DVD Tuesday: I Love Lucy Rarities, Frontier Doctor

Every Tuesday I take a look at obscure and/or classic television programs, specials, miniseries or made-for-TV movies being released on DVD. For the record I consider anything broadcast prior to 1980 to be classic or else there wouldn’t be much to discuss. The releases referred to in these posts are encoded for Region 1 use in the United States and Canada.

The past month has been a relatively good one for fans of obscure television, with the release of short-lived shows like The Oregon Trail and Whispering Smith, not to mention a variety of season sets of classic shows such as Alias Smith and Jones and The Bill Cosby Show (which was a Shout! Factory online exclusive). Today, from Paramount Home Entertainment, comes I Love Lucy: The Movie and Other Great Rarities, a single-disc release that includes I Love Lucy: The Movie (three edited episodes of the famous sitcom) and a slew of other bonus features originally released in October of 2007 as part of I Love Lucy – The Complete Series. If you didn’t want to pay for the complete series now is your chance to get your hands on those bonus features. Read the official press release at TVShowsOnDVD.com.

Also out today from Alpha Video are Frontier Doctor, Volume 3 and Frontier Doctor, Volume 4>, two single-disc releases with four episodes of the syndicated drama (which was originally released during the 1958-1959 season).


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3 Replies to “DVD Tuesday: I Love Lucy Rarities, Frontier Doctor”

  1. For those who didn’t know there WAS such a thing as “The ‘I LOVE LUCY’ Movie”, Lucy & Desi wanted to capitalize on their TV series in 1953 by re-editing three episodes from season one into a theatrical feature, with new transtions to make it appear as though it were one “long” episode, using a new framework of a “typical couple” visiting the “Desilu Playhouse” soundstage {at General Service Studios} where the series was filmed, sitting in as part of the audience as it was supposedly being “filmed”. The movie only got as far as a Bakersfield, California “sneak preview” before MGM insisted it be “shelved”, as Lucy & Desi were going to star in “The Long, Long Trailer” for them, and the studio didn’t want the “Lucy” film to siphon potential box office away from THEIR movie when it was released a year later. In 1991, Desilu editor Dann Cahn, who originally worked on the film, rediscovered the elements of the “Lucy” film, reassembled it, and, as ‘RGJ’ noted, it was featured as part of an “I LOVE LUCY” DVD box set three years ago. Now, it’s been released separately.

  2. “FRONTIER DOCTOR” was virtually the last syndicated series produced by Republic Pictures (under their “Studio City Television Service” banner), starring Rex Allen; filmed during 1956-’57, but unaired until the 1958-’59 season [by that time, Republic was out of business as a “working studio”]. Most of the action sequences were, of course, reused from endless stock footage in Republic’s archives…

  3. Now, let’s see, Republic went out of business, just as tenant MCA/Revue moved to the greener pastures of Universal, then Four Star moved into the old Republic lot, which would be sold to CBS in 1962, which became known as the CBS Studio Center, which was used for film production of many of their shows of that era, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, The Wild, Wild West, My Three Sons, etc.

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