Where are Warner's very cool police detective TV series from the 60's (1 Viewer)

[M90GM]

Why have we not seen a release of 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, & Bourbon St Beat? From my recollection they were extremely "hot" at the time and played for fun/entertainment. Some of the TV western series have had a DVD release Many of the stars had mileage with successful film careers ....We have so much rubbish receiving the royal upgrade Blue Ray treatment by Warner (Penelope 6.3 imdb, Green Slime 4.8, Hell on Frisco Bay 6.4, Body Snatchers 6, Night School 5.6, The Swarm 4.5, Golden Arrow 4.7). I fail to see how they continue to trudge out so much ineffective "forgotton" rarely known titles that have no artistic or trend relevance today. As releases "looked up" in recent weeks with a "big" Cinemascope "hit" The Reluctant Debutante & the surprise little BW old fashioned family drama from RKO Rachel & the Stranger - we sudenly have another clanger - Action of the Tiger 5.1. The movie business often doesn't make (dollars & cents) sense. We still, beside the "iconic" Warner Detective TV series, have not had any sign of a release for many truly great films (Roman Holiday, Greatest Show on Earth for example plus a slew of major M-G-M titles that look set to remain "lost" to today's consumers). Maybe one day ....

 

[John Hermes]

Warner keeps saying the music rights in these detective series is holding up their release. The longer the wait, the less demand there will be. Seems like something could be done, even if it's deleting the musical performances. None of us is getting any younger.

 

[MartinP.]

Why have we not seen a release of 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, & Bourbon St Beat?

If you're a fan, Justin, you could come chat (or commiserate) with us about these shows here:

77 Sunset Strip / Hawaiian Eye, etc.

I wonder when Warner is gonna open the vaults on Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside Six, and all the Westerns (Maverick, etc). They are obviously serious about releasing some older stuff as there was a press release floating around stating that all 9 seasons of the F.B.I. were coming out...

www.hometheaterforum.com

 

[smithbrad]

Warner keeps saying the music rights in these detective series is holding up their release. The longer the wait, the less demand there will be. Seems like something could be done, even if it's deleting the musical performances. None of us is getting any younger.

Yes, but if they delete or replace musical performances they'll get chastised by this very community for hacking the release, and a large contigent will boycott it. I'm guessing by now WB realizes the costs to clear are beyond what revenue will be generated, so it has become a no-win situation.

 

[ian McLachlan]

I would really like to see these series released. While I would prefer it if they retained the original music, I would rather there were substitutions made rather than the episodes remaining unseen in the vaults.

 

[LeoA]

A big reason of why I want Hawaiian Eye is the music performances.

 

[MartinP.]

I would really like to see these series released. While I would prefer it if they retained the original music, I would rather there were substitutions made rather than the episodes remaining unseen in the vaults.

I don't think they could substitute a lot of them because they had singers singing them, like Cricket (Connie Stevens) on Hawaiian Eye.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Why have we not seen a release of 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, & Bourbon St Beat? From my recollection they were extremely "hot" at the time and played for fun/entertainment. Some of the TV western series have had a DVD release Many of the stars had mileage with successful film careers ....We have so much rubbish receiving the royal upgrade Blue Ray treatment by Warner (Penelope 6.3 imdb, Green Slime 4.8, Hell on Frisco Bay 6.4, Body Snatchers 6, Night School 5.6, The Swarm 4.5, Golden Arrow 4.7). I fail to see how they continue to trudge out so much ineffective "forgotton" rarely known titles that have no artistic or trend relevance today. As releases "looked up" in recent weeks with a "big" Cinemascope "hit" The Reluctant Debutante & the surprise little BW old fashioned family drama from RKO Rachel & the Stranger - we sudenly have another clanger - Action of the Tiger 5.1. The movie business often doesn't make (dollars & cents) sense. We still, beside the "iconic" Warner Detective TV series, have not had any sign of a release for many truly great films (Roman Holiday, Greatest Show on Earth for example plus a slew of major M-G-M titles that look set to remain "lost" to today's consumers). Maybe one day ....

Others have answered the music rights issue on the detective series but also Roman Holiday and The Greatest Show on Earth are Paramount titles and not Warner titles so we would have to ask Paramount.

 

[Neil Brock]

Music, Music, Music. Every one of the WB detective shows was chock full of music and nightclub scenes, especially Hawaiian Eye, which had Connie belting out numbers in just about every episode. All of those songs have to be paid for and cleared and there is just not enough of a market for 60+ year old black and white shows to justify the costs. While not in the same genre, other WB shows, like The Alaskans and Roaring 20s are in the same boat, as Dorothy Provine was singing in most of them.

