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Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

post #1 of 106
9/15/08 at 4:06am
Thread Starter 
TVShowsonDVD.com has posted information about Timeless Media's upcoming release of the classic western series "Wagon Train." This is a pretty modest release containing just 12 episodes from the years that John McIntire was the wagon master; no episodes from the Ward Bond era are included. I wonder whether Timeless is testing the waters with this release to see what the level of interest might be. Regardless, this release doesn't include the three public domain episodes that have been available for some time now so, for me, these will all be "new" episodes. Details here:

Wagon Train DVD news: Announcement for Wagon Train - Going West | TVShowsOnDVD.com

This, along with "Laredo" season 2, part 1, "The Deputy," and "The Texan" gives TV Westerns fans a nice array of choices this Fall and makes Timeless one of the key DVD releasing companies for vintage TV shows.

Several online retailers have this available for pre-order, including DVDPacific at $17.96 shipped:

http://www.dvdpacific.com/item.asp?ID=1029485
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post #2 of 106
9/15/08 at 4:33am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Damn! I want the Ward Bond eps. They've lost a sale there.
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post #3 of 106
9/15/08 at 5:54am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Hug
TVShowsonDVD.com has posted information about Timeless Media's upcoming release of the classic western series "Wagon Train." This is a pretty modest release containing just 12 episodes from the years that John McIntire was the wagon master; no episodes from the Ward Bond era are included. I wonder whether Timeless is testing the waters with this release to see what the level of interest might be. Regardless, this release doesn't include the three public domain episodes that have been available for some time now so, for me, these will all be "new" episodes. Details here:

Wagon Train DVD news: Announcement for Wagon Train - Going West | TVShowsOnDVD.com

This, along with "Laredo" season 2, part 1, "The Deputy," and "The Texan" gives TV Westerns fans a nice array of choices this Fall and makes Timeless one of the key DVD releasing companies for vintage TV shows.

Several online retailers have this available for pre-order, including DVDPacific at $17.96 shipped:

DVD Pacific - Buy New DVD Movies, HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs

Timeless do seem to be emerging as a prime outlet for vintage material, particularly westerns.

Interestingly I note they have for sale various 16mm reels on EBay including the short lived "Overland Trail" with William Bendix & Doug McClure. Wonder if this is another one they are considering.
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post #4 of 106
9/15/08 at 6:54am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Here's the breakdown by season/episode #. Does Ward Bond appear throughout S4 I wonder? If so, he should appear in 3 episodes of the set. And why is there no mention of Robert Horton on the cover when he appeared in seasons 1-5?

disc 1

8 - 3
4 - 26
4 - 37
5 - 22

disc 2

4 - 27
5 - 37
6 - 24
6 - 11

disc 3

6 - 28
6 - 16
6 - 18
6 - 29
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post #5 of 106
9/15/08 at 7:04am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Hope there will one day be season sets.
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post #6 of 106
9/15/08 at 7:55am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

I have 9 Columbia House volumes of the Ward Bond-era WAGON TRAINs on VHS. I believe that WT was the first of the hour long westerns, and they have terrific guest stars e.g., Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Lou Costello, andCharles Laughton, a John Wayne cameo as General Sherman in an episode directed by John Ford that anticipates HTWWW!). I would think that the masters from those would still be available for transfer to dvd). One memorable episode featured Margaret O'Brien, Linda Darnell, Dan Duryea, and Marjorie Main.
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post #7 of 106
9/15/08 at 9:11am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by michael_ks
Here's the breakdown by season/episode #. Does Ward Bond appear throughout S4 I wonder? If so, he should appear in 3 episodes of the set. And why is there no mention of Robert Horton on the cover when he appeared in seasons 1-5?

disc 1

8 - 3
4 - 26
4 - 37
5 - 22

disc 2

4 - 27
5 - 37
6 - 24
6 - 11

disc 3

6 - 28
6 - 16
6 - 18
6 - 29

Robert Horton came to England to sing at the London Palladium & as I remember was a big success. Wagon Train was huge in England in the late 50's early 60's.
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post #8 of 106
9/15/08 at 10:12am
Thread Starter 

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by michael_ks
Here's the breakdown by season/episode #. Does Ward Bond appear throughout S4 I wonder? If so, he should appear in 3 episodes of the set. And why is there no mention of Robert Horton on the cover when he appeared in seasons 1-5?

