Promotional Consideration

My friend John Scoleri (who was one half of the legendary We Are Controlling Transmission team... that's right, the ORIGINAL Outer Limits blog) found himself in possession of an interesting video item:

It's a promotional tape that MGM/UA sent to video retailers, pushing the 50th anniversary edition of The Wizard of Oz and the six Outer Limits episodes slated to be released in December 1989. John digitized the entire tape, and I excised the relevant portion. Check it out:

The episodes being advertised ("Corpus Earthling," "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork," "Tourist Attraction," "The Bellero Shield," "A Feasibility Study" and "Don't Open Till Doomsday") brought the total number of released episodes (at that point) to 24, exactly half of the entire run. Coincidentally, these were the final six tapes I bought. As I detailed in my article in the Spring 2021 issue of bare•bones (published by the aforementioned John Scoleri's Cimarron Street Books), I was 20 years old at the time, newly living sans parents and struggling to pay the bills... so pre-recorded videotapes really couldn't compete with necessities like food and electricity. So while I did eventually acquire most of the later 24 volumes through, ahem, unsavory means (mostly copying rented tapes, but I did snag some episodes from the TNT MonsterVision marathons too), these six mark the point at which my official licensed collection ended. Of course, I later amassed a complete collection with lots of duplicates (after starting this blog, in fact).

This video is actually quite similar to the one found on the VHS editions of "Demon with a Glass Hand," "The Zanti Misfits" and "Keeper of the Purple Twilight," which I posted as part of my "Demon" spotlight way back in October 2014 (!). I tried like hell to put a direct link to it here, but evidently my computer Kung Fu ain't what it used to be, so use either "Demon"-specific links earlier in this paragraph to check it out (you'll find it in the Home Video Releases rundown).

Thanks for the video, John!

THE OUTER LIMITS from Mediumrare: Well Done, or Half Baked?

Left: DVD (slipcase front). Right: Blu-ray (slipcase front).

Goodness, time's gotten away from me. I intended to post this back in early January... but my latest Blu-ray audio commentary project (for a feature film that I still can't mention) had a deadline, so I had to focus on that. I managed to get it done and submitted a couple of weeks ago but, as it turns out, my work on that particular release isn't quite finished---- I've been given the green light to produce a documentary featurette to accompany it (similar to the ones I produced for the Night Gallery Blu-rays). I've also got another classic TV commentary assignment coming up (which I also can't reveal yet). So... yeah, my March is gonna be busy. But for anyone out there who's been patiently waiting for details on Mediumrare Entertainment's Outer Limits DVD and Blu-ray releases from December... sorry for the delay. I'll, um... refund your money or whatever.

Left: DVD (slipcase back). Right: Blu-ray (Slipcase back).

First up---- the Blu-ray version. Happily, ALL of the content from the Via Vision effort from 2020 is here, including the exclusive content (detailed in my previous post). There's nothing new, however---- so that "Tourist Attraction" track that Dave Schow and I did, along with the new track for "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" by Tim Lucas (both detailed here) will languish in silence... for now.

So should you spring for it? Well, it's a helluva lot cheaper than the Via Vision version (not to mention much easier to acquire), and it's the only game in town if you want those exclusive commentaries and stuff. However (and this is a fairly critical however)--- you must be multi-region equipped, as Mediumrare's set is locked to Region B. I bought my first multi-region player about 10 years ago, and lemme tell ya--- it was life-changing. There are a couple of other caveats, which we'll get to in a bit.

On the standard-definition side of things, Mediumrare's DVD release is... well, interesting. The first 13 discs essentially mimic the Via Vision and Kino releases, but then they throw in a 14th disc with lots of extras that are otherwise only found on the Blu-rays (including some of those Aussie-exclusives you won't find on the domestic releases). Also on that 14th disc are Please Stand By (the original pilot) and The Unknown (the alternate version of "The Forms of Things Unknown") along with their attached commentaries. In fact, with this DVD edition, you get everything except the three exclusive Blu-ray commentaries and:

Cliff Robertson – Full TNT Interview (36:00)

Joanna Frank – Full TNT Interview (21:02)

Casting Director Meryl O'Loughlin - TNT Interview (23:44)

Interview with Writer Anthony Lawrence (9:13)

It's that 14th disc that pushes Mediumrare to the front of the pack on the DVD front. However, its packaging is by far the most disappointing: a flimsy cardboard slipcase and one big fat plastic inner case (with those horrific hinged stacked-disc page-flippers inside). I wasn't surprised by this, truth be told... but I was shocked to discover that their Blu-ray (which again matches Via Vision's in terms of content) has THE IDENTICAL SHITTY PACKAGING. In fact, it's even the exact same size, but the sleeve art is smaller because apparently the Blu-ray logo has to be visible due to some Draconian BDA (Blu-Ray Disc Association) requirement.

Left: DVD (inner case front). Right: Blu-ray (inner case front).

One more gripe, if you'll permit me: there are NO booklets to be found in either edition. All you get is a basic list of the episodes on the reverse of the case insert... which means you have to take several discs out just to see it (or I guess you can just jimmy out the insert--- like I did; see below--- but who wants to do that every time?). And even then, there's no way to know who's providing commentary on which episodes... you have to load up the disc to find out for yourself. Boo. I'm still planning on posting a comprehensive list of everything at some point... just gotta find the time.

But it's what's inside that really counts, yes? What Mediumrare has done is made the contents of the unobtainable Australian Blu-ray available to the world, and bested all the other DVD releases at the same time.... that is, if you've got a multi-region player (or live in Region B). Other than the cheap packaging (and the region-locking, and the lack of booklets), they do deserve some measure of kudos.

But for me, Via Vision's Blu-ray set (in that glorious hard box) is still the one to beat. I've said it before: 2023 is the show's 60th anniversary, so there's still time for any of these three labels---- or perhaps some fourth as yet unknown entity--- to do something even more spectacular. Dave Schow and I (and our Commentary Crew cohorts) still have lots to say in the form of audio commentaries, and I'd love the opportunity to put together a video featurette on the home video history of the show too.