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I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

post #1 of 47
8/10/03 at 2:09pm
Thread Starter 
C'mon, there were only 14 half hour episodes.

I loved these when I was a kid.

Anyone else remember them?
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post #2 of 47
8/10/03 at 5:06pm
Is this the series where the astronauts go back in time to caveman days where the cavewoman is played by Imogene Coco?
Being born in 1959 I barely BARELY remember. I must have been entertained though.
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post #3 of 47
8/10/03 at 6:34pm
The show was done live and some Kinescopes are floating around in the hands of collectors now. As I hear, there were also video masters made as well. David Suskind, the producer of the show, had a son who turned all the existing material over to the Museum of Television and Radio. From what I've heard, it's been extremely difficult between them, CBS and the Roal Dahl estate to get them released.
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post #4 of 47
8/10/03 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
Here's a good web site about it that I found:

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue08/features/wayout/
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post #5 of 47
8/11/03 at 1:07am
Phil Dally wrote (post #2):
Quote:
Is this the series where the astronauts go back in time to caveman days where the cavewoman is played by Imogene Coco?

No, that was the kitschy, short-lived, and, I must say, hardly lamented It's about Time (1966-'67).

Please see the (duplicate) threads (but with different respondents) "Way Out" from CBS/Paramount (December 2001) and "Way Out" from CBS/Paramount (November 2001). There I summarize the program and its brief history.

Jack Theakston wrote (post #3):
Quote:
The show was done live and some Kinescopes are floating around in the hands of collectors now. As I hear, there were also video masters made as well. David Suskind, the producer of the show, had a son who turned all the existing material over to the Museum of Television and Radio. From what I've heard, it's been extremely difficult between them, CBS and the Roald Dahl estate to get them released.

I have never gotten an answer from either CBS Home Video (pre-merger) or Paramount Home Video (including Mr. Martin Blythe) about any knowledge of or interest in this program. The MTR told me several years ago that the rights to the show are owned and controlled by Andrew Susskind through his company "Pamadisam" (spelling???) (run from his home in Los Angeles???). I wrote "Pamadisam" about the programming several years back, but have never received a reply whatsoever.


Randy_M wrote (post #4):
Quote:
Here's a good web site about it that I found: . . . .

I have listed the seven Web sites (some of them duplicates, content-wise) I know of, including yours, at the tvshowsondvd.com Website links page for Way Out. That includes the long version of the article from FilmFAX, "'Way Out': Inside the Dahl House of Horror" and a link to some screenshots of Dick Smith's make-up for the show.

That's all I know, folks. We might try asking Martin Blythe whether Paramount/CBS Home Video would have any interest in reäcquiring video and cable rights to the show, but I doubt they would be interested. What would it cost to restore neglected tapes from that era---assuming the material is even restorable---and what, if any, would be the prospects of return on investment in such an enterprise? Not good, I think.

In any event, I have received no response to any of my various earlier inquiries to any of the parties concerned, and I believe the prospects you will aren't good, either.

Don't hold your breath.
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post #6 of 47
8/11/03 at 4:57am
Thanks, Randy, for bringing back lots of creepy memories with that website. And the creepiest thing is: I was only six years old when I saw and enjoyed these episodes. What a weird little kid I must have been!

--Bill
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post #7 of 47
8/11/03 at 6:00am
Thread Starter 
Bill,

I was 11 in '61, so it was prime time for me...

Maybe Paramount will revisit these shows after they use up their cash cows. Although, I really can't complain about this studio. They have gotten a large portion of my income recently...

Randy
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post #8 of 47
8/11/03 at 12:19pm
I remember this show, it really creeped me out as a kid. There was this one episode where during a storm an old lady got a call from her husband...thing is...he'd been dead for some time. She kept getting calls from him night after night. One day she went out to his grave and a phone line had broken and landed on it. Back then it was really creepy.I'd like to see those episodes again too.
Raine
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post #9 of 47
8/11/03 at 12:27pm
Raine,

That was a Twilight Zone episode.
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post #10 of 47
8/11/03 at 12:40pm
Raine Linton wrote (post #8):
Quote:
There was this one episode where during a storm an old lady got a call from her husband. . .

todd s wrote (post #9):
Quote:
That was a Twilight Zone episode.

"Night Call" (episode #139)
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post #11 of 47
8/11/03 at 12:44pm
I never saw this series, but, I would buy it. I purchased The Veil, which wasn't even aired and I loved that series.
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post #12 of 47
8/12/03 at 12:59am
OOPS! sorry, my bad...but I do remember the series, along with One Step Beyond, and the Twilight Zone.
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post #13 of 47
8/12/03 at 3:09am
Boris Karloff's "THRILLER" would be nice on disc.

