18/8/2018 6:45 pm  #51


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

I have just viewed my first dvd of the set, one which I picked at random. Quality is excellent, if the age of the material is taken into account.

This first dvd I viewed contained the 'Bing in Argentina' footage.
In one word: f a s c i n a t i ng !

I won't say anything more; don't want to spoil it for you. But you will see: this programme alone is worth the money for the entire set!

Yes, the programmes are heavily edited. Nonetheless, you get around 21 hours of Bing on TV in what is probably the best quality available. One (and maybe the only) advantage of the editing: there remains more to collect!

Last edited by frans (18/8/2018 6:54 pm)

 

19/8/2018 4:32 pm  #52


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

I put The Legendary Bing in computer. Very good images but I wasn't getting any sound even though speaker lights were on.
Will have to see my computer man next week.
Frans, Jeremy, Richard and Malcolm - guess you are all sleepy.

 

19/8/2018 6:34 pm  #53


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Haven't got mine yet.

 

19/8/2018 8:22 pm  #54


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Strange how the postal system works/doesn't work.
Frans in The Netherlands and Jeremy in Cambridge have both received theirs.
Poor David in Australia will have to wait longer as the mail seems to be by snail mail.
Can take a letter a fortnight to reach me and when you think that a plane leaves Sydney and arrives Los Angeles about 4 hours earlier than when it left Sydney. Going the other way it is 2 days before one arrives, thus the long delay for David.
Hope the rest of you in the UK receive on Monday.

 

20/8/2018 9:15 am  #55


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Sorry to hear about your computer trouble, Ron. I hope it can be fixed soon.

Yes, the postal system is a wonder in itself! I hope the other copies will arrive soon and without extra charges.

Will continue watching the set today.

 

24/8/2018 6:06 am  #56


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Looking into this matter, it seems that Time-Life asked Bing Crosby Enterprises for TV specials, as they did with the Carol Burnett, the Dean Martin, the “Dean Martin Roasts”, Bob Hope, and Andy Williams people, for their “The Best Of” series. Time-Life selects the specials and they do all the editing – BCE has no influence as that’s the standard contract Time-Life has.  BCE licenses the programs, and Time-Life selects, edits, pays for music rights, and pays to promote the packages. 
I suppose that the problem with us Crosby fans is that we’ve already got most of what’s provided by Time-Life, usually in lesser quality, but a lot more complete. My main complaint is with the ridiculous editing by Time-Life. Also I’m not too happy about the advertising which implied something rather different to what we’ve got.

Last edited by Malcolm Macfarlane (24/8/2018 6:06 am)

 

24/8/2018 6:01 pm  #57


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

That is why I do not own a single T/L video product.  


All the best,
Paul M. Mock
 

28/8/2018 3:19 am  #58


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Just started watching the set. Disc 1 kept freezing every couple of minutes before continuing on. Time-Life are sending me a new one.
Disc 2 was eagerly waiting to get to the Bing and Perry Como one. They sang Zing a little Zong' themselves and with 2 females.
Then we get to the 'medley' - Bing sang Rosie and Perry sang (forget now, a few hours ago). That was it. I thought they sang several songs in that part of the show.
Very disappointing.

 

28/8/2018 3:21 am  #59


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Perry sang Dinah.

 

28/8/2018 7:59 am  #60


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Ron, to see all the songs they sang, go to the BING magazine web site and click on the Bing on TV link.

 

28/8/2018 9:47 am  #61


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

I think we’re all feeling your pain, Ron..!

Malcolm’s work in annotating the set on the “Bing on TV” pages of the BING website means that you can see at a glance what’s been omitted by Time-Life.

I’m certainly not sorry I bought it - there are a few things I’d never seen before and a lot of stuff I already had which is presented in much better quality here - but, like the rest of us, I was hoping for so much more.

 

29/8/2018 6:27 pm  #62


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

I'm sorry to say I'll be passing on this set. Such a pity.

     Thread Starter
 

07/9/2018 5:25 pm  #63


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

As mentioned in a previous notice The first DVD in the white cover kept pausing so wrote to T-L advising them of this.
In yesterday's mail the replacement came and it looks like they sent the complete White cover container. It is sealed in cellophane and haven't opened it yet.
And they never asked me to return the faulty DVD.

 

16/9/2018 9:15 pm  #64


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Just finished viewing disc 4 and disappointing it was too.
One show introduction showed and mention the Crosby boys (except Gary) were to appear. Well they didn't - it was left out - WHY???
Not a happy Bing fan. Wonder what else they have messed up.

