Rawhide (1 Viewer)

[Bob Hug]

Gary, while I don't particularly care for split season releases, I can live with them as long as the shows eventually get released . . . and, as much as I like Paramount (the best of the major studios for pre-1970s shows), they have a strange releasing pattern . . . season 1 of the upcoming "Hawaii Five-O" and season 2 of "Wild Wild West" are full seasons, but the recent "Perry Mason" season 1 was split season and now this second season of "Rawhide" is split. I just don't understand why some shows get the full season treatment while other get split seasons. Anyone have any theories on this?

 

[michael_ks]

I just got the news in my email. Great news indeed, save for the split season decision. Funny, the one thing I was praising Paramount for was that they chose to release S1 as a full season set even if there were no extras. Maybe HGWT still has a chance down the road now as split season sets? And Bob, I wish I could offer a rationale as to why Paramount splits some shows and not others. I just hope the pricing for this is equitable across the half sets--and not priced in the manner that "Big Valley" S2 was.

 

[Bob Gu]

1)I'd say dart board or cutting a deck of cards. 2)Limited production capability and still wanting a lot of different titles out there. 3)Return traffic in the stores, "While I here I might as pick up Untouchables S1 Vol 1 too". Then the customer is hooked on two series. 4) It's also possible that different divisions within the TVDVD arm are competing with each other to see what the best way is to release multi-season shows. 5) They don't understand it either.

I think it's mostly 1 and 5.

 

[RickER]

I know in the case of Perry Mason it was split because the first season had 39 episodes. A big season, and would have been about 10 discs. So they split it. Most shows after the fifties had 26 episodes, and of course from the seventies on we have 22 to 26 a season. But Rawhide season 2 wasnt even close to 40 episodes, so it beats me why they split it. Just glad it isnt 2 sided discs like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea!
By the way, can Perry Mason season 2 be far behind?

 

[michael_ks]

Actually theories 3 and 4 make a good deal of sense.

For the first 15 episodes of S2, nice line-up of guest stars:

Philip Pine
Anne Francis
Paul Fix
Edward Platt
Terry Becker
Patrick MacNee
Jack Weston
Harry Dean Stanton
Leif Erikson
Vera Miles
Charles Gray
Kent Smith
Strother Martin
Cesar Romero
Rick Jason
Skip Homier
Claude Akins
Stanley Adams
Robert F. Simon
Neville Brand

More acting talent here than three seasons worth of the crop of current shows.

 

[Bob Gu]

Frankie Laine died today at 93. In addition to singing the Rawhide theme song, he also guest-starred in a season three episode called, "Incident On The Road To Yesterday."

 

[silverking]

Sad about Frankie Laine ,nobody belted out a big theme song better, he also did the theme to the excellent but short-lived 'Gunslinger' & may have done 'Champion the Wonder Horse' though there is some debate about this.
I saw him on stage when he toured the UK about 20 years ago , he must have been in his 70's then but still had a pretty powerful voice.

Well, I do have a smattering of egg on my face following my earlier pessimistic posts about 'Rawhide' continuing. If only I'd waited a week. Of the various series I quoted 'Rawhide' was always the most likely to get a 2nd chance.

Not thrilled about it being split but can live with it.The split route is becoming the norm it seems.The main reason for splitting , I imagine is because they make more money.Wish they would speed up their schedule so we receive a new set every 3 to 4 months.At this rate the series would take 5 years to complete.

Anyway, I'm delighted Rawhide is continuing. By season 2 the series had really hit its stride & the first 15 episodes here contain some cracking segments.
Incident of the Shambling Man has old-timer Victor McGlagen as a broken-down prizefighter & the gorgeous Anne Francis playing against type as a villainess.
Incident of the 13th Man has Rowdy & Wishbone re-enacting the plot from 12 Angry Men in a desert cowtown.
Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse & Incident of the Haunted Hills are probably two of the best episodes from the entire series.
Incident at Red River Station has Favor dealing with an outbreak of smallpox whilst Incident of the Blue Fire has a really spooky atmosphere.
Overall there are a number of slightly dark film noir episodes in this batch.
Anyone who enjoys these old westerns will be delighted with this set.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Is weird he passed away the day the 2nd set is announced.