(The one featuring Tom Poston & the fetching Elizabeth Montgomery is a fun tongue-in-cheek haunted-house tale.)
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post #14 of 47
6/14/09 at 5:32pm

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

Way Out scared the crap out of me as a kid. I Googled and I see there are 5episodes available on DVD. Looks like they are bootlegged and burned at home. I will probably take a stab and them. I recently bought the entire Thriller series that way and they were all burnt on plain DVDs. But so far they have played well and they are complete. I also bought season one of Hitchock Presents on Half.com. Those were licensed commericially created DVDs.

It is amazing how well the stories carry over the years. Sure they are black and white and the clothing and everything else is dated but the suspense holds your attention and it transcends the years and still scares the crap out of me.
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post #15 of 47
6/14/09 at 7:11pm

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

I remember the episode where a guy creates a way of making himself look younger using some sort of photo retouching device. I think one of the images on the Dick Smith link is from that episode. His wife finds out and pours some of the solution across his picture and when he turns to the camera part of his face is blanked out. That image stayed with me for decades. THRILLER used to run late at night on a local channel in the 60's and it too had its share of nightmare images. Funny how something like that has stayed with me for over forty five years.
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post #16 of 47
6/14/09 at 7:47pm

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

^^^

Much of the visual imagery from The Outer Limits (1963-65 series) has stayed with me for nearly forty-five years as well.

I don't recall Way Out, except to say that when I searched some of the links Rex and others provided, I saw some images that were not unfamiliar to me -- almost as if they had been buried in the recesses of my mind from when I was a child.
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post #17 of 47
6/14/09 at 9:23pm

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

The weird thing is those 5 episodes have been making the rounds for 20 years and in that time none of the other episodes have surfaced. They are out there and you can watch them at the Museum of Television, but you would think copies would have started turning up by now. I think only kinescopes exist, so they couldn't really do much more then release them. There wouldn't be any need to "remaster" them since it would not improve the picture quality.
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post #18 of 47
6/15/09 at 11:10am

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

I'd disagree with that. Doing new transfers on a Telecine over someone's 20-year-old film chain transfer would do a world of good.

However, a number of people I've talked to are under the impression that the videotape on these shows still exist, and fooling around with Kinescopes would not be necessary.
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post #19 of 47
6/15/09 at 9:53pm

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

I was wondering has anybody seen an episode from the museum? Are they kinescope or film?
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post #20 of 47
6/16/09 at 12:26am

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Theakston
I'd disagree with that. Doing new transfers on a Telecine over someone's 20-year-old film chain transfer would do a world of good.

However, a number of people I've talked to are under the impression that the videotape on these shows still exist, and fooling around with Kinescopes would not be necessary.


If they exist on videotape then it will make it much easier.
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post #21 of 47
6/16/09 at 11:43am

Re: I would love to see "Way Out" (1961 TV series) on DVD

Actually though, this thread should be in the "SD-DVD TV Shows & TV Movies" sub-forum. Hopefully a Moderator will move it.
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post #22 of 47
8/17/09 at 6:05am
Oh Gosh no. The series you ware referreng to is called "It's About Time" (a Gilligan's Island style sitcom).

Way Out was a very VERY creepy anthology series. more in the vain of Thriller, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents & the like but perhaps more macabre. There was really nothing quite like it.
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post #23 of 47
8/17/09 at 6:10am
That was "Night Call" from Twilight Zone's 5th season.
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post #24 of 47
8/17/09 at 6:15am
OK. There are 5 episodes that have floated around the past several (or more) years:

William and Mary
I Heard You Calling Me
The Croaker
Dissolve to Black
Death Wish


Although there's no way to verify, I have heard through internet sites that within CBS there resides 3 more episodes:

False Face
Soft Focus
Side Show


It would seem then that the two Paley centers house the only "known" copies of the following episodes:

The Down Car
The Sisters
Button Button
The Overnight Case
Hush Hush
20/20

This raises a question. If a studio (say CBS or Paramount) decided to officially release the entire series on DVD, would they have to go crawling to The Paley Media Center and could The Media Center block the release and continue to hold the monopoly of part of the series? And would they?

Of course, there may be other sources which we don't know about.

I asked Paley media center (via E-mail) if there was (or would be) any way to view episodes on line even for a fee. They didn't answer my e-mail. Even a devoted fan is unlikely to make a special trip part way across the US to LA or NY for the purpose of seeing the episodes. So, for right now at least, most of us are stuck.

