Television Obscurities » DVD Tuesday

DVD Tuesday: Wagon Train

RGJ — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:28:39 +0000

The only release of note today is Wagon Train – The Complete First Season – Special Limited Edition from Timeless Media Group. Included are all 39 black and white episodes from the 1957-1958 season. A variety of episodes have been released in the past in both VHS and DVD and last November Timeless issued the 1963-1964 color season (the show’s seventh). Whether additional seasons will see the light of day remains to be seen.

DVD Tuesday: The Untouchables, Sesame Street

RGJ — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:58:42 +0000

It’s a slow week for fans of classic television. You can pick up The Untouchables – Season Three, Vol. 2 from Paramount Home Video, with the final 12 episodes of the 1961-1962 season. Also out today, from Genius Products, is Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days, containing more than five hours of footage celebrating the show’s 40th anniversary.

DVD Tuesday: Here’s Lucy, Mission: Impossible

RGJ — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:23:12 +0000

The first Tuesday of November sees several season collections released for fans of classic television. You can pick up Here’s Lucy: Season Two from MPI Home Video. Included are all 24 episodes from the 1969-1970 season. Bonus features, according to MPI’s website, include new introductions from Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., a featurette titled “Here’s Lucy on Location,” production files, CBS network promotional spots and syndication promotional spots, and a “lost interview” with Carol Burnett. The episodes are said to be uncut and digitally remastered.

Also out today, from Paramount Home Video, is Mission: Impossible – The Final TV Season. It includes all 22 episodes from the 1972-1973 season. There are no extras that I am aware of. Available from Universal Home Video is The Rockford Files: Movie Collection, Vol. 1, a 2-disc collection with four telefilms originally broadcast between 1994 and 1996, more than a decade after the series went off the air.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is releasing both seasons of Zorro in exclusive “Disney Treasures” tins. All 82 episodes have been remastered and are hosted by Leonard Maltin. Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro - The Complete First Season also includes a two-part special titled “Zorro: El Bandido” (originally broadcast in 1960); Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro - The Complete Second Season has two one-hour specials: “Zorro: The Postponed Wedding” and “Zorro: Auld Acquaintance” (both originally broadcast in 1961).

Finally, Shout! Factory releases Merry Sitcom! Christmas Classics from TV’s Golden Age, with seven Christmas episodes of classic television sitcoms, including Window On Main Street, That Girl, The Donna Reed Show and McHale’s Navy.

DVD Tuesday: The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Fugitive

RGJ — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:28:47 +0000

Out today is The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Vol. 1 from E1 Entertainment and The Archive of American Television. The anthology series was only on the air for one season from 1960 to 1961 and produced 36 episodes. Fifteen are included in this volume; whether they’re the first fifteen or not remains to be seen. Bonus features include original, unaired pilot episode (titled “The Sponsor’s Theatre”) and Stanwyck’s acceptance speech for her 1961 Emmy award.

Also out today, from Paramount Home Video, is The Fugitive: Season Three, Vol. 1, with the first 15 episodes of the 1965-1966 season. Volume 2 comes out 8th. Also from Paramount Home Video is Mannix: The Third Season, with all 25 episodes from the 1969-1970 season. No bonus features for either release that I’m aware of. As I understand it, fans of The Fugitive are anxious to see how much of the original soundtrack is intact for this release.

Warner Brothers is releasing two new collections today. Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Vol. 2 contains 13 episodes from shows like Quick Draw McGraw, The Road Runner Show and The Jetsons. And Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s Vol. 2 includes 12 episodes from shows like Valley of the Dinosaurs, Sea Lab 2020 and New Adventures of Gilligan. Finally, Alpha Video has two new four-episode releases: Judge Roy Bean, Volume 4 and Meet Corliss Archer, Volume 4.