Ward Bond died on November 5, 1960 (according to IMDB.com), so he may have been in some early season 4 episodes, but not likely the three episodes listed since they were later in that season's run. It's possible that Robert Horton may not be in the episodes included in this set (or may appear briefly). Sometimes regular characters don't appear in all of the episodes and sometimes they appear very briefly. The public domain episode titled "Alias Bill Hawks" features almost exclusively Terry Wilson and, in one of the other public domain episodes, John McIntire isn't seen at all, so it's possible that Horton doesn't appear in any of the episodes other than "The Tiburcio Mendez Story" or perhaps very briefly in a few others.
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post #9 of 106
9/15/08 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Just saw this link at the Yahoo "TV Westerns" group . . . .

Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season Coming to DVD - Elastic Pop

Yikes, another $120 set . . . all 32 of the 90 minute color episodes.

Bob
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post #10 of 106
9/15/08 at 11:24am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

I saw this on the Sam's Club shelf this past weekend along with other Timeless western releases ("Guns of Will Sonnet", "Laredo" and "Branded").
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post #11 of 106
9/15/08 at 11:55am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Hug
Just saw this link at the Yahoo "TV Westerns" group . . . .

I just posted the full, unedited press release for that right here:
Wagon Train DVD news: Press Release for Wagon Train - The Complete Color Season | TVShowsOnDVD.com

Mostly the same, but there might be a drop more info in the specs list at the bottom y'all would be interested in.
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post #12 of 106
9/15/08 at 11:57am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by J Hall
I saw this on the Sam's Club shelf this past weekend along with other Timeless western releases ("Guns of Will Sonnet", "Laredo" and "Branded").


You're the second person I've seen who says they've already found "Going West" at Sam's Club. I wonder if a few copies leaked out early to them, prior to the release date, or if this is an organized "exclusive early release" effort? Hmmm...
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post #13 of 106
9/15/08 at 12:12pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Just saw this link at the Yahoo "TV Westerns" group . . . .

Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season Coming to DVD - Elastic Pop

Yikes, another $120 set . . . all 32 of the 90 minute color episodes.

Wow--that's major! For TMG to go to the trouble of "painstakingly restoring and re-mastering" episodes of "Wagon Train" is really a bold move.

Initally I thought this was the 8th and final season of the series, but as it turns out it's the 7th, the only season to be filmed in color with a 90 min. format to compete with "The Virginian". (In the last season, the format goes back to the familiar 60 min. B/W format).

I like the fact that the set includes 16 similarly restored hand-picked episodes from the B/W years, but at the same time, it probably means that season by season releases are bound to become a dim prospect. I wish the focus had been on something like 60 of the hour long B/W episodes (roughly equivalent to 32 X 90min + 16 X 60 min) but I gather TMG was going for the appeal of color.

Very intrigued by this--problem is I'll probably have to decide between it and "M Squad".
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post #14 of 106
9/15/08 at 12:35pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Ward Bond died on November 5, 1960 (according to IMDB.com), so he may have been in some early season 4 episodes, but not likely the three episodes listed since they were later in that season's run. It's possible that Robert Horton may not be in the episodes included in this set (or may appear briefly).

Bob, I had forgotton about this excellent site that pays tribute to "Wagon Train":

Wagon Train - Ward Bond - Robert Horton

If you click on "Episode Guides" and go to Season 4, you'll see that episode #22 is the last one that featured Ward Bond.

