"My Living Doll"? (2 Viewers)

[DeWilson]

Not to venture from the topic of this thread, but after reading the difficulty of locating entire runs and best possible elements for My Living Doll, I now know why my favorite Chertok program Sky King, will probably never look any better than it presently does. The original elements have been destroyed. Why would anyone is his right mind, throw out the original elements to any property be it video or audio ?

I'm reminded of what ABC did to the DuMont library...cheap bastards didn't want to pay for storage so they threw most of DuMont's film library into the east river in the 1970's.

It's wasn't ABC that that destroyed the DuMont Library - it was METROMEDIA! The successor-in-right-renamed-from-DuMont who sat on it for 2 decades - it's always been misattributed to ABC due to a mis-quote by Edie Adams. Metromedia was DuMont renamed when they spun off the two O&O stations in NYC and Washington on the late 1950's from the Manufacturing , and of course later got into production and syndication, purchased more stations and was later bought by Fox and became the cornerstone the for FOX the tv network!

As for SKY KING the story goes there was a fire at the storage facility that the negatives were in (Fortunately positives and other elements were elsewhere, thus nothing is missing in any form) - this is also where the misconception that there were more than 72 episodes made,aired and then lost. Some fan writer along the lines confused rerun dates as new airings.

It's too bad the person that currently has the rights hasn't done anything beyond that rather expensive DVD and Book set. SKY KING is something I could see Timeless putting out in a budget editions.

 

[Jack P]

The destruction of so much vintage television is why I appreciate stories with happy endings like this one about the discovery that CBS had kept the very first videotaped program at Television City from 1957 and how it was preserved to a modern format.


http://www.kingoftheroad.net/edsel/edselshow3.html

 

[Neil Brock]

There are probably a lot more filmed series that are gone than we realize and the only reason that no one has said anything is that no one has gone looking for them. There are two series from the 60s, both short run, which are being sought after, thus far unsuccessfully. There are 16mm release prints for the full run of one and all but one episode of the other which were donated to an archive by the network that aired them. But no negatives or 35mm prints have been found. But there are probably quite a few shows which were owned by independent producers that no one would be able to round up a complete set of negatives or 35mm prints on. Just off the top of my head, shows like Don't Call Me Charlie, Mandrake The Magician, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Adventures of Hiram Holiday, Willy, The Cara Williams Show and The Tab Hunter Show are just a few that would be hard to find. I'm not even sure that the major studios have every episode of all of their series. When Sony put together some packages in the 80s, they couldn't find all of Resue 8 or Tallahassee 7000. As for My Living Doll, Chertok was quoted in a magazine article in the mid-80s as having disposed of all of the elements. Until anyone proves otherwise, I'll take that as fact since it came directly from the horse's mouth.

 

[DeWilson]

There are probably a lot more filmed series that are gone than we realize and the only reason that no one has said anything is that no one has gone looking for them. There are two series from the 60s, both short run, which are being sought after, thus far unsuccessfully. There are 16mm release prints for the full run of one and all but one episode of the other which were donated to an archive by the network that aired them. But no negatives or 35mm prints have been found. But there are probably quite a few shows which were owned by independent producers that no one would be able to round up a complete set of negatives or 35mm prints on. Just off the top of my head, shows like Don't Call Me Charlie, Mandrake The Magician, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Adventures of Hiram Holiday, Willy, The Cara Williams Show and The Tab Hunter Show are just a few that would be hard to find. I'm not even sure that the major studios have every episode of all of their series. When Sony put together some packages in the 80s, they couldn't find all of Resue 8 or Tallahassee 7000. As for My Living Doll, Chertok was quoted in a magazine article in the mid-80s as having disposed of all of the elements. Until anyone proves otherwise, I'll take that as fact since it came directly from the horse's mouth.

Which short run series? You have me curious :Even if no negatives or elements exist, nice to know something still exists!

As for Sony with "Rescue 8" and "Tallahassee 7000" was it a matter of them not having anything at all, or just not wanting to go through the trouble of striking up new prints from the negatives? (The current "Circus Boy" package is missing episodes as well) I wonder if they still hold the elements for the "Jet Jackson" version of "Captain Midnight".

But you do bring up an important point about the indie producers - it does seem that most of what is missing are from the little guys who didn't do much with their shows, especially the short lived ones. But then, has anyone gone looking for the shows you mentioned?

 

[Neil Brock]

Which short run series? You have me curious :Even if no negatives or elements exist, nice to know something still exists!

As for Sony with "Rescue 8" and "Tallahassee 7000" was it a matter of them not having anything at all, or just not wanting to go through the trouble of striking up new prints from the negatives? (The current "Circus Boy" package is missing episodes as well) I wonder if they still hold the elements for the "Jet Jackson" version of "Captain Midnight".

