1950's Television . Westerns , Sitcoms , Variety , Drama , etc . (1 Viewer)

[LouA]

Just thought I'd mention that a Alpha Home Video has released a
4 episode DVD of the Calvin and the Colonel which was an early 60's cartoon takeoff on Amos and Andy. The show was pretty good , haven't gotten the DVD yet so I can't comment on quality.
Meanwhile , speaking of Amos And Andy , a company called Restoration Filmworks has released a 20 DVD box set with book which they are claiming has the best quality ever for this show , and some newly unearthed episodes for about $200. Anyone buy this set ? I already have an A&A set , but I would love to get better quality .

 

[LouA]

Although it's an early 1960's lawyer show, Sam Benedict was announced by Warner Brothers Archives . I think the show is in black and white , and if I remember correctly it plays like a fifties style show like Perry Mason. If nothing else , it shows that WBA is still actively releasing older programs . Maybe there's still some hope for the detective shows . .

 

[Silverking]

I'd like to think so Lou, but it must be 7 or 8 years ago that Warners first made noises about the detective shows & there has been no word for a couple of years now. I suspect they would like to release them but clearing the rights has been too problematic or expensive..They have said that 'Roaring 20's' is a no goer . I would also like to see their remaing westerns.Colt 45' & particularly 'The Alaskans' & 'Temple Houston', these latter two have always been tough to find.

 

[LouA]

I'd like to think so Lou, but it must be 7 or 8 years ago that Warners first made noises about the detective shows & there has been no word for a couple of years now. I suspect they would like to release them but clearing the rights has been too problematic or expensive..They have said that 'Roaring 20's' is a no goer . I would also like to see their remaing westerns.Colt 45' & particularly 'The Alaskans' & 'Temple Houston', these latter two have always been tough to find.

I agree with you about the detective shows , but at least we can hope they finally get clearance . I would still think that 77 Sunset , Hawaiin Eye , etc have a decent sized fan bases who could make them successful MOD releases , but I could be wrong . I think we DO have a good chance of getting the westerns you mention.
Meanwhile while one door closes , another opens. So, It was recently announced that CBS /MOD will be releasing the western sitcom "The Best Of The West " I know that's an 80's show , but it's fairly obscure , and coupled with the recent MOD release of "How To marry A Millionaire" seems to indicate that CBS is willing to explore their archive through this program . I really hope, so even though I'm not 100% sure what shows they have available to release .

 

[Silverking]

I think 'Sunset Strip' has a higher profile than 'Sam Benedict, of course it did run a lot longer. I was actually talking to a group of people of a certain age the other week & the subject of old TV shows came up. All of them remembered 'Sunset Strip', none whatsoever recalled 'Sam Benedict' though it did play here in the UK. One person remembered 'Hawaiin Eye' & another confused it with 'Hawaii Five O' so who knows. They all said they would buy 'Sunset Strip' if it came out on dvd.

I wasn't aware CBS had an MOD programme. Glad to see 'Millionaire' & 'Best of the West' coming out though they are not ones I would purchase. I'd love to see CBS do the short lived western 'Gunslinger' which I think they own.

One old sitcom just started playing on a TV station in the UK is 'Hey Jeannie' with Jeanne Carson, think its 50's, not sure of its 'rare' or not.

 

[LouA]

I think 'Sunset Strip' has a higher profile than 'Sam Benedict, of course it did run a lot longer. I was actually talking to a group of people of a certain age the other week & the subject of old TV shows came up. All of them remembered 'Sunset Strip', none whatsoever recalled 'Sam Benedict' though it did play here in the UK. One person remembered 'Hawaiin Eye' & another confused it with 'Hawaii Five O' so who knows. They all said they would buy 'Sunset Strip' if it came out on dvd.

I wasn't aware CBS had an MOD programme. Glad to see 'Millionaire' & 'Best of the West' coming out though they are not ones I would purchase. I'd love to see CBS do the short lived western 'Gunslinger' which I think they own.

One old sitcom just started playing on a TV station in the UK is 'Hey Jeannie' with Jeanne Carson, think its 50's, not sure of its 'rare' or not.

Gunslinger would be great . At this point , who knows what CBS will release . It will be interesting though!

 

[AlanP]

How about "Make Room For Daddy"????

 

[LouA]

How about "Make Room For Daddy"????

I don't believe CBS owns it at this stage . I'd love to see the complete series released . The show was quite popular in it's day, as was it's star. Seasons 3 and 4 were release by two different companies , but I don't think they were successful and no other seasons were released .
Still it's possible we might see more of the series on MOD.