 

18/9/2018 4:52 pm  #65


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Ron Field wrote:

Just finished viewing disc 4 and disappointing it was too.
One show introduction showed and mention the Crosby boys (except Gary) were to appear. Well they didn't - it was left out - WHY???
Not a happy Bing fan. Wonder what else they have messed up.

Ron,

As mentioned earlier in this thread, Time Life is notorious for editing the content on their DVD sets. This has happened with the Dean Martin sets, Jackie Gleason, etc. As to why they edit the content, the most logical guess I have would be music rights, and Time Life's unwillingness to pay to get the usage cleared for the respective songs. This is why you may see at the beginning what stars are supposed to appear, and then not end up seeing them at all!

I don't know what budget Time Life has for each set they produce, but one could guess that it isn't a whole lot.


Zane Johnson
 

18/9/2018 7:21 pm  #66


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Couldn't they edit the introductions with a snip here and a snip there as they do in the later part of the show? Or too much like hard work.
That really comes down to 'false advertising'.

 

25/9/2018 6:08 pm  #67


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Have now watched Number 5 and once again shows have had the scissors put to them.
Rosie does an introduction and it is goodnight from her, Bing and Maurice have a chat, get out the little black books mentioning various girls names and goodnight from them (thought they did a medley of various girls names - Louise etc, but not here). Then in the introduction titles it mentions Kathryn - but no sign of her at all. Did enjoy the show from Dublin by George O'Reilly and Bing's talk of Britain from Gleneagles.
But, really, so far pretty disappointing.

 

25/9/2018 11:11 pm  #68


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

I think we all share your pain, Ron..!
I’ve actually given up on working my way through the discs. I found the whole process rather depressing, so I’ll wait until the dust has settled a bit and then cherry-pick some of the shows I haven’t seen before, or at least have only seen in poor quality on YouTube.
As Richard rightly observes, it seems clear that whoever was responsible for curating the set had very little interest in or knowledge of the heritage they were attempting to preserve.
It’s a pity they didn’t check the archive to see how many times Mr Crosby had graced the cover of “Time” and “Life” magazine over the decades...

 

26/9/2018 1:07 am  #69


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Yes Jeremy, tend to agree with you about going through watching the shows as I just finished number 6 and once again the scissors have been put into action. Quite disappointing and disgusting really that the Crosby people allowed these to be put out as they have been.

 

26/9/2018 5:18 am  #70


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Irish and George titles were in green but a bit pale now due to time.

 

26/9/2018 8:12 am  #71


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

The Time Life DVD labels all have a standard “in-house” design, but I think I’ve got the release of “A Little Bit of Irish” Archiefit is talking about. It’s on the Varese Sarabande label and I don’t think it’s the source for the Time Life disc because although the picture quality on the TL is acceptable enough, it’s noticeably sharper and brighter on the VS release.

 

05/10/2018 3:03 am  #72


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Have worked my way through and just finished vieŵing the 3 Christmas DVD's 75/76/77.
Yet again some one has gone mad with the scissors, chopping here and there Willey-nilly.
So far I'm finding the set disappointing with the way the DVD's have been cut even in a medley.
We fans try like heck to keep Bing in the frame as much as possible but I don't think we've been treated too fairly with this set.
On another note - on Sunday showing Bing's 6 Mack Sennett shorts at the Morton Roxy at 2.00pm - $5.00 admission, plus Errol Flynn's first film

 

08/10/2018 12:55 am  #73


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

We had 25 paying punters at the Roxy for the Bing/Errol screening, plus a camera exhibition.
They seemed to have enjoyed the programme.
Would have liked a few more but there were more than the regular Friday & Saturday night
Regular movies combined, so that pleased me.

 

31/10/2018 12:21 am  #74


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Still haven't got to viewing number 7 yet.
As the others have been cut a bit I haven't been too enthused by finishing watching the DVD's.
Not a lot of comment so just wondering if we are all feeling a bit let down.

 

12/11/2018 6:55 pm  #75


Re: BEST OF BING CROSBY SPECIALS - TIME LIFE

Have finally got to view another of the DVD's - 50th. Anniversary show and the Argentina show.
The scissor man has been busy again. Was looking forward to the 50 which the booklet states includes Debbie Reynolds - no show, and the Crosby family - only Mary Frances pops up.
Thoroughly disappointed especially with the 50th as I was expecting to see when Bing fell.
The booklet should have been edited better but certainly the DVD content - almost like false advertising. It has happened right through the set.
Like ordering and paying for 2lb. oF mince meat and on arriving home you discover you only have a pound and a half.

 

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