"My Living Doll"? (1 Viewer)

[SheenaFan]

Hi Chertok Television,
We spoke on the phone a year ago about the 35 mm Sheena reels where I mentioned they might be. I assume you made great advances in acquiring all of them? The screen tests too?
I understand what you mean about the DVD market but Irish McCalla's beauty and personality makes her a cult favorite. I think it would sell well.
There is a Sheena comic book due soon and as you know a Sheena movie is being pitched. There is an Irish McCalla calendar out now and a statue from ReelArt.
For a DVD set, I can provide an 72 min audio Irish McCalla interview I own the rights to for free. Irish is very down to earth. She talks about painting and posing nude for painter Alberto Vargas (Playboy published 6 of the 16 photos in 2008 and Irish was listed on the cover.) I can also provide a rare Irish McCalla five minute "girlie film" where she models bikinis from 1950.
There is also Irish's public domain "Queen of the Jungle" movie where the Nassours took three episodes and linked them together with new footage.
You can hear the audio interview and see videoclips here in this Sheena website:
http://terrororstralis.com/sheena/irish/irish-intro.htm

Comic2read

 

[shoeshineboy]

Speaking of my living doll, Irish fits that category nicely.
Hope both of you see the completion of your dvd release dreams!

 

[Neil Brock]

Likewise with The Jack Benny Program- there's a lot of things from that show still in the vaults, and despite the efforts of people like Jack's daughter Joan, the studio (I forget but it's either Universal or Paramount/CBS) won't release years of episodes covering roughly 1950-65!

It you are at all familiar with the series, there is so much music that a DVD release is just an impossibility. After all, the show was about Jack's variety show and it was not just a straight ahead sitcom. So many episodes are chock full of music that no one could do a legitimate release. Its believed that of the 260 or so episodes that were done, only around 149 were filmed and the rest were live. Presumably, Universal owns all of the filmed shows and the rest would be in the public domain. Why only 104 of the filmed ones have ever been syndicated is anyone's guess. If anyone is interested, Antenna TV will begin airing the show next week when they change their schedule. They've also picked up quite a few other Universal shows as well.

 

[Chertok Television.]

Music rights must have been cleared for broadcast only..this is a common problem nobody saw recorded media as a issue back in the day..it really is a shame about the Benny shows..I bet they are great stuff.
Right now I have so many projects in various stages of production one more would be impossible just for now, but perhaps this is something for the near future..I love irish too but it will be a hard sell.
Mastering cost are not cheap and packaging it all adds up really fast..most of the time if you break even you are doing great.

 

[Jack P]

Right now I have so many projects in various stages of production one more would be impossible just for now, but perhaps this is something for the near future..I love irish too but it will be a hard sell.
Mastering cost are not cheap and packaging it all adds up really fast..most of the time if you break even you are doing great.

Understandable. Hopefully, the grabber to introduce Sheena to a new audience would be (1) emphasizing Irish as a pioneer two decades before Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman etc. and (2) if there was a new modern day project of note as a tie-in, that would certainly help.
Goodness knows I'd rather see Irish on DVD than to see the underwhelming Gena Lee Nolin 2000-2002 series make it to DVD!

 

[WaveCrest]

TVShowsOnDVD news article about My Living Doll:


My Living Doll - The Official Collection, Volume 1 - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

 

[Jack P]

Good news! I'm glad to see these efforts finally lead to an actual release.

 

[BobO'Link]

Yes, it's *somewhat* good news. But I'm fed up with split-season/partial season releases of these *single season* shows! It's bad enough for shows that ran for years, but to do so on single season shows is unconscionable! I see this as no different than issuing a "sampler" of a handful of episodes to test the waters. I didn't buy any of those and will not buy these until the whole season is available.
Forgive the stupidity of these remarks - they were made in knee-jerk response out of frustration with another unrelated release totally forgetting the somewhat unique circumstances involved here.

 

[Jack P]

I think if you read up on the history of all the problems that have been involved in *trying* to find episodes of this show that are documented in this thread, you'd realize that this is not a case of someone engaging in an act of greed. Would you say the same of what's been going on with "Steve Canyon"?

