[Flashgear]

Please humour me fellow travellers.. and commiserate with this humble and much tortured soul as to when the Hell we can perhaps begin to hope for this unique and much loved classic series,Boris Karloff's Thriller,to be released by Universal or licensed to an eager and naive minion like Timeless, (eager and naive but also much appreciated as late, I would however appreciate a first rate presentation, we all know the difference) I therefore summon up the most damnable and unspeakably angry resolve of my many generations of cranky and mildly dispeptic ancestry...a terrible curse awaits teetering on my sodden and withered lips...mock us not well, Hollywood! Seriously though, I would be beside myself in joy, having jumped out of my own skin...for 67 episodes, a very high proportion of great and memorable shows...and every kid at school the morning after would be abuzz about the previous night's episode...we all love the atmospheric horror eps, but a lot of the crime and mystery eps are nearly as memorable...first and foremost Boris himself...and great casting for this anthology...first rate original sources and brilliant teleplays adapted from them...your thoughts, fellow sufferers...

[Jeff*H]

This is a great show and I would love to see Universal license it out to some company that would do justice to both seasons of the show. To this day, my favorite episode ("Pigeons From Hell") is one of the spookiest pieces of TV that I have ever seen (well, that and any given episode of 'Flavor of Love').

[Hank Dearborn]

That show kind of falls into the category of one that Universal probably won't want to license out because it will do well but they also don't seem to want to put it out themselves. I picked them up from a run on a Canadian horror channel that ran them complete and uncut.

[cwilli]

I remember one story called "La Strega" that took place in Italy and was about a horrible witch that cast spells on people. I haven't seen the episode in thirty years so the details aren't so clear. i was just left with the impression of being frightened at the time because the story was so atmospheric. Quite a few of the shows from that era have been released but this is the one I'm impatiently waiting for. This and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

[JeffT.]

I would enthusiastically support a quality BORIS KARLOFF'S THRILLER DVD collection and it would certainly make for a great Halloween season release to be sure.

In a viably commercial sense it does have the distinguished and formidable Boris Karloff name associated with the show.

However Universal Studios Home Entertainment generally doesn't seem to be all that vigorous when it comes to marketing the company's film and television series catalogue.

Another possible obstacle is that at present Universal has committed itself to the better known and highly celebrated ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS which is very much in an identical vein as THRILLER in addition to a suggested resumption of ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY anticipated sometime in the Fall of 2008.

Universal may not want to flood the market with this sort of dramatic anthology cum dark suspense shocker entertainment.

But there is nothing wrong in suggesting a THRILLER DVD release nonetheless. As I have already affirmed you have my dauntless support! This has definitely got to be one of the more interesting tv properties under the aegis of Universal.

Jeff T.

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

THRILLER is currently my #1 most-wanted TV series currently unreleased on R1 DVD.

Considering that the original TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS have long since been issued in their complete runs on the format, ONE STEP BEYOND is virtually complete (albeit in "public domain" releases), ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS has three seasons currently available (hopefully Season 4 will come out this October), and NIGHT GALLERY has Season 1 (with Season 2 possibly waiting in the wings for this Fall) out, that leaves THRILLER as the sole hold-out*, in the classic genre anthology DVD sweepstakes.

[* Not counting the much-wanted, though obscure and/or short-lived series WAY OUT, SUSPICION, PANIC!/NO WARNING!, (Kraft) SUSPENSE THEATER, OUT OF THE UNKNOWN, JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN, GHOST STORY/CIRCLE OF FEAR, DARKROOM, and of course, THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR, which I figure Universal views as the expanded-to-an-hour final three seasons of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.]

To THRILLER's advantage (as far as Universal's marketing department is concerned):

1.) Boris Karloff (as host, and sometimes performer), especially since Universal's catalog reservoir of his starring horror/suspense films has been exhausted on DVD.