 

[jcroy]

This has happened even with more recent/current tv shows owned by Warner with tons of music, such as Cold Case (2003-2010).

Even during the heydays of a peak dvd market era circa early-mid 2000s, Warner didn't think Cold Case was worth releasing at all on dvd,

 

[Neil Brock]

Another reason is that all of those shows had very little syndication after the 1960s and the main age of the people who fondly remember those shows is 70+, not exactly the prime DVD sales age.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Music, Music, Music. Every one of the WB detective shows was chock full of music and nightclub scenes, especially Hawaiian Eye, which had Connie belting out numbers in just about every episode. All of those songs have to be paid for and cleared and there is just not enough of a market for 60+ year old black and white shows to justify the costs. While not in the same genre, other WB shows, like The Alaskans and Roaring 20s are in the same boat, as Dorothy Provine was singing in most of them.

Perhaps you answered this question already in the previous post, Neil - but what do you think is the hold-up with Colt .45? I queried about this to the guys on the Warner Archive podcast, but as their silence is deafening, I don't think they care to answer. Surely it can't be music rights for this show? Are there other possible rights issues involved? Or, as is probably the likelihood, are Warner's basically done with releasing pre-1990 shows on DVD?

 

[cadavra]

It's still an issue. I asked Warner Archive about the revival of MURPHY BROWN, since it didn't have any of that expensive Motown music. They replied that even though it was all original music, they hadn't cleared it for DVD, either! And that was only a couple of years ago! They never learn.

 

[timk1041]

I keep going back years ago what they said about Batman that it will never be released because of all the legal issues and problems involved. A few years ago, it got released on DVD and Blu Ray. I say never give up. If someone wants a show released you need to get a petition going and keep letting the studio know how much you're interested. Judging by the continuous positive comments and postings on The 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye thread, we have quite a few members on Home Theater Forum interested in these shows. Apparently they're very popular with many here. Is that enough to justify a release of these shows, maybe not. But it's a start. I understand about the music issues and such, but hasn't this been said about many other shows and eventually a number of them finally got released. Perhaps Warner can release a limited edition of these shows with at least some of the episodes and test the waters. Even if they're released as MODs, it is better than nothing. They always say the costs are prohibitive, however they have zero chance of making any money by letting them sit in the vaults. Those are just my opinions.

 

[timk1041]

Another reason is that all of those shows had very little syndication after the 1960s and the main age of the people who fondly remember those shows is 70+, not exactly the prime DVD sales age.

True, but there are many other shows in that category too and some how they made their way onto video.

 

[ScottRE]

Yeah, imagine if all of these were released the same way The Fugitive was on DVD initially? Nobody wants that hassle.

 

[Neil Brock]

I don't know what the issues are with Colt 45. Warner did a good job of getting their other westerns out there on TV and DVD so there must be something big holding it up, whether its music, underlying rights or maybe an elements issue, although I kind of doubt that. May be something silly which their corporate lawyers are nervous about. Could be almost anything.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I don't know what the issues are with Colt 45. Warner did a good job of getting their other westerns out there on TV and DVD so there must be something big holding it up, whether its music, underlying rights or maybe an elements issue, although I kind of doubt that. May be something silly which their corporate lawyers are nervous about. Could be almost anything.

They seem to not want to talk about it whatever the issue is. I asked about the series again a couple weeks ago on Facebook and they did not reply.

 

[JamesSmith]

Think they had the same trouble with the Alaskans.

Remember back when in WB Archives released a new classic tv season several times a month? Or it seemed that way. I think that was back in the first three to four years of WB Archives.

James

 

[Ed Lachmann]

I'm skeptical as to why this "music rights issue" prevents any possible release of 77 Sunset Strip. I'm now well into Season Four out of Six (thank you MeTV) and besides the title song, which was written FOR the series, there are very occasional numbers performed at Dino's by the athletic Frank Ortega Trio. An original soundtrack WB record (and CD) have background score and a few jazzed up standards, all "Warren Barker" material (which includes a re-purposed version of Alex North's Stan from Streetcar Named Desire re-titled here as Late at Bailey's Pad). Wouldn't that score be owned by WB? There are rare occasional standards sung by actresses in a handful of nightclubs so far, dwarfing the each episode performances by Edie (Lola Albright) in the Peter Gunn series. Somehow Timeless Media can afford the overwhelming music situation there compared with the miniscule one I hear and see in 77 Sunset Strip. Seems like WB just doesn't want to bother, which probably has more to do with re-scanning the film elements than anything else (the MeTV stuff just ain't too sharp). This "music" excuse seems like a lot of bull to me.