Television Obscurities » DVD Tuesday

DVD Tuesday: Thriller, The Judy Garland Show

RGJ — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:10:02 +0000

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 big news today is Thriller: The Complete Series from Image Entertainment. The set contains all 67 episodes of the series, originally broadcast between September of 1960 and April of 1962, on 14 discs. Also included are more than two dozen audio commentaries and some 30 hours of “isolated music & effects tracks” featuring music from Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens, plus a promotional film intended for sponsors, promotional spots for specific episodes and two galleries of promotional/production photographs. Reviews can be found at TVShowsOnDVD.com, DVD Savant, Home Theater Forum and DVD Verdict. A preview of the set is available at Cinefantastique.

Also out today, from Infinity Entertainment Group, is The Judy Garland Show: Volume 5, with two more episodes of the 1963-1964 CBS variety show. I haven’t been able to determine which two episodes are in this volume but guest stars include Jayne Meadows, Steve Allen and Mel Torme. Finally, you can buy made-for-TV movie Deliver Us from Evil, starring George Kennedy and Jan-Michael Vincent, from Warner Archive. It was originally aired on ABC on September 11th, 1973, and follows a group of men who find a wounded skyjacker loaded with $600,000 and, after killing him, begin fighting over the money.

DVD Tuesday: The Patty Duke Show

RGJ — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:21:13 +0000

Out today from Shout! Factory is The Patty Duke Show: Season Three, the third and final season of the ABC sitcom. Included are all 32 episodes from the 1965-1966 season as well as The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin’ In Brooklyn Heights, a reunion telefilm broadcast by CBS on April 27th, 1999.

DVD Tuesday: Adam-12

RGJ — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:01:06 +0000

Out today from Shout! Factory is Adam-12: Season Five. Included are all 24 episodes from the 1972-1973 season. Adam-12 was on the air for a total of seven seasons so only two are left to go before the entire series is out on DVD.That’s the only classic release out today. But last week I forgot to mention the release of Prime Time Crime: The Stephen J. Cannell Collection by Mill Creek Entertainment.

I wrote about this interesting collection back in May. You get a total of 40 episodes from 13 different Cannell programs, including every episode of four short-lived shows: UNSUB (8 Episodes, 1989), Broken Badges (7 Episodes, 1990-1991), Palace Guard (9 Episodes, 1991) and Missing Persons (18 Episodes, 1993-1994). That’s a total of 42 episodes. I doubt very much that any of these shows would have received a standalone release so kudos to Mill Creek for putting this massive collection together. The collection also contains 12 episodes from nine other Cannell shows like The Commish, The Greatest American Hero, 21 Jump Street and Silk Stockings. All for a suggested retail price of $29.98. True, none of these programs fit my definition of “classic” television but the fact that four short-lived programs are being released on DVD is noteworthy.

Speaking of which, another short-lived show from the 1980s is being released today: ABC’s Max Headroom: The Complete Series. Included are all 14 episodes originally broadcast between 1987 and 1988 (including one that never aired on ABC). For an interesting look at how the set and bonus features were put together take a look at this thread over at the official Shout! Factory message board. As I write this the set is ninth bestselling movie/TV DVD at Amazon.com. Hopefully this will prove that there is a market for short-lived television programs, although admittedly Max Headroom is something of an anomaly.

DVD Tuesday: Hawaii Five-O

RGJ — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:43:27 +0000

It’s the first Tuesday of August and there’s only one release of interest out today, from Paramount Home Entertainment comes Hawaii Five-O: The Ninth Season. You get all 24 episodes from the 1976-1977 season but no bonus features aside from promotional spots for most of the episodes. Hawaii Five-O ran for 12 seasons so there are still three to go and the final season probably won’t be released until late 2011 at the earliest and perhaps not until early 2012. There is a new version of the show premiering in September and that may impact Paramount’s interest in getting a complete series set to stores.

DVD Tuesday: The Mothers-in-Law, The Phil Silvers Show

RGJ — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:13:24 +0000

The big release today, from MPI Home Video, is The Mothers-in-Law: The Complete Series (8pc). First announced in February of 2009, the set was pushed back a few times but today all 56 episodes, originally broadcast between 1967 and 1969, are available along with slew of bonus features. Included are the original unaired pilot episodes, behind-the-scenes footage, promotional spots, interviews, a featurette, an unproduced script, cast commercials, home movies, and two unsold pilots — “The Carol Channing Show” and “Land’s End” — from Desi Arnaz Productions. And you can get it all at Amazon.com for the absurd price of $18.99, discounted from the suggested retail price of $39.98.

I’ve found two reviews of the set. The first, from Sitcoms Online, gives it an overall 4.5/5 rating and suggests that “even if you have never heard of or watched the show, this is probably one that you could pick up as a blind buy and enjoy.” The second, from user Rob_Ray at the Home Theater Forum, calls the set “a fine example of really going the extra mile to produce a product that does a series proud.”