 

[Neil Brock]

Yes, it's *somewhat* good news. But I'm fed up with split-season/partial season releases of these *single season* shows! It's bad enough for shows that ran for years, but to do so on single season shows is unconscionable! I see this as no different than issuing a "sampler" of a handful of episodes to test the waters. I didn't buy any of those and will not buy these until the whole season is available. :td:

Unless you have been completely oblivious to what's been going on with this show for the last several years, you would understand that they are releasing the only episodes that have been located and that are known to exist. This isn't some money grab scheme to stretch out the return. 15 of the 26 shows are MIA. You're comments make no sense whatsoever.

 

[BobO'Link]

Unless you have been completely oblivious to what's been going on with this show for the last several years, you would understand that they are releasing the only episodes that have been located and that are known to exist. This isn't some money grab scheme to stretch out the return. 15 of the 26 shows are MIA. You're comments make no sense whatsoever.

Yes, that's true. And I *have* been following what's going on with this series and know about the issues. I read the release, totally forgot these issues, and did a knee-jerk reaction solely based on what's occuring with the I'm Dickens, He's Finster release, which IMHO *does* seem to be somewhat of a "money grab scheme to stretch out the return". Comments retracted as they were stupidly made...

 

[WaveCrest]

Am intrigued by what will be on the music soundtrack included with the first volume DVD set of My Living Doll.

 

[DeWilson]

It you are at all familiar with the series, there is so much music that a DVD release is just an impossibility. After all, the show was about Jack's variety show and it was not just a straight ahead sitcom. So many episodes are chock full of music that no one could do a legitimate release. Its believed that of the 260 or so episodes that were done, only around 149 were filmed and the rest were live. Presumably, Universal owns all of the filmed shows and the rest would be in the public domain. Why only 104 of the filmed ones have ever been syndicated is anyone's guess. If anyone is interested, Antenna TV will begin airing the show next week when they change their schedule. They've also picked up quite a few other Universal shows as well.

They still could release a "Best of" Package of episodes with a limited number,or no musical numbers. I can think of several episodes off the top of my head of the Filmed era that had no musical numbers or performances.
CBS holds the master kinescopes on the bulk of the live shows,including the "Shower of Stars" hour shows however episodes shot on video tape were done in tandom with the filmed shows for a couple of seasons before the switch to all film. Not sure who holds those - CBS? NBC-Universal?

 

[WaveCrest]

TVShowsOnDVD news article, posted on their website on Tuesday (updated since then), about My Living Doll: The Official Collection - Volume 1:


My Living Doll: The Official Collection - Volume 1 - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

 

[Mike*HTF]

Up for preorder at Amazon.

 

[SheenaFan]

The Big Bang Theory had a homage to My Living Doll. Raj dreams iPhone's Siri is a real woman with a robotic voice and the actress looked and acted like Julie Newmar.

 

[WaveCrest]

TVShowsOnDVD news article about My Living Doll, posted on their website earlier this week, about the status on a second volume of episodes:


My Living Doll: Second DVD volume of episodes - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

 

[Neil Brock]

Nice PR but little basis in reality. There was a magazine article I read in the mid 80s in which Jack Chertok essentially said that he had all of the prints and elements destroyed. The fact that even 11 survived is miraculous but don't bet on any others surfacing, despite what you read.

 

[rcbrad]

Nice PR but little basis in reality. There was a magazine article I read in the mid 80s in which Jack Chertok essentially said that he had all of the prints and elements destroyed. The fact that even 11 survived is miraculous but don't bet on any others surfacing, despite what you read.

Since volume I has been finalized, I have just read that it was discovered that the last 5 episodes have been sold by a film collector recently, and this is being looked into. There are some others too that have been found (just not clear on the number 1-3?) Those involved are hoping that the release of volume l would intensify the search and the fact that people will come forward with episodes that are still needed. This does seem to be the case.

 

[John DeAngelis]

Nice PR but little basis in reality. There was a magazine article I read in the mid 80s in which Jack Chertok essentially said that he had all of the prints and elements destroyed. The fact that even 11 survived is miraculous but don't bet on any others surfacing, despite what you read.

Well, Brian Wilson used to say that he burned some of the "Smile" session tapes and that proved to be false, so maybe Chertok wasn't telling the truth either.