Warner Archive Launches Streaming Service

Warner Archive, the manufacture-on-demand DVD collection from Warner Home Video that has released TV shows like The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Man from Atlantis and Born Free, has launched a streaming service called Warner Archive Instant. Much like Netflix, it will allow users to watch movies and television series online or on their television sets if you have a Roku device. Here’s the official description from its FAQ:

Warner Archive Instant is the new streaming service of the Warner Archive (WarnerArchive.com). Warner Archive Instant lets you instantly view hundreds of rare and hard-to-find movies, TV shows and cartoons, culled from Warner Bros. library – the largest entertainment library in the world. Now is your chance to discover – and rediscover – rare movies and TV shows you can’t find anywhere else (and some favorites you can) from Warner Bros., MGM, RKO, New Line, Monogram, Allied Artists, Lorimar and more.

You can learn more about how the service works here. Currently, the service is in beta testing and is only available to invited users. No word yet on pricing or when it will launch to the general public. Some of the titles will be available in high definition via Roku.

At the moment only a handful of television series are part of the service, including 77 Sunset Strip, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hawaiin Eye, Gilligan’s Island and Jericho, as well as some made-for-TV movies like Probe and Planet Earth.

What’s interesting about the limited selection of television content is that 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Jericho (the short-lived 1966 CBS series set during World War II, not the recent CBS post-apocalyptic series) are not available on DVD through the Warner Archive MOD collection. Could Warner Archive Instant be a way for the company to test the viability of titles it isn’t sure are popular enough to warrant a DVD release, even a MOD one?


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19 Replies to “Warner Archive Launches Streaming Service”

  1. I am interested in finding the first season episodes of 77 Sunset Strip. The remaining seasons (2 Tru 6) are apparently already available via instant warner streaming but the first season is not. Is there a plan to release the first season episodes, soon?

  2. Please release Hawaiian Eye on DVD as soon as possible. Many people would love to own the series. You have issued a lot of crap on DVD, please issue this show.

  3. 77 Sunset Strip is long overdue for a proper dvd release. The show was well made, stylish and very entertaining. With an interesting promotional push this fine series would I am sure do reasonably well as a dvd release.

  4. I have waited for years for Warner Home Video to release 77 Sunset Strip on DVD. Most people that I have talked to loved the TV Series and can’t wait for it to be released. My wife and I are big collectors of old TV Series. 77 Sunset Strip would be a perfect addition to our collection.

    1. I would definitely purchase dvds of 77 sunset strip and hawaiian eye.
      c’mon let’s release some quality TV series

  5. As a child in the sixties, I can well remember 77 Sunset Strip, however, i could only stay up and watch it, if I had been well behaved.
    Would definately buy a set of dvd`s of the series.

