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Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases
I looked at one of the discs and thought that the image was excellent except for some serious damage on the closing credits on one of the episodes....possibly the best of all the Timeless Media's releases. The sound is a bit thin but servicable. As for the show itself, it's great to see early glimpses of George Grizzard, Gene Hackman, Jerry Stiller, Sidney Pollack and Robert Webber. The most fascinating aspect of BRENNER for me was that it's only half-an-hour so it's a much tighter show--both in location work, plot, and ambition--than, say, NAKED CITY. We are so used to hour long shows now that a half a hour show comes as a bit of shock, so most of the episodes are restricted to conventional cop themes such as guilt over shooting a suspect, reaching out to troubled kids, wanting to marry a woman who wants him to retire, etc. I always felt that the half hour versions of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Gunsmoke" were pithier and superior to the subsequent hour long versions because they could concentrate on a specific story. Clearly the experiments in hour-and-a-half stories, like ARREST AND TRIAL and THE VIRGINIAN did not work.
That said, BRENNER is an excellent show well cast, and well written. It was produced by Herbert Brodkin of "The Defenders" fame and I'd love to see that come out on dvd some day.
Last edited by Charles H : 06-23-2008 at 09:29 AM.
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