Rocky, Bullwinkle and Friends (1 Viewer)

I have the first two (season?) sets of this series on DVD, and I know a third one is coming out in August or September. Can anyone who is pretty familiar with the somewhat complicated format and history of the show venture a guess as to how many seasons or volumes might comprise this series of releases?

I have tried to extrapolate as best I could from episode lists available online, and found it rather confusing since the show doesn't follow the standard self-contained single episode format. I had somehow come to the conclusion that the original show was three or four seasons long, but read somewhere that it ran in a reincarnated form for several more years. I don't know if that reincarnation was actually new material, or just re-organization of original material into new format.

Any R&B experts out there who can help clarify? I was really hoping the DVD releases would cover the whole series in something like three to five box sets.

In an article that appeared in (I think) USA Today some time ago, it was mentioned that Rocky and Bullwinkle ran for 5 seasons.

Most sources say the show ran five years:

Seasons One and Two:
1959-60 / 1960-61
"Rocky and His Friends," ABC

Season Three:
1961-62
"The Bullwinkle Show," NBC, Sundays, 7:00 PM ET

Seasons Four and Five:
1962-63 / 1963-64
"The Bullwinkle Show," NBC, weekend mornings

It's possible these last two seasons contained repeated material mixed in with new material on any given episode.

After 1963-64, it was rerun on ABC and syndication, with the episodes juggled around, leading to even more confusion.

TimeLife is doing an exclusive pre-release of Season 3 online on July 6th.

http://www.timelife.com/is-bin/INTER...CategoryName=1


Paul

So is this the exact same release that DeepDiscountDVD has set for September?

I would never pre-order through Tiome-Life.

Plus it appears that they're not offering the same box-set but individual, probably slimline packaging for each disc seperately.

I would much rather wait for the official street date.

It should be 5 sets, I picked up the first a while back and still haven't got through every episode, I don't think I realized how many episodes there were when I got into them. What I've watched through I've enjoyed.

Even if the packaging may wind up being a little different, I like the idea of pre-releases that Galatica and Bullwinkle are doing because it gives the die hard fans a chance to get the show early if they don't want to wait. In this day and age where seasons of shows seem to be coming out quicker and quicker, waiting a year for Bullwinkle almost seems like forever.

Paul

With the announcement that they are going to do a pre-released of the Odd Couple through Time Life's website, are they going to do a complete Rocky & Bullwinkle Season 4 release a couple of months early like they did last year on the site?


Paul

I hope so, I've been getting hooked on the series without commercials.

One advantage to gettng R&B sets is that this show has a serial format. If you've ever tried to watch this show in syndication you know how frustrating it is to try to catch it in order so you can follow the fabulously convoluted plots.

Has there been anything about the next season of Rocky & Bullwinkle coming to DVD yet?


Paul

Has there been any news on the next edition of Rocky & Bullwinkle?



Paul

Though it may have seemed that way, you're not alone, Paul.

Based on the previous release schedule, Season Four should have come out this month, so here's hoping Sony Wonder hasn't decided to end the series prematurely... especially since some of us also want our George of the Jungle DVD box set as soon as R&B is completed.

Yes, some of us do. It would be nice to get Crusader Rabbit as well but since that's owned by Fox, fat chance of that happening.

It can't be due to poor sales, I always saw the Bullwinkle listed high on the B&N list. I really wonder what happened.


Paul

I'm guessing that there aren't any immediate plans to continue with these, though there isn't any official word. (That is, I think they probably will come out, but not for a while yet.) I note that a few single-disc "best of" collections came out in the last several months, which include several of the later storylines yet to be included in the "season sets" (along with repeated segments already released). There really isn't that much more to go. In fact, Nostalgia Family Video has released all 98 syndicated "Bullwinkle Shows" on VHS. I cracked down and got the last 20 shows, which comprise almost all the R&B storylines yet to be released on DVD...and these aren't entirely original (they are the reshuffled syndicated shows compiled in the 70s) but at least they don't have redubbed music. Several have Total TV's "Commander McBragg" in them. Quality varies from excellent to semi-OK. (Are these versions of the show public domain?)

I do believe that the show did indeed fall into PD, hence the need for the official releases to put that anoying bug on the screen.

Can anyone verify/confirm this?

The reason I have even thought this in the first place is because I have seen an occasional PD-type release of some of the material, but I would think if they really were public domain, they'd be all over the place on dollar DVDs at Wal-Mart and such.

Back in the late 1980s I saw a single-volume VHS tape (released by Goodtimes) of "Fractured Fairy Tales" (only).

Goodtimes also released several volumes of "Rocky & Bullwinkle" in a VHS box set. There is a disclaimer on the box that states the set was not licensed or authorized by the Jay Ward studio "or any other entity." Now, I know lots of companies release dubious things all the time, assuming they are public domain, but Goodtimes seems to cross their Ts and dot their Is, and if they put something out, they make sure they are in the clear. (One notable exception might be the Disney stuff, but that I don't think was a copyright issue, but a trademark enforcement issue, backed by a huge corporation known for aggressively protecting its trademarks.) The Goodtimes box set contained syndicated "Bullwinkle Shows" transferred from 16mm film prints, and the NFV tapes I have seen are more of the same, probably from the same source (except the NFV tapes are at least SP).

Another company, called Bridgestone Multimedia, released a 2-VHS set called "Rocky And Bullwinkle" which had 8 B&W 16mm episodes of "Rocky And His Friends," from network prints but with most of the commercials and sponsor tags edited out. (Though they left in I believe one of each.) The tapes also included a "Rocky & His Friends" promo (the same one on the official "Season 1" DVD set). A friend tells me that WGN in Chicago used to run that promo in the 1960s when they carried reruns of the show. I notice that on the shows included in the Bridgestone set, the openings and closings on the shows do not match. An episode might have a Season 1 opening and a Season 2 closing, and the copyright dates are different. (I'm told this is what made "Fractured Flickers" fall into the public domain.)

I also saw something on line suggesting that another PD company (East/West) might be preparing a release of "Hoppity Hooper." The Goodtimes and NFV Bullwinke tapes (as I mentioned before) have the 1970s syndicated versions, some of which include Total TV's Commander McBragg. I really want to know what the status is on this stuff. I know the syndicated TV versions of all the shows officially belong to General Mills, while the original cartoons themselves belong to either Jay Ward or (in the case of Total TV shows) Classic Media. Right?

Reason for my curiosity is because I have a boatload of Tuxedo and Underdog shows on first generation DVD-R...well, nuff said.

....has anyone heard any further information on this show.....hoping that it might happen sometime soon.
thanks.