Timeless Media Group - New Releases - Page 5

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Has anyone here received their copy of "Brenner?" I ordered it earlier this week as part of the DD sale and the indication was that it would be shipped directly from the manufacturer. A check on a few other sites (DVD Pacific, Amazon) indicates that it's on backorder. I'm looking forward to this, but it looks like Timeless has missed yet another street date for a DVD release (it's also not yet showing at their web site).

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Don't know this show so was waiting for your review Bob !

I see Laredo S2 V1 has also slipped back to Sept. I was really hoping to see S2 V2 also this year.

Timeless have also been mentioned as putting out 'M Squad,' 'The Deputy,' 'Laramie,' 'The Texan' & more 'Restless Gun'. Anyone have any info ?

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Chris, there are a couple of pre-release reviews at Amazon for "Brenner," but of course these folks haven't yet seen the release so there's no reference as to what the audio visual quality might be.

Amazon.com: Brenner: Brenner: Movies & TV

Haven't heard anything else on the other shows; I'm guessing that it's taking time to put together the 16 mm prints from the collector's market. I remember Timeless asking about prints for "The Deputy" some time ago (maybe a year or more), so I guess that they're having a difficult time coming up with enough to justify a DVD release, at least at this point in time. Timeless will be releasing "The Adventures of Sir Lancelot" and "William Tell" in August. Since I don't have the UK Network versions of either of these shows, I'll be picking up both of these releases (though I already have about 10-11 eps. of "Lancelot" in my collection from some PD releases).

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

My Brenner just arrived this afternoon from Amazon....

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

I'll be interested in your thoughts once you have had a chance to view a few eps.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Your wish is Timeless' command . . . . . well one out of five isn't bad . . . . . for now. M-Squad is coming on September 23rd. See the separate thread for discussion.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Amazon lists Brenner as now being in stock.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Me too. I think I'll wait for reviews before purchasing.

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.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Charles, thanks for your thoughts; looking forward to receiving my copy in the near future.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Received an e-mail from Timeless today confirming that Laredo Season 2 Part
1 has been pushed back to September 30, 2008. They also indicated that a 3 DVD set containing 12 episodes of The Deputy will be released on October 14, 2008.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

The 12 episodes in The Deputy release are as follows:

We are coming out with a 3DVD set of The Deputy October 14, 2008, the episodes are as follows:



DISC ONE

Proof of Guilt
Man of Peace
Hidden Motive
The Truly Yours


DISC TWO

The Last Gunfight
Palace of Chance
Brand of Honesty
The Stand-off


DISC THREE

The Fatal Urge
The Higher Law
The Three Brothers
The Dream

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

My contact at Timeless sent me the same info earlier today. Great news!

Gary "this company continues to impress me" O.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Great news, Doug. I know that Timeless has been working on this for a while and now it's coming to fruition. I'm sort of surprised that they didn't include the two public domain episodes from the series, "Hard Decision" and "The Return of Widow Brown." Those two episodes have been available on a variety of TV Westerns collections from different releasing companies and Timeless could have bumped the number of episodes included on this set a bit.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Some interesting news on the TV Westerns front from Timeless Media. This information was gleaned from Video Business' online site (scroll
down): HOME MEDIA EXPO: On parade at The Palms - 6/23/2008 - Video Business

Here's the sum total of the information, for those who choose not to
visit the link:

Timeless

"After its debut on NBC in 1957 and its subsequent three-year run,
The Very Best of M-Squad (street Sept. 16, prebook now; 14-disc set
$99.98) starring Lee Marvin was one of the better crime dramas of its
time. Five Classic TV Westerns from the '50s and '60s—Wagon Train,
Tales of Wells Fargo, Laramie, Laredo and The Deputy—will each be
available as complete series sets on DVD, beginning in the third
quarter of 2008, followed by individual season releases."

Though it's great news that some of the classic TV Westerns are being
released, I'd take the above information with a grain of salt (at
least as it pertains to the complete series releases). Timeless has
previously indicated that "The Deputy" was being released as a "Best
of" compilation (see Kruzer31's post above) and I'd truly be shocked if they released the
complete "Wagon Train" series in a single collection (hopefully, I
will be proven wrong; Timeless' crime series "M-Squad" release will
contain at least 100 of 117 episodes). All of the titles mentioned
had been rumored for some time so it's at least great to see some
public confirmation that these will be brought to DVD at some point
in the near future. I would also mention that Timeless has been
known to miss announced release dates for their DVD releases with
some regularity so I wouldn't necessarily hold them to the stated
third quarter time period (again, I hope to be proven wrong).
Strange that there was no mention made of "The Texan" though, as that
was reported by TVShowsonDVD.com.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Thanks for the information Bob, I agree that that if they release the entire Wagon Train series it would be over a number of years. Heck, I just want my complete second season of Laredo to be released at this point. Although, I am looking forward to The Deputy, Laramie and The Texan.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Doug, IMDB.com says 284 episodes for "Wagon Train" and some of those episodes were of the 90 minute variety. Assuming an average of 4 one-hour episodes per DVD, that would take 71 single-sided discs. I suppose that it's possible that Timeless could release such a set, but it just seems unlikely to me; the cost of such a set would probably rule it out for all but a few collectors with deep pockets.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Well this all sounds like good news. I am a little sceptical about 'season sets' of Laramie, Wells Fargo though.

