Alfred Hitchcock Presents Coming To Dvd In 2005...i Hope!!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[GlennWD]

Thanks, I can't wait for it. This is my second most anticipated TV on DVD release with the first being the Definitive Season releases of The Twilight Zone. I am also holding onto hope for Night Gallery Season 2 if it ever happens.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Jeff#,

I agree, "Bang, You're Dead" is indeed a tip-top ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS episode. What makes it even wilder is that when little Billy Mumy is in the supermarket with his loaded gun, one of those people unwittingly threatened is a pretty blonde girl handing out free food samples; she is played by actress Marta Kristen, who would later play Mumy's older sister, "Judy Robinson", on LOST IN SPACE!

I'm really looking forward to an ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: SEASON 1 set. Universal seriously needs to also start the ball rolling on season sets of Boris Karloff's THRILLER (even more appropriate to a Halloween release than HITCHCOCK) and KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER. both had fairly short runs, so would be an easier propostion than some of the longer-running series out there (nothing against those).

 

[Paul_Scott]

depending on the retail price, i may be tempted into picking up AHP.
it would be nice to see a solid genre anthology show from the 'golden years' that i'm not overly familiar with (ala TZ).

but the ones i really would love to see Uni bust out for Halloween are Night Gallery S2 and Kolchak.
hopefully there is movement on the remake of the latter, but i haven't seen anymore news on it (i think its still at script stage).
it would be very disappointing if they abandon Night Gallery- especially since the second season was so much stronger than the first

 

[TravisR]

There might be a good chance that Kolchak will make it to DVD if the remake gets picked up for the fall schedule.

 

[Jeff#]

Kolchak: THe Night Stalker.....a remake?? Why not?

I think the possibility of the entire single season (20 episodes) of the original Kolchak being put out by Universal can go either way, since it was not Universal, but MGA / UA that released both pilot films from the early 1970s (The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler) on the same individual DVD. And what a DVD -- only $10!

I'd also like to see Thriller on DVD as well. I remember years ago a few episodes came out on VHS...or at least it was announced anyway. There are 67 of them, so I can't imagine why it's taken so long. One of Boris Karloff's previous TV series
The Veil, which was filmed mostly in England I have all 10 episodes of in a 3 DVD set. Most were filmed in 1958, but the last episode from 1959 actually has a different theme song and living room set where Karloff appeared in each episode. That was also a bargain at $11 at Best Buy. The reason I don't care for The Veil is because it's too much like One Step Beyond (also on DVD). Most of the stories involves cases of psychic phoenomena, and the writing was weak.

Thriller from the early 1960s is far superior in a number of ways. Keep in mind that the earliest shows were only crime-oriented. Fletcher Markle was the original producer, until he was fired. He was replaced by 2 producers: Maxwell Shane produced the crime dramas, while William Frye handled the horror and fantasy. Several episodes into the first season, horror and suspense stories alternated with each other. That continued throughout the second season as well.

I also enjoyed the original jazzy theme by Pete Rugolo. Although jazz was very fashionable at the time the show was produced, to reflect the format change various composers delivered a variety of different end themes heard at the end of each show. Usually that theme was also heard within the episode itself.

The only Boris Karloff series I wouldn't purchase was the syndicated Colonel March of Scotland Yard from the early 1950s. His acting was certainly good as always, but I just don't see it coming to or selling on home video.

 

[MarkHarrison]

I've just recently gotten into Hitchcock. Between my new Universal box sets I picked up a few weeks back and finishing off the Warner set (already finished the Criterion set), I have 16 movies on my "to watch" pile that I've never seen before (and 14 more I've had the pleasure to watch now). Needless to say, I'll pick up AHP on release day.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I really want to see "Bang, You're Dead". Damn, that sounds like a great episode.

 

[TravisR]

Actually 'Bang, You're Dead' is already on DVD. In the Hitchcock DVD sets that Universal released, they came with a bonus disc of Hitchcock-directed episodes. There were four different volumes with all the AHP episodes that he directed. The only problem was to get them all you had to buy the same movies over in larger box sets. If I remember correctly, it worked sorta like that the first AHP disc was in one set, disc two was in another set but that had some of the movies from the first set, and the thrid one had movies from the other sets, and the fourth one came in a set with movies from the other three sets. So you had buy and rebuy the movies to get all the discs. Nice job, Universal!

I got mine off of eBay at (somewhat) reasonable prices.

 

[TravisR]

Season One is coming on October 4.! That's getting to be an expensive day for me.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=3735

I'm sure there will be people who complain about it being on DVD-18s.