But several years ago the CBS anthology "Suspense" was thought to be a lost series. 90 episodes (actually 88 of the original run) turned up and that entire output was released on three separate volumes so, there is always hope.

[Edited by moderator to remove graphics and links to another forum. If you're going to copy your messages, please copy just the text. Thank you.]
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post #25 of 47
8/17/09 at 6:58am

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qui-Gon John View Post

Actually though, this thread should be in the "SD-DVD TV Shows & TV Movies" sub-forum. Hopefully a Moderator will move it.

The thread was started in 2003, before the TV-on-DVD subforum was created. Apparently it was overlooked in the original thread migration.

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post #26 of 47
9/18/09 at 6:38pm
I remember this! It scared the pee out of me for years-- I was only nine. Didn't it have a hand coming up out of the sand as part of its intro?  And theme music which I've blocked out. In fact it scared me so much that I even got conditioned to shudder at the theme song for "Route 66", which came immediately before or immediately after it. Anybody else out there with "Way Out" PTSD? :-D
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post #27 of 47
10/5/09 at 8:03am

I was a vocal part of the previous WAY OUT (CBS 1961) discussion thread and I am more than willing to lend my support (for whatever it is worth) to this one.

It must be remembered (or at least understood) that the more "esoteric" classic tv series DVD releases like THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE INVADERS, ONE STEP BEYOND and even the Irwin Allen 1960s SF tv series all consistently had someone of prominence (or influence) either fronting for or actually spearheading these ambitious undertakings. 

 

With THE INVADERS it was CBS Home Entertainment executive Paul Brownstein.  With the recent ONE STEP BEYOND DVD release it is John Kenneth Muir.  With the Irwin Allen 1960s SF tv series it was Kevin Burns.  Without these people there would be nothing.

If there is ever to be a DVD release of WAY OUT then (likely) it will have to come from a similar advocate of identical stature.  Hopefully there is someone out there who is a champion of the actual series, or Roald Dahl, or even David Suskind.

I wish they would come forward...and soon!

Jeff T.

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post #28 of 47
10/15/09 at 11:01pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by chas speed View Post

I was wondering has anybody seen an episode from the museum? Are they kinescope or film?

     The museum has kinescopes. I have found no evidence that the 2-inch tapes still exist.
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post #29 of 47
10/16/09 at 3:34pm
Way out was never "filmed". It was "taped' the same way that 6 season two Twilight Zones were taped (Static, Lateness of the Hour, Night of the Meek, The Whole Truth, Twenty Two & Long Distance Call).

The original Way Out tapes were donated to the Museum of broadcasting (Now Paley Media Center) by David Susskind. That means their videos should look pretty clean, but they are tape and wont be quite as crisp as film. More like the soaps of the 50's and 60's might look. I have never seen them, but based on what I know, this would be the case.

I understand CBS may also have 3 episodes, but I'm not positive on that. As I said before, I have to wonder that even if anyone influential DOES want to release Way Out, how much trouble would they have prying the tapes from Paley Media Center. I get the impression that once they have a copy of something, it is locked within their walls and only those visiting the center will ever see them. I hope my impression is wrong. I tried to make some inquiries with them but they never responded.
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post #30 of 47
10/16/09 at 6:35pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by thegalaxybeing View Post

Way out was never "filmed". It was "taped' the same way that 6 season two Twilight Zones were taped (Static, Lateness of the Hour, Night of the Meek, The Whole Truth, Twenty Two & Long Distance Call).

The original Way Out tapes were donated to the Museum of broadcasting (Now Paley Media Center) by David Susskind. That means their videos should look pretty clean, but they are tape and wont be quite as crisp as film. More like the soaps of the 50's and 60's might look. I have never seen them, but based on what I know, this would be the case.

I understand CBS may also have 3 episodes, but I'm not positive on that. As I said before, I have to wonder that even if anyone influential DOES want to release Way Out, how much trouble would they have prying the tapes from Paley Media Center. I get the impression that once they have a copy of something, it is locked within their walls and only those visiting the center will ever see them. I hope my impression is wrong. I tried to make some inquiries with them but they never responded.


    There are no original master tapes existing anywhere. CBS has kinescopes of the 14 episodes. A fan named Gary Joseph paid thousands of dollars to "sponsor" the show for the Paley Center, to get transfers made of the kinescopes. Thanks to him, the Paley Center is the only place in the world where the complete run of the show can be viewed by the public. The original 2-inch tapes do not still exist. Tape transfers of the episodes from the kinescopes reside at the Paley Center while CBS retains the kinescopes. Susskind's archival prints, also kinescopes, of Way Out as well as much of his other television work, was donated to the University of Wisconsin.

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