As I understand it Timeless are sourcing much of their product from collector circles & for these two series, although there are some reasonable prints out there, full runs in good quality are hard to come by.

It may be that 'Wells Fargo' will be the colour episodes only which can be obtained.

I suspect they will be 'best of' rather than complete runs but hope I'm wrong.

Nevertheless, Timeless are one of the few companies prepared to take a chance on the old shows & as such I am happy to support them by purchasing the product.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Chris, it appears that Timeless is doing their best to assemble these series as much as they possibly can (see TVShowsonDVD's news articles on "M Squad" and "the Texan") so I applaud them for doing that. If that means that we "only" get 100 of 117 episodes of "M Squad," so be it. I think that most vintage TV-on-DVD collectors are delighted that shows like "M Squad" and the various Westerns are even getting any kind of release at all and I'm also happy to support their efforts (at least as much as my budget will allow).

I finally received my "Brenner" set yesterday and have only watched the first episode, so I can't draw any conclusions other than this is, for a half hour show, more character driven than what I would have expected (I expected the show to be much more of a police procedural than it is). Visual quality was better than average for a Timeless release, but we'll see if that holds true as I watch the other episodes. The only thing that didn't ring true for me was the casting of James Broderick as Edward Binns' son. Broderick is a good actor, but he looks too old to be Binns' son and, in fact, was only about 11 years younger than Binns according to IMDB.com.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

While I'd love to see this news report come to fruition, especially the part about Timeless offering Complete Sets right off the bat, I have to agree with Bob that at least as it concerns "WAGON TRAIN" it's hard for me to believe it will be offered in one giant mega-set. That show ran way too long and would comprise too many discs for me to believe Timeless is really going to offer it right off the bat in a complete set format. Just no way that's happening.

But the news, overall, is fantastic! I'll be picking all these series up to one degree or another.

Gary "can you imagine how gigantic a complete 'WAGON TRAIN' set would be?" O.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

It might take a wagon to cart the whole shebang off! The real news here (at least for me) is that we will see these older TV Westerns released on DVD. While I'd certainly like to see full series runs (for the hardcore fans of each show), that just may not be possible. To say the least, I'm impressed that Timeless was able to assemble most of "M Squad" on its own and there is the very real possibility that they'll release it complete. Gotta give 'em an "A" for effort.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Whoa daddy-o, dig that funky beatnik theme-music on "Brenner." Pretty nifty series, actually. Print quality is reasonably decent so far (with the stark exception of the episode entitled "False Witness," which is rather badly washed-out). The series reminds me a bit of the half-hour "Naked City" episodes. Certainly a cut above your average late-50s crime series, which perhaps shouldn't be a surprise, owing to its Brodkin pedigree.

I always found the broadcast history of this series rather fascinating... produced and aired as a 1959 summer series, but then rerun in the summer of 1961, and then AGAIN in the summer of 1962, and amazingly, back AGAIN in the summer of 1964 with ten all-new episodes produced, a full five years after the initial batch. A very odd run, to put it mildly. Popular enough for all those encores, yet somehow not enough to get a spot in the normal seasonal CBS line-up. I briefly scanned the last dvd in the set to see if it might include any of those later 1964 episodes, but I don't think so. Not 100% sure, though.

Anyway, "Brenner" does seem to be a nice little short-run gem. I'm going to try my best to not to zip through the set too quickly, so I can savor these. If I've learned one thing from tv-fare of that era, a short (unsuccessful) run is hardly indicative of poor quality. From "The Westerner" to "Way Out" to "The Reporter" and beyond, there's a lot of high-grade material, which often outshines some of the familiar warhorses that shared the era.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Bert, I had to laugh when I read your opening line . . . . yes, the end theme on Brenner does sound like something you might hear in a coffee house during the late 1950s/early 1960s . . . . possibly the most minimalistic television series theme I've ever heard with a lone saxophone and timpani drums. It is interesting to note that some of the episodes have no musical underscore whatsoever (other than the closing theme) while other episodes do have a score. And the opening title sequence is just that . . . . just a quick flash of the show's name and then right into the episode.

This was a blind buy for me (I had never even heard of the show), but it's turned out to be a very good, underrated series with a surprising amount of character development, given the half hour running time. And, yes it sort of plays a little like "Naked City" with James Broderick's "Ernie Brenner" character somewhat along the lines Paul Burke's "Adam Flint" character (haven't seen the half hour version of "Naked City" so I can't compare). And, like "Naked City," the New York City location filming adds quite a bit to the look of the show. Transfer quality is good, one of Timeless' better releases.