DVD Tuesday: Hawaii Five-O, The Judy Garland Show

RGJ — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:00:01 +0000

Quite a few classic and/or somewhat obscure programs have DVD releases out today. You can pick up The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: The Best of Season 2 from Time Life, a 3-DVD set containing 715 minutes from the 1967-1968 season. According to the Time Life website, guests include Mickey Rooney, The Who, The Byrds, Bette Davis, Patty Duke, The Association and Don Rickles (and many more). Whether there will be full episodes or just excerpts is unknown (I’ve read that the Best of Season 3 release had shortened episodes). Plus, more than two hours of bonus features (backstage footage, interviews, etc.). While perhaps not as desirable as complete season sets, best of sets for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour are more than many ever expected to see.

Also out today, from Timeless Media Group, is Tales of Wells Fargo – The Best of the Color Season – 22 episodes, containing 22 episodes from the 1961-1962 season, the show’s last, which consisted of 34 episodes. And from Infinity Resources, Route 66: Season 3, Vol. 2, with the remaining 15 episodes of the 1962-1963 season. There were issues with the Season 3, Vol. 1 release but they were quickly worked out.

Infinity Resources is also releasing The Judy Garland Holiday Show, broadcast on December 22nd, 1963 as part of The Judy Garland Show on CBS. And from Paramount comes Hawaii Five-O: The Seventh Season, with all 24 episodes from the 1974-1975 season. And from Warner Brothers comes Peanuts: 1970’s Collection, Vol. 1, containing six television specials featuring the whole Peanuts gang (It’s a Mystery Charlie Brown / Play It Again / A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving / It’s the Easter Beagle / There’s No Time for Love / You’re Not Elected).

Finally, Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered is out today from BBC Video. Hardly obscure but what a classic comedy. And, it can quite easily be connected to obscure television. There have been three attempts to remake the show for audiences in the United States. The first never made it past the pilot stage in the late 1970s but the second resulted in a sitcom called Amanda’s starring Bea Arthur. It ran for ten episodes on ABC in early 1983 (a total of thirteen were produced). That’s a show that will never make it to DVD. As for the third attempt, it was called Payne and starred John Larroquette. Eight of the nine produced episodes aired on CBS in the spring of 1999.

DVD Tuesday: The Pat Paulsen Half A Comedy Hour

RGJ — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:00:59 +0000

After last week’s impressive array of releases, this week has very little to offer fans of classic television. There is one rather obscure show available, however, from MPI Video: Pat Paulsen’s Half a Comedy Hour. The half-hour series premiered on Thursday, January 22nd, 1970 as a mid-season replacement for ABC and ran for thirteen weeks; the final episode aired on April 16th. Guest stars included Debbie Reynolds, Don Adams, Mike Connors, Daffy Duck and Don Rickles, among others. Also, Universal Home Video is rereleasing all three seasons of Land of the Lost, originally issued by Rhino between 2004 and 2005.

DVD Tuesday: Mr. Ed, The Lola Falana Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show

RGJ — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:00:16 +0000

It’s the first Tuesday of October and what a day for classic fans of television it is. Everybody’s favorite sitcom about a talking horse is finally arriving on DVD, courtesy of Shout! Factory. You can pick up Mister Ed: The Complete First Season with all 26 black and white episodes from the 1960-1961 season. Mr. Ed debuted in syndication on January 5th, 1961; it moved to CBS in October of 1961 for its second season. Unfortunately, according to reviews at DVD Talk and Sitcoms Online, eight of the episodes appear to be syndicated versions, running roughly 22 minutes rather than 25 or 26. Extras include commentary on the premiere episode from stars Alan Young and Connie Hines as well as a documentary that runs a little over half an hour. The original, unaired pilot episode, however, is nowhere to be found.

Also out today is The Mary Tyler Moore Show – The Complete Fifth Season from 20th Century Fox. This is the first release for the show since July of 2006 and for a while it looked as if the last three seasons would never make it to DVD. Then there was apparently going to be a complete series box set rather than individual releases for the remaining seasons. So if you’re a fan of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, be sure to pick up this one up and let 20th Century Fox know you’ll be buying the last two seasons as well. The set includes all 24 episodes from the 1974-1975 season but no bonus features.

If you didn’t buy Get Smart – The Complete Series when Time Life released it exclusively in November of 2006 (or later, in 2008, when it was sold all over the place), you’ve probably been buying each season individually. Get Smart: Season 4 is out today from HBO Home Video. No bonus features (those are apparently only available through the complete sets) but you get all 26 episodes from the 1968-1969 season. And Season Five comes out on December 12th.