2.) Guest stars (though there are scores of great character actors featured, who fans and buffs will know, I'll just stick to the actors who modern audiences may recognize):

Leslie Neilsen, Rip Torn, Richard Chamberlain, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore (twice), Warren Oates (twice), Werner Klemperer, William Shatner (twice), Russell Johnson, Donna Douglas, Richard Kiel, Robert Vaughn, Marlo Thomas, Marion Ross, Henry Silva, Natalie Schafer, Elizabeth Montgomery, Tom Posten, John Carradine (twice), Bruce Dern, Ursula Andress, David Janssen, Dick York, Luciana Paluzzi and George Kennedy

4.) Behind-the-scenes talent:

Many teleplays by Robert Bloch (so Universal can reference PSYCHO in the packaging), three episodes based on Cornell Woolrich (REAR WINDOW) stories, plus scripts by genre giants Richard Mathesan (TWILIGHT ZONE, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN), Charles Beaumont (TWILIGHT ZONE), August Derleth and Barre Lyndon (THE LODGER, HANGOVER SQUARE, WAR OF THE WORLDS); "Pigeons from Hell" is based on a Robert E. Howard story (so CONAN can be referenced); the regular stable of directors includes Herschel Daugherty, Douglas Heyes and John Brahm --who helmed many of the best/creepiest TWILIGHT ZONE episodes-- as well as ONE STEP BEYOND's John Newland, and star-turned-director Ida Lupino; camerawork by John F. Warren (PSYCHO), Benjamin Kline (DETOUR) and Lionel Lindon (THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE); music for several episodes by Jerry Goldsmith (POLTERGEIST, ALIEN, THE OMEN, PLANET OF THE APES, THE MUMMY ('99))

3.) It's mainly a horror show --though the first third of Season 1 is primarily crime/suspense tales, before a change of strategy by the producers-- and horror (typically) sells, especially when Universal can brand it "Universal Horror".

4.) All the episodes are in good shape, the restoration work and modern film-to-tape transfers already have been made, as evidenced by broadcasts on The Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. and Scream Channel in Canada within the last decade, plus the episodes that Universal released on VHS and LD in the 1990s

5.) Universal has its own television and online platforms to promote it: Chiller Channel, Sci-Fi Channel, Sleuth Channel, USA Network and Hulu.com, --and they could cross-promote it with a quick trailer ("Karloff! Horror! Suspense! Guest Stars!") on concurrent Universal horror and TV series DVDs.

6.) No outstanding music rights issues that need to be cleared (or worked around).

7.) It only ran two seasons, so the commitment isn't much, especially as Universal hasn't embraced the "split-season" trend. Like THE MUNSTERS, it's two sets, and they're done.

So, if properly marketed, this seems like a no-brainer to me, particularly in the pre-Halloween marketing window of August-October.

[Gary16]

I have the laserdisc set of "Thriller" that Universal put out. Of course it doesn't contain anywhere near the entire number of episodes but it's one reason why I've kept my laserdisc collection intact. It would be great if they would release them all on DVD.

[Hollywoodaholic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffT.

[center][IMG]Universal may not want to flood the market with this sort of dramatic anthology cum dark suspense shocker entertainment. Jeff T.

Or maybe the weak sales of the far superior and higher profile Alfred Hitchcock Presents series have discouraged them. Does anyone know how those sets sold?

This also may be the perfect case of absence makes the memory grow fonder. I remember when this show originally aired in the 10 p.m. hour and the rare instances I could stay up to watch it and how special it was to actually see an episode and how much I was a junkie for everything horror, Boris Karloff, Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Serling, and Joseph Stefano (The Outer Limits).

But I also have copies of the Canadian run of this show when it aired and screened them recently for the first time in 40-some years and the only thing shocking about Thriller now is how bad it is compared to those other excellent anthologies of the same era. We're talking not even B actors, C scripts, or D production values. I think they spent all their money on Karloff and had nothing left for the show.

Oh, there are a few gems in there; a few great creep shows. But the majority are poorly acted, hackly written, and cheesily-produced. I was really appalled. How could my memory be so clouded through the mists of nostalgia?

Maybe this is the ugly secret of Universal's reticence - the show just wasn't that good and poorly serves Karloff's memory (although he's the best thing about it, of course). But more likely, it's purely based on sales expectations. I mean, come on, where's The Virginian? Name of the Game? Shows that had longer, more successful runs?

I'm sorry for this seeming blasphemy, but I was every bit the Thriller fanatic, too. That's why I was so disappointed.

As Frankenstein said (and Karloff himself might add about this show) ... "We belong dead."

[Joe Karlosi]

I'd purchase this show in a heartbeat.

I've always wondered, though... "As sure as my name is Boris Karloff, this is a THRILLER!" -- but his real name wasn't Boris Karloff!

[Joe Lugoff]

You mean, he never had it legally changed? They made his checks out to Bill Pratt? I know that's possible ... Judy Garland was still legally "Frances Gumm" well into the 1950s, for instance.