Vintage TV Movies: DVD/BD Labels, Websites? (1 Viewer)

[cineescape]

Sometimes fans of these American made for TV movies from the 60s and 70s are often lucky enough to find them in their original length on YouTube. But often the title you've been searching for seems to have been lost, acquired by a video distributor but never released or worst of all destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire or even deliberately trashed.

These are among the top two on my list:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064599/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_lonely%20profe

And this one https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0528154/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 which Universal had apparently added ~20 minutes to and released it as a 1967 feature film.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061998/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

Might there be specific DVD/BD distributors and/or online repositories most likely to have vintage TV movies available for optical disc sale or free download?

 

[JohnHopper]

I wish I could watch the unsold pilot Hunter (1970/CBS), broadcast in 1973.

cast and crew
creator: Bruce Geller
producer: Bruce Geller
director: Leonard J. Horn
writer: Cliff Gould
composer: Lalo Schifrin
cast: Steve Ihnat, John Vernon, Sabrina Scharf, Edward Binns, Fritz Weaver, Ramon Bieri, John Schuck, Barbara Rhoades,

summary
A fatal crash at a racetrack injures a government agent and exposes an enemy brainwashing scheme.

 

[Purple Wig]

Hunter looks great. Talk about a cast! Ihnat, Vernon, Binns, Woodrow Parfrey, Ed Flanders, Lonny Chapman….the Barbara Rhoades scenes would be of interest to me but Flashgear, Jeff, and 1960’s would likely fast forward through them or take the opportunity to make a Dagwood sized sandwich, too many cheesecake screencaps have made them weary of such pulchritude.

 

[JohnHopper]

Another telefilm I wish they could release:

Savage (1973/NBC)
producer: Paul Mason
executive producers: Richard Levinson and William Link
writer: Mark Rodgers
director: Steven Spielberg
director of photography: Bill Butler
composer: Gil Mellé
cast: Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Will Geer, Paul Richards, Michele Carey, Barry Sullivan, Louise Latham, Susan Howard, Dabney Coleman

summary
A TV reporter investigates compromising photographs of a nominee to the Supreme Court.

 

[cineescape]

It boggles the mind why copyholders of these wonderful TV movies from the 60s and 70s refuse to market them in any format knowing that there's at least a viable niche market for them. What are they even saving the negatives for? Maybe they didn't for lack of storage space. By now MGM, Fox, Universal and Sony may have dumped them into the ocean, as MGM almost did with the original GWTW print, and who knows what else. Several of the TV movie titles I've long been looking for never got a DVD release-nor seem to be even available via streaming, which I refuse to buy into as that's what's primarily killing off not only DVD and BD movie and TV formats but internal and external BD drive production.

 

[84lion]

There is the TV movie "In Tandem," which was the pilot for the TV series "Movin' On." I have the 2 seasons of MO on DVD and "In Tandem" is on Youtube (in HD, no less) if memory serves - but it really needs a much better scan and cleanup. It's barely watchable as it is. I had read somewhere that the people behind the MO DVD release were trying to obtain the rights to release IT on DVD. The Movin' On series on DVD looks spectacular, BTW.

And I agree in general, there were a lot of TV movies back in the 60s and 70s that were quite interesting and had decent production values. It's a shame to think that some of them might be lost forever.

 

[ScottRE]

"Short Walk to Daylight"
"Disaster on the Coastliner"
"A Howling in the Woods"

All three would be welcome in my home video library

 

[Neil Brock]

I have hundreds of TV Movies in my collection. They were syndicated prodigiously in the 80s and I recorded them off air. When everything switched over from film to tape, many of those films fell threw the cracks and were never remastered to tape. In addition, TV stations started filling their air time with infomercials and other crap during the time slots which used to run movies. Unless it was a genre film, like scifi or horror, the market isn't there for them.

 

[JohnHopper]

Another title I wish I could get:

The Love War (1970/ABC)
producer: Aaron Spelling
director: George McCowan
writers: Guerdon Trueblood and David Kidd
composer: Dominic Frontiere
cast: Lloyd Bridges, Angie Dickinson, Daniel J. Travanti, Harry Basch, Byron Foulger, Allen Jaffe, Bill McLean, Pepper Martin, Bob Nash, Art Lewis

summary
Aliens from two planets at war come to Earth, assume human form and continue their battle.

