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"My Living Doll" to be released on DVD! (1 Viewer)

Neil Brock

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One can never say never but apparently the TV Gods have no more influence on the world than any others do!
 

Flashgear

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Good Morning and OMG dept...I thought I'd post this remarkable picture in the 'My Living Doll' thread because it features the exquisite Julie Newmar (and also the spectacular Tina Louise)...Julie helping Tina into a quick wardrobe change backstage on Broadway during a performance of Li'L ABNER in 1956...please forgive me if you can...
22309120_1542585832431274_5435817554980633212_n.jpg
 

MartinP.

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I guess I didn't buy the MY LIVING DOLL release in 2012 because there was promise (or hope) of more to come and I wanted to wait a bit. (I cannot believe the DVD release was 6 years ago now and that I waited this long!)

Anyway, I finally picked this up not too long ago and finished watching it all. I enjoyed the available 10 (plus 1 extra) episodes and the extras included on it. I guess after 6 years the search for the rest of the episodes hasn't been very fruitful, but am thankful for this.

I did a search for any possible further information about it, but there isn't any. The most recent info of any kind I came across was the "Pop Colorture" website. A post from Nov. 2016 has the author colorizing the title sequence and that while he was doing it, he was informed of an audio file done of the theme song with lyrics for it:

My living doll, made to order
She is perfection in a girl
She’ll always do just what she’s told to
And this holds true anywhere

The perfect figure put together
No robot ever looked so real
She’s no ordinary kind
AF-709 is my own genuine living doll.


You can see the colorized opening credits and
hear the theme song at this link:

http://pop-colorture.com/tag/my-living-doll/

P.S.: For anyone familiar with this, I recall that the old Video Yesteryear company sold a VHS tape with two episodes
of this series on it. I'm assuming those two episodes would probably have been on the DVD release, but I don't know that
for a fact as I can't find out what two were on that Video Yesteryear release. Does anyone here know?
 

Ron1973

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I guess I didn't buy the MY LIVING DOLL release in 2012 because there was promise (or hope) of more to come and I wanted to wait a bit. (I cannot believe the DVD release was 6 years ago now and that I waited this long!)

Anyway, I finally picked this up not too long ago and finished watching it all. I enjoyed the available 10 (plus 1 extra) episodes and the extras included on it. I guess after 6 years the search for the rest of the episodes hasn't been very fruitful, but am thankful for this.

I did a search for any possible further information about it, but there isn't any. The most recent info of any kind I came across was the "Pop Colorture" website. A post from Nov. 2016 has the author colorizing the title sequence and that while he was doing it, he was informed of an audio file done of the theme song with lyrics for it:

My living doll, made to order
She is perfection in a girl
She’ll always do just what she’s told to
And this holds true anywhere

The perfect figure put together
No robot ever looked so real
She’s no ordinary kind
AF-709 is my own genuine living doll.


You can see the colorized opening credits and
hear the theme song at this link:

http://pop-colorture.com/tag/my-living-doll/

P.S.: For anyone familiar with this, I recall that the old Video Yesteryear company sold a VHS tape with two episodes
of this series on it. I'm assuming those two episodes would probably have been on the DVD release, but I don't know that
for a fact as I can't find out what two were on that Video Yesteryear release. Does anyone here know?
Julie Newmar is always easy on the eyes!
 

Neil Brock

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Jack Chertok was quoted in an article in Movie Collectors World back in the mid-80s, saying he had all of the elements in his possession destroyed. Why anyone would believe otherwise is hard to understand. This happened with many series. For instance, Jack Webb had all of his 1950s Dragnet, Noah's Ark and Pete Kelly's Blues destroyed. Not everyone was able to see decades into the future nor had the desire to continue to pay storage costs for elements which showed no visible economic value.
 

Jack P

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I thought 50s Dragnet elements existed but was a case of being too cost prohibitive to remaster.
 

JoeDoakes

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Ray
I thought 50s Dragnet elements existed but was a case of being too cost prohibitive to remaster.
Yes, he donated elements to UCLA and destroyed the rest, including the prints from the extensive syndication.
 

Robert13

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Although Jack Chertok destroyed all the elements in his possession, it cannot be denied that episodes were still in existence (unless the dvd I am holding is invisible) LOL! We're talking 11 episodes were found for this dvd release not just 1 or 2. So there is definitely the possibility that episodes exist somewhere out there.

Last report I had heard the final 5 episodes of the series were still out there in the hands of a private collector. We were all hoping they would be found to release a "Volume 2" but so far that hasn't happened.
 
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MartinP.

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Although Jack Chertok destroyed all the elements in his possession, it cannot be denied that episodes were still in existence (unless the dvd I am holding is invisible) LOL! We're talking 11 episodes were found for this dvd release not just 1 or 2. So there is definitely the possibility that episodes exist somewhere out there.

Last report I had heard the final 5 episodes of the series were still out there in the hands of a private collector. We were all hoping they would be found to release a "Volume 2" but so far that hasn't happened.

