ARGHHH, I wish they kept the alien hand sliding over the earth animation in the DVD release!! I remember always being super creeped out whenever I saw that!! SUPERB review, my man!!
Producer said, to me "we've auditioned in LA, NY, Toronto and can't find what we want". He sent me to a Post Studio where I met a young exchange student from Botswana. We went and a had a coffee, together. I asked her to speak to me in Bantu-Click. She did and II bastardized the language. Then the engineer separated the tones and mixed them back together. The first few Directors just had the actors open and close their mouths. That was hard to overlay so I suggested that the actors speak English. Then I built the language around that. 'To life immortal' became ' Tu-doe-nac-itay' which fit the lip movements.
I find it depressing this series was seemingly forgotten, Can't find any fanart of it. No major movie reviewer channels have covered it. I've never even met anyone else who'se heard of it. It's almost bordering on "Lost Media" But it has enough of a following to get DVD releases but as far as i know no Blu rays yet.
What good would a Blu-ray release do anyway? Back in the 80s and 90s, Paramount shot their television series on film, but edited them on standard definition videotape. Any future releases of the series even on BD or 4K will be SD regardless of the physical medium. Essentially Paramount would have to scan all the original film and audio elements over to a new HD master in order to create a HD presentation. They did that with Star Trek: The Next Generation several year back. The thing is that "War of the Worlds: The Series" isn't a major cash cow for Paramount like ST:TNG, so I wouldn't ever count on them going to the massive expense of remastering WOTW:TS as much as I would love them to.
COMPLETELY AGREE with the alien hand and strange sound rant....miss it so much.....that used to creep me out watching it late at night on an old static ridden 'bunny ears' tv..... SKraktah Ca"Dishiya!!! (TO LIFE, IMMORTAL!!!)
Him and Norton Drake. Paramount would repeat such horrible decision making with the first Mission Impossible film in 1996 with the Jim Phelps character.
Anyone remember the pre-show bumper they used to advertise the series before it launched. I only remember seeing it a few times and it was months before the series premiered. "People of the Earth. Thirty-five years ago we invaded your planet. You thought you stopped us. You thought we were gone forever. But you were wrong! We never left! War of the Worlds" The graphic would be the three finger hand slowly creeping over the Earth. I want to say it was a bumper for WPIX, but I don't remember for sure. I can't find it any where, so I'm guessing it was very local to NE PA.
This is one of my favorite shows and also one of the most frustrating experiences. Season 2 [spoiler ahead] changed because Frank Mancuso Jr, the son of [Paramount?] was given full control over the series for season 2. He knew NOTHING about it. Typical of new producers, he decided to completely re-vamp the series. He basically put the Friday the 13th the series’ (his previous show) production values on it and killed off the most popular character because he did not know the character was the fan favorite (he admitted this later and said he wouldn’t have done it had he known, but the character deaths were only one part of the problem). Season 1 was really well done for what it was. The aliens were wonderfully designed, had their own language (I don’t think it was a proper language, but it was an important detail most scifi fails to do), the technology concepts and designs, though rare, fit wonderfully with the original 1953 movie and were neat. The mythos was interesting and slowly building. Season 2 had better cinematography (a fantastic model flyby intro!) and looked more expensive (until you start to feel like there are no extras and the world feels uninhabited), but it completely abandoned everything established in season 1. The aliens are seen in their native form about three times, never again speak their own language, their culture is completely different... It’s basically a different series. A few episodes are pretty good as their own series, admittedly, but it did not have the dark humor or remotely the amount of character as season one. It’s too bad these two seasons were put to DVD with such shitty quality. This series needs a clean transfer from source materials. I wonder what the quality of THOSE are, though. There probably never will be a better (or even a second) release, so...
Loved the review, Just picked up the dvds of this very cool show and cant wait to start watching them. You mentioned that you have them recorded on VHS, could you upload the video of the hand clutching the world part that was cut out, I would be interested in seeing it. Thanks for the great review
There was a release of the complete series earlier this year 2018 on DVD. I was wondering if it had the opening hand covering the earth for season one. Was going to take a chance and buy it, but did not want to buy the same edited version of the beginning. I am searching to see if it is restored . I will let you know if interested. There was a review of the new release on TH-cam, but did not mention it .
Pretty sure that set is just a repackage of the exact same discs as the previous season sets, much like all of Paramount's other TV show re-releases lately.
Thank you . I compared the discs I have to a vid of an unpackaging of the new ones on TH-cam and the discs from the new sets all look like the original second season discs ,the grey ones, including the first season .The originals set were were black discs of season one. I figured it was probably just a re-release of the same one.
Great video Sean!, I love it when you post these kind of videos. I think your movie and older video game discussion/review videos are amazing!. I think you would be and deserve to be seen more when you present more of this side of yourself. Thank you sir and best holiday wishes to you and Rosie.