Don't know if Timeless has access to the remaining episodes, but I'd buy them if offered. The NYPD has an interesting page of police shows either filmed on location in New York or based on the NYPD; interesting that "Decoy" was the first police show filmed there though I can think of at least one private detective series (Ralph Bellamy's "Man Against Crime" a/k/a "Follow That Man) that was filmed earlier, in and around NYC. Link:

POLICE NY NYPD on TV

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

I'll be buying the Laramie, The Deputy, and probably Laredo full series offerings if they really do come out. Never really got into Wagon Train much.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Stephen Bowie's article on the "Brenner" series at the Classic TV History Blog is a must read for fans of the show or those who might be contemplating purchase of the 15 episode set recently issued by Timeless Media.

Corrections Department #3: Notes on Brenner « The Classic TV History Blog

Several interesting points in Stephen's article . . . . .

1. Copyrights on all episodes are 1959 indicating that the entire series was filmed in 1959 (or prior), and not 10 episodes produced in 1964 as has been previously reported in various articles about the show.

2. The episode "Charlie Paradise" was a pilot episode for a series that wasn't picked up. Edward Binns appears in the episode, James Broderick does not. I watched this episode last evening and it has a longer running time of 30+ minutes.

3. Unless other episodes surface, this will likely be the only release of the series from Timeless.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Is it known whether "Charlie Paradise" actually aired? If not, that would explain the longer runtime.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

IMDB.com indicates that "Charlie Paradise" was aired on July 19, 1964. However, TV.com says the episode "Crisis" was aired on that date and they show no air date for "Charlie Paradise." TVRage.com mirrors the IMDB.com air date listing. So take your choice! Seriously, if I had to take an educated guess, I'd say that the episode probably aired since it has the "Brenner" title card and Ed Binns does appear in this episode, though it's a "Brenner" episode in name only. However, "Brenner" was a proven summer replacement series, having the episodes brought back for several summer season runs and I doubt that CBS would not have run this episode, considering that they had a financial stake in the show. I'm of the opinion that what we are seeing on the DVD set is the original "long form" pilot episode, and that what actually aired was likely edited down in the neighborhood of three to four minutes to include the commercial breaks, etc. But, yes, I don't think "Charlie Paradise" would have aired in the 30+ minute version that's included on the DVD.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Glad to have things cleared up regarding the apparent non-existence of 'new' 1964 episodes of "Brenner." I noticed the "Charlie Paradise" pilot had a copyright 1960 date in the credits, unlike the other (1959) "Brenner" episodes. I found it diverting, but less satisfying than its parent series. Probably just as well that it didn't make the cut, as the eccentricities of the beatnik/coffeehouse backdrop would have likely worn thin rather quickly. Plus, it was trapsing on territory that "Johnny Staccato" had pretty much covered, with perhaps a dash of "Mr. Lucky" and the subsequent "Dante."

Anyway, Stephen (in his terrific blog) brings up some interesting points. I was indeed a bit surprised to discover the elder Brenner primarily involved in the 'internal affairs' department, which generally isn't an area of police work that is historically celebrated all that much. Perhaps because it causes bristling on both sides of the ideological fence, via either the unseemly snooping or the constraining of authority. But, I guess it follows the quirky pattern for Herbert Brodkin and Arthur Lewis. They had a tendency anyway to play with cliched notions of good guy / bad guy characters, and clearly state as much in a TV Guide interview from 1962 that I have around here somewhere. I like the unpredictability this entails, along with the character-driven scripts. I'd very much like to see some "Defenders" episodes for this reason, although I fear I might ultimately find the Brodkin approach to the justice system more than a little unpalatable, given those aforementioned contrarian inclinations. His other concurrent series, "The Nurses," might ultimately be more to my liking. I have seen two episodes of it, and they were both excellent.

Really enjoying "Brenner." Only six more episodes left to view, though. Darnit. Really appreciate Timeless' efforts on this one.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

Bert, just finished my set last evening. The final episode in the set is a good one "I, Executioner." Unfortunately, Stephen mentions in his blog that unless another source can be found for the missing 11 episodes, this is it for "Brenner." It's really too bad that this series didn't make it pass the 26 episodes produced; there could have been all sorts of possibilities for Ernie Brenner's growth as a police officer.

Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases

I posted this in the thread for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" . . . . .

Amazon.com: The Adventures of Robin Hood: Adventures of Robin Hood: Movies & TV

I suspect that this might be simply a repackaging of Timeless' previous release of the first 30 episodes of season 1. This new artwork is similar to the upcoming artwork that Timeless is using for its "Sir Lancelot" and "William Tell" releases, which are also scheduled for an August 19th release.

Timeless Media's current set: The Adventures of Robin Hood