In that link I posted earlier it is written: (from a NOVEMBER 7, 2016, post)

The real tragedy of My Living Doll is that out of the twenty-six episodes produced, only eleven have publicly surfaced, with the remaining fifteen thought to be held in private film collections today. How the show’s original negatives became lost in the first place remains unclear, even to Jack Chertok Television, its parent studio. “Two sets of 35mm master negatives were struck: one for the CBS archive in Los Angeles and one for the archive in New York,” Peter Greenwood tells me. As licensing manager for Jack Chertok Television, he has been on a quest to find the final fifteen episodes so that they can be restored, preserved and released to the public. The Los Angeles negatives were destroyed in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the location of the New York negatives remains a mystery. After an exhaustive search of the CBS archives, the negatives were nowhere to be found and nobody seems to know where they went. It is rumored that Jack Chertok ordered the negatives destroyed because he became tired of paying storage fees on the series. Sadly, this is a possibility, since the show never saw syndication or further profits from licensing agreements, and with no negatives to be found in Los Angeles or New York, protection prints are arguably the only chance My Living Doll has for survival.

Unfortunately, some film collectors refuse to provide existing prints so that they can be properly scanned for preservation. “There are rumors that I am demanding the films for free, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Peter tells me. “I am willing to pay for access to these films because I want this show to be restored, and I want to make it available. I don’t make money from this project; In fact, the first Living Doll DVD set has yet to break even. This is absolutely a passion project.” What makes finding this show even more difficult is that it never went into wide-run syndication, leaving few original prints. “I know the episodes are out there, but they aren’t doing any good sitting in a closet or a basement. These films need to be preserved and restored before they degrade completely and are lost from the world.”

I really hope that the remaining fifteen episodes of this series are one day recovered, both for my personal curiosity as well as for the sake of preserving an historic television series that has hardly seen the light of day since it first aired, over fifty years ago.
 

Robert13

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In that link I posted earlier it is written: (from a NOVEMBER 7, 2016, post)

The real tragedy of My Living Doll is that out of the twenty-six episodes produced, only eleven have publicly surfaced, with the remaining fifteen thought to be held in private film collections today. How the show’s original negatives became lost in the first place remains unclear, even to Jack Chertok Television, its parent studio. “Two sets of 35mm master negatives were struck: one for the CBS archive in Los Angeles and one for the archive in New York,” Peter Greenwood tells me. As licensing manager for Jack Chertok Television, he has been on a quest to find the final fifteen episodes so that they can be restored, preserved and released to the public. The Los Angeles negatives were destroyed in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the location of the New York negatives remains a mystery. After an exhaustive search of the CBS archives, the negatives were nowhere to be found and nobody seems to know where they went. It is rumored that Jack Chertok ordered the negatives destroyed because he became tired of paying storage fees on the series. Sadly, this is a possibility, since the show never saw syndication or further profits from licensing agreements, and with no negatives to be found in Los Angeles or New York, protection prints are arguably the only chance My Living Doll has for survival.

Unfortunately, some film collectors refuse to provide existing prints so that they can be properly scanned for preservation. “There are rumors that I am demanding the films for free, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Peter tells me. “I am willing to pay for access to these films because I want this show to be restored, and I want to make it available. I don’t make money from this project; In fact, the first Living Doll DVD set has yet to break even. This is absolutely a passion project.” What makes finding this show even more difficult is that it never went into wide-run syndication, leaving few original prints. “I know the episodes are out there, but they aren’t doing any good sitting in a closet or a basement. These films need to be preserved and restored before they degrade completely and are lost from the world.”

I really hope that the remaining fifteen episodes of this series are one day recovered, both for my personal curiosity as well as for the sake of preserving an historic television series that has hardly seen the light of day since it first aired, over fifty years ago.
Thanks MartinP! That pretty much explains the whole situation and I actually believe what Peter has said about "willing to pay". I wish the collectors looked at the situation from the point of view of preserving instead of letting something rot in a closet lost forever.
 

Ron1973

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Other than one person's dubious word, there is no evidence whatsoever to back up any of his claims.
I wondered the same thing myself. I know it's a "he said/she said" type of thing, but how would the rumor get started that he was wanting them for free/peanuts if there wasn't some truth to it. Personally I'd love for someone that has the missing episodes to put them up for free on YouTube like I've did with Hank Williams stuff I've acquired that hasn't been released by the record companies.
 

Flashgear

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Just by coincidence, this came up on my Facebook home page this morning...Julie Newmar assuring her fans that she is recovering from a heart attack a few days ago...
https://www.facebook.com/jnewmar?hc...kol12V3tpWDStIOKgw7tUMrsaSjdiAg2_skWY&fref=nf

28796153_10213515799162254_1014712038296911872_n.jpg


And here at about the same time as My Living Doll...she played a selection by Chopin on the show...in real life, she is a scholar and accomplished musician...graduating from Mr. Novak's John Marshall High School at the advanced age of 15 in 1948!
27750887_10213252005487577_7446000887169946636_n.jpg


And back in the day for this print ad...you're welcome!
28467747_10213460398217265_7307287262708473097_n.jpg
 
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Sky King

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First and foremost let me state that I am a big fan of Bob Cummings' TV work.
However, Is it just me or does the smile on Bob Cummings face look phony in the color opening scenes of My Living Doll ? Its seems unnatural to hold a smile that long and its as if he's not liking this scene one bit.
 
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