I have a copy of the book written for the tv series and it scared the shit out of me found the tv series very good but the book was really graphic loved it
Created the 'Alien-Speak' for W.O.W. (Season I ) while working as Driver Captain. Met the Producer in a hallway and....boom..I then became a 'foley artist', through my Post work. Yes, it became more 'Blade Runner'esque'. Second season, since the 'aliens', somehow took E.S.L.. Still got the work as 'loop guy' for all background voices Season 2. I need & would like to to have....'sound bites' of the Alien Speak. monk2bunk@ yeh? who?calmm
Wait. You created the alienspeak for the first season? Really? I need more information. I've been fascinated by the language for years. I need to know as much of the linguistics as possible.
That's awesome Allen, what a stroke of luck bumping into that Producer that day! Really liked how the aliens were given a distinctive language. It had an almost tribal aspect to it, with the clicks and throaty sounds, very creatively done. Both "otherworldly," yet strangely familiar. Thanks for sharing your story!
@@zaranyzerak did you see the new war ifvworkds with gsbirel bryne in it it was on the BBC not too long ago lke last year and did you know that thet geroge a Romero planned to di his own version of war kf the worlds that he wanted it Mike it mord bloodier and graphic thdnnthe 53 film and make it r rated j belive if kn not mistaken but it never haplend dud to geroge moving to another things
This show is SO GOOD. I should really do videos or blog reviews of it. It's right up there with Highlander and Miami Vice as far as my favorite shows growing up go. So I was one of those "hey it's the guy from WOTW" people when I first saw Highlander. I didn't even know Season 2 got a DVD release because over the years I eventually just stopped checking for it. Season 1 is waaaaay better than Season 2, but at least Season 2 has a true "epic season finale" type episode (S1's finale is more like a regular episode). Also really liked the episode in S2 where they go back to Harrison's childhood, that one is a super-fond memory for me. As a kid I remember wondering if someday I'd want to warp back in time to visit myself as a kid, the way they do in the show. Now I'm about Harrison's age and I certainly would love to go back to that era and experience it again. So yeah, while I love S1, I do think S2 has a few very cool episodes. I also like the post-apocalyptic theme, but I found that S2's episodes were often too dark to see much of anything and that was the downside of it.
@Zaranyzerak I've been a complete massive massive War Of The Worlds fan myself since my Mom and Dad first let me hear the Jeff Wayne's Musical from 1978 and also let me watch the 1953 movie back in 1984 when I was only 7 years old and from that moment?... I was hooked, I always wondered what it would be like if an Alien Martian enemy invaded Planet Earth, and then back in 1988 when I was only 11 years old I would stay up till behind my Mom and Dads back till gone 2am just to watch the TV series of the War Of The Worlds based off the 1953 movie, and then after watching it I would only get a few hours sleep and end up going to school tired as hell and I'd even nod off during class to where then my Teacher would throw the chalk board eraser at me to then wake me up and boy did that hurt lol... but I didn't care cause all I cared about was seeing the next episode and storyline to what happened next in the TV series and see if the Martians would succeed in taking over the earth as well as our bodies... Man what nostalgia and going back to that time... damn I'm showing my age now... 46 now I am LOL 😂
Out of curiosity, what was it that you hated about Speilberg's version? It may not be as classic as the original, but it does use some of the original concepts from the book, such as the "red weed", the "tripods" with its tentacles, and cages and that the aliens suck blood.
Did you ever read the noveliztaion of the pilot episode, The Resurrection ? It's where I found out about the series. But by the time I finally got a channel that had the show, it was in its second season. But I got to see the season premiere, but ended up seeing the deaths of Norton and Ironhorse.
The only part of season 2 I did not like was Harrison's quirks, his yoga, vegetarianism, meditations, etc were removed. Rest was fine. I also liked how it ended. Pity Out of This World and Super Force never got an ending...and was canned on a cliff hanger.
Yeah, I agree. I missed Harrison's quirkiness too. Super Force was fun, I have the DVD set of that. Out of This World seems so hard to find these days. The original mini-series is on TH-cam, but the short lived regular series just seems to be nowhere to be found.
Well the uk box set we got here in the uk some of the episodes actually had the alien hand reaching over the earth although the box seemed to have some misprints including mine as season 1 disc 4 was actually tales from the darkside season 4 disc 2 I think still a great box set and fantastic show though
Is this show any good? I'm heading on out tomorrow and There's 2 season pack that's in JB HI FI and also being a big fan of the original and the 2005 remake. is the tv series worth getting????
Great show im watching season 1, my question is the aliens in season 2 are they the same as the alien for season 1, they look pretty much the same but mor-tax and morthei?
