How many William Conrad fans? I really want to complete Cannon & Jake & The Fatman (1 Viewer)

Dan*T · Jan 31, 2015

I love both of these shows, I just recently got Cannon season 3, and would love to be able to complete it with seasons 4 & 5.

Jake & the Fatman was one of my faves that I would watch with my dad in the evening, back in the '80's.

The best Jake episodes were the Hawaii episodes, which unfortunately, never really had much of a DVD release. I hope someone will pick these up, and get them released.

GMBurns · Jan 31, 2015

Dan, I'm a huge William Conrad fan (no pun intended) so I'd be thrilled to see both those shows resumed by someone, anyone. But I fear the longer it goes, the less likely that we'll ever see further seasons. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe VEI will be the one as Cannon and Jake don't seem to fit with what Shout! is releasing these days. Maybe some wealthy entrepreneur will have sympathy on us Cannon fans, buy the rights from CBS, and re-master the whole wad in his garage. Anything would be better than the way CBS handled the first three seasons.

ChrisALM · Jan 31, 2015

Cannon would look nice restored in HD in the way so many of the other CBS shows were handled. Cannon not only wasn't restored, the first two seasons were released in two volumes and the third season was a mod. I would like to think a decent release for Cannon would be a good seller, but what do I know?

I would also like to see Nero Wolfe released.

TVonDVDJunkie05 · Jan 31, 2015

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe VEI will be the one as Cannon and Jake don't seem to fit with what Shout! is releasing these days.

VEI would be a perfect fit IMO seeing as how they released Diagnosis: Murder which was a Jake and the Fatman spin-off series. However, I suspect that VEI might not think they will sell well enough thus why they have not acquired the rights to either series?! I was thinking that Jake and the Fatman would wind up MOD like Cannon but CBS's MOD program seems to be quite non-existent as they haven't released much of anything recently except for the final season of Becker. I know some might not like MOD (myself included) but its better then nothing.

HenryDuBrow · Feb 1, 2015

GMBurns said:
Dan, I'm a huge William Conrad fan (no pun intended) so I'd be thrilled to see both those shows resumed by someone, anyone. But I fear the longer it goes, the less likely that we'll ever see further seasons. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe VEI will be the one as Cannon and Jake don't seem to fit with what Shout! is releasing these days. Maybe some wealthy entrepreneur will have sympathy on us Cannon fans, buy the rights from CBS, and re-master the whole wad in his garage. Anything would be better than the way CBS handled the first three seasons.

That's a good idea, why some loaded Hollywood guy like Spielberg or somebody like that, who'll just happen to be a fan (after all they grew up on this TV stuff too) doesn't see a personal interest in this, is beyond me. I know I'd do as a fan if I could and it'd cost peanuts to them, so why not a famous fan doing a bit of good for TV history. I know, it's another pipedream but what the heck.

HenryDuBrow · Feb 1, 2015

TVonDVDJunkie05 said:
VEI would be a perfect fit IMO seeing as how they released Diagnosis: Murder which was a Jake and the Fatman spin-off series. However, I suspect that VEI might not think they will sell well enough thus why they have not acquired the rights to either series?! I was thinking that Jake and the Fatman would wind up MOD like Cannon but CBS's MOD program seems to be quite non-existent as they haven't released much of anything recently except for the final season of Becker. I know some might not like MOD (myself included) but its better then nothing.

They just might have required them, we just don't know about it. Nobody knew about The Colbys from Shout either, another CBS title and with Barnaby Jones now discontinued the chance is certainly there.

Vic Pardo · Feb 1, 2015

Conrad directed a great crime series from 1959 called "This Man Dawson," starring Keith Andes. Many episodes of it were up on YouTube, but the channel they were on was closed down for copyright violations.

He was in an episode of "Bat Masterson" that I wrote about on my blog recently:

https://briandanacamp.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/asian-stars-on-american-tv-lisa-lu-in-bat-masterson-hong-kong-and-coronado-9/

Here's a pic of him from that episode:

bronson · Feb 2, 2015

And please don´t forget Conrad´s other Show "Nero Wolfe"......

TVonDVDJunkie05 · Feb 2, 2015

Cannon Season 1 & 2 have now gone out of print, according to Michael's Movie Mayhem. I think this opens the door for someone else to step in and re-release this show, ideally as a complete series set.

Season 3 appears to be still available- anyone know how long MOD shows are made available, do they go out of print eventually like regular DVD releases?!

MCCLOUD · Feb 4, 2015

William Conrad is one of my all time favorite actors! Cannon is one of my all time favorite shows! I sure wish CBS Paramount would have released Cannon HD mastered like they have done for practically all of their shows! In terms of DVD CBS Paramount has never treated Cannon with any respect at all! Cannon Season 1 and 2 is still available on Amazon and other webdsites. I do not think it has gone out of print. On Amazon they even state that they have more on the way so I think the information about Cannon being out of print is incorrect!