For the upcoming TMG 48 episode set, guest stars and synopses/comments on the color S7 episodes can be found here:

Wagon Train - Episode List, Robert Horton, Robert Fuller
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post #15 of 106
9/15/08 at 1:11pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by michael_ks
Wow--that's major! For TMG to go to the trouble of "painstakingly restoring and re-mastering" episodes of "Wagon Train" is really a bold move.

Initally I thought this was the 8th and final season of the series, but as it turns out it's the 7th, the only season to be filmed in color with a 90 min. format to compete with "The Virginian". (In the last season, the format goes back to the familiar 60 min. B/W format).

I like the fact that the set includes 16 similarly restored hand-picked episodes from the B/W years, but at the same time, it probably means that season by season releases are bound to become a dim prospect. I wish the focus had been on something like 60 of the hour long B/W episodes (roughly equivalent to 32 X 90min + 16 X 60 min) but I gather TMG was going for the appeal of color.

Very intrigued by this--problem is I'll probably have to decide between it and "M Squad".

I'm not familiar enough to know what episodes may have been available for syndication runs by Universal (too bad Hank Dearborn isn't posting here anymore, he would know), but keep in mind that for the various Universal series that Timeless is licensing, they are getting their prints from the collector's market, so it may be that it's the later, John McIntire episodes that are more readily available to Timeless rather than the Ward Bond episodes. Timeless has enough of a track record with black & white shows that I think that they would have issued Ward Bond episodes if they could lay their hands on them.

What's interesting to me is that they are including interviews with both Robert Fuller and Denny "Scott" Miller on this set . . . . that's really a bit of a departure for Timeless as they normally don't include extras, though there was an extensive Larry Cohen interview on season 2 of "Branded." Also, I had the chance to meet Denny Miller at a nostalgia show a year ago and I asked him about the prospects for a DVD release of "Wagon Train." At that time he said that he had heard that there was going to be a release of "Wagon Train," but he thought it was going to be a season-by-season release of the series and that he'd be gone from the earth by the time his seasons were released. Perhaps Timeless wanted to include interviews with both Fuller and Miller, both of whom are presently in good health and attend various nostalgia shows and conventions on a regular basis, and so decided to release these later episodes now . . . . speculation on my part, but a possibility.

Denny Miller, Actor/ Author

Robert Fuller: Site map

And be sure to check out photo #8 on Denny's photos page (under the "Store" tab) . . . . sure to put a smile on the face of all fans of the "Wagon Train" series!
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post #16 of 106
9/15/08 at 1:39pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Lambert
I just posted the full, unedited press release for that right here:
Wagon Train DVD news: Press Release for Wagon Train - The Complete Color Season | TVShowsOnDVD.com

Mostly the same, but there might be a drop more info in the specs list at the bottom y'all would be interested in.

Thanks, Dave!
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post #17 of 106
9/15/08 at 2:44pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

I'm hoping one of the 16 B/W's will be the Lou Costello episode. I'd love to see that one.

Gary "thanks Bob & Michael for getting this info out to us" O.
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post #18 of 106
9/15/08 at 5:00pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

It'll be interesting what they source the color episodes from - those were syndicated many years ago, so maybe they still had acceptable transfers handy.
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post #19 of 106
9/15/08 at 7:08pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by michael_ks
Initally I thought this was the 8th and final season of the series, but as it turns out it's the 7th, the only season to be filmed in color with a 90 min. format to compete with "The Virginian". (In the last season, the format goes back to the familiar 60 min. B/W format).

That's got to be one for the trivia books. I don't think I've ever heard of a series switching to color and then going back to black & white. Or for that matter ANY TV series going from color to b&w!
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post #20 of 106
9/15/08 at 7:47pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark-P
That's got to be one for the trivia books. I don't think I've ever heard of a series switching to color and then going back to black & white. Or for that matter ANY TV series going from color to b&w!