It's never really explained fully, but I get the impression from their first appearance in the season 2 premiere that they're a rival faction of aliens that split off from the others. More about following The Eternal's wishes than their own pursuits.
Great review! I'm a big fan of the 1953 film and the 1988 series. Preferred season 1 though. Like yourself, I saw WotW before the Highlander series, so Adrian Paul was 'the guy from War of the Worlds'. Particularly liked some of the more well known actors that made appearances in the series...John Vernon (Dirty Harry), John Colicos, Patrick MacNee, and of course, Ann Robinson (who to my knowledge, has been in FOUR versions of (The) War of the Worlds (if you count The Naked Monster). I was gutted when Richard Chaves character [SPOILERS ALERT] was killed in episode 1 of season 2. He even got a raw deal (forgive the double Schwarzenegger reference) in Predator. Minutes after Dutch said the Predator wouldn't kill you if you were unarmed, the severely wounded Poncho briefly held a gun and was zapped dead for it. Not a week goes by without me watching, listening to, or reading, something War of the Worlds related. Great stuff!
It's passable, certainly better than an old grainy VHS recording is going to look. It's as good as the show's going to get, just a bit too niche for them to do much else with it. I was surprised we even got it on DVD.
@@zaranyzerak I have difficult to find season 2 on good quality. season 1 was awesome, but season 2 is very poor quality, worse than worse would not be joy able to watch
Well it was a darker looking series, and produced on a much lower budget than the first season. The DVDs are literally as good as we're ever going to see it. There is no higher quality version out there.
@@zaranyzerak For me the quality should be as those I watch on stream sajts, I don't expect more than that, just as far as I can see "normal" is good, but the second season I find is very very bad, doesn't make any sense to watch it, its very poor, most episodes, I found one that was watchable, but I really wanna see the second season cause it was 4-5 years ago I saw the whole set after 30 years. This is my childhood tv from early 90`s I was barely 9-10 years old. It means a lot for me to see them.
Don't know what to tell you, the DVDs are literally the best version available. I have many episodes recorded off the original broadcasts, and the DVDs looks much, much better than those ever did. It was a significant show for me too when it was originally on. They look fine to me, and that's as someone who has been watching his VHS recordings for years prior to that.
Thanks for the review. I too was a big fan of this TV show but count me in the camp who hated the second season. It wasn't nearly as good as the first and it just pissed me off that they completely wiped out everything that made the series what it was. I will say the last good episode what the first episode of season 2 though. Sucks about the intro. I loved that part.
The DVD is fine, it's highly doubtful we'll ever see it look any better. amazon links to all the sets I showed in this video are in the description. I updated the list of links to include all of the latest, best releases of the show and movie. So it now includes the Criterion Blu-ray of the original 1953 movie, and the 2018 re-release of the compete series (which is just a repackage of this release, exact same discs, but less expensive)
@@zaranyzerak I know amazon is selling the first season not the second, but I find it in another sait, it says warning region compatible what doe sit mean, I only have ps4 for using dvd and also ps5. Can I play the set with that? s1-2 that means set right?
Amazon is selling both, look at the links I posted in the description. The set you saw in that listing was likely for the UK, so it is a different region code/video format than North America. I posted links to literally every release there has been of the show in the description, amazon has all of them. They all use the same masters, the only difference is the packaging. The 2018 release is the most affordable as the old sets are long out of print.
@@zaranyzerak I live in sweden so I can only use amazon from sweden, and they sell the season 1 only, Im gonna check it out more. you think ps4 bought in europe can play them all?
Ah, okay. The PS4 might be able to play them if they're region-free, otherwise I just play DVDs from other countries on my computer. I just rip them to my hard drive which takes out the Region coding so I can watch them without any issues.
Never seen this series until it was released on DVD. But that added intro sounds cool. Also wished they left it in the DVDs. Who ever made the decision to cut it out is an idiot. Also loved the show. Liked season one better though. I thought season two was okay, but I absolutely loved season one.
I wonder what has become of the film masters. A remaster would be cool, and will NEVER happen because there’s not enough merit for Paramount (it would cost a lot and make none of that money back).
Great review! I discovered this playing late at night on ITV in the UK in the mid 1990's...at that time the series had been released to the rental market, there were 5 video tapes with 2 episodes on each....took me about 5 years of trolling video stores for ex rentals before I managed to get them all and of course when I had the last one and put it in the video player...it chewed it up, boy was I pissed! Kids these days don't know how easy it is to find stuff what with ebay and youtube grrrrr punk kids!
You'd think that they would have released it on VHS here in the US since it was an American show, but they didn't. The only way you could own the series here before the DVDs was if you recorded them on VHS like the man in the video. So I guess the UK was the place to be if you were a War of the Worlds fan and wanted the series before the DVD releases.
