Re: Timeless Media Group - New Releases
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Originally Posted by Bob Gu
I hope the press release is wrong about WILLIAM TELL only having 30 of the 39 episodes. The box art does not say "Best OF". Would Timeless really bother with a later 9 episode release?
ADVENTURES OF SIR LANCELOT looks to be something I will wait on until the November DeepDiscount 20% off sale. I want to wait and make sure it has all the color episodes. If it does not I may go for the R2 release at some point.
I have not seen LANCELOT since 1958 and don't remember anything about it, but after revisiting, on DVD, ITC's: ROBIN HOOD, WILLIAM TELL and THE BUCCANEERS, I am sure Lancelot will be up to the same fun standard.
Research tells me that ABC reran The Buccaneers and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot once a week each Monday thru Friday afternoons during the 1957-1958 season. I seem to remember IVANHOE with Roger Moore was in this mix also, but I may be wrong about that. Does anybody know what other two or three ITC shows may have also been in this run? (Or did they round out the week with westerns?)
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Bob, I'm not surprised that Timeless is only releasing 30 episodes of "William Tell" instead of the full season. They did the same thing with their release of season 1 of "The Adventures of Robin Hood," which in my opinion is the best looking of all the various releases of that series here in the U.S. They've never followed up on that release and, while I hope I'm wrong, I don't think that we'll see the other nine episodes from "William Tell" either, at least from Timeless.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
I sent Timeless an E-mail inquiring whether any of the color episodes from "The Adventures of Sir Lancelot" will be included on this new release but haven't heard anything back from them. If you like "Robin Hood" you'll most certainly enjoy "Sir Lancelot;" they're pretty much cut from the same cloth. "Sir Lancelot" played on NBC and was clobbered by "The Burns and Allen Show" on CBS and "The Danny Thomas Show" on ABC. Interestingly, "Sir Lancelot" immediately followed "Robin Hood" which played on CBS. There are some public domain episodes from the series currently available from Alpha Video, Critics Choice and a few others. The episode where Patrick McGoohan makes one of his earliest television appearances is included on both the Alpha and Critics Choice discs. Supposedly, this is where McGoohan met Ralph Smart who was directing episodes of this series and others like "Robin Hood" and "The Buccaneers," and later led to McGoohan's casting in "Danger Man."
1956-57 United States network television schedule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to Wikipedia, the Network UK release of "Sir Lancelot" included 12 color episodes which represents most, but not all of the color episodes (Wikipedia says 14 color episodes of the 30 episodes produced). Historically, this is an important British series as it was the first UK series to have multiple episodes filmed in color. If we're lucky enough to get the color episodes on the Timeless release, surely it will be no more than the UK release. Wikipedia link:
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As Chris correctly stated, "Ivanhoe" was not an ITC series. Unfortunately, it was Screen Gems and ownership resides with Sony, so probably no chance of seeing a DVD release even if it does star Roger Moore. I hold out some hope on "Sir Francis Drake" but it would most certainly have to be released by an independent like Timeless. However, I don't think that "Sir Francis Drake" could have been in the 1957-58 rerun schedule as that show was produced in the early 1960s and, I believe, was the last of the early British "swashbucklers" series. One other possibility might be "The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel" which was produced in 1955 and had a limited run of 18 episodes. Alpha Video has released half of that series on DVD; for what it's worth, I reviewed volume 1 at Amazon:
Amazon.com: The Scarlet Pimpernel, Vol. 1: Scarlet Pimpernel: Movies & TV
