The Month in Home Media highlights short-lived or rare TV shows released on DVD or Blu-ray in the United States during the previous month.
February 2018 was yet another quiet month. Short-lived action-adventure series The Master (NBC, 1984) was released on both DVD and Blu-ray. Also, Alpha Video released episodes of four forgotten dramas from the 1950s.
DVD/Blu-ray Releases
Highlight of the Month: The Master
The Master ran for 13 episodes on NBC in 1984. The first 11 aired between January and May; the network burned off the last two episodes in August. Lee Van Cleef stars as ninja master John Peter McAllister, with Timothy Van Patten co-starring as his apprentice, Max Keller. Sho Kosugi plays Okasa, McAllister’s former pupil turned enemy.Guest stars include Demi Moore, Claude Akins, Diana Muldaur, George Lazenby, David McCallum, and George Mahris.
Purchase The Master on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.com and support Television Obscurities.
Other Releases
–Lost TV Mystery Classics [Individual episodes of The Shadow of the Cloak (DuMont, 1951-1952), Charlie Wild, Private Detective (CBS/ABC/DuMont, 1950-1952), The Files of Jeffrey Jones (syndicated, 1952), and The Telltale Clue (CBS, 1954)]*
*Currently out of stock at Amazon.com.
News
On March 13th, Warner Archive will re-release The Oblongs (The WB, 2001) on DVD (TVShowsOnDVD.com).
I’m pleased that the Lost TV Mystery Classics DVDs contain episodes from some Dumont series, as reported in the last two of these Month in Home Media posts. Years ago I read an article on the history of the short life of the Dumont television network, and since then I’ve been interested whenever I learn that anything connected to Dumont has been preserved.
Once in awhile I go to dumontnetwork.com and watch videos linked to the site, great fun for someone with a soft spot in my head — I mean heart — for the early days of television.