I was lucky in that I spotted a tiny little article on this new series on a video magazine that used to frequent video rental shops. Couple of years went by and then found The Resurrection on VHS as an ex-rental tape. So I bought it there and then... ANd not long after that, it aired on ITV networks late on a Friday night. Magic. I never trusted Mothrens and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my Colonel. Or Mor-Tax.
The problem I had with the series was the premise that the 1953 invasion was real; but absolutely no one outside the protagonists had any memory of it in 1988. Therefore, no one else could be convinced that the Martians were invading again. I passed on buying the CD box when it was first issued ($12 at Best Buy) because of reports that the sound was fine, but the picture quality was terrible-- much degraded from the original broadcasts. Also, as you describe, the grasping claw opening was inexplicably butchered out. I read that the revamping of the second season was because of poor ratings for the first season. Detroit TV didn't help the survivability of the series by broadcasting season two episodes at 2:00 a.m. Sundays. Very helpful review.
People had memory of it, it was just something they didn't recall very often and in great detail. And there is a vague explanation for this during the first season. It could've been as Harrison suggested in the show a combination of self-induced amnesia because people were so terrified of it they wanted to forget and the aliens might have some power to make the people forget. This no doubt would have been explained further and in more detail in later seasons if the network hadn't replaced the creative team after the first season.
Fan Theory? There's fans still? I never see any fanart or anything for this. I heard that paramount didn't even think it existed when it came to releasing it on DVD but forunatly we got a release. still no Blu Ray though. or any "Making of" content.
Sean well ithink thres a blu ray of the 53 movie on blu ray now besides the 2005 film but j dong think the 80s series has a major HD realse since the 2005 or 04 DVD box set as I dong think has had very good treatment when it Came to archiving and have you ever tied find the radio show if war if workds on cds
Different than what? The movie? They don't, it's just a slight update to the original design. Made to be more maneuverable than the old puppet aliens used in the movie. The same basics of the design remain.
the other two remakes were even wose the one that was acutally took place in London during the actual time period was horrible edit and very badly paced. they tried to make it on a bdget of only like 5000 dollars. its fucken terrible. they ended up release and abriged dvd that had like 20 minutes cut out of it.
yhea it sounds like a great series if you can ignore the that season 2 is not canon with season 1 finale. Our at least that what I heard nice job you can make my yipip kakia yes I am referencing a dirty harry sequel. all right alien do you want to live free and prosper punk.
As a direct sequel to the 53 movie the first episode of season one is perfect. The second season was a waste. Killing off the Mortaxian aliens was a huge mistake, especially when they brought in the Mothrye aliens they were just too weak as villains. My problem with the episodes of season one was that the Mortaxians were just too weak after the first episode. Some of the first season episodes are okay, but nope not great.
There should be more reviews on this series.
ARGHHH, I wish they kept the alien hand sliding over the earth animation in the DVD release!! I remember always being super creeped out whenever I saw that!!
SUPERB review, my man!!
Producer said, to me "we've auditioned in LA, NY, Toronto and can't find what we want". He sent me to a Post Studio where I met a young exchange student from Botswana. We went and a had a coffee, together. I asked her to speak to me in Bantu-Click. She did and II bastardized the language. Then the engineer separated the tones and mixed them back together. The first few Directors just had the actors open and close their mouths. That was hard to overlay so I suggested that the actors speak English. Then I built the language around that. 'To life immortal' became ' Tu-doe-nac-itay' which fit the lip movements.
I remember that it was an important part of my history, for me. Loved this series.
I never forget I saw this show on the sci if channel!
I find it depressing this series was seemingly forgotten, Can't find any fanart of it. No major movie reviewer channels have covered it. I've never even met anyone else who'se heard of it. It's almost bordering on "Lost Media" But it has enough of a following to get DVD releases but as far as i know no Blu rays yet.
I am not holding my breath for any blu rays
What good would a Blu-ray release do anyway? Back in the 80s and 90s, Paramount shot their television series on film, but edited them on standard definition videotape. Any future releases of the series even on BD or 4K will be SD regardless of the physical medium.
Essentially Paramount would have to scan all the original film and audio elements over to a new HD master in order to create a HD presentation. They did that with Star Trek: The Next Generation several year back. The thing is that "War of the Worlds: The Series" isn't a major cash cow for Paramount like ST:TNG, so I wouldn't ever count on them going to the massive expense of remastering WOTW:TS as much as I would love them to.
Lost media... Oh boy
COMPLETELY AGREE with the alien hand and strange sound rant....miss it so much.....that used to creep me out watching it late at night on an old static ridden 'bunny ears' tv.....
SKraktah Ca"Dishiya!!! (TO LIFE, IMMORTAL!!!)
too doe nokatae
This show died for me when Ironhorse died at the beginning of Season 2.
At least I thanked Adrian Paul for his being in it. But yeah, that season sucked.