Take Care!

Robert

ponset · Feb 6, 2015

William Conrad is a favorite of mine. Would love to see CANNON Seasons 3-4 plus the TV movie "The Return of Frank Cannon".

Conrad was the voice of MATT DILLION on "Gunsmoke" the radio series.

Plus many other radio shows: Escape, SUSPENSE, The Whistler, among many other radio series.

GMBurns · Feb 6, 2015

ponset said:
William Conrad is a favorite of mine. Would love to see CANNON Seasons 3-4 plus the TV movie "The Return of Frank Cannon".

Cannon is my all-time favorite entirely due to William Conrad's charisma. He mostly played villainous types in his earlier tv work, but he has true star power. I love how Frank Cannon can be tough with the bad guys and tender with the victims. He always gets his man, but he also seems to be just as interested in how his newest soufflé recipe turns out. And his willingness to poke fun at his size is very endearing. The plots on Cannon are pretty much interchangeable with other detective shows of that era, but William Conrad is just so much fun to watch.

phenri · Feb 6, 2015

GMBurns said:
Cannon is my all-time favorite entirely due to William Conrad's charisma. He mostly played villainous types in his earlier tv work, but he has true star power. I love how Frank Cannon can be tough with the bad guys and tender with the victims. He always gets his man, but he also seems to be just as interested in how his newest soufflé recipe turns out. And his willingness to poke fun at his size is very endearing. The plots on Cannon are pretty much interchangeable with other detective shows of that era, but William Conrad is just so much fun to watch.

I agree. Finishing Cannon and Barnaby Jones will complete two of my holy grail titles.

William Conrad has always been fun to watch as Cannon. He completely carries the show and his character doesn't put up with any crap. I love when criminals underestimate him.

Cannon also has great guest stars, which is a component of all Quinn Martin programs. This show needs to be finished!

conradfan · Sep 26, 2020

MCCLOUD said:
William Conrad is one of my all time favorite actors! Cannon is one of my all time favorite shows! I sure wish CBS Paramount would have released Cannon HD mastered like they have done for practically all of their shows! In terms of DVD CBS Paramount has never treated Cannon with any respect at all! Cannon Season 1 and 2 is still available on Amazon and other webdsites. I do not think it has gone out of print. On Amazon they even state that they have more on the way so I think the information about Cannon being out of print is incorrect!

Take Care!

Robert

Malcolm R · Sep 26, 2020

Cannon: The Complete Collection and Jake & the Fatman: The Complete Collection are available on DVD from PBS:

Cannon

Jake and the Fatman

conradfan · Sep 26, 2020

Hello Robert,
I'm Keith (aka conradfan), a huge William Conrad fan also.
Did you once run a yahoo group celebrating the Cannon TV series ?
If so, is that group now defunct ? I read recently that all yahoo groups will soon be closed down :-(
I very much enjoyed posting on that fan group.

Also for anyone interested, a couple of nice pieces of William Conrad trivia :-
1) He directed the suspense movie 'Two on a Guillotine'. In the movie he makes an 'uncredited Alfred Hitchcock-style' appearance where he plays a fairground visitor who grins as he stares at his slimmed-down image in a hall of mirrors.
2) William Conrad owned the actual black statuette prop used in the movie 'The Maltese Falcon'. It was given to him as a gift by Warner Bros Studio boss Jack Warner. The prop was worth a huge sum of money

jcroy · Sep 26, 2020

Malcolm R said:
Cannon: The Complete Collection and Jake & the Fatman: The Complete Collection are available on DVD from PBS:

Cannon

Jake and the Fatman

The covers look like the same ones released by VEI. (ie. The VEI logo on the spines).

Most likely VEI was able to convince/contract PBS' online store to carry their dvd releases.

Malcolm R · Sep 26, 2020

Yep, I can see the VEI logo on the spines.

sjbradford · Sep 27, 2020

Did Jake ever run in syndication? Never saw it in my market, and can’t remember if it ever ran on cable. I always thought it was odd that it rains five seasons and just disappeared.

Conrad was certainly an unlikely leading man. But he had a lot of screen presence and was fun to watch. These days, it seems like having model-perfect looks is a prerequisite for getting a lead role.

The Obsolete Man · Sep 27, 2020

sjbradford said:
Did Jake ever run in syndication? Never saw it in my market, and can’t remember if it ever ran on cable. I always thought it was odd that it rains five seasons and just disappeared.

Conrad was certainly an unlikely leading man. But he had a lot of screen presence and was fun to watch. These days, it seems like having model-perfect looks is a prerequisite for getting a lead role.

Any role in a US production, from the looks of it.

Watch a 70s, 80s show, most people look like real people.

Now? Everyone's a model, from the lead to the extras.

Makes me appreciate British TV more. People look like people.

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