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

Ron Lee Green

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Now that I've seen several episodes of "Our Miss Brooks" on MeTV, I'm reminded of the old saying, "Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it."

At best, I find it disappointing. Some episodes were terrible, as stupid as anything I've ever seen on television, and that's really saying something.

It's also surrealistic. The stories almost always involve just five people at a high school, Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, Walter Denton and Harriet Boynton. These five people seldom interact with anyone else at school.

You never see Miss Brooks in the classroom. Most of the time she's hanging out with Walter Denton. Why? He's supposed to be dumb and weird, which he certainly is. Why is she so close to him? And what teenage boy talks like that, except the radio character Richard Crenna stole the voice from (I can't remember the character, now)?

Everyone speaks at the top of their voice (Desilu rules, I guess), and nothing ever seems natural or real.

The 1950s had some good things in it, but I have to face the fact that 90% of it was worthless junk, just as in the decades that followed.


I felt the same way at the beginning, but I stuck with and now I find it quite funny. I don't think the first few episodes of the first season were that good IMO, and I think Eve Arden's sarcastic style takes some time getting used to, but now I enjoy it. She reminds me sort of like Maude or Rhoda.

But you're right, some of the situations seem far-fetched, and it does seem like there are only 5 people in the whole school, and I never see Miss Brooks teaching in front of a classroom. Everything seems to occur between classes or at lunch.
And Crenna does tone down his voice a lot by season 2 thankfully.
 

LouA

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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.
Death Valley Days Season 3 announced for March 21 release by Shout Factory . This was noted on the TV Shows on DVD site .
 

ChrisALM

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Death Valley Days Season 3 announced for March 21 release by Shout Factory . This was noted on the TV Shows on DVD site .

I saw that - interesting they are not sure if it will be another Walmart Exclusive.
 

BobO'Link

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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,
Additionally, those 50s era shows typically consisted of ~38 episodes per season. Almost twice the number of most modern programs. That pace continued well into the 60s. The amazing part is those shows were uniformly high quality. I think those involved with production of modern shows would self-destruct under such a schedule.

While many such programs were considered "failures" in their day they have lingering effects on all who saw, and enjoyed, them. That's why so many of us have such programs on our "Holy Grail" lists.

Another thing to consider is many British programs have "seasons" of 6-10 episodes, only increasing the count if they feel the program has a shot at US success. By that standard a 30-38 episode, single season, US program is a success.
 

RBailey

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Here's a rare TV series scheduled to begin airing on GRIT TV, the subcarrier channel for action movies and westerns...THE CALIFORNIANS, a two-season series that will begin airing at 6 am Eastern time on Monday, January 9th. I've never seen any of these episodes but the Wikipedia info makes it sound interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Californians_(TV_series)

It will be followed at 6:30 am by 3 episodes of DEATH VALLEY DAYS...new to the GRIT schedule.
 

LouA

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Here's a rare TV series scheduled to begin airing on GRIT TV, the subcarrier channel for action movies and westerns...THE CALIFORNIANS, a two-season series that will begin airing at 6 am Eastern time on Monday, January 9th. I've never seen any of these episodes but the Wikipedia info makes it sound interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Californians_(TV_series)

It will be followed at 6:30 am by 3 episodes of DEATH VALLEY DAYS...new to the GRIT schedule.
I remember watching and enjoying the Californians back in the late 50's . I don't think tat has ever been re-run.
I'm not sure if I get GRIT-TV. I have to check my FIOS listing . I hope I do!
 

Bert Greene

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I know of a small station that reran "The Californians" in the mid-1970s, so it apparently did circulate (to a minor degree) in syndication. Great news if these have been remastered. Ditto if that's going to be the case with "Tales of Wells Fargo" on Encore Westerns. I always celebrate the news of any vintage series that gets rescued from the cobwebs. It's been great seeing "Trackdown" on Me-TV as well, another item remastered in recent times, along with "Our Miss Brooks."

As for "The Californians," I recall reading of Richard Coogan's passing a year or so ago. I think he was right around 100 years old.
 

LouA

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I know of a small station that reran "The Californians" in the mid-1970s, so it apparently did circulate (to a minor degree) in syndication. Great news if these have been remastered. Ditto if that's going to be the case with "Tales of Wells Fargo" on Encore Westerns. I always celebrate the news of any vintage series that gets rescued from the cobwebs. It's been great seeing "Trackdown" on Me-TV as well, another item remastered in recent times, along with "Our Miss Brooks."

