Thriller (Boris Karloff Series) Rumored coming to DVD

 Terrific! I've got another Karloff TV series that is in pretty bad shape, from some minor company... was that Thriller too? Half the time he introduces it while sitting in front of a fire place, and Karloff takes the odd starring role in it. But the dvd is buried under a big pile right now...

No, that was THE VEIL, which was produced at HAL ROACH STUDIOS about a year or two before THRILLER 

Can't wait for this -- loved the show!

I've only seen a couple of episodes, but they were enough to make me hope for the series for several years now.  I just hope they aren't time-compressed like Combat!.

Sweet.  Been waiting a long time for this one.  There is still hope for B&W classic TV!!!!! 

You can all thank me for this, since I should have known as soon as I decided to buy the series on DVD-R that a proper release would come shortly thereafter.

same thing happens to me.  Oh well.

Woo hoo!!! Boris Karloff's THRILLER has been my most-wanted MIA classic TV show on R1 DVD, and it sounds like it's getting the "full series" royal treatment it deserves!

If it all pans out without a hitch, that now moves the criminally neglected/forgotten T.H.E. CAT (1966-67) into my most-wanted "unreleased on R1 DVD" spot, followed by:

• Alfred Hitchcock's SUSPICION (1957-58) Universal
• CORONET BLUE (1965/1967) CBS/Paramount
• Roald Dahl's WAY OUT (1961) home video rights unknown
• THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR (1962-65) Universal
• PANIC! (1957-58) home video rights unknown
• THE WESTERNER (1960) Four Star... perhaps VCI?
• MAVERICK (1957-62) Warner Bros
• THE IMMORTAL (1970) CBS/Paramount
• ULTRA Q (1966-67) Tsuburaya Productions
• BATMAN (1966-68) Fox... though I'm not holding my breath on this one.

I think Universal was waiting for bootleg sales to hit one million before they decided to sell it.

Are studios really checking such thing to see what's popular?

I think he was being facetious, but in full disclosure, I was probably that frustrated and millionth customer a little while back.

You Bad Boy! Now do the "Honest" Thing, When the Official Version becomes available, go out and purchase it, then introduce the "Alternative" Version to Mr. B.F. Hammer!
Edited by Regulus - 10/31/09 at 12:10pm

I do think major studios study bootleg sales and OOP VHS titles on ebay.  I think that's why you'll see an old TV movie like "The Girl Most Likely to" get a DVD release.  I can't think of any title that I have seen more bootleg ads for online then "Thriller".  One popped up at the top of the screen when I viewed this thread.  I still can't imagine why Universal never wanted to cash in on this series while everybody else did.

Er, I know "The Girl Most Likely to" was released on DVD in 2005.  I bought it when it came out and I also know people were selling a lot of  VHS copies on ebay for a lot of money for years before the DVD was released.  Ed Asner and Stockard Channing have done a ton of TV work ( Seen any "Lou Grant" DVD's out there? ) most of it's not on DVD.  It's still fairly rare when a 70's TV movie gets a DVD release (especially 4 years ago!).
Edited by chas speed - 11/1/09 at 1:21am

ok :)

I'm kind of shocked "Lou Grant" never did get a DVD release, but I'll save that for another thread.

Wow, I really hope this is the tv series I've been wondering about for years, but had no clue what it might have been called as I had only seen maybe an episode or two as a child back in the 70s. All I could remember was it being episodic, black and white, and in the horror vein. Now that I've seen it mentioned, I do seem to remember Boris Karloff being involved. I only saw the show in syndication when my family was vacationing in California.

Does anyone recall if there was ever an episode involving a haunted house type of setting and featuring a scraggly white haired old hag or witch? I would be thrilled (no pun intended) to find out that this was the series containing that story! It scared me quite a bit as a kid.

That sounds like "Parasite Mansion" starring Jeanette Nolan.  She played an even creepier hag in the episode "La Strega" with Ursula Andress.  Jeanette Nolan also played witches in episodes of Twilight Zone and Night Gallery.

Could also be the episode "Masquerade" with Tom Poston and Elizabeth Montgomery that is on the laserdisc set of "Thriller" that MCA put out a long time ago. The two stars spend the night in what seems to be a haunted house with, among others, the scraggly witch-type you describe.

If he remembers it being silly then it was "Masquerade", but if it was scary it was "Parasite Mansion".

An interesting companion to this set would be the new Dark Horse Comics reprints of Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery. 

Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery Archives, Volume One
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery Archives, Volume Two

The first two issues were actually titled Boris Karloff Thriller to tie in to the show.  Not the greatest horror comics of all time, but still lots of fun. 

This was a frequently cool series. I was first in line for the 6-episode laser disc box set, but even with the few selections, two of them were pretty weak. Still, to get the genuinely frightening THE GRIM REAPER, with a very young William Shatner, on DVD is probably close to worth the total cost of the forthcoming set. Many other episodes, although not quite up to that one, are also well worth watching.

Here's some more exciting info about the upcoming Thriller set from Tim Lucas' Video WatchBlog http://videowatchdog.blogspot.com/:

I was invited by David J. Schow to participate in recording a couple of audio commentaries for Image Entertainment's release of the complete THRILLER series with Boris Karloff, scheduled for September or October of 2010. David, Ernest Dickerson and I shared the commentary duties on "The Grim Reaper" featuring William Shatner and Natalie Schafer (my favorite THRILLER episode) and "The Premature Burial" featuring Karloff himself. The sessions went really well. I'm told that other episodes will feature commentators like episode director Arthur Hiller, LOST SKELETON director Larry Blamire, filmmaker and soundtrack buff Jim Wynorski, Eighties TWILIGHT ZONE producer Alan Brennert, TWILIGHT ZONE historian Marc Scott Zicree, FANTASTIC TELEVISION author Gary Gerani, and others -- including a dozen or more by Mr. Schow, author of the justly celebrated book THE OUTER LIMITS COMPANION. The producers at Image are also trying to involve some of the surviving actors from the series for comment. Some isolated music scores are also promised. Image's THRILLER, sublicensed from Universal, promises to be the most important archival horror DVD release of next year.

This is just getting better and better.  I can't wait to get this set!

Thanks everyone for your replies! I'm definitely going to be getting this set when it's released.

Wait...what does this mean? The episodes won't all have the original scores?