Regulus
Senior HTF Member
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- Nov 7, 2006
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- Real Name
- William Hughes
Quoting Mark Twain - "News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated".
Absolutely agree. As long as dvds are being manufactured and released, there's always going to be a stray b/w release. So "demise"? No. Life support with need of the occasional use of a defibrillator (in this case courtesy of VCI)? Yes.Regulus said:Quoting Mark Twain - "News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated".
I generally agree with you that I would prefer complete series or at least season sets of the other shows. However, I have no idea what is even in the realm of possibility for VCI, so I am not sure that frustration directed at them would be fair.Dave Lawrence said:I'm happy for those interested in Annie Oakley, but, from a purely selfish standpoint, I can't help feeling frustrated with VCI. This show suddenly gets a complete series release, while I Married Joan gets a simple 1-disc volume with 10 episodes jammed onto it. Admittedly, since it's their 1st new Joan release in almost 10 years, I'll take what I can get. But that upcoming anthology series release (The Star and the Story) is also just a single volume. I guess they got a really good deal with Annie Oakley, but I wish they would do similar complete sets for some of their other shows.
I'm not 100 % sure of this , but I think VCI mostly releases TV show that are in the public domain , and depends on whatever prints are available to them. So for example they've only issue 34 episodes of My Little Margie. With the Annie Oakley they most likely had access to the entire run. Maybe if this sells, VCI will more aggressively explore the vintage B & W market. Besides finishing Margie , and I Married Joan there are lots of deserving old series : People's Choice , Mr And Mrs North , Trouble With Father , Topper , Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickock, Love that Bob, Bachelor Father , Tightrope , Adventures in Paradise, Andy's Gang etc etc . Maybe VCI will look into releasing some of those . I wonder if they ever look at this site?Dave Lawrence said:I'm happy for those interested in Annie Oakley, but, from a purely selfish standpoint, I can't help feeling frustrated with VCI. This show suddenly gets a complete series release, while I Married Joan gets a simple 1-disc volume with 10 episodes jammed onto it. Admittedly, since it's their 1st new Joan release in almost 10 years, I'll take what I can get. But that upcoming anthology series release (The Star and the Story) is also just a single volume. I guess they got a really good deal with Annie Oakley, but I wish they would do similar complete sets for some of their other shows.
I have Zane Gray , and the quality is pretty good . Maybe VCI did license it , which would be a good sign for further releases . I'd guess that the area of PD releases has been mined pretty thoroughly by many companies. A company like VCI needs to release things to stay in business. So maybe VCI can look into licensing some older shows like the ones I mentioned cheaply.Silverking said:VCI do generally PD material. They did Zane Grey Series 1 though which I think they would have to licence.. Haven't seen this so I don't know what the prints were like.
Annie Oakley seems to be a series that has partially fallen into PD, hence all the Alpha releases , some of which I understand were pretty poor quality .Some years ago a company did start to put out the series with prints sourced from the daughter of Gail Davis. Only one volume of 4 episodes so I guess it was a failure.
Hopefully, as this new release will be the complete series they have sourced decent prints.
I sent an email to VCI thanking them for the My Little Margie , and I Married Joan releases .I asked if there would be any further releases on these two shows. So far no answer.Gary OS said:Thanks for the info, Lou. I'll have to check these out.
Gary "VCI gets props for at least giving us a little vintage TV on DVD" O.
Looks like it's just a rerelease, since Criterion's website doesn't mention anything about a new volume, and even Amazon takes you to the page for the upcoming release from a "see newer version" link on the page for the original.ChrisALM said:Does anyone know anything about the "new?" The Golden Age of Television (Criterion Collection) pre order listing on Amazon? It looks like the original release is OOP. Is this a re-release of the original set or a new set of shows entirely?
I never got around to getting the OOP set, and I was really hoping to get that. How did I miss this?
It will be nice to have all of the episodes in one place , hopefully in decent " non-Alpha " quality. Let's hope this is just the beginning for Complete Series box sets from VCI.Silverking said:Annie Oakley - Further DetailsAmazon is now showing the artwork for this complete series October release.11 Discs. Extras include a one hour documentary on Gail Davis, episode guide + photo galleries from her personal collection. This might indicate VCI have sourced the prints from her daughter so they should be decent quality. The original pilot with a different boy in the part of Annie's brother is also included.Not top of anyone's list of old black & white shows awaiting release I am sure but an oasis in the monochrome desert at present.
LouA said:You may have read my post about Home Run Derby where I was quoting someone else. I read it here on this Forum. Someone posted that they contacted TGG by phone and were told that TGG had no plans to release further ZIV shows other than Home Run Derby. That was back in the spring . Home Run Derby ( a fun show) never showed up - no big loss since it's widely available form it's previous release. I think that releasing 24 Hour Marathon box sets at almost the same time as the season box sets may have hurt overall sales. Timeless was also releasing ZIV shows , but we've been advised not to expect much from them in the future.