I’ve written in the past about the Warner Archive, an “On-Demand” program launched in March of this year that offers several hundred films directly to consumers in the form of DVD-Rs manufactured as needed. Recently, it seems, the Warner Archive has been expanding its selection of made-for-TV movies and may even be releasing individual episodes of certain shows. According to this October 6th Video Business article, the first made-for-TV movies were added to the Warner Archive website in August. A recent addition includes Then Came Bronson, the pilot telefilm that launched the television series. Lou Lumenick wrote about the Warner Archive for The New York Post a few days ago. Included was this :
Sales for the relative handful of TV movies and mini-series released so far “blew everyone away. We had our best month yet in October. I have found some stuff nobody even knows about. There was a series called ‘Conflict’ that Warners made for ABC in the ’50s, with a lot of stars in remakes of old movies, like Natalie Wood in a version of ‘Pretty Baby.’
Conflict ran for 20 episodes during the 1956-1957 season, replacing Warner Brothers Presents (which consisted of three rotating dramas: Cheyenne, Casablanca and Kings Row). It alternated weekly with Cheyenne.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to search the website for made-for-TV movies. DVD Aficionado has a list of upcoming releases; at the moment many of them are made-for-TV movies from the 1970s, including The Deadly Tower, Dying Room Only, Babe, The Gathering, The Gathering, Part II and The Girl in the Empty Grave. A discussion of upcoming and/or announced titles can be found at the Home Theater Forum (which is where I learned about the aforementioned article in The New York Post).
One sticking point with the Warner Archive is the cost. Each film typically runs $19.95. So buying both The Gathering and The Gathering, Part II (if they’re actually released) will cost about $40, unless there’s a discount for purchasing both. As for any potential release of Conflict, it could cost quite a bit; at $19.95 for each two episodes, which is roughly the length of a movie, would be almost $200. Hopefully, should the Warner Archive truly start branching out into television programs rather than just made-for-TV movies, prices will be manageable.
Warner Bros. wanted to continue producing an anthology series after the original “WARNER BROS. PRESENTS” format was discarded (after its first season), yet also wanted to continue “CHEYENNE” as an alternate week series. So they created “CONFLICT” for 1956-’57 [those episodes, with some produced for the second half of the “WARNER BROS. PRESENTS” season after “KINGS ROW” and “CASABLANCA” were scuttled in early ’56, were later syndicated; in fact, WABD/WNEW in New York built an entire “package” around them in prime-time, with one of their announcers as a live host]. But ABC insisted on “more Westerns” for the fall of 1957, so Warners dropped “CONFLICT” in favor of Will Hutchins’ “SUGARFOOT” alternating with “CHEYENNE” on Tuesdays…
I’m still waiting for Warner Brothers Television and the estate of Quinn Martin to work out a release for “The F.B.I.” on D.V.D..