CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

ace2184 · Joined: 04 Mar 2015 Posts: 34 Location: Washington State

I couldn't find if this had been a topic, I assume it has, if so feel free to take this down. But I was wondering if there are any movies that never made their way on to CED, or maybe you wish CED would have stuck around for a few more years. What would everyone have liked to see released on CED. For me, off the top of my head, I would have loved it if The Evil Dead was released on CED.

PapaPolynomial · Joined: 20 Aug 2015 Posts: 14

Ferris Bueller, Labyrinth, Stand by Me, Little Shop Of Horrors, Blue Velvet, Three Amigo's, all 1986...just on the cusp

Oh, and Magical Mystery Tour & Yellow Submarine would have been rad.

PapaPolynomial · Joined: 20 Aug 2015 Posts: 14

Also seems odd that Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory is absent from the CED releases. Every other 70's classic seemed to have been accounted for...

ace2184 · Joined: 04 Mar 2015 Posts: 34 Location: Washington State

ketonic_dude · Joined: 20 Jul 2012 Posts: 547 Location: Mankato, MN

Ace, you will be surprised to know that The Evil Dead may have been made on CED. I got a master title list from Pam who was a former RCA employee during the program. It lists every title and UPC number up to late 1983 I think. It has The Evil Dead on it, but has a star next to it that means it is an unreleased title. So it may or may not have been pressed. There are two titles, Savage Streets and The Story of O that were pressed but never released, but some copies did make it out in the hands of employees while the majority of them were destroyed. I can't imagine there is more than a dozen copies of each in existence. As far as The Evil Dead, I have never seen one but thats not to say it doesn't exist somewhere. You can obtain The Evil Dead on VHD for around $150 but it's hard to find.

lynx · Joined: 30 Jun 2018 Posts: 100

Since there hasn't been very much activity on here for the last few weeks, this topic looks like a fun subject to get the forum going again.

It's always fun to think about "what could have been" with CED, so I did some brainstorming and I came up with a lot of titles that I wish were released on CED.

Starting with titles released in 1986, just on the cusp, those six titles would have been nice, and I would add Platoon (Best Picture), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Down & Out In Beverly Hills, Top Gun, Hoosiers, Pretty In Pink, The Great Mouse Detective, and Crocodile Dundee.

For 1985, I would have liked The Legend Of Billie Jean, The Color Purple, The Journey Of Natty Gann, Clue, Jumpin' Jack Flash, The Golden Girls, The Black Cauldron, and Out Of Africa (Best Picture).

There are also a lot of older movies which could have been released on CED, but for some reason, were never released, and it's hard to say why they never got released on this format. For example, I would have liked It's A Wonderful Life, Zorba The Greek, A Separate Peace, McClintock!, Earthquake, Hondo, To Kill A Mockingbird, Cool Hand Luke, The Other Side Of The Mountain, The Miracle Worker, and Bye Bye Birdie.

Disney released a lot of titles on CED, but some of their missing titles are Peter Pan, Bambi, Superdad, The Cat From Outer Space, 101 Dalmatians, Herbie Goes Bananas, Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo, That Darn Cat!, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, The Sword In The Stone, Freaky Friday, The Aristocats, Pete's Dragon, Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier, The Devil & Max Devlin, and Lady & The Tramp. Once again, all of those Disney movies could have been on CED, and it's any one's guess why none of them got CED releases.

TV shows on home video were never popular before DVD, but some TV shows are available on CED. Classic TV titles that I would have liked are Magnum P.I., The Muppet Show, Green Acres, The Andy Griffith Show, and its spin-offs, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and Mayberry R.F.D. I would have also liked more CED releases of Saturday Night Live, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Big Blue Marble, since it's implied that more of them were planned to be available.

One miniseries which would have been a good CED title is Masada, which had advertisements for CED run during its original broadcast back in the Spring of 1981.

Finally, there are a few PAL / UK titles available on CED that I wish existed in the American NTSC video standard, like Bugsy Malone, From The Earth To The Moon, and Koyaanisqatsi. I really would have liked Elton John In Central Park and Phil Collins Live At The Perkins Palace on American CEDs, since they have always been two of my favorite singers.

Likewise, I think the NTSC CED titles Arthur, Chariots Of Fire, Elton John: Visions, A Hard Day's Night, Gimme Shelter, Kipperbang, Let It Be, Police Around The World, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Rod Stewart: Tonight He's Yours, Rolling Stones: Let's Spend The Night Together, To Sir, With Love, and all of the James Bond, Monty Python, and Pink Panther movies, would have all been good PAL / UK titles because they are all British titles, so it would have been logical to release them there.

Those are all of the titles that I can think of that would have been neat CED releases, and I would like to know what other titles different collectors would have wanted.
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Ced Collector · Joined: 14 Jul 2021 Posts: 65

Halloween (the first one). To add insult to injury, they put part 3 on disc! haha

While I'm thinking about this one, was this the only case where RCA skipped a 1st movie release but included latter part2's 3's etc? I just realized, I don't think they did this with any other movie series did they?

What I'd really like to know is how the heck did E.T. not make it? Being that I was an 80's kid, I can tell you, this blew up as big as star wars back in the day! They were selling everything E.T. just like star wars it seemed. It was massive, at least from a kids point of view back then. You'd thought they would have sold E.T. by the truck loads! Like, I bet it would have been their number one seller, or at least just behind star wars.
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Ced Collector · Joined: 14 Jul 2021 Posts: 65

Ced Collector · Joined: 14 Jul 2021 Posts: 65

RAD 1986. I just realized this one could have been possible. Though a very late release.

Does anyone know how many 1986 movies were released? Any of the 1985 releases seem to be pretty darn rare in most cases, I've noticed. Black Moon Rising isn't the only 1986 release is it?

Oh man, look at the 1986 releases that would have been cool.

Maximum overdrive.
Little shop of horrors.
Labyrinth.
Howard the duck.
Short circuit.
Top gun.
Aliens
Flight of the navigator.
The fly.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The money pit.
Big trouble in little china.
crocodile Dundee.
Karate kid 2.
Platoon.
Blue Velvet.
An American Tail.
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Jesse Skeen · Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Sacramento, CA

The only 2 1986-copyrighted movies on CED were Youngblood and Black Moon Rising.

ET wasn't released on any video format until 1988 and was a big deal when it finally happened, Steven Spielberg had wanted it to only be shown in theaters being reissued every few years like Disney did with their animated classics for a long time. I saw ET twice but both in lousy theaters with mono sound, it's been much better at home!

The first Halloween was rumored to be coming out on CED but never happened, it was owned at the time by Media Home Entertainment which never put out anything on the format. Halloween II and III were from Universal.

Always been meaning to learn how to use Photoshop and make fake CED covers of newer movies. Someone made a few that showed up online but they took too many liberties with the label designs. I'd stick to the classic round artwork RCA used in the beginning.
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