6os tv show dennis the menace ever on dvd? (1 Viewer)

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

With the avalanche of old tv shows coming to dvd the last couple years, im surprised this hasnt hit yet. Id bet it would sell as good as leave it to beaver.

 

[marcSo]

I for one would love to see this show come to dvd.hopefully with sony releasing hazel season one and the flying nun this year hopefully dennis the menace won't be far behind.I would definatly purchase all 4 seasons.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

I want this so bad id even get a best of collection of episodes, if they would release it.

 

[Nick=Ma]

I saw this show when TVLand reran it a few years back, but they only showed the first season and some of the second. I would love to see the entire series be released.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

If "Hazel" does OK, I'd expect "Dennis the Menace" to come along -- after all, that comic strip is still running in many newspapers, whereas "Hazel" came to an end (in the Saturday Evening Post) many years ago.

The only thing is that "Hazel" became a color show for its last four seasons, where "Dennis" stayed black-and-white all the way through -- maybe Sony is giving preference to "Hazel" because it was mostly in color.

 

[Gary OS]

I'd say there's no "maybe" about it, Joe. Sony has definitely demonstrated that they have an aversion to releasing black & white television shows in their library - with the only exception being if the show quickly moved to color. Even then, they had to offer colorized versions of black and white seasons (see Bewitched and Jeannie).

Gary "I think it's pathetic that Sony execs seem to be so scared of their black and white catalog - they have one of my favorites, 'Father Knows Best', and I'm not sure they'll ever release it" O.

 

[Jeff#]

I saw the Dennis the Menace sitcom in 1980s basic cable reruns. It wasn't particularly good or worth buying, although Joseph Kearns (a cast member on The Jack Benny Program on the radio in the late 1940s and early 1950s) gave the performance of his career as Mr. Wilson, whom Dennis drives crazy. When Kearns died in 1962, he was replaced for the final season by another veteran -- Gale Gordon as Mr. Wilson's brother John.

 

[marcSo]

If sony has no interest in releasing their catalog of black & white shows.Then hopefully they would sell the distribution rights to someone else and have them release those shows.Perhaps a company like mpi home video.shows like dennis the menace.the donna reed show and father knows best need some kind of a dvd release.

 

[Michael Alden]

Well, thanks again for more threadcrapping. Maybe if we can find a show that you are actually looking forward to we'll see if you like folks trashing it. But then again, it doesn't seem that that's ever the case.

 

[Jeff#]

And once again Michael Alden needlessly reacts like a lamb to the slaughter!

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Does anyone know if "Hazel" is going to be offered in b&w and colorized versions like "Bewitched" was?

As for the quality of "Dennis the Menace" -- like all Screen Gems shows of the era, it was a very well-done show. However, they did tone Dennis down after the first season. He became much less of a menace and more a do-gooder who caused trouble by trying to help people and making things worse. I suspect they got some complaints from parents who thought they might have been making a hero out of a bratty kid. Dennis the Do-Gooder was a little nauseating.

I like Gale Gordon as much as the next guy, but whether he's Mr. Conklin, Mr. Wilson or Mr. Mooney, he's always exactly the same.

 

[Jeff#]

Gale Gordon was also quite good on the radio as Mr. Scott, the Rexall sponsor in The Phil Harris - Alice Faye Show in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

As for nasty kids, it was on that series in which Julius was always causing problems for Phil and Frankie and he did it intentionally. That boy was the devil incarnate and the writers never toned him down.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Yes, I think Julius was the meanest kid in the history of radio or television.

However, that show was aimed at adults, while "Dennis the Menace" was very popular with children (I was one of them at the time.)

Some of Dennis' first-season shenanigans could be downright dangerous if kids copied them. On the very first episode, he sneaks out of the house at night to go to the movies -- alone! -- and he's all of six years old. Can you imagine a kid doing that nowadays? He'd never be seen again. :-(

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Joe, that is 1 of the main reasons it needs to come on dvd, because you never see stuff like that happening today.I remember watching these episodes in syndication as a kid in the 80s , the first 2 seasons were my favorite, but id still get them all.

 

[Tom.W]

I preferred Joseph Kearns in the role, but I think Gale Gordon did a good job too. He was much more laid back as Mr. Wilson than as the boisterous blowhard Mr. Conklin. He was also more tolerant of Dennis than Kearns was.

As with Leave it to Beaver, I prefer the later seasons when the storylines became more sophistocated and believable. It's true that Dennis became less of a brat but his interactions with friends like Tommy (Billy Booth) and the neighborhood were more developed and led to funnier situations.

Irene Tedrow was also very good as Mr. Wilson's nemesis.

This show deserves to be released. I would buy every season.

 

[Jeff#]

Mr. Wilson was a 360 for Jos Kearns, who tended to play mild manner character roles on The Jack Benny Program such as the income tax man who visits Jack (in at least 4 episodes), various department store clerks, Joe Kearns -- the man from Look magazine who interviews Benny about how he met his main cast, and his most consistent role on the radio version of the Benny show: Ed, the guy who guards the entry gate to Jack's vast underground vault!

 

[JeffT.]

It would be fantastic if DENNIS THE MENACE (CBS 1959-63) were made available in its entirety on a quality DVD release.

I really don't think that the Sony Corporation itself has any kind of particular bias against the older tv series catalogue currently in its possession...with the possible concern that the (general) buying public out there just doesn't have an affinity toward black-and-white produced television shows!

It's really unfortunate that Joseph Kearns (February 12th, 1907 - February 17th, 1962) finally achieved some modicum of success and fame in his later years only to die so soon in life (at 55 years of age from a reported heart attack).

Apparently Mr. Kearns made his final appearance in the episode "The Man Next Door" (06/05/1962) so it would appear that he worked right up to the very end of his life.

There were a whopping 146 half hour episodes produced during this classic tv sitcom's 4 season run on the CBS Television Network seemingly making it an excellent stripped programmed (Monday to Friday) tv syndication property.



Jeff T.

 

[Jeff#]

Looks like you had some connection problems, Jeff, posting the same thing 4 times!

 

[JeffT.]

Well I sent an e-mail to forum moderator Ronald Epstein (at around 6:00 p.m. E.T. this evening) explaining that I had problems and that my message posts #17-19 be deleted but so far no one has acted upon this as yet.

If any other forum moderator here is reading this discussion thread then PLEASE DELETE THESE POSTS!

There should be a self-deleting facility just in case it proves to be necessary in a similar emergency situation.

Jeff T.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Were they duplicates?? I read them 5 times! Oh, my!

j/k


Seriously, what's this rubbish about Sony having problems with BW shows? Maybe they do, and if that's so, it's cause they're ignorant. Certainly I Love Lucy had no problem selling in BW. Neither did the Dick Van Dyke Show, or Leave it to Beaver. Wild Wild West season one was in BW and was a best seller.

I don't think anyone thinks of "Dennis" as a "BW" show particularly. I think "Dennis the Menace" has a lot of name-brand recognition, and would sell very well. Even if casual shoppers have never even heard of the sitcom Dennis, they've all certainly seen the comic strip, or the comic books, or more recent theatrical movies. Dennis possibly has more name-brand recognition than any other sitcom of its era, because the "Dennis" merchandising has never stopped.