Also out today, from Paramount Home Entertainment, is Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show – First Season. The series, which premiered in 1955, was originally called You’ll Never Get Rich before it was retitled The Phil Silvers Show and ran for 143 episodes and four seasons, ending in 1959. A 50th anniversary compilation set was released in 2006 with 18 episodes but this is the first time a complete season from the series has been available. You get all 34 episodes from the 1955-1956 season as well as a live audition show/pilot episode show that was never broadcast, network openings and cast commercials and an episode of The Lucy Show guest starring Phil Silvers.

Finally, Alpha Video is releasing two new single disc DVDs, Life With Elizabeth, Volume 3 and Life With Elizabeth, Volume 4, each with four episodes.

DVD Tuesday: Super Friends

RGJ — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:55:09 +0000

The only release of interest out today is Super Friends!: Season One, Vol. Two from Warner Home Video. It includes the remaining eight episodes from the 1973-1974 Saturday morning cartoon that was the first television series to feature DC’s Super Friends (Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman). The set has a run time of 360 minutes and the only bonus feature is a Super Friends Trivia Challenge. Volume One was released in January of this year.

DVD Tuesday: The Lucy Show

RGJ — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:24:44 +0000

The only release of interest out today is The Lucy Show: The Official Second Season, from Paramount Home Entertainment. Included are all 28 episodes from the 1963-1964 season. Although CBS broadcast the show in black and white for its first three seasons (1962-1965), beginning with this season the episodes were filmed in color. Bonus features include “The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour,” segments from “Opening Night” and “The Stars’ Address,” interviews with Carole Cook and Barry Linvingston, a pair of featurettes, original opening/closing credits and original cast commercials.

“The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour” was a special broadcast on Sunday, April 19th, 1964 with Bob Hope, Gale Gordon and others. Ball plays a studio executive trying to convince Hope’s character to star in a television series about a young married couple. “Opening Night” was a special broadcast on Monday, September 23rd, 1963 on CBS in which Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, Andy Griffith, Garry Moore, Phil Silvers and Lucille Ball celebrated the start of a new season (they all shared the same sponsor, General Foods). “The Stars’ Address” was the 1963 CBS fall preview special that I believe was seen on individual CBS stations at various times during September.

I haven’t found any reviews of this set, but The Lucy Show DVD website declares that the episodes are “beautifully restored, in color, and completely unedited!”

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

RGJ — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:42:29 +0000

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).

DVD Tuesday: Leave It To Beaver, The Real McCoys

RGJ — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:07:30 +0000

The big news this week is the release of Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series, from Shout! Factory. You get all six seasons and 234 of the classic family sitcom that ran on CBS from 1957-1958 and then ABC from 1958 to 1963. Interestingly, the complete series comes out just two weeks after Shout! released Season Three on DVD; Season Four will come out in September with Seasons Five and Six also expected. For a bit of history, Universal Home Entertainment released the first two seasons on DVD in November of 2005 and May of 2006, respectively, and that was it. Fast forward to January of 2010 when Shout! announced it would be releasing the third season as well as the complete series on DVD.

An official press release for the complete series can be found here. All six seasons have been “beautifully restored and remastered” and there are a slew of bonus features, including the 1957 pilot episode (which aired as an installment of syndicated anthology series Studio 57, also known as Heinz Studio 57). Reviews can be found at DVD Talk, DVDTown and The Home Theater Forum. A recent article in The New York Times about Leave It To Beaver can be found here.

Also out today, from Infinity Entertainment, is The Real McCoys – Season 4, with all 39 episodes from the 1959-1960 season. I haven’t seen any reviews of this set yet. Finally, Alpha Video has two new public domain releases, both single discs, that are either out today or tomorrow (the official Alpha Video site gives June 30th, 2010 as the release date while Amazon.com says June 29th for one and June 30th for the other): Frontier Doctor, Volume 6, with four episodes of the Western adventure series, and something called Cigarette Commercials, which collects “dozens of politically incorrect cigarette television commercials from the 1950s and 1960s.”

DVD Tuesday: Checkmate

RGJ — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:30:41 +0000

The only release of interest this week comes from Timeless Media Group. Checkmate – The Complete Series is a massive, 14-DVD set containing all 70 episodes of the detective series that originally ran on CBS from 1960 to 1962. Doug McClure, Sebastian Cabot and Anthony George starred. Timeless previously released a “best of” set featuring episodes from Season One in October of 2007 and one featuring episodes of Season Two in March of 2008. It’s a relatively expensive set, with a suggested retail price of $79.98, but that works out to just over a dollar an episode.

Also, Small Wonder – The Complete 2nd Season and Swamp Thing: The Series – Volume 3 are now available through Shout! Factory’s Shout! Select program, meaning you can online purchase it online directly through Shout! Factory. Although Small Wonder aired in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1989 and Swamp Thing: The Series on USA Network during the early 1990s, I mention them because the Shout! Select program deserves attention. So far, Shout! has released a dozen sets through Shout! Select, including Ironside – Season 3 and The Bill Cosby Show – Season 2, which came out roughly two years and four years after the previous season sets, respectively. For programs that have been seemingly abandoned, Shout! Select could be the only way to get the remaining seasons to DVD.

And if other studios follow Shout!’s lead and create similar online exclusive programs, it could mean more and more programs that retail stories don’t want to carry could come to DVD.