 

[LeoA]

Sadly, I think that if that publisher was serious about MOD releases, something would've happened by now. Plans must've changed.

I hate to say it, but it's hard to fault them. Just look at ourselves in this small community. This forum loves classic tv, yet the near complete absence of one of the biggest hits from the 50's and 60's seems to have barely created a ripple around here.

If we can't even care while making a fuss about dozens of other 1-2 season failures that barely anyone remembers and which haven't been seen in many instances since they were new, perhaps it's for the best from a financial point of view that they sit on it since the indifference will just be that much greater for casual classic tv fans.

It's sure a big hole in my collection though. I think at this point if I could bring any three classic tv series to completion on DVD, this would easily make the list along with My Three Sons and Ozzie & Harriet.

 

[David_B_K]

I hate to say it, but it's hard to fault them. Just look at ourselves in this small community. This forum loves classic tv, yet the near complete absence of one of the biggest hits from the 50's and 60's seems to have barely created a ripple around here.

If we can't even care while making a fuss about dozens of other 1-2 season failures that barely anyone remembers and which haven't been seen in many instances since they were new, perhaps it's for the best from a financial point of view that they sit on it since the indifference will just be that much greater for casual classic tv fans.

I'd like to defend making a fuss over the 1-2 season "failures". By today's standards, a 1-2 season show would probably be considered a failure. These days a show has to make it to a third season in order for the past seasons to be syndicated. However, shows from the 50's were not necessarily failures if they only ran a season or two. There are people still famous for having starred in a 1-season TV show at one time in their careers during that era. Also, there was no "3 season rule" for shows from the 50's, so many of them are as fondly remembered as longer-running shows because they ran longer in syndication/reruns than they did on their first run. And a video release of a 1-2 season show can be accomplished with one release as opposed to multiple season sets,

 

[LouA]

Sadly, I think that if that publisher was serious about MOD releases, something would've happened by now. Plans must've changed.

I hate to say it, but it's hard to fault them. Just look at ourselves in this small community. This forum loves classic tv, yet the near complete absence of one of the biggest hits from the 50's and 60's seems to have barely created a ripple around here.

If we can't even care while making a fuss about dozens of other 1-2 season failures that barely anyone remembers and which haven't been seen in many instances since they were new, perhaps it's for the best from a financial point of view that they sit on it since the indifference will just be that much greater for casual classic tv fans.

It's sure a big hole in my collection though. I think at this point if I could bring any three classic tv series to completion on DVD, this would easily make the list along with My Three Sons and Ozzie & Harriet.

I'm not sure what we could do to get these shows released . I always post on this site requesting favorites of mine , and I buy most vintage releases . Naturally when someone posts on here that they'd love to see a certain show released - let's say The PEOPLE"S CHOICE (a favorite of mine) , someone will say "forget it -it will never happen. " So a lot of us get discouraged .
Still, I always keep my fingers crossed . I mean look we're now getting How To Marry A Millionaire. So it's not hopeless.

 

[LeoA]

My point was that the level of interest around here for a 11 season hit seemed relatively minor. It wasn't an indictment of ourselves or an accusation that people weren't as critical of the mishandling of this property on DVD as I'd of liked, just an observation.

Many other classics with far shorter runs and far less visibility through the years have appeared to see a lot more passionate discussion around here than Make Room for Daddy has. If a publisher happened to have a representative keeping an eye out on this forum when gauging the interest in a potential project, especially in the more active years for classic tv on DVD of a decade ago, that doesn't exactly send a message that we're clamoring for this like the show's record of success would suggest we would be.

And if diehard classic tv on DVD fans are relatively quiet on that topic, it's not difficult to construe that your more casual classic tv customers that might see this on store shelves, possibly will be even more indifferent and unlikely to ultimately reward the publisher with a sale.

I imagine we mostly took it for granted that the show's reputation spoke for itself where its viability on this format was concerned. I at least think that I just assumed that the situation would work itself out to in time to at least partially our satisfaction with the bulk of the run appearing on DVD, negating the need to be up in arms over its absence and past mishandling.

But sadly, that hasn't happened yet and gets more unlikely with every passing day.

 

[LouA]

Just for the record , Make Room For Daddy season 5 ( along with season 1 of The Joey Bishop Show) was issued by Questor , season 6 was issued by S'mores . The first 4 seasons were skipped since they featured Jean Hagen as Danny's wife . She quit the show so it was rebooted with Marjorie Lord ,and that's where Questor started . I contacted Questor years ago , and asked if any more seasons of MRFD (or The Joey Bishop Show ) would be released and they told me probably not. S'mores is an undependable company - they didn't complete Mr Peepers either . SFM now owns MRFD . They've released complete runs of The Real McCoys , and The Life and Legend Of Wyatt Earp on MOD , but haven't been active lately . I really thought they would release Make Room For Daddy on MOD , but it hasn't happened yet .
Meanwhile, about 8 episodes from the Jean Hagen years pop up on "public domain" type releases .
I'd love to see the entire series released .
One last thing , it's almost scary how Danny Thomas himself has been virtually forgotten by the general public - he was such a big star back in the fifties and sixties .