Him and Norton Drake. Paramount would repeat such horrible decision making with the first Mission Impossible film in 1996 with the Jim Phelps character.
Man, I always got the chills from the hand clutching the earth and the third hand popping out of the chest!
To life immortal!
Excellent reviewer! My exact thoughts coming from him.
Anyone remember the pre-show bumper they used to advertise the series before it launched. I only remember seeing it a few times and it was months before the series premiered.
"People of the Earth. Thirty-five years ago we invaded your planet. You thought you stopped us. You thought we were gone forever. But you were wrong! We never left! War of the Worlds" The graphic would be the three finger hand slowly creeping over the Earth.
I want to say it was a bumper for WPIX, but I don't remember for sure. I can't find it any where, so I'm guessing it was very local to NE PA.
This is one of my favorite shows and also one of the most frustrating experiences.
Season 2 [spoiler ahead] changed because Frank Mancuso Jr, the son of [Paramount?] was given full control over the series for season 2. He knew NOTHING about it. Typical of new producers, he decided to completely re-vamp the series. He basically put the Friday the 13th the series’ (his previous show) production values on it and killed off the most popular character because he did not know the character was the fan favorite (he admitted this later and said he wouldn’t have done it had he known, but the character deaths were only one part of the problem).
Season 1 was really well done for what it was. The aliens were wonderfully designed, had their own language (I don’t think it was a proper language, but it was an important detail most scifi fails to do), the technology concepts and designs, though rare, fit wonderfully with the original 1953 movie and were neat. The mythos was interesting and slowly building.
Season 2 had better cinematography (a fantastic model flyby intro!) and looked more expensive (until you start to feel like there are no extras and the world feels uninhabited), but it completely abandoned everything established in season 1. The aliens are seen in their native form about three times, never again speak their own language, their culture is completely different... It’s basically a different series. A few episodes are pretty good as their own series, admittedly, but it did not have the dark humor or remotely the amount of character as season one.
It’s too bad these two seasons were put to DVD with such shitty quality. This series needs a clean transfer from source materials. I wonder what the quality of THOSE are, though. There probably never will be a better (or even a second) release, so...
Jace yeh paramount hashtag relly dine anything with show much in acwhike
Well said. 👏👏👏
I remember this series as a kid, there was a lot of green alien goo/slime!! 😀👍
Hope you can get a copy of the recent blue ray!
Loved the review, Just picked up the dvds of this very cool show and cant wait to start watching them. You mentioned that you have them recorded on VHS, could you upload the video of the hand clutching the world part that was cut out, I would be interested in seeing it. Thanks for the great review
There was a release of the complete series earlier this year 2018 on DVD. I was wondering if it had the opening hand covering the earth for season one. Was going to take a chance and buy it, but did not want to buy the same edited version of the beginning. I am searching to see if it is restored . I will let you know if interested.
There was a review of the new release on TH-cam, but did not mention it .
Pretty sure that set is just a repackage of the exact same discs as the previous season sets, much like all of Paramount's other TV show re-releases lately.
Thank you . I compared the discs I have to a vid of an unpackaging of the new ones on TH-cam and the discs from the new sets all look like the original second season discs ,the grey ones, including the first season .The originals set were were black discs of season one. I figured it was probably just a re-release of the same one.
I could only imagine what planet mor-tax and planet Qar-to' looked like
another show that comes to mind when talking about horror shows that where graphic but really popular tales from the crypt
Great video Sean!, I love it when you post these kind of videos. I think your movie and older video game discussion/review videos are amazing!. I think you would be and deserve to be seen more when you present more of this side of yourself. Thank you sir and best holiday wishes to you and Rosie.
I know I said it before but I love your backdrop! I need to get in to the Halloween spirit soon since it's only a few days away! Great video :)
I have a copy of the book written for the tv series and it scared the shit out of me found the tv series very good but the book was really graphic loved it
I got the book too. Added some interesting insight on the alien side
Created the 'Alien-Speak' for W.O.W. (Season I ) while working as Driver Captain. Met the Producer in a hallway and....boom..I then became a 'foley artist', through my Post work. Yes, it became more 'Blade Runner'esque'. Second season, since the 'aliens', somehow took E.S.L.. Still got the work as 'loop guy' for all background voices Season 2. I need & would like to to have....'sound bites' of the Alien Speak. monk2bunk@ yeh? who?calmm
Wait. You created the alienspeak for the first season? Really? I need more information. I've been fascinated by the language for years. I need to know as much of the linguistics as possible.
That's awesome Allen, what a stroke of luck bumping into that Producer that day! Really liked how the aliens were given a distinctive language. It had an almost tribal aspect to it, with the clicks and throaty sounds, very creatively done. Both "otherworldly," yet strangely familiar. Thanks for sharing your story!