But you do bring up an important point about the indie producers - it does seem that most of what is missing are from the little guys who didn't do much with their shows, especially the short lived ones. But then, has anyone gone looking for the shows you mentioned?

When they put those 2 shows in packages, they only found 43 of the 72 Rescue 8's and 19 of the 26 Tallahassee 7000's. Possible that what you say is true and that they didn't want to go to the cost of going back to the negatives and that was all they had on hand on 16mm. I don't really know for sure what the answer is.


Fox is so clueless that the shows that Metromedia produced which they inherited might just as well be lost as they are clueless as to any of those properties and likely wouldn't be able to lay their hands on the shows if they wanted to. That's why when any of those shows fall into private hands, like Dusty's Trail for instance, it winds up being treated like a P.D. show. They're lucky if they even know anything about their own shows.

 

[Jack P]

Shout was able to find the one episode of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" they wanted for that Marx Brothers set. Did they use a 16mm or 35mm for that one?

 

[classicmovieguy]

What is the current situation for "Private Secretary" (aka "Susie") and the later "Ann Sothern Show"?

 

[Sky King]

It's wasn't ABC that that destroyed the DuMont Library - it was METROMEDIA! The successor-in-right-renamed-from-DuMont who sat on it for 2 decades - it's always been misattributed to ABC due to a mis-quote by Edie Adams. Metromedia was DuMont renamed when they spun off the two O&O stations in NYC and Washington on the late 1950's from the Manufacturing , and of course later got into production and syndication, purchased more stations and was later bought by Fox and became the cornerstone the for FOX the tv network!

As for SKY KING the story goes there was a fire at the storage facility that the negatives were in (Fortunately positives and other elements were elsewhere, thus nothing is missing in any form) - this is also where the misconception that there were more than 72 episodes made,aired and then lost. Some fan writer along the lines confused rerun dates as new airings.

It's too bad the person that currently has the rights hasn't done anything beyond that rather expensive DVD and Book set. SKY KING is something I could see Timeless putting out in a budget editions.

I stand corrected on the ABC/DuMont story. The info I attributed it to was indeed from Edie Adams.

None the less what a waste !!!

I bought the expensive Sky King DVD set from the current rights owner and while expensive, its nice to have all the episodes. The visual quality varies from episode to episode. I don't think much was done to enhance the audio or video, despite what this guys website states. The only complaints I have with this set is that all Sky King commercials weren't included just the opening Nabisco tags. Also, the openings to each episode are marred with a typed description of the episode being viewed. Probably to prevent copying. The booklet set is nice.

 

[Sky King]

The destruction of so much vintage television is why I appreciate stories with happy endings like this one about the discovery that CBS had kept the very first videotaped program at Television City from 1957 and how it was preserved to a modern format.


http://www.kingoftheroad.net/edsel/edselshow3.html

Actually the very first videotaped program was the CBS Evening News with Douglas Edwards in 1956.

I'm sure that tape is long gone, either erased over or destroyed. BTW...when I worked for ADT Security in the 80's, Edwards was a customer of mine...a gracious gentleman.

 

[Jack P]

First videotaped program at Television City, which is not where Edwards did the news.

 

[Neil Brock]

Lets not get into all of the live and videotaped shows that have been discarded as that list is very long and very depressing. Hard to put a number on it but I would guess that probably 80% or more of the non-filmed shows that were done prior to the mid-50s are gone. Among the classic sitcoms of that era that were done live, the only one that I can think of where a good portion of the episodes survive is Mr. Peepers. Other series did not fare as well, such as The Goldbergs, Mama, Meet Millie, My Friend Irma, Life With Luigi, The Aldrich Family, etc. The networks routinely dumped their kinescopes and the only way these things would survive would be if someone went dumpster diving or if someone from the cast had gotten a copy. Its kind of expected that those shows would be gone. But filmed shows one would think that since there were 35mm negatives, 35mm prints, 16mm prints, etc., that those would have survived. But companies went out of business, people died, and many just didn't care. William Morris Agency had control of some of these short-run types of shows and it seems to be the case that if a show looked like it had no value, they destroyed it, as they did with the 35mm elements on The Barbara Stanwyck Show. I would bet that they did the same with other shows that were under their control.


The Betty Hutton Show aka Goldie exists only because a film dealer I know went to the lab which had kept all of the elements and bought them from them. Hutton owned the series and never bothered to collect it and it all sat there for forty years until the dealer came along and offered to buy everything from them. If he hadn't, it would either still be residing there or else eventually would have been tossed.