 

[Desslar]

I wish I could watch the unsold pilot Hunter (1970/CBS), broadcast in 1973.

cast and crew
creator: Bruce Geller
producer: Bruce Geller
director: Leonard J. Horn
writer: Cliff Gould
composer: Lalo Schifrin
cast: Steve Ihnat, John Vernon, Sabrina Scharf, Edward Binns, Fritz Weaver, Ramon Bieri, John Schuck, Barbara Rhoades,

summary
A fatal crash at a racetrack injures a government agent and exposes an enemy brainwashing scheme.

Unless I am missing something, the Hunter pilot is available on DVD:
See on Amazon

 

[cineescape]

Unless I am missing something, the Hunter pilot is available on DVD:
See on Amazon

My goodness, given how it's practically impossible to find vintage TV movies disc (and I am virtually opposed to streaming), what with the Universal fire and even because studios couldn't be bothered opening their vaults to to tiny niche markets, this is miraculous. After all of these years I've never even this once. Thanks!

Now, how about two more miracles? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Slow_Fade_to_Black
I only saw the 1967 movie release (the longer version) a few times back in the 70s. I was hoping this guy had it (even the shorter TV version) as he has many other episodes from that TV series, but n/g. https://robertsclassicvideos.com/

Also, "Goodbye Charlie" (1964,) Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds, Walter Matthau. Fox (now Disney?) released it on DVD (still no BD) but not in it's original aspect ratio. And now that crook Bezos has his hooks into it so I'll never even have the pan and scan version on DVD. See on Amazon

 

[Desslar]

My goodness, given how it's practically impossible to find vintage TV movies disc (and I am virtually opposed to streaming), what with the Universal fire and even because studios couldn't be bothered opening their vaults to to tiny niche markets, this is miraculous. After all of these years I've never even this once. Thanks!

Now, how about two more miracles? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Slow_Fade_to_Black
I only saw the 1967 movie release (the longer version) a few times back in the 70s. I was hoping this guy had it (even the shorter TV version) as he has many other episodes from that TV series, but n/g. https://robertsclassicvideos.com/

Also, "Goodbye Charlie" (1964,) Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds, Walter Matthau. Fox (now Disney?) released it on DVD (still no BD) but not in it's original aspect ratio. And now that crook Bezos has his hooks into it so I'll never even have the pan and scan version on DVD. See on Amazon

Not sure about finding it on DVD, but looks like A Slow Fade to Black could be be viewed at the Paley Center of Media In NYC or Library of Congress in DC.

"Slow Fade to Black" (1964) reviewed - Rod Serling Memorial Foundation

Beyond the Zone: Tony Albaralla reviews obscure productions from Rod […]

rodserling.com

https://findingaids.loc.gov/exist_collections/ead3pdf/mbrsrs/2018/rs018001.pdf (included in Bob Hope collection)

 

[Darby67]

I wish someone would release a DVD of Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the KKK that aired on CBS on February 20th and 21st 1975.

 

[Wiseguy]

Sometimes fans of these American made for TV movies from the 60s and 70s are often lucky enough to find them in their original length on YouTube. But often the title you've been searching for seems to have been lost, acquired by a video distributor but never released or worst of all destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire or even deliberately trashed.

These are among the top two on my list:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064599/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_lonely%20profe

And this one https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0528154/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 which Universal had apparently added ~20 minutes to and released it as a 1967 feature film.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061998/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

Might there be specific DVD/BD distributors and/or online repositories most likely to have vintage TV movies available for optical disc sale or free download?

From what I understand the Universal fire only destroyed taped series and taped copies of series/movies used for reruns, etc. The original films still exist. Of course, that doesn't make them any more available but they are still there gathering dust.

 

[cineescape]

Not sure about finding it on DVD, but looks like A Slow Fade to Black could be be viewed at the Paley Center of Media In NYC or Library of Congress in DC.