This is a bit of a rarity: Video Service Corp is releasing The Lola Falana Show. It wasn’t really a show per se but rather a series of four variety specials broadcast during the 1976-1977 season on ABC. No bonus features but the specials themselves should be enough for fans. DVD Talk has a review available, which suggests the DVD set “remains an archival curiosity, and little more. It’s entertaining at times, but mostly in a jaw-dropping, ‘did we ever think that was funny’ kind of way.”

Finally, as I wrote about on Saturday, two of Gene Roddenberry’s made-for-TV movies from the 1970s are now available through Warner Archive, an online service that presses DVD-Rs on demand. You can buy Genesis II and Planet Earth individually for $19.95 each or together for $29.95. Having never purchased anything from Warner Archive, I can’t say what the quality will be like, but do note the following: “This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD and Digital Download release.” I’m also not sure why the telefilms are said to be available for pre-order yet have today as a release date.

DVD Tuesday: The Patty Duke Show, Various Fan Favorites

RGJ — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:33:36 +0000

Out today is Shout! Factory’s The Patty Duke Show: Season One, featuring all 36 black-and-white episodes from the 1963-1964 season. Bonus features include new interviews with Patty Duke, William Schallert and others (they may be part of a featurette, I’m not quite sure). The ABC sitcom ran for three seasons and 104 episodes, plus an unaired pilot episode with a somewhat different cast. That unaired pilot isn’t included in the Season One release. It was, however, edited into the season finale as a flashback.

Also being released today are a dozen “fan favorite” single-disc sets from Sony Pictures, each of which contains six or seven episodes apparently taken from one season. Shows getting the “fan favorite” treatment include All in the Family, BewitchedI Dream of Jeannie, Good TimesSanford and SonThe JeffersonsDiff’rent Strokes and Barney Miller (plus some more recent shows). Exactly why these are being released is a mystery. Does Sony think people who don’t have any of the season sets of these shows are going to purchase a “fan favorite” disc and then suddenly want to buy all those season sets?

Finally, Alpha Video has three new releases today: The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Volume 15, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Volume 20 along with a six-DVD set collecting The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Volumes 6-11 (5-DVD).

DVD Tuesday: The Judy Garland Show

RGJ — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:00:38 +0000

It’s another slow week for fans of classic television. The only notable release is Infinity’s The Judy Garland Show, Vol. 2. The first volume was released on July 28th of this year. Both volumes contain two complete episodes from the 1963-1964 musical-variety series. All 26 episodes have been released on DVD in the past but are out of print. Another release, The Judy Garland Show – Holiday Special, will come out on October 22nd.

DVD Tuesday: Bonanza, Laramie, Dark Shadows

RGJ — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:00:10 +0000

There have been a lot of public domain DVD releases of Bonanza over the past decade. Dozens of episodes have been released time and time again by numerous companies but until now there hasn’t been an “official” release in the United States. CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment have changed all that, however, by officially releasing the first season in two volumes. So you can pick up The Official First Season, Vol. One and The Official First Season, Vol. Two separately or bundled together.

All 32 color episodes from the 1959-1960 season are included as well as a bunch of interesting bonus features. Both volumes include archival interviews with creator/producer David Dortort as well as behind-the-scenes photographs and episodic promos. Plus, they each have NBC logos, bumpers and RCA promos for a select episode. Volume One also has an episode of Fireside Theater and concept art by Joseph Messerli for the credit sequences. Head over to TVShowsOnDVD.com for a complete list of bonus features.

Another show that has seen a slew of public domain releases is One Step Beyond and it is also getting an official release today from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment. You can pick up The Official First Season, with 22 remastered episodes from the 1959-1960 season. Also out today is Laramie: The Final Season, with 32 color episodes from the 1962-1963 season, and two Dark Shadows compilations: Dark Shadows: The Vampire Curse and Dark Shadows: The Haunting of Collinwood. These apparently are made up of scenes from various episodes.