@@zaranyzerak did you see the new war ifvworkds with gsbirel bryne in it it was on the BBC not too long ago lke last year and did you know that thet geroge a Romero planned to di his own version of war kf the worlds that he wanted it Mike it mord bloodier and graphic thdnnthe 53 film and make it r rated j belive if kn not mistaken but it never haplend dud to geroge moving to another things
This show is SO GOOD. I should really do videos or blog reviews of it. It's right up there with Highlander and Miami Vice as far as my favorite shows growing up go. So I was one of those "hey it's the guy from WOTW" people when I first saw Highlander. I didn't even know Season 2 got a DVD release because over the years I eventually just stopped checking for it. Season 1 is waaaaay better than Season 2, but at least Season 2 has a true "epic season finale" type episode (S1's finale is more like a regular episode).
Also really liked the episode in S2 where they go back to Harrison's childhood, that one is a super-fond memory for me. As a kid I remember wondering if someday I'd want to warp back in time to visit myself as a kid, the way they do in the show. Now I'm about Harrison's age and I certainly would love to go back to that era and experience it again. So yeah, while I love S1, I do think S2 has a few very cool episodes. I also like the post-apocalyptic theme, but I found that S2's episodes were often too dark to see much of anything and that was the downside of it.
I believe Adrian Paul did the short-lived “Dark Shadows” between WotW and Highlander.
Um savthulky the dsrk shadows series was acthully Ben cross not adrian
@Zaranyzerak I've been a complete massive massive War Of The Worlds fan myself since my Mom and Dad first let me hear the Jeff Wayne's Musical from 1978 and also let me watch the 1953 movie back in 1984 when I was only 7 years old and from that moment?... I was hooked, I always wondered what it would be like if an Alien Martian enemy invaded Planet Earth, and then back in 1988 when I was only 11 years old I would stay up till behind my Mom and Dads back till gone 2am just to watch the TV series of the War Of The Worlds based off the 1953 movie, and then after watching it I would only get a few hours sleep and end up going to school tired as hell and I'd even nod off during class to where then my Teacher would throw the chalk board eraser at me to then wake me up and boy did that hurt lol... but I didn't care cause all I cared about was seeing the next episode and storyline to what happened next in the TV series and see if the Martians would succeed in taking over the earth as well as our bodies... Man what nostalgia and going back to that time... damn I'm showing my age now... 46 now I am LOL 😂
Out of curiosity, what was it that you hated about Speilberg's version? It may not be as classic as the original, but it does use some of the original concepts from the book, such as the "red weed", the "tripods" with its tentacles, and cages and that the aliens suck blood.
Did you ever read the noveliztaion of the pilot episode, The Resurrection ? It's where I found out about the series. But by the time I finally got a channel that had the show, it was in its second season. But I got to see the season premiere, but ended up seeing the deaths of Norton and Ironhorse.
The only part of season 2 I did not like was Harrison's quirks, his yoga, vegetarianism, meditations, etc were removed. Rest was fine.
I also liked how it ended.
Pity Out of This World and Super Force never got an ending...and was canned on a cliff hanger.
Yeah, I agree. I missed Harrison's quirkiness too. Super Force was fun, I have the DVD set of that. Out of This World seems so hard to find these days. The original mini-series is on TH-cam, but the short lived regular series just seems to be nowhere to be found.
I remember the show I liked it
Well the uk box set we got here in the uk some of the episodes actually had the alien hand reaching over the earth although the box seemed to have some misprints including mine as season 1 disc 4 was actually tales from the darkside season 4 disc 2 I think still a great box set and fantastic show though
Do you like the War of the Worlds 2005 Movie?
Is this show any good? I'm heading on out tomorrow and There's 2 season pack that's in JB HI FI and also being a big fan of the original and the 2005 remake. is the tv series worth getting????
J man thee nirvana FAN!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes
@@CompactRisk have you seen the new war if worlds with gsbirel bryne it's like a frsnch brtish series
Great show im watching season 1, my question is the aliens in season 2 are they the same as the alien for season 1, they look pretty much the same but mor-tax and morthei?
It's never really explained fully, but I get the impression from their first appearance in the season 2 premiere that they're a rival faction of aliens that split off from the others. More about following The Eternal's wishes than their own pursuits.
Sean did you see the new war of worlds on epix with gsbirel bryne
I hated Speilberg 's war of the worlds movie. But I was a big fan if the 1953 film. I was not aware of theT.V series
bruh
Great review!
I'm a big fan of the 1953 film and the 1988 series. Preferred season 1 though. Like yourself, I saw WotW before the Highlander series, so Adrian Paul was 'the guy from War of the Worlds'.
