Reagan 'GE Theatre' tapes restored...

That is very good news!     I would imagine any actual DVD release would still have to be done by Universal, but it's nice to know that if one were to ever happen, the quality would be much improved.

The "tapes" reference may well refer to the fact that the library was presented with the material in a tape format for the convenience of the library and visiting researchers.     Generally, even major libraries like a Presidential one don't have much use to just own film prints that can't be easily shown.

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Edited by Michael Reuben - 3/19/10 at 12:36pm

This is exciting news.  Hopefully we'll see either releases or syndication of these.  Lots of recognizable names guested on these shows and I would believe there is some marketability around them.

Sounds like a natural property for Timeless or Shout! Factory.  Probably Timeless, because it's perfect for the Sam's Club demographic.

 
Aren't we being catty today? Care for a saucer of milk?

General Electric Theater was several levels above 90 percent of the current network offerings -- even some the non-Sam's Club demographic adores (can you say "The Office" or Conan O'Brien?).

     One can never say never but I would consider it highly unlikely.

Often, Presidential libraries *will* make their video materials available to researchers in terms of personal copies, but it can often result in a high fee depending on what kind of source material they're given.    If the Library gets these in a tape format, then the costs of transfer would be far lower but if they had to do work off film elements for each copy, that would be different.

I've dealt with the Johnson and Nixon presidential libraries in the past, and video material they have which even includes newscasts and Tonight Show programs taped by the White House for their own purposes can be obtained this way.    I'm sure that once the Reagan Library inventories all of these programs if there's one someone *really* wants to see, there will be a legal mechanism for getting an individual copy but even the cheapest rate would still be expensive in reference to how much a commercial release usually costs.

      I bought a copy of a GE Theatre from the Reagan library about 10 years ago. It was the Bachelor Father pilot and they charged me something like $65 for a film transfer that looked like the stuff people were doing with home film to tape transfers in 1978. Flicker, color burst, the works. Terrible copy.

Sounds like they were doing things one copy at a time from the film elements.    Sometimes, libraries and archives won't always have the best equipment available for those obsolete formats if they're not getting a high demand from users/researchers on the materials.    

That kind of rate for a half hour program is pretty much par for the course with most archives, presidential and non-presidental alike.    I can remember CBS News Archives charging on the order of $200-300 for a single hour of material.

Now that's a title I haven't heard mentioned in a long time. A little off topic, but I would love to see a release of Bachelor Father.

      The cost didn't bother me but the fact that they charged that for a really bad transfer did. If you want to charge those kind of prices, at least send out a decent looking product. I've transferred thousands of 16mm TV show films at home and they look so much better.

GE Theater isn't as half as good as The Office or Mad Men, I'll bet. And it may even be hokey. 

You're comparing apples and oranges.

GE THEATER was one of the best,if not the best, half hour general anthology series on television in the 1950's - solid scripts,good directing,and a wide range of guest stars. Imagine coming up with a half-hour-complete-in-one story with new cast and characters every week - with a wide range of subject matter and genre.

Have you ever seen a GE THEATER? 

I'd love to see GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATRE on DVD. Solid stories with good performances. Let MAD MEN or THE OFFICE match this mouth watering line up: Among the many great guest stars on show:

Eddie Albert, Steve Allen, Dana Andrews, Fred Astaire, Mary Astor, Tallulah Bankhead, Gene Barry, Ethel Barrymore, Anne Baxter, Harry Belafonte, Joan Bennett, Jack Benny, Joan Blondell, Ray Bolger, Richard Boone, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, George Burns, Red Buttons, Jack Carson, Macdonald Carey, Diahann Carroll, John Cassavetes, Lee J. Cobb, Claudette Colbert, Chuck Connors, Richard Conte, Jackie Cooper, Lou Costello, Joseph Cotten, Wally Cox, Jeanne Crain, Joan Crawford, Hume Cronyn, Robert Culp, Robert Cummings, Tony Curtis, Dan Dailey, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr, Laraine Day, James Dean, Angie Dickinson, Melvyn Douglas, Irene Dunne, Dan Duryea, Buddy Ebsen, Vince Edwards, Jose Ferrer, Barry Fitzgerald, Nina Foch, Henry Fonda, Joan Fontaine, John Forsythe, Eva Gabor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Greer Garson, Janet Gaynor, Gloria Grahame, Kathryn Grayson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Sterling Hayden, Charlton Heston, Miriam Hopkins, Dennis Hopper, Tab Hunter, John Ireland, Burl Ives, David Janssen, Glynis Johns, Van Johnson, Carolyn Jones, Louis Jourdan, Boris Karloff, Ernie Kovacs, Alan Ladd, Elsa Lanchester, Martin Landau, Michael Landon, Angela Lansbury, Charles Laughton, Piper Laurie, Cloris Leachman, Peggy Lee, Myrna Loy, Ida Lupino, Carol Lynley, Diana Lynn, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, E.G. Marshall, Lee Marvin, Groucho Marx, James Mason, Raymond Massey, Walter Matthau, Roddy McDowall, Stephen McNally, Jayne Meadows, Burgess Meredith, Ethel Merman, Vera Miles, Ray Milland, Ricardo Montalban, Terry Moore, Agnes Moorehead, Rita Moreno, Paul Muni, Audie Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Newton, Margaret O'Brien, Dan O'Herlihy, Ryan O'Neal, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Page, Anthony Perkins, Suzanne Pleshette, Christopher Plummer, Robert Preston, Vincent Price, Tony Randall, Donna Reed, Thelma Ritter, Cliff Robertson, Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Roman, Mickey Rooney, Gena Rowlands, Barbara Rush, Rosalind Russell, Eva Marie Saint, George Sanders, Sylvia Sidney, Simone Signoret, Barbara Stanwyck, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Stella Stevens, James Stewart, Dean Stockwell, Susan Strasberg, Jessica Tandy, Rod Taylor, Gene Tierney, Audrey Totter, Claire Trevor, Lee Van Cleef, Jo Van Fleet, Ethel Waters, Cornel Wilde, Natalie Wood, Joanne Woodward, Fay Wray, Teresa Wright, Jane Wyatt, Jane Wyman, Ed Wynn, Keenan Wynn, Alan Young.

You guys are arguing with someone who just came on to thread crap. And trying to persuade him is like trying to teach your dog how to do multiplication. It ain't going to happen.

Anything but.  I'm a regular Sam's Club and Costco shopper, so I recognize the type of merchandise they stock, and the differences in that stock due to the customer demographic they are expecting. 

Around these parts, Sam's stocks more Westerns and more vintage television than any other B&M.  And given the reverence so many people hold for Ronald Reagan in this part of the country, a Timeless release of GE Theatre has the potential of doing quite well. 

I was just thinking about this show and reviewing the press release, but I thought it was interesting that the Reagan Library was getting tapes of the broadcasts. Does that mean copies of the masters or the actual masters? The statement is unclear.

 

Secondly, yeah, I'd love to see this on DVD/Blu-Ray myself, given it's a big piece of TV history and plus, if they found all 208 episodes, it's another rare show from the 50s that has survived apparently complete.

 

Look, regardless of how you feel about Reagan, it's not about him, it's about television and its history. Sign me up for a release, politics be darned sez I.

     They are getting copies. Universal isn't giving them the 35mm fine grain negatives.

So does that mean it's up to Universal to get GE Theater out on DVD? Oy vey...