Man With A Camera-The Complete Collection 11/20/07 (1 Viewer)

[Bert Greene]

My copy of the set arrived a couple of days ago, and I've already breezed through the first disc. It's been great fun. Lots of familiar faces popping up, and even if some of the stories are a bit far-fetched, they are entertaining and move like lightning.

The package is appealingly designed, with all the episode info nicely written out. However, there's always a fly in the ointment... on my copy, the plastic hinges on the two disc trays were entirely broken off, leaving them loose. I spent over an hour last night constructing and gluing wooden shards and map-tacks, trying to re-attach the swinging trays. My "Route 66" set was okay, but if this particular dvd-box design is THIS vulnerable, I hope it's ditched in favor of more traditional slimpacks. I've rarely had much trouble with slimpacks, but when I do, they would at least be easy to replace.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Bert,

My R66 pkg has the same problem. It was a nice design/idea for the R66 pkg but it was broken at arrival.

I have to wait for Bronson & the camera on the 25th.

Jeff "Cowboys: 28 Packers: 24" W

 

[Doug^Ch]

Bert,

I have to agree with you on that horrible packaging design. My Route 66 hinge arrived completely broken off and I'm sure that My Man With a Camera set will arrive in the same shape. Maybe you could develop a side business fixing these hinges!

 

[Bob Hug]

It would be nice if there was some way to contact Infinity Entertainment about their disc trays (they did use slimlines for season 1 of "The Real McCoys"), but their web site is pretty much useless for the consumer.

http://www.infinity-entertainmentgroup.com/

 

[Hank Dearborn]

I watched the first 3 and I have to say that for 16mm transfers, these look pretty good. Next up from the same entity: Code 3! And those will be coming off 35mm. No street date announced yet but probably some time in the first quarter of 2008.

 

[Bob Hug]

I'd agree on the transfers, Hank; they're pretty solid looking as 16 mm goes with very minimal damage, and the audio track is clear. The credits on the back of the DVD slip case indicate that at least some restorative work was done on this release. I'd like to see more of UCLA's TV archives released in this fashion.

I'm a little over half way through on this set and have been finding the shows addictive; I'm watching a couple of episodes each night and like the variety of stories and situations that Charles Bronson finds himself in each show. One thing that I can't figure is the short length of each of the two seasons, running between October and January. That just seems very odd. Was "Man with a Camera" in some sort of rotation with another show(s) on ABC?

 

[Hank Dearborn]

I'm not sure what was going on with the scheduling. It's a little before my time. I am thinking that the show was cancelled and then brought back to fill a time slot. It after all was on ABC, which was barely a real network in the 50s.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

The Goldbergs exists from the last season which was syndicated and was filmed so it's possible someone might release it some day. Aldrich Family was live and I don't know of any significant amount of episodes being in existence on that series. Lights Out is a possibility. Duffy's Tavern was filmed but the company is long out of business. The prints are probably somewhere but I'm not sure there is much demand for this series.

 

[Bert Greene]

It seems that ABC replaced the initial run of "Man With a Camera" in March 1959 with "Tombstone Territory" (which had ended in the Fall of 1958, but was brought back). It's odd that ABC sat on the remaining MWAC episodes, only to have it make its return during the next season that Fall. I'm assuming the series filmed all its 29 episodes in one round. I've just about reached the mid-way point in the dvd-set, so I haven't noticed yet if there is any difference between the two batches.

Anyway, I've really been enjoying the set. Like Bob says, there's a nice variety of plotlines from episode to episode. The series might be pretty low-budget, but it's wearing quite well with me.

 

[Bob Hug]

Bert,

Thanks for the info. on MWAC's replacement series "Tombstone Territory."

With respect to differences in the two "seasons," I've noticed that Ludwig Stossel's character "Anton Kovac" (Mike's father) appears in a number of season 1 episodes, but I haven't seen him at all in any of the season 2 episodes yet (I'm nearly finished with disc 3). Instead, a new character, "Lt. Donovan" (played by James Flavin) emerges in some of the episodes. The series' low budget gives it the look and feel of a B-movie.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

"Medic" (1954-56) with Richard Boone, a more consistent release than what's out, Bronson guested here too. And "Wagon Train" (1957-65).