Particularly liked some of the more well known actors that made appearances in the series...John Vernon (Dirty Harry), John Colicos, Patrick MacNee, and of course, Ann Robinson (who to my knowledge, has been in FOUR versions of (The) War of the Worlds (if you count The Naked Monster).
I was gutted when Richard Chaves character [SPOILERS ALERT] was killed in episode 1 of season 2. He even got a raw deal (forgive the double Schwarzenegger reference) in Predator. Minutes after Dutch said the Predator wouldn't kill you if you were unarmed, the severely wounded Poncho briefly held a gun and was zapped dead for it.
Not a week goes by without me watching, listening to, or reading, something War of the Worlds related. Great stuff!
Me too, I love searching the net for WotW related items, however websites with the shows content are becoming few and far between.
is the war of the wars first season on dvd good quality? Im a fan, saw it in the early 90´s when I was a kid 8-10 years old
It's passable, certainly better than an old grainy VHS recording is going to look. It's as good as the show's going to get, just a bit too niche for them to do much else with it. I was surprised we even got it on DVD.
@@zaranyzerak I have difficult to find season 2 on good quality. season 1 was awesome, but season 2 is very poor quality, worse than worse would not be joy able to watch
Well it was a darker looking series, and produced on a much lower budget than the first season. The DVDs are literally as good as we're ever going to see it. There is no higher quality version out there.
@@zaranyzerak For me the quality should be as those I watch on stream sajts, I don't expect more than that, just as far as I can see "normal" is good, but the second season I find is very very bad, doesn't make any sense to watch it, its very poor, most episodes, I found one that was watchable, but I really wanna see the second season cause it was 4-5 years ago I saw the whole set after 30 years. This is my childhood tv from early 90`s I was barely 9-10 years old. It means a lot for me to see them.
Don't know what to tell you, the DVDs are literally the best version available. I have many episodes recorded off the original broadcasts, and the DVDs looks much, much better than those ever did. It was a significant show for me too when it was originally on. They look fine to me, and that's as someone who has been watching his VHS recordings for years prior to that.
Thanks for the review. I too was a big fan of this TV show but count me in the camp who hated the second season. It wasn't nearly as good as the first and it just pissed me off that they completely wiped out everything that made the series what it was. I will say the last good episode what the first episode of season 2 though. Sucks about the intro. I loved that part.
Did you ever read the book or play the old RTS game?
RTS? i need more information please
@@FrenchFryCheese04 Certainly! Here's the trailer for the 1998 RTS! th-cam.com/video/rV2Acd4OYVM/w-d-xo.html
I've always been a huge fan of War Of The World's. They really don't make shows like this classic anymore. December 4, 2024.
WOTW season 2, where can I find it in adequate quality?
The DVD is fine, it's highly doubtful we'll ever see it look any better. amazon links to all the sets I showed in this video are in the description. I updated the list of links to include all of the latest, best releases of the show and movie. So it now includes the Criterion Blu-ray of the original 1953 movie, and the 2018 re-release of the compete series (which is just a repackage of this release, exact same discs, but less expensive)
@@zaranyzerak I know amazon is selling the first season not the second, but I find it in another sait, it says warning region compatible what doe sit mean, I only have ps4 for using dvd and also ps5. Can I play the set with that? s1-2 that means set right?
Amazon is selling both, look at the links I posted in the description. The set you saw in that listing was likely for the UK, so it is a different region code/video format than North America. I posted links to literally every release there has been of the show in the description, amazon has all of them. They all use the same masters, the only difference is the packaging. The 2018 release is the most affordable as the old sets are long out of print.
@@zaranyzerak I live in sweden so I can only use amazon from sweden, and they sell the season 1 only, Im gonna check it out more. you think ps4 bought in europe can play them all?
Ah, okay. The PS4 might be able to play them if they're region-free, otherwise I just play DVDs from other countries on my computer. I just rip them to my hard drive which takes out the Region coding so I can watch them without any issues.
I loved the whole story that happened it Was awesome. Sad it only lasted two seasons.
Never seen this series until it was released on DVD. But that added intro sounds cool. Also wished they left it in the DVDs. Who ever made the decision to cut it out is an idiot. Also loved the show. Liked season one better though. I thought season two was okay, but I absolutely loved season one.
I loved the series. Been meaning to pick it up
I always like quirky Blackwood
Same, he was a great character
Shame the actor died :(
@@FrenchFryCheese04 He died? I loved his character. The vegetarianism and quirky little behaviors were rather influential, including the pacifism.
@@Kallistos1 Yeah
I wonder what has become of the film masters. A remaster would be cool, and will NEVER happen because there’s not enough merit for Paramount (it would cost a lot and make none of that money back).
The first season scared the crap out of me. Second season didn't watch much.
The return of the qar-to synth katara i was waiting on her season 1 was great jj Abrams and jordan peele need to get on this
Keneth did you see the new war of worlds on BBC with gsbirel bryne in it its mor modern take on it
JJ would fuck it up.
