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"The Fugitive" (1963): Season 1; Volume 1 Rumored To Be In The Works! (1 Viewer)

David Von Pein

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From TVShowsOnDVD......

"The Fugitive has been rumored to be on-the-way to DVD from Paramount/CBS on and off for quite some time. ... But now we have a DVD release title for the very first time: 'The Fugitive - The 1st Season, Volume 1'! And the nature of it indicates that the studio has a plan: breaking up the show into half-season sets, which isn't suprising since the hour-long episodes ran for 30 weeks during it's first year on ABC."

http://tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6639

:) :emoji_thumbsup: :)

I'd prefer an 8-Disc set with all 30 first-year episodes....but I'll take Richard Kimble and Lt. Gerard any way I can get them at this point, even split in half. :)
 

Jeff#

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That's a rumor that I'm inclined to believe, because a TV series as great and as important as The Fugitive has already come to home video (VHS). It was only a matter of time until it's released in DVD format.

I'd hate to see each season split into 2 volumes, with 15 episodes for each. There have been several other shows that went that route including COMBAT! and the half-completed WISEGUY. There is no reason why The Fugitive (an hour show) can't come out as a single volume. CBS Video / Paramount delivered The Wild Wild West that way, although that show's first year had 28 episodes, not 30. Rawhide's first season was a partial, with only 16 episodes produced mostly in 1958 to premiere midseason in January 1959. However, I believe we will see the 1959-1960 season on one set.
 

Jeff_HR

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I'll take it any way I can get it as long as it is not given up on. Even in thirds!
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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Me, too. Court records clearly show that The State has sentenced the original Dr. Richard Kimble to an indefinite stay on my DVD shelf, prior to his trip to the death house. And that's regardless of whether Fate moves its huge hand or not! :D
 

beatlejam

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I agree! Probably my favorite show of all time. I used to watch it all the time on A & E 17 years ago when I was in college, and I have been eagerly awaiting its appearance on DVD. Here's hoping we get a release date soon!:)
 

Gary OS

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As most of the regulars on this forum know, this series is my personal "holy grail" of TVonDVD. It's easily the greatest show ever made, IMHO.

Gary "I feel pretty good about this current 'rumor' being solid, and I'd expect us to see a 2nd quarter release date" O.

P.S. If this series doesn't "sell" then I will know the Apocalypse is upon us.
 

Jeff Willis

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Is that one your "Holy Grail", Gary? We didn't know :) Kidding! I'm also wanting this one for a different reason. It's been so long since I've seen any of these eps that it will almost be a blind-buy for me. But, because of the HTF'ers, I'll get this one for sure. All I remember of this one is that it was Dad's favorite show and he never missed it during it's original airings.

- Jeff "I sure hope that the Apocalypse doesn't materialize" W
 

Michael Alden

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If this isn't the greatest show of all time then I don't know what is. Honestly, does anyone know a person who's seen the show that doesn't think it's great? The concept was perfect. It made sense for him to be in a different situation with different people every week. Unlike a genre show, cop, lawyer, etc., the show could vary it's story lines far greater than other shows. I just hope if Paramount releases this they do it right and go back to the 35s and don't give us those 46:30 Worldvision tapes.
 

Harry-N

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Today I had a yearning to see a FUGITIVE episode, so for kicks, I thought I'd throw in an old VHS tape from Nu Ventures Video and transfer it to DVD.

I picked the two-parter, "Landscapes With Running Figures", and transferred all of the Barry Morse intros too.

What was fun with that particular tape was that they must have used an old ABC-TV broadcast print, since it still had the half-hour station ID bumpers ("The Fugitive" will continue after station identifiction). It also had the "brought to you by" liners at both the front and back of each episode, and at the end of part 1, there was a "preview of next week" hosted by David Janssen himself. Cool stuff. I'd love for this kind of stuff to make it to DVD someday.

The downside of that particular tape was that the print was in miserable shape, shifting and jumping all over the place, with a few splotches and missing frames here and there, and general grime all over it.

Still, it made a cool DVD transfer, just for fun.

Harry
 

Dan McW

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You've probably noticed that that the NuVentures episodes with the "brought to you by" and the station-ID bumper are the only ones that run the full 50-51 minutes. I haven't watched my set in a couple of years, but it seemed that an uncut episode was paired with another uncut one on a handful of the tapes. Most of the tapes in the NuVentures series used syndicated prints for both episodes in each volume, with the run times mentioned by Michael above.

Syndicated (time-compressed and/or slightly cut) prints for another series that Worldvision had its hands on, "Combat!," appeared on Encore Action and on DVD, so I've got my fingers crossed on "The Fugitive" release.
 

Harry-N

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Yes, in fact, I can recall that after years of seeing THE FUGITIVE in syndication on both A&E and the old WOR cable service, I'd gotten used to hearing those higher-pitched-up versions. When I first played the NuVentures versions that were running at normal speed, they sounded "draggy" by comparison, particularly the two announcers on the opening narrations.

Harry
 

AndyMcKinney

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Also, don't forget those miserable Worldvision copies (at least, as shown on A&E), ditched the original episode captions and they crudely superimposed new ones over the opening moments of Act 1.Only reason I can see why they did this was, apparently, to eliminate "TONIGHT'S episode" from the soundtrack, in case some idiot out there in TV land went insane hearing the announcer say "tonight" when he could see it was daylight outside.

I'll be very surprised (but pleasantly so) if the prints they issue are completely unedited. Mid-episode bumpers, correct vintage end boards and "next week" trails would simply be icing on the cake and are, IMO, how vintage TV should always be presented on home video (like the recent Twilingt Zone sets).
 

beatlejam

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I know we're still early into 2007, but is anybody else concerned/frustrated that we haven't heard any more news about this release?

I see these other Paramount vintage shows like "The Untouchables" and "The Streets of San Francisco" coming out in the "Season One, Vol. One" style, but where is "The Fugitive"?
 

Michael Alden

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All we've heard anyway are rumors, which don't mean a thing. Until we hear some concrete news, the rumors are just that. I have no doubt we'll see this at some point and it'll be funny when the 20-something year old execs are caught by surprise when the DVDs fly off the shelves. As with many shows of this type that have not had perpetual syndication, the young-uns making decisions haven't a clue just how popular a show this is.
 

Jeff*H

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I have a job where I work with the Hollywood studio marketing execs, and the majority of the VP's are 30's and 40's.
 

TimT

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Not directly on topic, but Gord (and I love you and your site) what exactly does the average studio exec/ and or standard project rep you interact with look like?
 

Gord Lacey

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Most of them are mid/late 30s on (some are....GASP....in their 50s) for the larger studios, and some of the smaller ones. There are some young publicity people though, but they aren't involved in deciding what's being released on DVD, they're the ones that try to get people to write news stories on them.

Gord
 

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