DVD Tuesday: Dragnet 1968, Have Gun Will Travel, Rhoda

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.

There are quite a few releases of interest out today. First, from Shout! Factory, comes Dragnet 1968: Season Two, featuring all 28 episodes from the 1967-1968 season. It’s been almost five years since the first season, titled Dragnet 1967, was released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Bonus features include the made-for-TV movie that was to serve as a pilot for the series (but wasn’t actually aired until January of 1969), a panel discussion about Jack Webb and more. Here’s a trailer for the set:

Also out today from Shout! Factory is Rhoda: Season Three, with all 24 episodes from the 1976-1977 season. From CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment comes Have Gun Will Travel: Season Four, Vol. 2, which contains the final 19 episodes from the 1960-1961 season.

Finally, BBC Video is releasing a variety of Doctor Who serials today: The Space Museum/The Chase (stories #15 and #16), The Time Monster (story #64), Underworld (story #96) and The Horns of Nimon (story #108).


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7 Replies to “DVD Tuesday: Dragnet 1968, Have Gun Will Travel, Rhoda”

  1. Not the second season, ‘pB’; the original plan was for the TV movie [which, like several of NBC’s made-for-tv films, doubled as a pilot for a potential series] to be presented late in the fall of 1966, on either “SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES” or “TUESDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES”, as “Dragnet: 1966”. As soon as NBC executives saw the finished product, though, they immediately decided not to wait until it aired to gauge viewers’ reactions: solely on the strength of Jack Webb’s performance and the movie itself, they WANTED a new “DRAGNET” series, and they knew WHERE they were going to place it- on Thursdays, to replace the faltering Richard Mulligan sitcom “THE HERO” in January 1967 (and got his sponsors, R.J. Reynolds and Lever Brothers, to make the switch as well). Then, the network {as well as Universal, Webb’s production partner} decided to postpone airing the movie, so as not to take away the edge of the ‘new’ “DRAGNET: 1967” series when it premiered on January 12th. By the middle of its third season, NBC finally took the “pilot” off the shelf and presented it on “TUESDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES” [as “Dragnet”] on January 28, 1969.

  2. Thanks as always RG!

    BTW I think series prematurely date themselves when they use years or ages in the title like DRAGNET 1966 thru 1970 and JIMMY at 15 & 16.

    I would’ve prefered they continued to call the series just DRAGNET I don’t how anybody could be confused between the B&W and COLOR eps.

  3. In syndicated prints of the color series during the ’70s [in New York, on WPIX-TV], ‘pB’, the year WAS eliminated from the “DRAGNET” titles (the only reason Jack Webb “dated” them in the first place was because he wanted viewers to know these were BRAND NEW episodes, as the original black and white series from the ’50s was still appearing in syndication on most stations at the time). IN the ’80s, original prints with the year attached to the title turned up on USA and Nick At Nite.

    1. One of those syndicated prints with the year removed from the opening title – its 1967 premiere, in fact, “The LSD Story” – was in the collection of what is today the Paley Center for Media for years.

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