Nice video!
Have Jeremiah tv show ? If not you most its a really great post apocalyptic tv show.
Great review! I discovered this playing late at night on ITV in the UK in the mid 1990's...at that time the series had been released to the rental market, there were 5 video tapes with 2 episodes on each....took me about 5 years of trolling video stores for ex rentals before I managed to get them all and of course when I had the last one and put it in the video player...it chewed it up, boy was I pissed! Kids these days don't know how easy it is to find stuff what with ebay and youtube grrrrr punk kids!
You'd think that they would have released it on VHS here in the US since it was an American show, but they didn't. The only way you could own the series here before the DVDs was if you recorded them on VHS like the man in the video. So I guess the UK was the place to be if you were a War of the Worlds fan and wanted the series before the DVD releases.
And I agree with you on how hard it was to find stuff before the internet. Things have gotten a lot easier now days.
I was lucky in that I spotted a tiny little article on this new series on a video magazine that used to frequent video rental shops. Couple of years went by and then found The Resurrection on VHS as an ex-rental tape. So I bought it there and then... ANd not long after that, it aired on ITV networks late on a Friday night. Magic. I never trusted Mothrens and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my Colonel. Or Mor-Tax.
I am looking for hi res scans of the VHS covers. If anyone has them, email me at bromicaelhenry at gmail dot com.
and you haven't got a preyer !
The problem I had with the series was the premise that the 1953 invasion was real; but absolutely no one outside the protagonists had any memory of it in 1988. Therefore, no one else could be convinced that the Martians were invading again.
I passed on buying the CD box when it was first issued ($12 at Best Buy) because of reports that the sound was fine, but the picture quality was terrible-- much degraded from the original broadcasts. Also, as you describe, the grasping claw opening was inexplicably butchered out.
I read that the revamping of the second season was because of poor ratings for the first season. Detroit TV didn't help the survivability of the series by broadcasting season two episodes at 2:00 a.m. Sundays.
Very helpful review.
People had memory of it, it was just something they didn't recall very often and in great detail. And there is a vague explanation for this during the first season. It could've been as Harrison suggested in the show a combination of self-induced amnesia because people were so terrified of it they wanted to forget and the aliens might have some power to make the people forget. This no doubt would have been explained further and in more detail in later seasons if the network hadn't replaced the creative team after the first season.
Fan Theory? There's fans still? I never see any fanart or anything for this. I heard that paramount didn't even think it existed when it came to releasing it on DVD but forunatly we got a release. still no Blu Ray though. or any "Making of" content.
Sean well ithink thres a blu ray of the 53 movie on blu ray now besides the 2005 film but j dong think the 80s series has a major HD realse since the 2005 or 04 DVD box set as I dong think has had very good treatment when it Came to archiving and have you ever tied find the radio show if war if workds on cds
I know, I got the Blu-ray and showed it in an update a while ago.
@@zaranyzerak oh now I see and did you ever rebuy the 2005 war if workds yet
@@zacharyjochumsen9677 Why would I rebuy it? I've owned it on Blu-ray for years, I have it. in a nice limited edition MetalPak.
@@zaranyzerak did you ever hsvr any physical copy of the radio program ss kid on like CD or casette
@@zacharyjochumsen9677 Yes, I had it on audio cassette as a kid. I know have it just as an mp3.
please do a Godzilla dvd disambiguation.
Why do the aliens look different though like from 1953-1988
Different than what? The movie? They don't, it's just a slight update to the original design. Made to be more maneuverable than the old puppet aliens used in the movie. The same basics of the design remain.
@@zaranyzerak what did you mean by cash in
@@FrenchFryCheese04 I have no idea what you're referring to
the other two remakes were even wose the one that was acutally took place in London during the actual time period was horrible edit and very badly paced. they tried to make it on a bdget of only like 5000 dollars. its fucken terrible. they ended up release and abriged dvd that had like 20 minutes cut out of it.
NO SEAN YOU DA MAN! LOL
yhea it sounds like a great series if you can ignore the that season 2 is not canon with season 1 finale. Our at least that what I heard nice job you can make my yipip kakia yes I am referencing a dirty harry sequel. all right alien do you want to live free and prosper punk.
slagar the cruel 85 it is canon, people just dislike it because it changed in tone
As a direct sequel to the 53 movie the first episode of season one is perfect. The second season was a waste. Killing off the Mortaxian aliens was a huge mistake, especially when they brought in the Mothrye aliens they were just too weak as villains. My problem with the episodes of season one was that the Mortaxians were just too weak after the first episode. Some of the first season episodes are okay, but nope not great.
Second season sucked balls...they need to reboot season 1 on Netflix
reboots RARELY do well.