 

[Flashgear]

Lou, you are so right about Danny Thomas, who was such a huge radio, television and nightclub star during the '50s and '60s...and a beloved entertainer to our parents and grandparents...and of course, also to us who were young children during those years, viewing Make Room For Daddy / Danny Thomas Show as family gathered for what was then, a much enjoyed weekly appointment viewing...not even to mention his importance as a pioneering and influential TV producer (Andy Griffith Show, Dick Van Dyke Show, many others)...or his high profile charity work and advocacy for ill and dying children through the famous St. Jude's Children's Hospital...the show itself was just plain funny and terrific entertainment...the great guest stars (and pals) like Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jimmy Durante etc...the great recurring characters like Uncle Tonoose (Hans Conried), Phil (Sheldon Leonard) and Pat (Pat Harrigan jr.)...the short run or occasional characters played by Annette Funicello, Bill Dana (Jose Jiminez), Jesse White etc...this was one of the shows we enjoyed as a family...the single 1963 episode included on the Dick Van Dyke Show complete set on blu-ray looks as spectacular as the rest of that set and makes you yearn for more...

I suppose it's not surprising, though very lamentable, that he seems to be forgotten in today's pop culture...holding an even more obscure post than, say, Danny Kaye or Dean Martin among singer / comedians from that era...pop culture recognition and notoriety is a highly perishable commodity...the current, and often remarkably untalented celebrities, can be assured of only transient short term prominence, overstaying their 15 minutes of fame by about 14 minutes...soon to evaporate from the public consciousness of even their most devoted fandom...flavor of the month and on to oblivion...

Star Vista (Time-Life) has released a splendid new set of Red Skelton's color last season episodes...one could only hope that they and Marlo Thomas could someday do the same for at least a selection of Danny Thomas shows...I'd be grateful for anything...

 

[LouA]

I've been watching Shout Factory's 1950's Johnny Carson Show release of a few years back. Very funny , and a real precursor to Johnny's routines which would show up later on the Tonight Show. Only problem with this DVD set is that it only include 10 episodes , making me wish many more were available. Does anyone have the similar Mill Creek set ?
Does it contain episodes which aren't on the SF release ?

 

[LouA]

Timeless / Shout Factory just announced the release of The Westerner starring Brian Keith . I know that 's a sixties shows, but it's another rare one season western. Who knows , eventually we may see the release of most early TV westerns , and mainly thanks to Timeless !

 

[ChrisALM]

Glad to see The Westerner coming out and glad the Walmart Exclusives are still moving forward for next year. I hope there will be more coming from the Four Star catalog through Shout/Timeless. Time will tell.

 

[LouA]

Glad to see The Westerner coming out and glad the Walmart Exclusives are still moving forward for next year. I hope there will be more coming from the Four Star catalog through Shout/Timeless. Time will tell.

Still a few westerns I'd like to see released like Trackdown , Black Saddle, Johnny Ringo, Hotel Di Paree and Hondo (some of which have been mentioned as "possibles").
I wonder if after the westerns and detective shows are exhausted , Timeless would try a some sitcoms like People's Choice, and December Bride .

 

[ChrisALM]

Some 50s and early 60s comedies would be great. I know there were some Four Star comedies - I wonder if Shout/Timeless will continue to have access to titles controlled by Fox?
When it comes to the 50s and 60's westerns, it is just about an automatic purchase for me.
I have been hoping we hear about season 3 of Death Valley Days pretty soon. I want to get more than the 2 seasons - would love to have at least all the black and white years.

 

[LouA]

Some 50s and early 60s comedies would be great. I know there were some Four Star comedies - I wonder if Shout/Timeless will continue to have access to titles controlled by Fox?
When it comes to the 50s and 60's westerns, it is just about an automatic purchase for me.
I have been hoping we hear about season 3 of Death Valley Days pretty soon. I want to get more than the 2 seasons - would love to have at least all the black and white years.

I have a "feeling" we'll get more seasons of Death Valley Days from SF/Timeless.
I checked the list of shows that are controlled by Fox . Quite an impressive list for Timeless to chose from. Let's hope they continue to do so.