me mad. Well, I'll show them, I'll show them...
All you had to do was to ask me and I would have provided you with the same information I had also provided Thomas (Mr. Miklos) Rucki about Gil's score along with Stu and Oliver.
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Posted: |
Oct 15, 2010 - 7:51 PM
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By: |
Major Sloan
(Member)
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Jim:
Thank you, I'm glad that you like it. I will be expanding the site, I've just rolled out the video header, and am developing some new content as well. The "Welcome Home, Jaime" controversy alone deserves its own page, and new information continues to come in. As to episode reviews, that will come, but you know there are 6 movies, 100 episodes of SMDM and 57 episode of BW. So I'll need to be selective for the short term.
I was interviewed for the new complete series set from Time-Life, so I want it all spruced up for when it ships; my chyron has the site in it. Look out, traffic is coming!
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Posted: |
Oct 16, 2010 - 8:48 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Jim:
Thank you, I'm glad that you like it. I will be expanding the site, I've just rolled out the video header, and am developing some new content as well. The "Welcome Home, Jaime" controversy alone deserves its own page, and new information continues to come in. As to episode reviews, that will come, but you know there are 6 movies, 100 episodes of SMDM and 57 episode of BW. So I'll need to be selective for the short term.
I was interviewed for the new complete series set from Time-Life, so I want it all spruced up for when it ships; my chyron has the site in it. Look out, traffic is coming!
Good luck with it! If I can pony up for the SMDM set, I'll be seeing you.
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No Hablo Español, I took French instead. C'est la vie! Well there's still Amazon… 
