Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

About a year and a half ago, Mill Creek Entertainment released the one and only season of the old ITC series "The Buccaneers." Now, they are releasing the first season (all 39 episodes) of one of the very first British exports to the US and Canada, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Richard Greene. The street date is March 18 and the suggested retail price is $14.98, meaning that some online retailers will have this under $10. Audio/visual quality for "The Buccaneers" was quite good; hopefully, this release will be its equal. Details here:

Mill Creek Details Page

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

Bob Gu, while I never saw the original run (1955-58), I had great memories of this show when it was broadcast on Saturdays during the early 1960s. When I first bought a DVD player, one of the first DVDs that I bought was a classic TV collection from Madacy (ugh!) that included a single episode of "Robin Hood" and I've been collecting U.S. issues of the series since then (mostly from Alpha Video, which has released 60 of 143 episodes). While most of the episodes from season 1 have been released in one form or another on U.S. DVDs, there are a handful of episodes that have not yet been released and so I'll pick this set up for that reason. I'm really hopeful that the source material used for this set will be up to the level of the material that Mill Creek used for "The Buccaneers," which I found to be surprisingly good for a so-called budget release. The only negative on that set was the brief appearance of the Mill Creek logo a couple of times during each episode. I wonder whether or not Mill Creek has some sort of U.S. licensing deal with Network. Perhaps this will pave the way for the full release of the series here and I really would like to see the abbreviated fourth season which was not broadcast in the U.S. during the late 1950s run, but showed up in the syndication package during the 1960s. I only have two episodes from that season in my collection.

Incidentally, you might be interested in a British web site dedicated to the series:

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

If it wasn't for the success of "The Adventures of Robin Hood," one of the very first, if not the first British series to come to North America, we might not have had the chance to see 1960s classics like "The Avengers," "The Saint," and "Secret Agent," among others. "Robin Hood" proved that British imports could do well on American and Canadian television.

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

Bob Gu, while I'm unsure as to whether there was a gap between season 3 and 4, my understanding is that season 4 did play in the UK in primetime, but the fourth season did not play in primetime in the U.S. (not sure about Canada); however, season 4 did show up in syndication in the early 1960s. The original run was 1955-58 on CBS; I believe the U.S. premiere date was one day after the U.K. premiere date (and, again, I'm not sure about Canada). With respect to the two actresses who played "Maid Marian," Bernadette O'Farrell was cast for the first two seasons, while Patricia Driscoll was Marian for seasons 3 and 4. The other major change was the character of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Alan Wheatley was the sheriff for the first three seasons while John Arnatt took over as the deputy sheriff for the fourth season (though he may have appeared in an episode or two in season 3). So, if you don't see Alan Wheatley as the sheriff, but John Arnatt as the deputy sheriff, then you're most likely looking at a season 4 episode.

As I'm sure you're probably well aware, seasons 1-3 each had 39 episodes while season 4 was 26 episodes for a series run of 143 episodes (which makes for a healthy syndication package). Of the principal cast members, only Patricia Driscoll survives. The production company for "Robin Hood," Sapphire Films also produced many of the other costume adventure series of the late 1950s including "The Buccaneers," "The Adventures of Sir Lancelot," and "The Adventures of William Tell," among a few others. As previously mentioned, "The Buccaneers" is available from Mill Creek, while "Lancelot" has some episodes available from some public domain labels like Alpha and Critics Choice (and is available in its entirety on R2 discs from Network). The second half of "Lancelot's" single season was filmed in color and was the first British produced series to do so. I've yet to see "William Tell" show up on these shores on a commercially released DVD though, again, Network had released it in the UK. These were all childhood favorites of mine during the early 1960s and I continue to enjoy whatever episodes I can lay my hands on from these series.

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

Tory, though I can't be certain, but based on Mill Creek releases like "The Buccaneers" and "One Step Beyond," they're likely to be on single-sided (dual layered) DVDs in a plastic case. Mill Creek usually reserves the cardboard envelopes and cases for the 12 disc (and up) sets like "The Essential Ozzie & Harriet Collection" and "The Best of TV Detectives," etc. For what it's worth, I reviewed "The Buccaneers" at Amazon, so if you feel so inclined, click on the link below (mine is the first review):

Amazon.com: The Buccaneers: The Complete Series: DVD: Robert Shaw,Peter Hammond,Wilfred Downing,Paul Hansard,Brian Rawlinson,Edwin Richfield,Jane Asher

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

Joan Sims is in two episodes (portraying the same character), while Sid James is in one episode; unfortunately, they're not in the same episode together. Suggest you wait for a DeepDiscount sale on this as it can be picked up very inexpensively. DD has a sale on Mill Creek titles once or twice a year (don't know exactly when), as well as the semi-annual 20% off sale in June and November. DD's current price is $8.29 shipped; with another 20% off, you can get it down to $6.63; it's very likely that "Robin Hood" will be that price or similar since both sets have the same SMRP.

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

Good grief, this set hasn't even been released yet and it can be had for $5.49 (plus shipping) . . . . .

Amazon.com: Adventures of Robin Hood - Complete First Season: Adventures of Robin Hood: Movies & TV

Re: Adventures of Robin Hood, Season 1

Based on watching the first eight episodes of disc 1, I'd have to say that Mill Creek's "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is a notch (or even several notches) below the audio visual quality found on Mill Creek's "The Buccaneers." Whereas "The Buccaneers" had a very nice, consistent look throughout all of the episodes, this release of "Robin Hood" seems to be a hodgepodge collection of whatever prints Mill Creek could lay its hands on. Many of the episodes are of typical public domain quality while a few look very good (the episode titled "The Challenge" comes to mind). And some of the episodes suffer the same problem as do releases from other companies like Alpha, they have the wrong end credits tacked on. That said, Mill Creek has definitely assembled an interesting collection of episodes; some of the episodes have the American titles complete with sponsor titles for products like Wildroot Creme-Oil hair tonic and Band-aids. Other episodes have the American syndicated title for the series "The Adventures in Sherwood Forest." Some of the American closings include a tag indicating "this film has been flown to the U.S. by Pan American Airways" and I even noticed a CBS eye logo at the end of one of the early episodes. I applaud the fact that Mill Creek was able to assemble all 39 episodes in a single package (the first commercially available U.S. release of the series to do so) but, while watchable, this collection simply isn't up to Mill Creek's better looking set of "The Buccaneers." Network's UK set of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" remains the definitive set for this series.

And, oh yes, I'll confirm Brian Hassel's comments above that there are no Mill Creek logos on the episodes. You can also find this 3-DVD set at Walmart for just $5.00 in their infamous bins.