BETTY SUTTON, BEAT THE CLOCK, THE VISE, and more coming from Alpha (1 Viewer)

[Gary OS]

Oldies.com has announced their July release schedule and they are offering some more Classic TV rarities. A second volume of ASSIGNMENT UNDERWATER, along with premiere volumes of THE BETTY HUTTON SHOW, BEAT THE CLOCK, I'VE GOT A SECRET, DO YOU TRUST YOUR WIFE?, ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN DAVID GRIEF, and THE VISE. They are also releasing a few other shows that have already seen releases (BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, LAWLESS YEARS). Other than two of the game shows, I have almost no knowledge of any of the new releases, so these will all be must blind buys for me.

Gary "glad to see Alpha continuing to release these type of TV rarities" O.

 

[Elena S]

That's good news to me, at least for the game shows. I'd like to see more releases of What's My Line and To Tell the Truth. I hope the releases are the early black & white ones.

 

[Regulus]

There's ONE episode of "To Tell The Truth" I'd like to see. Its the one that featured Mega Con Artist Frank Abignale. (The one they recreated in the opening of the Movie Catch me if you can)

 

[Bob Hug]

I'll pick up both volumes of "Assignment Underwater" and "The Vise" for sure and maybe the game shows. "The Lawless Years" is odd. I had thought that the series had been licensed to the Timeless Media Group; they had released the first season last year:

http://www.timelessmusic.com/DVDs/lawlessyears.html

But now, in addition to Alpha, Mill Creek will be releasing some episodes on their upcoming TV Detectives set. I'd guess that at least some of the episodes are public domain.

It's great to see that Alpha's showing no signs of slowing down. Every month brings at least one new obscurity that the majors would never touch with a ten foot pole. But it does seem kind of senseless to release the same PD episodes of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" or "The Beverly Hillbillies" that have been released many times over by other companies.

On a related note, I wonder if Critics Choice is getting out of the public domain release business. I received CC's latest print catalog and they have several pages of their own "house brand" movie and TV titles that are being discounted down to $3.99 with the notation to the effect that "once they're gone, they're gone." But, hopefully, they'll continue to license more vintage titles; they've done a mostly good job in this regard.

 

[Bert Greene]

I'm glad to see Alpha still delving into vintage-tv. I pick up the majority of their tv offerings. Looking most forward to next month's "Assignment: Underwater." I keep thinking there must be all sorts of 50s-era p.d. oddities they can serve up, but maybe there are more copyrights in effect than I might imagine. With all those 'independently' produced series from the 1950s, it would seem more things would have fallen through the cracks.

It should also be interesting take a gander at "The Betty Hutton Show." A few examples have been floating around the collecting circuit for years, but I never got around to checking it out.