"NYPD Blue" Restoration Reel

In a project for 20th Century Fox spanning nine months, Roundabout Entertainment restored and remastered the first eight seasons of the classic procedural police drama NYPD Blue. More than 170 1-hour episodes were scanned and finished in 2K, restoring the show to pristine quality for a new domestic release. The new restoration was created from 35mm cut negative—the first eight seasons were shot on film—and other original elements. 2K scanning was performed by Roundabout Colorist Juan Zorn using Lasergraphics archive scanning system The Director. Reassembling episodes to conform to the series’ original broadcasts proved complicated as the cut negative often did not entirely match videotape reference copies of what actually aired. Senior Colorist Michael Smollin, who led the restoration project and worked on the original series in the 1990s as a young assistant, explains that the discrepancies were the result of last minute editorial changes.