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August 2009: Bad Ronald Available on DVD from Time Warner Archive

posted 15 years ago by quentinwparker1
2 replies | jump to latest

"Bad Ronald" was recently released for both download and DVD by Time Warner Archive Video. It's available at the http://www.wbshop.com. The DVD is currently priced at $14.95.

A special note about what Time Warner's Archive Collection is. The titles are burned to DVD by Time Warner when ordered by customers and are not mass produced. These DVDs are not available on the shelves of your local Target or Walmart. Time Warner uses the best available master video for duplication. The Archive Collection is NOT digitally remastered. The studio is NOT sinking millions into old titles that have limited appeal. However, Time Warner did a service for those who absolutely desire to have a copy of their favorite out-of-print film, films that may not have much mass appeal and would never make it to DVD otherwise.

Be careful to buy directly from Time Warner. There, you will get the best price possible. There are other marketers and E-bayers who have purchased copies from Time Warner and are selling the DVDs for twice or three as much.

[–] VinnieRattolle 15 years ago

As one of my favorite forgotten TV-Movies, "Bad Ronald" has been on my to-get list for a while, but I just finally got around to buying it. While the WB DVD-R is unquestionably the best print around, that's really not saying a whole lot. The color is really washed out (the colors are so muted it almost looks like black and white), there's some grain, a couple film tears and audio dropouts. Perhaps it's because I'm accustomed to a few other TV-movies from the same year that have gotten the remastered DVD treatment ("The Girl Most Likely To...," "Gargoyles," etc.) but I found the picture quality really disappointing. All in all, it's not much better quality than the VHS dupe I downloaded a few years ago from a now defunct cult movie website. I've purchased several other WB Archives flicks and was blown away by the quality -- but not with this one. And on a related note, IMDB lists a running time of 74 minutes (which was standard for a TV movie in 1974) but both the VHS dupe I've got and the WB DVD run 71 mins -- I can't say for certain if anything was cut, but I have a hunch both releases were duped from a slightly shorter syndication print.

I certainly don't mean this as a deterrent for someone seeking a copy of this beloved and rare trashterpiece who doesn't have one -- it's money well spent. As I mentioned, it is the best quality around, and I'm absolutely grateful that it's gotten an official release (of sorts). But here's hoping it someday gets remastered, cuz the quality of this DVD is thoroughly underwhelming. If you've already got a VHS dupe, it's barely worth the upgrade... and if your dupe is from the rare Beta release (Beta had a better picture quality than VHS) it's really not worth the upgrade at all.

Here's the link to buy it:
http://www.wbshop.com/Bad-Ronald/1000112910,default,pd.html

http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/

[–] Mustapha_P 15 years ago

I thought the picture quality was okay.better than i thought it would be,actually.
I do not think it was cut.All the bits that i remember are there.

By the way,do not try to get it from them if you are outside the USA because they will not let you even if you plan to have it sent to a friend that IS in the USA.
I know.I tried .