The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams ? (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

This low-budget independent western was a huge hit when Sunn Classics four-walled it across the country in 1974. Later, it spawned a mini-series and made-for-TV sequels. What's holding up a DVD release, does anyone know? Come to think of it, there aren't many Sunn Classics on home video, are there?

 

[Tom M]

There was no mini-series. After the theatrial feature was a 2 season, 60 minute TV series. The series was followed years later by a TV movie which wrapped up the series. No further TV movies were made. Two DTV movies were made but without the cast and crew of the TV series. The DTV movies are considered to be of poor quality and are pretty obscure today. TIMELINE: 1975: Theatrical release of "The Life & Times Of Grizzly Adams". Dan Haggerty's voice is dubbed by another actor in this release. 1976: Theatrical re-release. Dan Haggerty's real voice is restored in order to be consistant with the upcoming TV series. 1977: TV series debuts with a 2 hour premiere of the theatrical feature. The movie's epilogue which has Adam's now adult daughter visiting him and telling her father he is no longer a fugitive is cut in order to keep some suspense for the series by having Adams' fugitive staus found out from time to time. 1977-1978: FInal season airs. A Christmas special airs several months later but fails to renew interest in the series. 1982: TV movie "The Capture Of Grizzly Adams" airs which wraps up the fugitive storyline and brings the series to a close. A total of 26 TV episodes were made, including two 90 minute specials (Easter and Christmas). In the mid-1980's, several episodes were released to home video. They were re-released in the 1990's but quickly went out of print. The series played in syndication for many years though some stations would frequently skip the 90 minute episodes others would air those episodes as weekend afternoon movies. I have a 16mm print of the Easter episode called "The Renewal" and it is a great joy to watch every spring. I sincerely hope the rights issues or whatever the holdup is is sorted out soon and Mr. Adams and company can come home to DVD and perhaps Blu-Ray.

 

[Louis Letizia]

Great timeline! I would also add THE ADVENTURES OF FRONTIER FREEMONT to any GRIZZLY ADAMS box set as an extra. FREEMONT was a huge success as well. Paramount now owns these through their association with Taft-which absorbed Sunn and now controlled by Paramount. Except for a few trickles on Netflix streaming -HANGAR 18 and IN SEARCH OF HISTORIC JESUS - and a surprise run of THE BOOGENS on TCM -all with Paramount logos-there hasnt been much of Sunn's very successful films on DVD. Other mini studios tried -successfully -to mimick Sunn's blueprint and have all reached DVD such as PIE with THE WILDERNESS FAMILY series , Mulberry Square with BENJI and HAWMPS! and probably the biggest success stories of this genre of films-THE LEGEND OG BOGGY CREEK -a legendary blockbuster that deserves better than the near PD releases it has received. BOGGY has some Bogey dvds. Hopefully Paramount will take advantage of this and their Bing Crosby libraries- a treasure trove of fun exploitable movies. Sunn's 1976 release of IN SEARCH OF NOAHS ARK nearly beat KING KONG at the Christmas 1976 boxoffice! Is this Paramounts revenge? Others I'd like to see- BEYOND AND BACK , IN SEARCH OF NOAHS ARK , THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY (which was more entertaining on 1 tenth the budget than this years THE CONSPIRATOR) and their tv films LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW and THE TIME MACHINE. All DVDs -at least the pseudo documentaries -should have a button to push ala the old FRANKENHOOKER video box - with some introduction using Brad Crandalls inimitable narrative voice. If Paramount were smart and retro -we may see the Sunn rise once again.

 

[Richard--W]

My thanks to both of you for explicating the situation with Sunn Classics. I really appreciate the detail you guys put into your posts. I always made a point of going to see a Sunn Classics film when they were new. The Lincoln Conspiracy, Grizzly Adams, In Search of Noah's Ark, and In Search of Historic Jesus were films I returned to see again and again. But I liked them all. I'd like to get reacquainted with them but if Paramount owns the rights now I'm not optimistic about home video releases.

 

[Richard--W]

Sunn Classics hasn't updated its website since 2005, and the two "current" projects did not look promising then. It appears that for awhile they were more interested in building a theme park and studio: Which never came to pass. Their production tapered off in the late 1980s and almost down to nothing in the 1990s. They've done nothing new since Master of the Game in 2002 and a Tim Conway video in 2005.

