The Big Valley Season One (1 Viewer)

[Brent Avery]

Sure don't remember much if anything about this series when it was originally aired - I was 11 - but it is a great series so far and I really have been enjoying it. Anyone else care to comment? Glad I bought it.

 

[Jeff#]

The Big Valley was OK as far as 1960s western dramas series go. I first saw it in 1980s reruns on CBN Cable. It was the high point of Barbara Stanwyck's long acting career, and as the widowed matriarch of a ranch she was sort of the female equivalent of Ben Cartwright. This was ABC's answer to BONANZA.

Aside from guest appearances on other shows such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, this was the breakout role for Lee Majors.

Only a few years after she played a high school student in an episode of Bachelor Father, Linda Evans was stunning, but her character of Audra was too bland.

TV series vets Richard Long and Peter Breck had both done lots of westerns previously. I wouldn't buy The Big Valley on DVD, but if the little-seen Black Saddle ever comes out that might interest me.

 

[Jeff Willis]

I received S1 today. BV has always been in my top 2-3 or TV Westerns. This one was a sure-buy for me. "When are S2 & S3 coming"?

 

[Gary OS]

Well I'll buy your copy then, Jeff#.

Seriously, this is a solid 60's western that was certainly deserving of a dvd release. I haven't purchased my copy yet, but it's on my buy list for sure!

Gary "we need a heck of a lot more classics like this released, but at least we are making some headway" O.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I just returned from Tower Records and I bought The Big Valley on sale for 19.99!!! I was shocked because that's lower then any online retailer I've seen! The reason why I think its a possible misprice is two reasons: 1.) When the dvd was announced, it was given a MSRP of 39.99, but Tower, which normally sells dvds at MSRP, has a sticker on back that says 29.99.; and 2.) They had a sign above the rack announcing the sale that said Big Valley Season 1/Volume 1, but this is the COMPLETE season 1, which makes me think that originally this show was planned to be split into 2 volumes, like FOX did with Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which makes more sense price-wise. Hurry over!(Sale ends 6/12)

 

[Jeff#]

Just a brief comment here:

Although BONANZA was the better series overall, Bruce Dern gave a superb guest performance when he guest starred on The Big Valley. His 2 episodes of BONANZA were disappointing.

 

[Jeff#]

Typing of BONANZA, how come Paramount never had the sense to put them out in remastered season sets? Those public domain releases of the same 20 episodes over and over were a disaster.

 

[Mark-P]

Well I couldn't disagree with you more. "The Big Valley" was always my favorite TV western even though I will admit that "Gunsmoke" was probably edgier and was better written with more realistic adult themes. But I loved the strength of Victoria Barkley and the relationship of all the brothers.

But as for "Bonanza", well in MY opinion, it played more like a spoof of a western with all the hokey brawling and bad attempts at humor.

I've already ordered "The Big Valley" season one. I'd like to collect "Gunsmoke" too but only if they release complete seasons. I'm not interested in owning the sampler package that's available now.

 

[Jeff#]

We agree there, because GUNSMOKE has always been a favorite of mine going back to my discovering all of these old shows in 1980s cable reruns. Do you get the Westerns Channel? I used to on my old cable system in 2001-02, and I recorded almost all of the hour-long black & white episodes they own from the 7th through 11th seasons. I got them off-air on DVD-R discs --- 4 to a disc in LP speed. They were uncut, commercial-free, and excellent quality film prints. So for those 5 years of the series you won't need season sets...providing Westerns Channel still runs it currently.

This year, thanks to my subscribing to Sirius Satellite Radio (which has Radio Classics on channel 118), I also discovered classic radio shows of my old TV favorites. Among them are GUNSMOKE (starring William Conrad as Matt Dillon) and Have Gun, Will Travel.(with John Dehner as Paladin). You might want to check them out too. Public domain sites offer downloads of hundreds of episodes in Mp3 format for FREE.

 

[Duane Alford]

I went to Best Buy, found it for $32.99. Went to WalMart and found it for $19.99 Needless to say, I wasn't passing it up. Now as soon as I get through Dukes Of Hazzard Season 5 and this, 15 more to pick up! :frowning:

 

[Randy Korstick]

Gotta agree with you Mark. I love Westerns and TV Westerns. Gunsmoke would be my favorite TV Western. The Big Valley would be somewhere in my top 10, probably somewhere between 7-10 but Bonanza is one that I have never been able to get into and have always found it to be one of the most overrated TV shows in history.

 

[Brian Himes]

I love the Big Valley. I'm so glad that I got season one. I just hope that it sells well enough for the rest of the series to come out.

 

[Michael Alden]

I'm recording them to DVD from their daily airings on Encore Westerns. As they come out, I'll get rid of the discs but this way if they do a season or two and stop at least I'll have them. At 32 cents a disc for top of the line Japanese media, it's not a big investment.

 

[Brian Himes]

Unfortunately, not all of us out there have a recordable DVD player.

 

[Gary OS]

Boy, I hope that's a solid price in WalMarts across the country! I'll be swinging by the one in my town in another hour or so to see if I can snag it for this price. Even with tax, if that price holds it will be much cheaper than anywhere else.

Gary "if WalMart's price here isn't $19.99, I might try the Sam's Club because it's right next door - either way I'd love to get in on that low price for such a great series" O.

 

[MattHR]

Thanks for the Wal-mart tip. I just picked my copy up for only $19.96. I was planning on getting it at Best Buy, so you saved me $13.

 

[Jeff#]

DVD recorders have really come down in price, Brian, and are very affordable now!

3+ years ago I bought my first one -- a Panasonic DMR-E30. It retailed for $700, but I got it for $500 at Radio Shack. This year I had to replace it, and the much newer mid 2005 model, the Panasonic DMR-ES20 was just $169 at Circuit City. It's more lightweight and can also handle additional disc formats over the older models.

Most consumer DVRs are under $200, the reason I like Panasonic is that they are among the few that use DVD-RAM discs. Those used to be $17 a disc, and now they're about $2.50 apiece. One disc can literally be recorded onto a few hundred times with no noticeable loss in quality. Of course for GUNSMOKE in 2003 I used all DVD-R discs because I only had to record onto them once (well 4 times for 4 episodes). DVD-R's are about 50 cents to $1 each on the average.

Panasonic also champions the Time Slip feature, which is handy if you're in the middle of recording a show or movie off the cable and want to watch it from the beginning while it continues to record simultaneously.

 

[Michael Alden]

I have 4 of them, all Panasonic. My first 2 didn't have the hard drive on them but they were also originally $2000 machines that had come down to about $600 when I bought them 4 years ago. To not have a DVD recorder now doesn't really make sense if you are any kind of a collector at all. By then we've seen many people on this board who just want stuff handed to them as opposed to actually doing any work.

 

[Gary OS]

I can also now confirm the $19.96 price at WalMart. I usually don't like to feed the Evil Empire, but that price simply wasn't going to be beat.

Gary "the cover really 'wowed' me too - it was one of the nicer, classier box art covers that I've seen in some time" O.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah I loved it when It ran and in the Years since then I've become somewhat of a Fan of Westerns. I was surprised to learn some of the producers of The Rifleman are in evidence here. I wish they were'nt on Double sided disks but the transfers are nice...