 

[Steve...O]

This is great news. A great bargain for a street price of under $30 for 39 episodes. It makes the Dragnet et al sets that have half the episodes but sell for the same price look way overpriced in comparison.

Steve

 

[Craig Beam]

Oh my God. October's getting just plain insane. Twilight Zone Definitive Season 4, The Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection, Hitchcock's Lifeboat from Fox, and now this? Holy Toledo, I'm gonna need to sell a kidney or something.

 

[JeffT.]

Well Craig (unless I'm completely forgetting about something) with the exception of the upcoming THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON 5-disc DVD box set and of course THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE DEFINITIVE EDITION - SECOND and THIRD SEASON collections this year has been pretty much undistinguished so far pertaining to good classic (pre-1970s) tv series releases.

And don't forget that it has been suggested online somewhere that both THE MUNSTERS - THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON and KOLCKAK THE NIGHT STALKER - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON box sets are also due out in OCTOBER!

I didn't know that the fourth season (1963) of THE TWILIGHT ZONE is scheduled for an October release date but was wondering if the specifications for this welcome DVD set has been officially announced and made known.

Anyway with the release of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK - SEASON ONE collection now apparently imminent on October 04th, 2005 things have certainly taken a fantastic turn for the better! Perhaps if it proves successful Universal Studios Home Entertainment will also make BORIS KARLOFF'S THRILLER (NBC 1960-62) available on DVD as well.

Thanks for the welcome news and for keeping this ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS discussion thread alive and ongoing!

Jeff T.

 

[Elena S]

Quote:

Oh my God. October's getting just plain insane. Twilight Zone Definitive Season 4, The Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection, Hitchcock's Lifeboat from Fox, and now this? Holy Toledo, I'm gonna need to sell a kidney or something.
__________________________________________________ _______

LOL...that's how it's looking for me, too...

 

[Jeff#]

That's great news, and having purchased the 2 TV movie pilots to Kolchak I'm looking forward to that and the 4th season of Twilight Zone (with "The" no longer part of that series' title). Although TZ's only hour-long season premiered in January 1963, most of those episodes were filmed in the 1962 half of the season.

But how can it be called the complete first season, when that was Kolchak's ONLY season? The title would probably be "Kolchak: The Night Stalker -- The Complete Series".

 

[ElijahS]

I wasn't expecting to see this, but I will probably purchase it. Despite the age of the show, it remains one of the best-produced shows in television history.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Yes, but not just because they're DVD, because Universal can't manufacure DVD-18, and they've proved it over and over again. I don't know why people have to get nasty about this. I'm happy that you've never had any problems with this format, but many, many, many other people have, and almost all of the troublesome discs have come from Universal.

 

[george kaplan]

The Andy Griffith Show? I Love Lucy?

 

[seanOhara]

Not to mention Veronica Mars Season 1, the Val Lewton collection, and the new Wizard of Oz set. But it's still not as bad as September, which has the Garbo box set, Lost Season 1, Fox Film Noir Wave 3, and The Miracle of Morgan Creek coming out on the same day.

 

[JeffT.]

Yes both BEWITCHED-THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON and MY FAVORITE MARTIAN-THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON were released this year but in the case of MARTIAN at least five of the episodes were taken from inferior time compressed tv syndication video transfers somewhat marring this particular DVD set...and frankly speaking BEWITCHED has been aired-to-death in my particular tv viewing locale.

The same definitely applies to both I LOVE LUCY (CBS 1951-57) and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW (CBS 1960-68) albeit I do happen to like both but realistically speaking did anyone actually have doubts that either of these two popular tv favourites wouldn't be made available on DVD?

That's is precisely my point here that we are generally being offered by the major DVD distribution companies the more typical kind of stuff that most people are already well familiar with. So naturally a much rarer commodity like ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (CBS 1955-60, NBC 1960-62) certainly stands out as something truly special indeed!

Yes it's definitely TWILIGHT ZONE for both the fourth (1963) and fifth (1963-64) seasons albeit Rod Serling in the opening titles and his prologue and epilogue narratives still says "The Twilight Zone" nonetheless. He certainly doesn't say that this has been "TWILIGHT ZONE."

Lastly I definitely should have stated KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER - THE COMPLETE SERIES or some such as it was one of those (so-called) single season wonders.

The news of KOLCHAK's impending (?) DVD release in October originated on the SCI-FI WIRE online scheduled events calendar.

Jeff T.

 

[Tom_mkfty]

October 4?

What else are you buying that day, TravisR?