 

[Louis Letizia]

Nice nostalgia looking at those posters. Sunn were brilliant marketers-but were they the first company to use the four wall distribution process? I kjnow BILLY JACK had tried this-with great success. Not quite sure who was first. Their commercials-cmpelling mini movies in themselves -were inescapable when their movie came to your town. Small, struggling independent companies like FilmDistrict andRelativity or Summit-could learn by those. In fact I do believe that family films like the Sunn Classics would do well even today. While not a family film in anyway -Paramount recently came closest with its blockbuster PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (the title even sounds Sunn-y)-with total saturation of the airwaves -something they are repeating now with THE DEVIL INSIDE with a series of very creepy commercials that compels you to see it. as Paramount learned and mastered these skills through its Sunn takeover? Probably the greatest-fully independent movie -that became a huge hit was THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT -a glorified Sunn Classic for adults. A recent documentary like PROJECT NIM could have benefited from an exploitational push that would have gotten people into theaters and most would have loved what they saw.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Louis Letizia

Paramount now owns these through their association with Taft-which absorbed Sunn and now controlled by Paramount.
If Paramount were smart and retro -we may see the Sunn rise once again.

One little tidbit. Taft Broadcasting sold Worldvision, which include Sunn Classics, to Spelling, Inc (Arron Spelling) in 1988. The Worldvision unit continued in operation under Spelling, Inc. Paramount acquired Spelling, Inc in 2000 which included among others Worldvision and Republic Pictures. At the conclusion of the merger, Paramount/Viacom integrated the Worldvision properties in with the Republic Pictures library. With Paramount leasing the Republic library to Lionsgate, then Lionsgate has the rights to the Sunn Classics at this time.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Louis Letizia

Nice nostalgia looking at those posters. Sunn were brilliant marketers-but were they the first company to use the four wall distribution process? I kjnow BILLY JACK had tried this-with great success. Not quite sure who was first.

Major film companies used four- wall distribution since the the 1920's. Fox, Warners, Paramount and others would lease a legit theatre in a major town and created a type of roadshow, with a full orchestra. Some of the titles were The Covered Wagon, Old Ironsides, and Iron Horse. The theatres circuits that showed film were up in arms over this type of distribution and it ended about the time sound came in. There are rumors that RKO did this for Citizen Kane in towns that did not have an RKO Theatre and the existing venue were scared to book it. In the 50's traveling exploitation films would four-wall a theatre to show "sex education" film, such as Mom and Dad and Sex Madness. Warner's used it in the 70's for re-releases of What's Up Doc and Blazing Saddles. They also used it for the Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze first-run. Disney did in late 1980's when they went out of business with Untied Artists Theatres. At that time UA Theatres was the largest circuit in the country and there were many towns where UA had the only theatre. Disney would lease city, school, and college auditoriums, install screens, projection and sound systems and show the title. The last time I remember it being used was Dreamworks SKG using it for Amistad. At that time Dreamworks was batting theatre companies and what they wanted to charge for rental. The theatre companies balked and so Dreamworks a made deal with them to four wall a screen. When in the end Dreamworks made a fortune off the four-walls the theatre owners thought they were missing out on some money, so the battles of the rental Dreamworks wanted ended.

I still think it is a viable tool to use in the releasing of films, but those films would need to be specialty and open in a certain area or a small number of films to create word of mouth for a larger distribution.

 

[Louis Letizia]

Very inormative read-thanks I can't see fourwalling work in these times of ge the movie into homes in 90 days environment. It was great seeing Sony Pictures Classic's full page ad in Sunday Times thubtumping that MIDNIGHT IN PARIS was the longest theatrical run of the year-7 months. Very old school (they slyly changed the vposter from the wonderful Owen Wilson caught in a painting vividly colored one to a starK black font on white background poster thatrecalls Woody Allens od posters of yore like ANNIE HALL and INTERIORS . Columbia also had two wonderful full pagd ads fo possible Oscar contenders MONEYBALL and IDES OF MARCH -that brought me back to the 70s when I couldnt wait till ads with Award nominations and 10 best lsts were put into the mix. More importantly these were old-cnsiderig they were 2-3 months playing-movies released in the Fall. Columbia is dong the nurturing studios used to do with long playing movies -breathing fresh air into their cqampaigns. AN UNMARRIED WOMAN's rerelease at awards season was like a new release-and even though it was only middling boxoffice-Fox still had respect for the film and its makers with its liush awards campaign. As great as Columbia did with its 2 films , Sundays Times also had the discouraging oldstyle awards campaign ad for THE HELP -but it was disturbing to see it coincided with its DVD release-not a theatrical rerelease IDES OF MARCH would have been prime candidate for Fourwalling . It was special enough to have a word of mouth campaign that would have put many more coins in its purse.I believe WAR HORSE to be this years THE BLACK STALLION and also could have benefitted with fourwall nurturing where it could have had time to walk around the track and not gallop out of the gate. Fourwalling always worked best on family entertainment.