  6. Published by Steve Tarter · January 14, 2017 ·

    Hawaiian flashback
    My television binge session has come to a quick end. No, I wasn’t getting caught up on the latest cable series. I happened upon some full episodes of the old “Hawaiian Eye” TV series on YouTube recently.
    As a kid growing up in Boston, this was a series that suggested a career path: wear a white suit and work as a detective in Hawaii.
    My favorite was Anthony Eisley who played the mustachioed Tracy Steele, one of those detectives wearing the white suits (the other was Robert Conrad as Tom Lopaka).
    For whatever reason, Warner Brothers hasn’t chosen to re-release the old TV shows like “77 Sunset Strip,” “Surfside Six” and “Hawaiian Eye,” shows that ran from 1959 to 1963. So seeing some pop up on YouTube was a chance to go back in time for a little while.
    What you find out when you see something that you enjoyed in childhood is that things aren’t quite as enthralling as you remember. The quality of the old black-and-white shows wasn’t the best (taped off something called the Good Life TV Network which must run the shows years ago). In fact, when there was night action, the screen went almost totally black.
    Your one-hour network show from 1960 was a talkie affair compared to the quick-cutting, slam-bang programming of the 21st century. But I have to admit I kind of liked that slower pace for a change.
    The other thing I noticed was that there was a lot of smoking going on. Old Tracy and Tom had ciggies lit all the time.
    I never gave her credit the first time around but Connie Stevens really helped the show. Her perky presence as Cricket Blake was a nice contrast to all the serious goings-on. Plus she could sing and the tunes were well-produced (in the Shell Bar) and noteworthy these many years later since you had people like Arthur Lyman, the vibraphonist whose exotic sounds went on to forge bachelor-pad fame and fortune, sitting in from time to time to entertain the Hawaiian Eye guys.
    Being set in Hawaii (though I’m told most of the filming took place on Hollywood back lots) meant more Asian characters got roles than the average U.S. TV show of the time. Poncie Ponce played a Hawaiian cabbie who helped bring a light touch to the proceedings. Doug Mossman who played Moke in “Eye” went on to be a regular in Jack Lord’s “Hawaii Five-O” series (the second big TV show from Hawaii). Since then we’ve had “Magnum P.I.” and another “Hawaii Five-O” (can you believe the current CBS series is now in its seventh season?)
    Like any network show of the early-60s era, you see lots of familiar faces of people who were so very young and on their way up. Jack Nicholson had a small role in one of the shows I saw. Other notables that appeared included Mary Tyler Moore, Chad Everett and George (“Sulu”) Takei.
    The best episode I saw of the seven or eight I watched was “Moon Over Mindanao” where Tracy is traveling from Hong Kong to Honolulu, a trip that featured murder, romance and intrigue but, like all good things, the cruise had to come to an end.
    I returned to YouTube eager to pick up on more old episodes but found the cupboard was bare. The folks over at Warner Brothers must have gotten wind of the free flashbacks being offered and cried copyright: nothing but the Hawaiian Eye theme song was left.
    So package the darn things in nice Hawaii gift sets (Blu-ray would be nice) or send them streaming across the waves. Whatever, respect the boomer market. They say you can’t go home again but you can always go to the beach.

  7. please can WB put 77 sunset strip on dvd i would be so very happy i buy the
    all the season on dvd please. jimmy mckay uk

  8. I have been waiting for years on “77 Sunset Strip” and “Hawaiian Eye” to be released on DVD. I guess I better not hold my breath on that happening as i have heard there is problems with licensing the music rights for royalties and a man named Roy Higgins has the ownership for the shows and he does not want to release them. So warner Brothers hands might be tied and have no way to release the two shows. So we are going to have to get them in a horrible watchable Bootleg fashion for now and the foreseeable future. I love those two shows so much.

    1. Richard, I caught your little comment years later on the web about a proper release of Hawaiin Eye. I love how you described having to watch “the horrid quality bootlegs of these shows…”
      The music rights were never a problem – at least the songs performed in the show were all wb published songs..The copyrights for the underscore also belong to wb, but I dont know about the composers agreeing to sanction that part..most are dead…Roy Huggins not wanting them released my have been the most viable excuse, although I think he has now passed…
      It is years later, and I agree we need an official wb release of “Hawaiian Eye”

  9. WB ,give us Hawaiian eye and Surfside 6 on DVD or Blu-Ray or at least allow Me Tv network. To show them so at least we can still watch them

  10. To Whom It May Concern at Warner Bros. Studios,
    I would purchase the complete “Hawaiian Eye ” series on DVD if this was made available to purchase and I know plenty of people into the Tiki screen which would do so as well. I think right now during COVID-19 a show like Hawaiian Eye would be a nice option for people to watch offering a little escapism to beautiful locals and to a time gone by which seemed romantic through that wonderful silver and black canvas. Please consider releasing this series on DVD.
    Sincerely,
    Ramon Zubizarreta, Jr.

  11. Totally agree. Disgusted that Warner Archive didnt show respect to the baby boomers during the Covid-19 outbreak. For years now, thousands have been asking for 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Surfside Six to be released on dvd.
    The older generation needed something during lockdown and these popular shows would have been
    a wonderful boost for them. Shame on you Warner Archive. How selfish

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