 

[Doug^Ch]

Boy I second the nomination for Wagon Train. I would love to even see one quality release for this title.

 

[michael_ks]

"Wagon Train", yes, by all means. S1-4 at least (the Ward Bond/Robert Horton years).

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Timeless would love to do a Wagon Train release but the problem that exists is that they want to do the Ward Bond years and the majority of 16mm prints that are floating around are from the later, unsyndicated seasons. As with most Universal shows from the 50s and 60s, they were never mastered to tape and Universal has no interest in doing them themselves. Since no one can afford their ridiculous transfer costs, only way it can get out is if other sources can be found for prints.

As for Medic, the show fell into PD and when that happens it's difficult to put a complete set together. An almost complete set may be possible however.

 

[Bob Hug]

There are about 20 episodes of "Medic" floating around on commercially available DVDs from the usual PD suspects -- Alpha, Critics Choice, and Platinum Disc Corporation (now Echo Bridge Entertainment). This is a surprisingly, for its time, frank show dealing with a variety of medical issues. I just watched an episode last week where Vera Miles undergoes a mastectomy. Lots of solid guest stars like Lee J. Cobb, Dennis Hopper, and Charles Bronson (pre-"Man with a Camera"); the only thing I dislike about this show is the incredibly sappy, soap opera type opening/closing theme music.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

I just got back from the coast and had some meetings and discussions on vintage releases. Apparently Man With a Camera is having difficulty getting into stores and that is limiting it's sales. None of the brick and mortar stores, as you guys call them, seem to want to stock them, leaving the internet as the only source. Unfortunately, for a show of that vintage, the target audience isn't getting to see it being available. And that is going to cause a problem for future releases of this ilk. Code 3 is ready to go but until MWC starts to sell better, it will be on hold. And that goes for some of the other possible full series releases, like Racket Squad, Assignment Underwater, Passport to Danger and yes, even Meet McGraw. So for now, this isn't looking good for these kinds of shows.

 

[Bert Greene]

That's disappointing news. I'd noticed that the Critic's Choice monthly catalog never even included the "Man with a Camera" set (although it is listed on their website), even though had done so for other Infinity sets like "Real McCoys," "Suspense" and "Bozo." They used to spotlight their previous (Falcon?) releases quite prominently, and I expected them to continue the tradition for the Infinity releases. "MWAC" at least had a good selling point, with its well-known star.

I'm extremely bummed that this might derail "Code Three," not to mention the other items. There's been so little of this type of 50s-tv fare on dvd, I was really counting on Infinity to perhaps mine it, and find a successful little niche for itself. A lot of those old shows are quite breezy and entertaining. They tend to pre-date me by quite a number of years, but I've learned to appreciate a lot of them.

 

[Gary OS]

I've been meaning to comment on this latest development, but Bert has summed up my feelings nicely. This is very disappointing news and I can't help but think this is just one more nail in the coffin for lesser know 50's fare. And there's so much of it I'd like to see. Sigh...

Gary "and don't even get me started about retailers not wanting to stock it" O.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

The sad thing is that these shows might sell okay if the people who would buy them had any way to know about them being released. There are almost 100 million baby boomers in this country and I'm sure there are enough of them that would be interested in 50s shows. But if the stores won't stock them there's no chance of them reaching their target audience. Hopefully the Infinity folks, who seem to be pretty resourceful, will figure something out. There's quite a few hidden gems just waiting to be sprung from TV purgatory. Phillip Marlowe anyone?

 

[Bob Hug]

I received a note from S'more Entertainment indicating that Borders was not going to stock Smore's release of season 6 of "Make Room for Daddy." And I agree, Hank, there are simply many "boomers" who would not think about buying from an online store, but would buy at a brick & mortar. For many of these folks it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind." They simply do not know that many of these vintage shows are available.