Finally, something resembling an official release of seasons two through six of St. Elsewhere.
A big thanks to John DiMaggio for this tip--evidently, video streaming platform Hulu is now carrying the complete series of St. Elsewhere.
I live in Canada and can't access Hulu, so if anyone cares to leave comments as to the quality and completeness of the episodes, that would be awesome. In particular, I'm wondering if the episodes are the full 48-minute episodes, and if the background music is still intact.
Here's a news clip from 2017 about the deal between Hulu and 20th Century Fox Television Distribution. This is the first bit of movement on releasing St. Elsewhere since the first season DVD came out over a decade ago.
Update, November 10: Good news! According to our commenters, the episodes are full-length, and the original background music (soundalikes of pop songs, that is) has been preserved, which wasn't the case with the season one DVD release.
Update, February 1, 2019: It would appear that some of the music has been re-recorded. I watched "Sweet Dreams", and the guitar music during Jack's dream has been replaced. The new version sounds less like Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" than the original sound-alike. Fortunately, the "Legs" music video remains intact.
Watched a few yesterday from out of order in the series ("Their Town" and "The Women"). There was some background music visible in one scene, the episodes ran about 50 minutes, and oddly, even a few "St. ELsewhere will return after these messages" bumpers were still in there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the report! That's cool that the original bumpers are included.
DeleteI JUST found the series on Hulu! I haven't seen it since it first aired. I am now 70 -- LOL -- and it means SO MUCH MORE to me now. Not only were the actors terrific (love them all but especially Daniels), but the writers were great -- the issues they tackled were either timely or before their time! I am LOVING this series all over again and appreciating it SO much more. (Cracks me up though -- I first wondered why they weren't using cell phones! LLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL And, oh, I remember all the problems at work when we got the first computers!) LLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL)
ReplyDeleteIt's so good to watch actors who know their lines and are not looking off to the right or left at cue cards.
ReplyDeleteI've been checking and all of the episodes have a 47-50 minute runtime, which sounds correct. A few of them are mislabeled and/or out of order, which I'll contact Hulu about. The video quality is choppy at times but I'm not sure if that's the source material or my connectivity. I watched the "Dreams" episode and the cover of "Legs" was intact.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Seems like the sound-alikes are intact. That's great to hear!
DeleteI'm only 12 episodes in so far. My primary issue is that they seem to have re-done the sound, and the background ambient noise sometimes overwhelms the dialog, and the foley sound effects (footsteps etc.) are far too loud. It might seem like a minor thing but it's very distracting at times.
ReplyDeleteI've watched the first few episodes, and the picture quality is very good. Not sure if they remastered them, but it looks like it.
ReplyDeleteI've heard a couple songs used as background music (as opposed to the score). Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" is clearly a re-recorded version by a soundalike. Like with the Police song.
Did the original episodes use the original versions of these songs?
That's great to hear! The original episodes used soundalikes. I remember the Springsteen soundalike quite distinctly. The Season 1 DVD releases dubbed over the soundalikes with generic music.
DeleteThey kind of killed the final episode. The original opera music in the penultimate scene has been replaced by music that sounds like it was lifted from another episode. Also, they removed the original end credits.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame about the opera music and the end credits. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteOh that's bad. one of the best final episodes ever made@
DeleteWhat a thrill! I did not have Hulu before and subscribed specifically to reconnect with Elsewhere. Just as engaging, resonant and addictive as I remember it! I really hope others discover the show. Hulu, as it turns out, has a pretty good streaming selection if you like classic television. For $5.99 a month, it's a great deal (you get stuck with some ads at that level, but it's reasonable).
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ReplyDeleteNot all the episodes for each season are on Hulu.
ReplyDeleteThey have several episodes missing from each season. Not only that, but they don't have the episodes that end a storyline.
ReplyDeleteA bomber blows up an abortion clinic and plants a bomb which is safely removed from the hospital. However, he plants a 2nd one at the hospital as the episode ends. The next episode isn't available to watch.
Morrison's wife dying isn't available. The wedding of Eulirich isn't available either.
Lots of unavailable episodes.
I guess it has something to do with them not being able to secure releases for the music playing during all those episodes.
I can't figure out why it wasn't replaced with something else.
Really upsets me, I've never seen the series before. Now I can't watch them.