MovieChat Forums > Tales of the Unexpected (1979) Discussion > The American-based episodes

The American-based episodes

posted 17 years ago by andy_1976
7 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone know the background to the American-based episodes ?
All of seasons 1-3 are British-based. In seasons 4-6 there are a small number of American-based episodes. Season 7 has almost all American-based episodes.
What I find curious is why the picture quality is so poor in the American-based episodes. Tales of the Unexpected never had the best production values but there is a clear difference in picture quality between the British and American-based episodes. It's almost as if the episodes are from a different series altogether.

Were the American-based episodes made for a completely different series that was never shown and then turned into Tales of the Unexpected and sold as part of the series ?

It seems strange in the UK that although the DVD releases include the American-based episodes, all the repeats (on ITV3) are of the British-based episodes.

Also, does anyone know if the American-based episodes were all made at the start of the 1980s and then gradually added to the series, or if they were made gradually over several years? There is a 1985 episode starring Warren Oates who died back in 1982 making me think the American-based shows were made much earlier and shown later on in the series.

Does anyone know anything about this?

[–] tommyuk 17 years ago

I was wondering the exact same thing and you're right Tales Of The Unexpected had extremely low production values obviously made very cheaply and very quickly, well I suppose it was a recession in the late 70's early 80's.

[–] lunar11 17 years ago

I think most of the series were shot using a video camera... Keeps the cost down. But there is one USA episode in series 5 called 'light fingers' starring Janet Leigh, Tom Bosley, Frank Sinatra Jnr; which is one of the best episodes you'll see.

[–] sgodrich 16 years ago

The quality may also have something to do with NTSC-PAL conversion. Something which, until quite recently, has been a very messy process. We have Doctor Who and it's missing episodes to thank for a fairly neat conversion process today.

[–] John-367 13 years ago

The US episodes I have seen were shot entirely on 16mm film. The UK episodes were mainly videotaped although there were the occasional 16mm UK episodes.

The difference in quality between UK 16mm and US 16mm shooting was very marked until recently. I would largely attribute this to the fact that 16mm in the States was mainly confined to corporate and very low-budget projects. US TV drama shooting was almost entirely 35mm.
On the other hand, virtually all TV film work in the UK (with the notable exception of the ITC series like The Saint and The Persuaders) was on 16mm.

This meant that UK DPs and laboratories were very much aiming for the best possible quality from 16mm. I talked to US professionals at the time who found it impossible to believe that series like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes were shot on 16mm. They had assumed 35mm.

Transfers between PAL and NTSC and vice versa were dismal for a long time but more recently digital post production has made the whole process virtually transparent.

[–] pablo-taylor 12 years ago

Most British drama of the 60's, 70's and early 80's was done on multi-camera videotape (as was Tales of the Unexpected); 16mm film didn't become the norm until much later - the various ITC productions and things like The Sweeney being notable exceptions; even at the start of the 1990's Anglia Television was still shooting drama on video (including The P.D James Mysteries).

The American episodes were done as part of the distribution deal with whichever network showed it there originally; they were intended to entice U.S audiences into watching what was otherwise a cheap British production.

[–] John-367 12 years ago

pablo-taylor I'm not sure if you were responding to me and if so whether you thought we were disagreeing but in any case I agree with your post.

Absolutely most UK TV drama was video but there was a substantial amount of 16mm shot for location inserts on relatively high-end drama. This meant that 16mm had a higher status in the UK than it did in the US where 16mm was almost never used for expensive drama. 16mm in the UK therefore was treated with more care by the labs and was generally shot to a higher standard in the UK than it perhaps was in the US.

[–] inko8 13 years ago

i remember watching the completely different american version http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125648/ in the early 80s as a quinn-martin production (along with cannon, barnaby jones, at al.)-- so... similar prod. values to those other shows.

"Ugh! I don't like this." --Ambrose Bierce