BONANZA! at last!!!! (1 Viewer)

Color me delighted to see this! Bonanza DVD news: Announcement for Bonanza - The Official 1st Season, Volume 1 and Bonanza - The Official 1st Season, Volume 2 | TVShowsOnDVD.com
Barring music remaining intact, this should be a hot seller as it's a long awaited release of a classic TV Western. Speaking for myself, I saw it when I was a kid in syndication along with Ironside and haven't really watched in years, so to start with a first season release is excellent.

This is great news! I've purposely held-off purchasing any of the many PD releases in the hope of an eventual official studio release, so I'm more than ready for these sets!!
As far as the music, there really shouldn't be any problem. As far as I can recall all of the music that was used for the underscores was composed originally for this series.

It's about time. I have been waiting for this for some time.

If you want it, I would suggest that you go ahead and lock in for it ASAP, as, from what I've heard, pre-orders not only lock you in for something that you want, but also help sales, therein increasing the chances of future releases. That proved true for me at least once-- I pre-ordered my copy of the #5 "Five-O" release, and not only did it come, #6 was also released. Apparently, my pre-order of #5 from Best Buy proved somewhat instrumental in the release of #6.

Depending on the time frame for the other Seasons (and whether Paramount splits them months apart) I may still purchase some complete Season box sets from Germany where they have also been released officially. 70 - 80.00 each though, occasionally cheaper. Good news just the same.

Brent Avery said:

Depending on the time frame for the other Seasons (and whether Paramount splits them months apart) I may still purchase some complete Season box sets from Germany where they have also been released officially. 70 - 80.00 each though, occasionally cheaper. Good news just the same.

Click to expand...

I have three of the German sets, which are fine, but with middling picture quality. From Paramount's recent (visual) track record, I have a feeling the transfers will be excellent, which could tempt me to double-dip. They've transferred season 1 to HD, so I would bet we're going to get something more like Hawaii 5-0, as opposed to the murky Cannon DVDs.

i will definitely buy this set.

I do like how they're offering a bundle of both halves; if they MUST release half-seasons, then this is the way to do it. I wish they'd do the same for Love Boat, Dynasty and Melrose Place--the wait for those titles has become impossible.
Btw--was Bonanza always in color from day one?

Count me in. I'll jump on the horse and shout Yahoo! if they get either Adam or some Bonanza guest/expert to toss in some commentaries...

Bonanza was in color from it's start. I believe it holds the record for being the first hour-long TV drama series produced in color.

Does anyone know, where the music comes from that replaces the original theme on some of the PD releases of Bonanza? Are these replaced theme episodes actually licenced from Paramount? Or why it's O.K. for the original theme to still be used within the show as part of the episode's underscore?

As long as David Rose's title theme and score are intact, I'm thrilled about this release! One of my favorite background songs ever was "Hoss's theme," always played whenever there was a humorous scene surrounding Hoss. I really hope the original music is kept.

Excellent news!! Thought this day would never come.

Very welcome news! Now fingers crossed for all seasons. ;-)

Would it have killed CBS/Paramount to release this as a complete season set? Instead they do it as a split season, available the same day, bundled together if you want, but still costing you double.

Bob Gu said:

Does anyone know, where the music comes from that replaces the original theme on some of the PD releases of Bonanza? Are these replaced theme episodes actually licenced from Paramount? Or why it's O.K. for the original theme to still be used within the show as part of the episode's underscore?

Click to expand...

Some episodes of Bonanza are now in public domain because the rights holder did not renew the copyright when it expired after 28 years. The music however is still protected. In order to release the PD episodes, the companies releasing them had to change the music. I am sure the new music did not come from CBS/Paramount as the PD releases were not authorized by them. As they are PD, they don't need CBS/Paramount permission. I am surprised the music is still used in the underscore of PD episodes. I would think the PD company could be sued by the David Rose estate or CBS/Paramount if this was a work for hire, if that is true and if the copyright owner decided to spend the money to file a lawsuit. There is something called fair use, where small amounts of music that is under copyright protection can be used without paying a royalty. Perhaps that is how the underscoring is used without permission.
CBS/Paramount could start going after the PD releases if indeed they use music that is still copyrighted. That is what happened to all the PD versions of "Its a Wonderful Life" CBS/Paramount or Republic or Lionsgate or whoever had the rights at the time successfully made the claim that while the film had gone PD, the music in the film was still protected by copyright. All the PD tapes disappeared as well as all the showings of the film on TV except for the licensed version shown on NBC.

HenryDuBrow said:

Very welcome news! Now fingers crossed for all seasons. ;-)

Click to expand...

Yes, but if that happens....20 years is a long time to collect a dvd series.

I agree if they have to Split the Seasons then release them both the same day, if the prices stay the same as Mod Squad and Gunsmoke then they should be had for around $22 a set, and $44 for a season of vintage tv I don't consider to be all that bad...
P.S. CBS..now please finish Rawhide.

Bryan^H said:

Yes, but if that happens....20 years is a long time to collect a dvd series.

Click to expand...

Some of us may just want the "Little Joe", Hoss, and Adam years. That would be the first four seasons and Volume 1 of the fifth season.

Joseph Bolus said:

Some of us may just want the "Little Joe", Hoss, and Adam years. That would be the first four seasons and Volume 1 of the fifth season.

Click to expand...

At best I'll go that far. Actually I'll give Season 1 a try and see how it sits with me now (versus years ago). I know the show went a lot more to sets rather than location shooting starting in Season 3 and that's a big deal to me. I love RAWHIDE so much in part because of the beautiful location shots, so at whatever point I feel BONANZA is getting claustrophobic is when I'll bow out.
Gary "there's nothing like watching a western that actually looks like it's taking place out west (as opposed to in a studio)" O.

I dunno, the idea of the effort to do the entire run of Gunsmoke and Bonanza intrigues me. If the sales support the effort, go with it. Heck, they did the whole run of Dark Shadows on DVD, so why not?

Regretfully, the list of shows I'm interested in and want to try continues to grow.