As for "The Californians," I recall reading of Richard Coogan's passing a year or so ago. I think he was right around 100 years old.
I've always wondered why Our Miss Brooks never made it to any home video format , considering the popularity of Eve Arden.
 

mmyers

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RBailey--

Where did you find the information that The Californians will run on the Grit Channel beginning January 9? I've gone to the Grit TV schedule and cannot find that show listed (they do list the Death Valley Day episodes you mention).

Thanks.
 

RBailey

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RBailey--

Where did you find the information that The Californians will run on the Grit Channel beginning January 9? I've gone to the Grit TV schedule and cannot find that show listed (they do list the Death Valley Day episodes you mention).

Thanks.


I originally found it on my Time Warner cable guide. I just looked at the Grit TV schedule on their website and the first episode "The Vigilantes Begin" is listed as airing at 6 am on the 9th of January
 

LouA

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Apparently THE MILLIONAIRE will be running on the Decades TV Channel, with a mini-marathon of shows running on Jan. 4.
 

LouA

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I saw that - interesting they are not sure if it will be another Walmart Exclusive.
According to TVSHOWSONDVD.com Death Valley Days season 3 will be released on March 21 and WILL be a Walmart exclusive . That plus the release of the Westerner means an early Spring trip to Walmart .
 

BobO'Link

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According to TVSHOWSONDVD.com Death Valley Days season 3 will be released on March 21 and WILL be a Walmart exclusive . That plus the release of the Westerner means an early Spring trip to Walmart .
That's not what the most recent news item indicates. It says the title is available for pre-order at Amazon, WM (although they currently show it OOS), and the Shout! online store.
 

Oakvale

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Not sure where to put this, but has anybody seen "The Islanders" (the early 60s show)? I don't think it even runs on MeTV or any of the other retro outfits around.
 

LouA

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Not sure where to put this, but has anybody seen "The Islanders" (the early 60s show)? I don't think it even runs on MeTV or any of the other retro outfits around.
If I remember correctly . that was a one season show produced by Warner Brother. I do remember seeing a couple of episodes back in the early 1960's and enjoying them. I don't believe this show has been on Television anywhere in a long time , possibly since it's initial run. There don't seem to be any episodes "out -there" for sale or on You tube . This would make a good show for the Warner Brothers Archives to release, unless there are music clearance issues.
 

howard1908

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actually the islanders was produced by mgm as a response to the massively popular detective shows being churbed out by warner brothers, but since it was made by mgm; warner brothers owns it and would be the one to release it on dvd.
 

RBailey

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I watched and timed the first episode of THE CALIFORNIANS today on GRIT TV. Pretty good opening show with lots of great character actors (Sean McClory, Nan Leslie, Alan Napier, James Griffith, Harry Lauter and more) and the print quality looked very good. It ran 25 1/2 minutes and seemed complete. Closing credits included a Singer logo at the top of the screen and a title card saying "Filmed in Hollywood by Desilu". At the very end, there was an SFM Entertainment logo followed by the CBS Television Distribution logo.
Only drawback (to me) is the constant wailing by the Ken Darby Singers throughout the program similar to the soundtrack of THE ADVENTURES OF JIM BOWIE series. A little of that goes a long way with me.
 

LouA

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actually the islanders was produced by mgm as a response to the massively popular detective shows being churbed out by warner brothers, but since it was made by mgm; warner brothers owns it and would be the one to release it on dvd.
Thanks for the correction! It would seem that MGM produced a number of good shows back in the 1950's -60's . Things like The Thin Man, Please Don't Eat the Daisys, Father Of The Bride, and Northwest Passage come to mind . Let's hope some of these shows get released through the Archive .
A number of MGM shows like Sam Benedict , Dr. Kildare , and Eleventh Hour have already been released by WBA .
 

LouA

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Just thought I'd mention that Shout Factory is re releasing - season 6 of Father Knows Best. This was previously a mail order only item . So now that it will available to the general public, maybe SF will issue a "complete series " box set . It's probably a pipe dream , but I' also love to see the release of the two Father Knows Best TV movies .
 

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