The first time The Waltons episode "The Best Christmas" was rerun after I bought a VCR, I taped it, since it is my favorite episode along with "The Achievement" (John-Boy's book is published). In that era (early 1980s), stations still typically sliced several minutes out of syndicated reruns to make more room for commercials. "The Best Christmas" was missing a small scene of Olivia, Grandma, and Elizabeth talking about Christmas preparations in the kitchen.

I noticed while scanning Zap2It that "The Best Christmas" was running yesterday at noon, so I set up to record it, hoping that scene would be restored. I had no illusions that I would want to keep that version; I preferred my faded and occasionally static-y WCVB copy to one that I knew, although the picture would be better, would contain pop-ups, "bugs," and compressed credits. I had an idea that I could splice the restored scene into a new recording of the show and thus have the entire episode with minimal interference.

Well, thanks to new technology, Hallmark did show "Best Christmas" uncut, except for the teaser at the beginning.

But ohmyGod, you should have seen the time compression! I have heard people complaining about time-compressed reruns, but this is the first time I'd seen how bad it is—I haven't noticed it on M*A*S*H and the only other time I watch Hallmark is when a new McBride is on. I have watched shows on other channels that I know are time compressed, but the compression has never been that obvious. It was hideously obvious in "The Best Christmas." All the scenes, especially of people moving quickly, looked jerky, like a silent movie, or actually more as if frames have been removed—sometimes it seemed like one step short of pixillation. And any scene where anyone speaks in more than a slow drawl almost has a chipmunk factor. It was appalling.

Anyway, I did manage to edit the deleted scene in pretty well (it's so easy to edit with a DVD recorder; nice clean cuts, no pops and no rainbows), although it's really obvious—not just the color being brighter and the picture being sharper, but because especially Elizabeth talking sounds like birds chirping! Too weird.

(That episode of The Waltons would have been 49 to 50 minutes when originally broadcast. Hallmark is probably squishing it into 40-41 minutes of actual broadcast. What is that, a 20 percent compression rate? Holy cow...)

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:02:00 AM

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