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Frasier - Pilot (1 Viewer)

Johnny Angell

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Just signed up for CBS all access. We watched the pilot for Frasier. Some series take several episodes to get their balance. Not the case for Frasier. In the pilot the show is firing on all cylinders and most of the mainstays are introduced. Frasier brother, Roz, his dad Martin, Daphne, and of course, Eddie.

Sure the characters are going to get fleshed out as time goes by, but if memory serves, what we see in the first episode is what we get the the series run. I was so struck by this that I had to comment on it.

Linda Hamilton was one of the guest callers and I didn't recognize her voice. That's par for the course for me, I had watched several seasons I think, before I learned many of the callers were cameos.
 

SamT

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Is it in HD and widescreen? I have it on DVD and it's 4:3. They never released a bluray set.
 

Johnny Angell

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Is it in HD and widescreen? I have it on DVD and it's 4:3. They never released a bluray set.
No sadly, it is not.

It was never filmed in widescreen.

We have been watching the episodes via Amazon Prime for a while now. I had forgotten how funny this show was. Great characters and great writing.
Yes, exactly.

BTW, don't subscribe to CBS for the movies. There are very few. And they often don't make all episodes of a series available. The more recent the series is, the less likely they will have all of them. Elementary has only one season, the one in which Shinwell was introduced.
 

Joseph Bolus

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It was never filmed in widescreen.

We have been watching the episodes via Amazon Prime for a while now. I had forgotten how funny this show was. Great characters and great writing.

Just for the record, the final two seasons (10 and 11) were presumably filmed in Widescreen. I own "The Final Season" DVD box set and it provides a nice, crisp, 16:9 anamorphic presentation. (I also own Seasons 1-3)

Also, the entire series is currently available on Netflix; and both Seasons 10 and 11 show up on there as Widescreen.
 

SamT

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Are you sure? I have the entire series on DVD and don't remember the last one being widescreen. Maybe it's a later print?
 

MikeTV

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Is it in HD and widescreen? I have it on DVD and it's 4:3. They never released a bluray set.

If they ever release it on Blu-ray, it should still be 4x3. Sorry to disappoint.
 

Joseph Bolus

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Sam,

I dug my DVD box set out ... and you were right! It's in the 4:3 aspect ratio.

The last time I went through the series I viewed it off Netflix, and they *do* have Seasons 10 and 11 in Widescreen so the transfers must have been remastered for those two seasons just for streaming.
 

Blimpoy06

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My copy of the final season is 4:3. I believe the broadcast was too. Amazon used to have the last two seasons at 16:9 for streaming.
 

AndyMcKinney

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I wouldn't be too optimistic for a blu-ray boxset of this show. I'm sure all but the last couple of seasons would have been edited on NTSC tape, and would have to be re-assembled (a'la Star Trek: The Next Generation) to be in HD. At least there wouldn't be a bunch of SFX to re-do, but re-assembly alone could be very time consuming and expensive.
 

Malcolm R

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Just signed up for CBS all access. We watched the pilot for Frasier. Some series take several episodes to get their balance. Not the case for Frasier. In the pilot the show is firing on all cylinders and most of the mainstays are introduced. Frasier brother, Roz, his dad Martin, Daphne, and of course, Eddie.
I would mostly agree, but I think they softened up Niles from the pilot. When first introduced, he seemed just pompous, obnoxious, and arrogant. As the episodes progressed, he became more endearingly quirky.
 

Tony Bensley

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I wouldn't be too optimistic for a blu-ray boxset of this show. I'm sure all but the last couple of seasons would have been edited on NTSC tape, and would have to be re-assembled (a'la Star Trek: The Next Generation) to be in HD. At least there wouldn't be a bunch of SFX to re-do, but re-assembly alone could be very time consuming and expensive.
On what basis do you assume most of the seasons were edited on NTSC tape? If that is indeed, the case, then I do agree that the likelihood of FRASIER ever seeing an HD release is virtually nil!

CHEERS! :)
 
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The Obsolete Man

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On what basis do you assume most of the seasons were edited on NTSC tape? If that is indeed, the case,, then I do agree that the likelihood of FRASIER ever seeing an HD release is virtually nil!

CHEERS! :)

That was the norm (NORM) for the era.

But maybe not. Cheers was all film, which is why it was easily remastered in '01. Maybe the spinoff fared as well.

Plus, a look on IMDB lists no video people, just film editors in the crew.
 

Steve...O

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Frasier reruns look like film to me, but I could be wrong. I say that because it looks better than edited on tape shows like Diagnosis Murder to my eyes.

Regardless of format, Frasier, along with the Van Dyke Show, are the top of my list of the most intelligent and written sitcoms of any era. The characters are realistic and evolve like real people. If CBS/P remastered the series and reissued with SDH I would buy a complete series in a heartbeat. This is the kind of show binge watching was made for.
 

Stan

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If they ever release it on Blu-ray, it should still be 4x3. Sorry to disappoint.
No problem with it. If it's the best available and that's how it was filmed, that's what we get.

If it ended up cropped and zoomed in, possibly "pan and scan" for Joe Six Pack with his HDTV, that would be sad.
 

Lord Dalek

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Frasier was shot entirely on film, the only video generated elements were the title cards. It also didn't use any visual effects or anything that would need to be rebuilt from scratch so a remaster should be cheap to do.

And yes the last two or three seasons were broadcast in 1080i. It was one of the earliest HD shows on the air.
 

ScottH

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As a huge fan of Cheers I could never get into Frasier. I gave it many tries. It had it's moments but it was just too "sitcomy" for my taste.
 

Jasper70

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I have no problem with 4x3 aspect ratio. I have many tv shows that are 4x3. I have the complete sets of Frasier but I'd upgrade to a bluray set as long as it had CC or subtitles. Same with Seinfeld.
 

WillG

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As a huge fan of Cheers I could never get into Frasier. I gave it many tries. It had it's moments but it was just too "sitcomy" for my taste.

I'm in the same boat. I just felt that "Fraiser" Fraiser wasn't reallly the same as "Cheers" Fraiser and that kind of turned me off to it. The "Frasier" Frasier doesn't seems like a person who would have ever have hung out at Cheers. Plus I found the show in general to be a bit on the pretentious side.
 

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