"Slow Fade to Black" (1964) reviewed - Rod Serling Memorial Foundation

Beyond the Zone: Tony Albaralla reviews obscure productions from Rod […]

rodserling.com

https://findingaids.loc.gov/exist_collections/ead3pdf/mbrsrs/2018/rs018001.pdf

Thanks but that's useless for my entertainment needs. And isn't the William Paley TV archives comprised of only CBS properties? That Bob Hope Chrysler Theater was an NBC/Universal produced series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hope_Presents_the_Chrysler_Theatre

More importantly, why on earth should any such content be unavailable for purchase on optical disk or download when almost every TV series ever produced is or was sold on DVD and/or BD?

The same for the UCLA film archives. After restoring Leslie Steven's "Private Property" (1960), HOW LONG did it take for a BD release? See on Amazon And UCLA still has either a restored, if not, probably the only good quality 35mm print of Stevens' "Fanfare for a Death Scene", another Universal movie.

Fanfare for a Death Scene (TV Movie 1964) - IMDb

Fanfare for a Death Scene: Directed by Leslie Stevens, Walter Grauman. With Richard Egan, Dee Hartford, J.D. Cannon, Al Hirt. An American secret agent on the trail of a vanished scientist must recover the scientist's revolutionary secret formula before the enemy catches up with his quarry.

www.imdb.com

So they show at L.A. film clubs whenever??? This all totally stinks!!

 

[cineescape]

From what I understand the Universal fire only destroyed taped series and taped copies of series/movies used for reruns, etc. The original films still exist. Of course, that doesn't make them any more available but they are still there gathering dust.

It makes me even sicker to be reminded of it but the biggest losses in the Universal fire (however much it actually was accidental) were the first gen analog tape masters of numerous Universal, Mercury, Decca, A & M, Impulse, Verve and other Universal labels.

As for vintage movies and TV shows, consumers shouldn't be denied owning a copy of a Hollywood product just because UCLA is a non-profit entity. Okay, so the may (?) have restored the property to look and/or sound better, but that shouldn't give them exclusive rights which prohibit legitmate copying and sale of it.

 

[Brett*H]

This may be old news to some, but Kino Lorber has released several Made-For-TV-Movies on Blu-ray and DVD.
You may have to do some digging on their site to find them.

https://www.klstudioclassics.com/

This is a partial list of what I came up with:

THE MIGRANTS (1974)
SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY (1973)
THE SCREAMING WOMAN (1972)
THE HOUSE THAT WOULD NOT DIE (1970)
FEAR NO EVIL (1969) / RITUAL OF EVIL (1970) (DOUBLE FEATURE)
The Victim (1971)
NIGHT TERROR - AKA NIGHT DRIVE (1977)
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN (1979)
ANTS (AKA IT HAPPENED AT LAKEWOOD MANOR) (1977)
TARANTULAS: THE DEADLY CARGO (1977)
TERROR OUT OF THE SKY (AKA REVENGE OF THE SAVAGE BEES) (1978)
21 HOURS AT MUNICH (1976)
THE TWO WORLDS OF JENNIE LOGAN (1979)
KILLDOZER (1974)
LOVE AMONG THE RUINS (1975)
THE DAUGHTERS OF JOSHUA CABE (1972)
THE TRACKERS (1971)
SUPERDOME (1978)
YOUNG PIONEERS (1976)
HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1975)

 

[Scott511]

And isn't the William Paley TV archives comprised of only CBS properties?

No it’s not just CBS properties.

A good example is some of the various series created by Stephen J. Cannell. The Paley Center has episodes of The Rockford Files, Black Sheep Squadron, Baretta, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Wiseguy, Renegade, 21 Jump Street, and Profit.

Only Wiseguy was a CBS series.

 

[Desslar]

I wish someone would release a DVD of Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the KKK that aired on CBS on February 20th and 21st 1975.

Looks like there's some bootleg DVD releases out there.

 

[cineescape]

This may be old news to some, but Kino Lorber has released several Made-For-TV-Movies on Blu-ray and DVD.
You may have to do some digging on their site to find them.

https://www.klstudioclassics.com/

This is a partial list of what I came up with:

THE MIGRANTS (1974).................HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1975)

News to me. None of those are of interest but thanks for the heads up; maybe Kino will consider making my list happen on DVD or BD.