I Believe THE JOEY BISHOP SHOW was B&W,then color,then B&W
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post #21 of 106
9/16/08 at 9:53am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Well ... I'm pretty sure any "painstaking restoring & remastering" was done by Universal, not by Timeless. I was told that Timeless was going to access Uni's tape masters on the color season of Wagon Train (which has been syndicated recently in Canada) for this release, which is what they did with Laredo. Hopefully they'll look pretty good, especially since they'll only have 2 1/2 hours of content per disc, instead of five hours, which resulted in what I thought was ruinous compression on the Laredo sets.

I had also heard that Timeless was going to take a different & more ambitious approach to the earlier Wagon Train seasons, and I'm at a loss to explain why this has changed (the vault fire could be the culprit, I guess). I'm not clear on whether the John McIntyre-era episodes will be sourced from 16mm prints or tape, but I'd guess the former.
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post #22 of 106
9/17/08 at 8:41am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

WILL THERE BE A CROSS-OVER OF EPISODES BETWEEN THE 'GOING WEST' COLLECTION AND THE MEGA-SET?
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post #23 of 106
9/17/08 at 9:02am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
WILL THERE BE A CROSS-OVER OF EPISODES BETWEEN THE 'GOING WEST' COLLECTION AND THE MEGA-SET?

That's an interesting question. I would suspect not as I understand that the video quality is significantly different between the two sets.
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post #24 of 106
9/17/08 at 6:39pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Ok, I just got the episode list for the giant "WAGON TRAIN: The Color Season" set that's coming in November.


Disc 1 (all color)

1. The Molly Kincaid Story
2. The Fort Pierce Story
3. The Gus Morgan Story


Disc 2 (all color)

1. The Widow O’Rourke Story
2. The Robert Harrison Clarke Story
3. The Myra Marshall Story


Disc 3 (all color)

1. The Sam Spicer Story
2. The Sam Pulaski Story
3. The Eli Bancroft Story


Disc 4 (all color)

1. The Kitty Pryor Story
2. The Sandra Cummings Story
3. The Bleecker Story


Disc 5 (all color)

1. The Story of Cain
2. The Cassie Vance Story
3. The Fenton Canaby Story


Disc 6 (all color)

1. The Michael Malone Story
2. The Jed Whitmore Story
3. The Geneva Balfour Story


Disc 7 (all color)

1. The Kate Crawley Story
2. The Grover Allen Story
3. The Andrew Elliot Story


Disc 8 (all color)

1. The Melanie Craig Story
2. The Pearlie Garnet Story
3. The Trace McCloud Story


Disc 9 (all color)

1. The Duncan McIvor Story
2. The Ben Engel Story
3. The Whipping


Disc 10 (all color)

1. The Santiago Quesada Story
2. The Stark Bluff Story
3. The Link Cheney Story


Disc 11 (all color)

1. The Zebedee Titus Story
2. The Last Circle Up


Disc 12 (all B&W)

1. The Clara Beauchamp Story
2. The Zeke Thomas Story
3. The Cliff Grundy Story
4. A Man Called Horse


Disc 13 (all B&W)

1. The Old Man Charvanaugh Story
2. The Kitty Angel Story
3. Chuck Wooster, Wagonmaster


Disc 14 (all B&W)

1. The Larry Hanify Story
2. The Patience Miller Story
3. The Duke Shannon Story
4. Clyde


Disc 15 (all B&W)

1. The Mavis Grant Story
2. The Sam Darland Story
3. Little Girl Lost
4. The Katy Piper Story


Disc 16 Special Bonus Disc:

Exclusive interviews with Wagon Train stars, Robert Fuller (Cooper Smith) and Denny Scott Miller (Duke Shannon)


I do wish we would have gotten the Lou Costello episode from Season 2, but it's not here. Oh well, it's still a great looking set that doesn't duplicate the other smaller set coming in October!