 

[Neil Brock]

What is the current situation for "Private Secretary" (aka "Susie") and the later "Ann Sothern Show"?

Remember the scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they take the Ark and put it in an unmarked box and put it unlabeled in a gigantic storage warehouse? That's how I imagine all of the elements of the shows that Fox wound up with from Metromedia are stored. Just as a side note, I met with someone last month who worked at one of the local Metromedia stations. When the Fox buyout took place, he asked one of the lawyers about the dispensation of the Metromedia local shows ownership and he was told that nobody had thought about it and they weren't even included or mentioned in the transaction. Who knows, maybe that even applies to the MPC shows as well.

 

[Sky King]

First videotaped program at Television City, which is not where Edwards did the news.

Jack,


The first use of videotape did indeed take place at Television City...sort of...with the airing of "Douglas Edwards With The News" on Nov. 30, 1956. Although the news was broadcast live to the eastern U.S. from New York, it was also simultaneously fed to Los Angeles where it was recorded on videotape and played back exactly three hours later.

In my previous post I mistakenly called it the CBS Evening News with Douglas Edwards.

 

[DeWilson]

Among the classic sitcoms of that era that were done live, the only one that I can think of where a good portion of the episodes survive is Mr. Peepers. Other series did not fare as well, such as The Goldbergs, Mama, Meet Millie, My Friend Irma, Life With Luigi, The Aldrich Family, etc.

The ironic thing is "The Goldbergs" DuMont run is the best surviving run of any of the network's series - 22 of the 24 kinescopes exist as I recall

You never hear much on "Mama"

 

[Neil Brock]

The ironic thing is "The Goldbergs" DuMont run is the best surviving run of any of the network's series - 22 of the 24 kinescopes exist as I recall

You never hear much on "Mama"

Unfortunately, the classic Goldbergs, from CBS with the original cast, which is basically the famous incarnation of the show, there are I believe only 6 surviving episodes. For who knows what reason, Gertrude Berg had it in her contract that the kines be destroyed after a month's time. While its nice to have the Dumont ones and the filmed ones, its really the CBS shows that are the famous ones.


Mama had a long 8-year network run but it was all live except for the last season when CBS filmed it and ran it at 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. They filmed 26 of them although only 13 aired on the network. They actually syndicated those 26 until the mid-60s when they were withdrawn along with the filmed last season of My Favorite Husband and Amos 'n' Andy. Of course the only reason they pulled the other 2 shows was that they didn't want it to look like they were pulling A&A and caving in to the pressure. But getting back to Mama, the Paley Center has all 26 that they discovered in a CBS warehouse in the early 80s. Of the live ones, I don't know the exact number but fewer than 20 survive.

 

[DeWilson]

They actually syndicated those 26 until the mid-60s when they were withdrawn along with the filmed last season of My Favorite Husband and Amos 'n' Andy. Of course the only reason they pulled the other 2 shows was that they didn't want it to look like they were pulling A&A and caving in to the pressure. But getting back to Mama, the Paley Center has all 26 that they discovered in a CBS warehouse in the early 80s. Of the live ones, I don't know the exact number but fewer than 20 survive.

CBS pulls two short-run series from syndication with limited sales to cover the A&A pull? Gee, I didn't know that.

With someone had some guts at CBS to do something with A&A - you know we're THREE generations on since they were pulled and perhaps it's time for a reexamination of the series.

 

[Tory]

What is the current situation with Volume two of this? Is it a possibility? I was recently devastated to find my second disc in this set cracked just a half hour ago. I'm not sure if it cracked naturally or because of the way I pulled it out of the case or in the player. I am devastated and probably going to repurchase the set but if a complete set were possibly on the horizon I might would hold off. Dang it I feel so sad right now, I hate it when this stuff happens.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Wow - how does one crack a disc?! Fingers crossed I haven't encountered one as yet - although some cases seem to encourage them. I, too, am curious to know if MPI has plans to further this series on DVD... Presumably the search continues worldwide for viable elements of the surviving episodes.

 

[Tory]

I really don't know. The crack starts from the center of the disc and goes about halfway through the length of the disc.I would imagine possibly stress from pulling it off of that bit in the middle that secures it in the dvd case could do it but this case didn't seem stubborn and I did not notice a problem when I pulled it out and put it in the dvd tray of my player. I took good care of the DVD too, not a scratch on it. My DVDs are either in the case on the shelf or in the player. I don't toss my dvds around.

 

[Tory]

I'm wating for more I'm Dickens, He's Fenster as well. I just ordered a like new used copy of MY Living Doll, hope it works. It looks like My Living Doll is out of print.