Mitchum22

David Janssen and "Naked City"

Received a very nice gift over the weekend. Was checking out Set 3 in the "Naked City" series and I came across an episode called "On the Battlefront, Every Minute Is Important". Starring David Janssen!

One of the last episodes of this great series(March 1963), Janssen plays a slick and successful ad exec, who happens to be dying of leukemia. As a performance, it truly is a prelude to the deepest of his emotional nakedness in "The Fugitive". The great Paul Burke is his companion in this episode(Janssen offers him a high-paying job if he'll quit the NYPD.) Together, they are both very moving. Highly recommended.

Jeff Willis

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

Bob, I've got the 1st set of this, thanks to Bob H here but haven't started viewing the set yet. I see that the N.C. sets are starting to get scarce, at least at DDD, they've started to discontinue them. Amazon still carries them but I'm wondering if I need to get the other 2 sets while they're still available.

- Jeff Willis (Mainly a late 50's - mid-90's TV/DVD Collector)

"Combat! A Selmur Production"

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Mitchum22

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

Hiya, Jeff.

Yes! I didn't realize they were getting scarce. As you know from Set 1, Image Entertainment did such a beautiful job on the series, with gorgeous prints and all the original commercials. (Which they were smart enough to offer separate on the disc from the actual episodes.)

Set 3 still seems available at DDD, but not the first two sets. I hope Image is paying attention. We need the rest of the series!

Bob Hug

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

I'm seeing a similar situation with another Image distributed (on DVD) series, "I Spy." The box sets for that series are becoming harder to find. I wonder if Image is simply selling out its production run on these older series and is not prepared to reprint (though they continue to appear in Image's online catalog). Another possibility may be that Image's rights to distribute the series on DVD may be expiring at some point in the future, though I have no way of knowing what the original licensing arrangements were.

I have all three of the NC box sets but none of the single NC releases. I sent Image an E-mail a while back asking if they had any plans to bundle the single releases (of which there are 6) into two, 3-disc box sets, but received a response saying that they had no plans to do so. Incidentally, the David Janssen episode is one of the highlights of set 3 IMHO.

JM Productions

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

At this point Image has released at least 60 of the 99 hour-long shows on disc, and I have most of them. (I also have the entire I SPY series in the 3 big box sets).

What I don't understand is why the original 39 half-hour NAKED CITY episodes with John McIntire and James Franciscus (Horace McMahon too, after McIntire quit the show) have yet to be put on the market!! I saw a few of those from my VHS tape trading days in the late 1980s, and they weren't bad.

I agree with the author that the 4th season episode On the Battlefront, Every Minute Is Important" is a true acting showcase for David Janssen and series regular Paul Burke. It was definitely one of the best shows of this series.

docdoowop

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

Surprise, surprise! The "Naked City" set one box is still in-print... at least at Amazon: Amazon.com: Naked City - Set 1 [TV-Series 1958-1963]: Paul Burke,Horace McMahon,Harry Bellaver,Nancy Malone,William A. Graham,Alex March,Elliot Silverstein,Arthur Hiller,Paul Nickel,Robert Gist: Movies & TV For $13.99 I can finally complete the three.

Mike*HTF

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

Thanks for that heads up, Curt.
Great price for all three sets.

.

Hollywoodaholic

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

Quote:

Originally Posted by docdoowop Surprise, surprise! The "Naked City" set one box is still in-print... at least at Amazon: Amazon.com: Naked City - Set 1 [TV-Series 1958-1963]: Paul Burke,Horace McMahon,Harry Bellaver,Nancy Malone,William A. Graham,Alex March,Elliot Silverstein,Arthur Hiller,Paul Nickel,Robert Gist: Movies & TV For $13.99 I can finally complete the three.

Definitely a great deal. I had Set 3, but just ordered 1 & 2 for $27 - less than the price of one set, plus free shipping. This is either just a closeout on these items, or Image is planning to re-release them again in a repackaged or season format like I Spy. Either way, who cares, we benefit. And we already know the quality of the prints.

Bob Hug

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

I wish Image would repackage the six single disc releases of "Naked City" into two 3-DVD sets. The single discs are selling for almost as much as the 3-disc sets!

jdee28

Re: David Janssen and "Naked City"

I saw that David Janssen episode, and wasn't that impressed. To me, the acting was pretty routine; both Burke and Janssen have done better acting elsewhere. There seemed to be a homosexual undercurrent between their characters.