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Where are the 1950s shows? (1 Viewer)

Mark To

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
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570
And I don't mean on crappy PD bootlegs. Other than I Love Lucy, has any 50s show been released? Where are these classics:

Bilco
Our Miss Brooks
Donna Reed
Leave it to Beaver
Father Knows Best
Love that Bob
People's Choice
December Bride
Dragnet
The Untouchables
Burns and Allen
Jack Benny Show


etc, etc, etc. Is there no audience for these shows? Are the people who like them too old to work a DVD player? I didn't grow up in the 50s but I saw all of these in reruns in the 60s. No offense to modern TV (it sucks IMO) but how much of this Buffy, Angel, Alias, Roswell crap can people watch. I tried these things and they're awful. A mediocre 50s show is better written than 98% of current shows.
 

Sam Favate

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Sam Favate
Warner's Adventures of Superman is supposed to be coming this year.
 

Steve...O

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Steve
Let me add my all time favorite show: "Perry Mason" to your list. I know Columbia House has these, but they're charging their normal exhorbitant prices for these.

I would also like to see a decent release of the British "Sherlock Holmes" series (the one with Ronald Howard). I have some of the PD versions, and they're barely watchable.

Steve
 

Bert Greene

Screenwriter
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Apr 1, 2004
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1,057
I've really been chomping at the bit, anxious to jump onto this tv-shows-on-dvd bandwagon with everyone else. However, my interests are almost exclusively in 50s/60s programs, and so far not much has catered to this ... other than a few warhorses that are too engrained in my memory banks to create much excitement.

No, I'm not some old-timer (unless being born in 1966 now qualifies). But, I've always loved the old shows first and foremost. I'm just about through with my most recent purchases, but I haven't quite spotted anything at the stores to follow up with. I'm eyeing that "You Bet Your Life" set with Groucho Marx, and I'm certainly looking forward to next month's "Have Gun, Will Travel" set. Also plan to get "My Favorite Martian" whenever it comes out. Other than that, I don't see very much.

As far as 50s series I'd grab in a heartbeat, it would probably be shorter to make a list of series I 'wouldn't' get. But, for the heck of it, here would be a few I'd jump at (wildly improbable though they may be):

Highway Patrol
I Married Joan
M Squad
Topper
Boston Blackie
Gunsmoke (half-hours)
Our Miss Brooks
The Real McCoys
Medic
Whirlybirds
December Bride
Waterfront
Decoy
Burns and Allen
I Led Three Lives
 

Mark To

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Messages
570
Real McCoys and Make Room for Daddy are supposedly coming as are Loretta Young and Sky King. I'll believe it when I see it. And I can't believe it but I've heard Mr. Peepers as well. That would be awesome.
 

David Grove

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 6, 1999
Messages
227
Sky King! Now there's some nostalgia for me. Every Sat. My sister watched Fury, and I wouldn't miss Sky King.
 

Page

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
219
Here's a link to some excellent boxsets of 50s shows:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/search.cfm

I own all four sets and the transfers are excellent. There are no "bugs" either. Many of the shows mentioned in this thread are included somewhere on these sets: "Dragnet, Sea Hunt, Sherlock Holmes,Sky King..."
 

Sarah R

Auditioning
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
9



I am 20yrs.old, and I love the 50's & 60's TV Shows! those are my favorite tv shows! I don't like today's tv either! Except for American Idol it is the first show on primetime tv I have liked since Dr. Quinn. I would love for the studios put out the 50's tv shows in season sets. another show i would love to see come out in season or complete series is Mr.&Mrs. North and also Life with Elizabeth and Ozzie and Harriet.


sarah
 

Tom.W

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
330
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
etc, etc, etc. Is there no audience for these shows? Are the people who like them too old to work a DVD player? I didn't grow up in the 50s but I saw all of these in reruns in the 60s.

There must be a lot of boomers as well as others who would buy 50's/60's sets in a heartbeat. Technically, some of these are 60's shows, but how about these:

M Squad
Ripcord
Everglades
Hawaiian Eye
Roaring Twenties
77 Sunset Strip
Surfside 6
Dick Powell Show
Dr. Kildare
Ben Casey
The Detectives (Robert Taylor)
87th Precinct
Saints and Sinners
Checkmate
Adventures in Paradise
Thriller

Hopefully at least one of the Warner Brothers shows listed here will be included in their future releases.
 

Mark Oates

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
875
I wonder what the policy of Hollywood studios and US broadcasters has been with regards materials from the 1950s and 1960s.

Here in the UK, there was a very destructive period in the 1970s when the BBC and the commercial broadcasters purged a great deal of material recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. They regarded old tv as "ephemeral", and hours of old monochrome stuff was either wiped or burned to clear space in their libraries. I think everybody knows how much of the old Dr Who stuff was destroyed, but dozens of other shows were affected as well. I'd hate to think anything like that might have gone on Stateside.
 

Mark To

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Messages
570
Big difference between taped shows and filmed shows. We here in the US have lost many taped shows as well. That was the selling point of tape, the fact it could be reused. But most prime time shows from the early/mid 50s on, except for variety shows, were filmed and the prints and negatives exist somewhere. There was no reason to get rid of film. Unlike tape, there was nothing to reuse. Live telecasts pretty much ended in the mid-50s here. I know they went on longer in the UK, hence no 1st season Avengers being around.
 

Carlos Garcia

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 11, 2004
Messages
1,065
Mark To, you make a valid point about videotape vs. Film. Thank god Dan Curtis had the smarts to keep all his videotapes for DARK SHADOWS. I just wonder if any of the other classic soap operas from the 60s (some of which are still being produced) still exist. That being said, let's get back to the subject at hand. I would love to see both versions of LIFE OF RILEY, the entire ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, as well as Boris Karloff's THRILLER. Also, as mentioned elsewhere on this thread, the original DRAGNET were classics, and I would love to see them complete, as well as the 60's version. Just so many great shows from these time periods that the studios keep ignoring. I wonder if they're just waiting for baby boomers to die off so they can burn all those prints? Let's face it, time is not on our side, and the longer they wait to release these, the fewer buyers will exists, who actually got to see the programs when they originally aired. That's not to say there wouldn't be blind buys, but alot more people would buy for nostalgia sake...at least I think so.
 

Sarah R

Auditioning
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
9
I also would love for the entire series of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to be released! and i also would love to see Hazel be released too!


sarah
 

Tony J Case

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2002
Messages
2,736
I picked up the Treeline 100 TV shows set from the 1950's and DAMN these things rock! I love the old cop shows like Dangerous Assignment and Racket Squad (the two faves out of the set).

Since then I've been picking up the public domain sets as I come across them - the Westerns set with a ton of Lone Ranger shows is pretty good stuff.

I wish that someone would restore and issue proper sets of these old jems - but I'll take what I can get. (and really, the PD sets arent all that bad for the price)
 

Sean.S

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 20, 2004
Messages
184
Even though I'm only 19, some of these 50s shows are much better that alot of the junk that's on currently (I dispise reality TV, for example)

I would love to see Leave it to Beaver, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, George Burns & Gracie Allen, and Father Knows Best.
 

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