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T.H.E. Cat Prints (1 Viewer)

Frank Soyke

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I watched the available episodes on YouTube and man the prints look terrible. I recall trying to find these episodes when I was heavy into trading VHS tapes and 16mm prints with other TV collectors in the early 90's. I only found about 6 or 7 of the 26 that aired and the ones I did find were horrible quality transfers. To this date, I have not seen even one decent copy of one of any of the episodes. This leads me to believe that even if a distributor wanted to release it, there might not be enough usable prints around to do it. It's a shame because it's probably in my top 5 grail shows left. I'm not even sure of the ownership of this show either. Anybody know something I don't?
 

Reed Grele

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Funny story: When my best friend and I were kids back in the sixties, we used to watch T.H.E. Cat. Anyway, my friend somehow got hold of a large grappling hook attached to a long, heavy duty rope (similar to the one Mr. Cat used on some of the shows) which we then used to carry all around town looking for things to climb with it.

It weighed a ton! It's a wonder that we didn't bust our heads open as we were throwing it hither and yon.

I can't imagine what the neighbors must have thought as they watched us walking along the streets with that monstrosity.

Boy, those were the days! :lol:
 

Cowboy

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T.H.E. Cat would also be one of my holy grail releases too.Years ago I got
the series on vhs,they were complete from film.Half are faded color and the
rest are black and white.The seller said years ago they ran the show in
Canada and the only prints they could find were in poor shape and half
in black and white.
 

Charles Ellis

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Has anyone checked NBC/Universal? The master negatives may be in their vaults, as it was produced by the network. If that is the case, it's ideal for Timeless Media Group to release it- as long as the proper elements are found.
 

Neil Brock

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Charles Ellis said:
Has anyone checked NBC/Universal? The master negatives may be in their vaults, as it was produced by the network. If that is the case, it's ideal for Timeless Media Group to release it- as long as the proper elements are found.
Yes, you are correct that the show would be with NBC/Universal. The prints that ran in Canada were so red as to be barely watchable. There was an announced movie remake a couple of years ago which no doubt would have led to a series release but that seems to have gone away.
 

Charles Ellis

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Considering that Robert Loggia is still alive, it would be great to have him do commentaries for episodes.
 

Silverking

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I saw Robert Loggia at a Film Festival last year. Sadly he is not in very good shape & wasn't able to partake in panel discussions, probably wouldn't be able to do commentaries.
 

Reed Grele

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If you're a Robert Loggia fan, you have to watch the Family Guy episode where Peter gets stuck behind Robert Loggia at the airport. The episode is called "Peter's two Dads"...season 5, episode 10.
 

Frank Soyke

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I just watched a bunch of them tonite. For those of you that have never seen it, it is truly a wonderful show. Great guest stars. Just watched one with Ted Knight and Albert Salmi and another with James Whitmore and Jack Gilford. Even if you don't like the plots, Lalo Schiffrin's music is worth checking it out. Too bad we will probably never see a proper release. I would love to see what those wonderful late 60's colors look like in remastered form.
 

Sky Captain

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Frank Soyke said:
I watched the available episodes on YouTube and man the prints look terrible. I recall trying to find these episodes when I was heavy into trading VHS tapes and 16mm prints with other TV collectors in the early 90's. I only found about 6 or 7 of the 26 that aired and the ones I did find were horrible quality transfers. To this date, I have not seen even one decent copy of one of any of the episodes. This leads me to believe that even if a distributor wanted to release it, there might not be enough usable prints around to do it. It's a shame because it's probably in my top 5 grail shows left. I'm not even sure of the ownership of this show either. Anybody know something I don't?
Better hope that the movie (or a TV series remake) happens again at Universal, so that the company will spend some money on two seasons of DVD's based on an interest in the show.
 

Ian K McLachlan

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I would really like to see this series released and feel that it would do well if it was.
 

Cowboy

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Charles Ellis said:
Has anyone checked NBC/Universal? The master negatives may be in their vaults, as it was produced by the network. If that is the case, it's ideal for Timeless Media Group to release it- as long as the proper elements are found.
Years ago I got a vhs set of T.H.E Cat from film.The seller said NBC no longer
has any prints.They dumped a ton of their 1960's series to make room for newer
titles.The show ran once in syndication in Canada in 1985.
 