Gary "gotta say it again - my wallet is going to be hurting come this Christmas" O.
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post #25 of 106
9/17/08 at 9:06pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Well, that's strange to say the least ... so this is more accurately a "Wagon Train: The Color Season Plus a Random Assortment of Other Episodes" box? I wouldn't complain, except that it implies this might be everything we get from Timeless on this series. And, with three 75+ minute color episodes per disc, I'll bet overcompression will be an issue.

I'm reluctant to say anything too negative about Timeless, given that they're filling a niche no one else would, but there's a persistent amateurishness at work there that keeps some of their releases from being as good as they easily could be.

Next up: The "Whatever 16mm TV Prints Came in Over the Transom This Fall" collection.
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post #26 of 106
9/18/08 at 5:56am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

The additional episodes on the colour set appear to be mainly the same ones as Columbia House released on video a few years ago. The Lou Costello episode was included in those so might still appear down the line.
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post #27 of 106
9/18/08 at 7:02am

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Thanks for posting the titles for the B/W episodes, Gary. Here is some additional information, cut and pasted from the Wagon Train site I mentioned in a previous post. The words 'no notable guests' are mine and perhaps should read 'I don't recognize anyone here'. Around 9-10 Ward Bond episodes, presumably.

disc 12

1–13 (Nina Foch – A good Robert Horton episode)

1-11 (Gary Merrill, Janice Rule)

1-15 (Dan Druyea, Russell Johnson - A great Robert Horton episode which further develops the character)

1-26 (Ralph Meeker, Michael Pate, Celia Lovsky - In 1970, this story was adapted into the movie, A Man Called Horse, starring Richard Harris. Celia Lovsky played Vulcan T'Pau in Star Trek - the woman who officiates at Spocks "wedding" in Amok Time.


disc 13

2-20 (No notable guests - A great Robert Horton episode)

2-14 (Ann Baxter, Abel Fernandez)

2-33 (Harry Carey, Jr. – A delightful episode, especially for Frank McGrath fans)

(episode 4 missing?)


disc 14

3-17 (Tommy Sands – A strong Robert Horton episode)

4-16 (Rhonda Fleming, Michael Ansara, Morgan Woodward)

4-30 (No notable guests – this episode introduces the character of Duke Shannon [Denny Miller])

5-13 (No notable guests – this episode was written by Gene L. Coon [one of Star Trek’s best writers])


disc 15

6-6 (Ann Sheridan, Parley Baer)

6-15 (Art Linkletter, Nancy Reagan, X Brands, Bill Mumy)

8-12 (John Doucette) [A perennial favorite of Bob Hug and this writer]

8-23 (no notable actors – last episode shown when series was in rerun)
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post #28 of 106
9/18/08 at 2:59pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

"No notable actors".....ouch!

For those of you who have seen Wagon Train recently, do they use a lot of stock footage from other westerns that featured wagon trains?

I watched the show as a kid and remember watching it in color on a relative's color set one year and then B&W the next year. I thought they must be reruns.
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post #29 of 106
9/22/08 at 5:10am
Thread Starter 

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Jim Rosin, who has written books about "Route 66" and "Naked City" has released a book on "Wagon Train" that's written in the same style as his previous books . . . interviews with surviving cast and crew members tell the story and there are episode synopses. An author signed copy is available at Oldies.com; details here:

Wagon Train: The Television Series [Author-Signed Edition] - Books by James Rosin - Autumn Road Company : OLDIES.com
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post #30 of 106
9/22/08 at 6:33pm

Re: Wagon Train rollin' in on October 7th

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Lambert
You're the second person I've seen who says they've already found "Going West" at Sam's Club. I wonder if a few copies leaked out early to them, prior to the release date, or if this is an organized "exclusive early release" effort? Hmmm...

I saw them at Costco today for $19.99 each. Not exclusive to Sam's Club. Each set is packaged in a gold box with a cast picture on the front. If I remember correctly there were 15 episodes in each set. The sets were called the Best of Laredo, Wagon Train, Guns of Will Sonnet etc. whatever show and they were from Timeless.
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