I really enjoyed season 1. I never really have seen this series or cheyanne before as both really had poor syndication in the 60's and 70's. So it's great to see them especially with the glorious remastering. I too hate split seasons, and I'm not sure at this point that Wild Wild West is gonna sell anybetter than rawhide so why split one and not the other. I Think I paid $23 for season 1, so splitting is gonna drive up that cost, but these old shows are worth it.

The other night I went over my parents and they have a few shows from the Dean Martin Roasts and a few from his variety show, and they were two of the funniest shows I've seen in years. I can't think of any sitcom in the last few years that made me laugh so much , so I value these gems from the past.

 

[Bob Gu]

I watched that Dean Martin Show info-mercial awhile back and the skits they showed were pretty funny. Odd how the variety show died. Skelton, Gleason and the rest even had fairly classy fun musical and dance interludes between the comedy bits. Remember the June Taylor Dancers.

"Bluefire" is one of my favorite spooky Rawhides. Rawhide was on the same night as The Twilight Zone and in certain time zones I think they flipped the schedule so those two series were back to back.

"Incident Of The Haunted Hills" stars John Drew Barrymore totally submerged in his Indian role. Barrymore was chilling in his soldier role in a later, S7, episode "Corporal Dasovik" with Nick Adams.

"Haunted Hills" was an episode I had taped in the '80s and the TV print was dark to the point where you could not see what was going on. The episode was on the Columbia House tapes and looked fine. The scenes I had thought were too dark night scenes were actually days scenes! I am curious to see what this particular episode will look like on the S2 DVD, as another dark episode from S1 "Incident In No Man's Land", that looked fine on the Columbia House VHS had night scenes on the DVD edition that were darker than the VHS. Would that be because the film was ten years older or was someone not paying attention during the DVD process?

 

[Doug^Ch]

From the artwork posted here: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6958 it looks like the studio has gone to some type of large Amray Case with flippers for packaging on Rawhide Season 2 Vol. 1. Maybe this is just to display the artwork, and the packaging will remain the same as the first season - At least that is what I'm hoping for.

 

[michael_ks]

That's the first thing I thought about too when viewing the artwork (well, second thing, after the slight disappointment that once again Eric Fleming's and Clint Eastwood's roles appear to be reversed). I do hope Paramount stays with the slipcase design.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Oh no they're splitting the seasons. I think I paid $23 for Season 1, now how much is it going to cost me for S2 ? This process is a price gouging scam I'm convinced of it I mean really how many more people are they going to convince to buy this , that would'nt of because it was a full season. I'm tired of this.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

This is basically the Family Ties Packaging in Black. And It Sucks.

 

[Bob Hug]

Season 2, Volume 1 of "Rawhide" is being released today and DVD Talk's Paul Mavis gives it a "Highly Recommended" review. See the full review at:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=28294

 

[dukeman3ca]

I hope the season 2 part 1 sells well so we can get part 2, and all the rest as well.

question about the last season, is it ever explained what happend to gil?

 

[Bob Hug]

My concern about season 2, volume 1 is that it is somewhat difficult to find at brick & mortar stores and, for many of us, will have to be obtained using online sources. Therein lies a problem. There's a segment of the market for vintage television series that does not purchase online but would buy it, and other vintage series, if it they were more widely available at b&m's.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I've never seen the shows and I love them, my hunch is they never explained it, just had Rowdy in charge the next season. I read the the show only lasted 11 episodes or so into the 8th year because the head of CBS hated the show without Fleming there. They should've just replaced him after he left with another actor. But by then the show was probably long in the tooth. I've read some of the later year episode plots on TV.COM and some of them are out there. Fleming Died in 1966 when he dove into the water filming in Peru for a movie

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah BB will likely carry it but not on street date. I just order online. I'm hoping if studio decide there is not a big enough audience for a particular show they will go the DL route thru Itunes or similar. I'm enjoying S3 of Hill Street Blues this way.

 

[Corey3rd]

The thing I encounter is people who don't live on the internet or spend time roaming the DVD shelves of Best Buy can pretty much not realize that these shows are out on DVD. The best marketing for older shows is to get them in grocery stores. A display of Rawhide next to the meat department?

 

[silverking]

You're right Dave, they never explained it. Favor just vanished along with several other regulars.After a few episodes they tried to bring in John Ireland as a semi replacement for Fleming but the show was on its last legs by then although a few of the episodes were not bad.