Jack P

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Cowboy said:
Years ago I got a vhs set of T.H.E Cat from film.The seller said NBC no longer
has any prints.They dumped a ton of their 1960's series to make room for newer
titles.The show ran once in syndication in Canada in 1985.
It's no surprise that NBC/Universal would have dumped all their 16mm prints since that's what we know happened with all the other titles Timeless has used for DVD releases. But one would have to presume that the original 35mm elements remain locked away in the same inaccessible place that the 35mm masters for shows like 50s Dragnet are and that absent a cable deal, there's no hope of seeing them brought out for a new set of masters.
 

Neil Brock

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I love this show and while a nice clean remastered set would be nice, I'm glad that I have it in any form. I just don't see that a release seems likely at this point as that movie idea appears to have died on the vine. But there were a lot of cool shows from the 60s that didn't last. What about Man Who Never Was, Blue Light, Garrison's Gorillas, Run Buddy Run, Double Life of Henry Phyfe, Man Called Shenandoah, Coronet Blue, My Friend Tony, The Outsider, The Richard Boone Show. I could go on and on with this list. The point is, unless its a genre show, like a western or science fiction, there's just not enough of a market to justify releases. Those of us in this forum are for the most part, knowledgable TV people, but 99.9% of the public has no memory of shows which came and went over 4 decades ago and that haven't been seen since.
 

Neil Brock

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Better hope that the movie (or a TV series remake) happens again at Universal, so that the company will spend some money on two seasons of DVD's based on an interest in the show.
The show ran for one season.
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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Here's something interesting I just found... a year ago, someone uploaded to YouTube an Italian-dubbed print of the third episode of T.H.E. CAT, "Payment Overdue", directed by Boris Sagal (director of THE OMEGA MAN, father of TV star Katey Sagal) with guest stars Laura Devon, Paul Stewart, Don "Red" Barry and Dean Harens.


What's interesting is that it isn't the usual total-garbage print (a heavily-faded/red or black & white multi-generation dupe) from a collector's stash, but a more solid print (albeit with subdued color and some visual dings here and there) --and allowing for compression-- that apparently ran on Italian TV... and the station bug in the lower right corner would indicate this was broadcast in fairly recent times. Not only is it dubbed into Italian, but the main title card has the episode title written in Italian. Far from perfect --there's enough minor print damage to highlight the fact that this isn't a digital restoration-- but it is of substantially better quality than I've ever seen before with this show:





This raises some questions...


When exactly did this re-run air? The network bug looks to me like it's from no earlier than sometime in the 1990s. Was the entire series shown? If so, would a separate, Italian-language set of prints be vaulted in Italy (or another European location), which were transferred to digital in recent times from 1-inch tape in the 1980s-90s, on their own initiative... or, were/are they vaulted at Universal's facilities in the U.S.?


Maybe there are no easy answers... but, as you can see from the video, this is an exciting, unjustly-neglected, ahead-of-its-time gem of an action/adventure/crime series that truly deserves to be resurrected for disc, streaming and broadcast in the English-speaking world. It's also, unquestionably, my #1 'grail' series.


Imagine this as a regular weekend treat on MeTV, Decades or Cozi, a 26-episode binge-fest on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime, and in a stylish DVD/Blu set from Shout Factory.
 

Professor Echo

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I missed this thread when it originally ran and wish I had more to add to it other than to say it is a Holy Grail series for me as well. The scripts are erudite, the direction original and compelling and the acting superb. Truly one of the most buried gems from its era or any other era in TV history.


I too have the alternate set that's floating around, though mine also has some 16mm copies on it, so it's not all the Canadian versions. However, it is in bad shape, often unwatchable, so anything even close to a quality release would be most appreciated. Even if it ran a bit time sped on the channels Peter mentioned, I wouldn't care as long as it was clear and uncut.


This series deserves to be seen and revered.
 

Frank Soyke

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Love the show. My "alternate" set is pretty decent with a few glaring exceptions. On the eps with better quality, the colors on this show were incredible. Great music too. Wish we could get a proper release.
 

Frank Soyke

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In my dream world, a DVD release of this show would include the ultimate extra. My favorite all time TV commerical, Robert Loggia for Minute Maid.
 

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