Blu-ray Review Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

Colt .45 has been somewhat of a holy grail title for television on disc enthusiasts. While all manor of classic shows came into print during the golden age of DVD, this title remained elusive, no longer even in syndication. After decades of unavailability, a new 4K-sourced restoration from Warner Archive has resulted in a new Blu-ray release, allowing this long-out-of-view show to be freshly appraised.



Colt .45 (1957–1960)



Released: 18 Oct 1957
Rated: N/A
Runtime: 30 min




Director: N/A
Genre: Western



Cast: Wayde Preston, Kenneth MacDonald, Donald May
Writer(s): N/A



Plot: Christopher Colt was apparently a gun salesman, but was, in fact, a government Agent tracking down notorious bad guys. His cousin Sam took the lead when the studio had contract disputes with the original star.



IMDB...

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[Adam Lenhardt]

Glad to hear this show is well-presented for those who are fans of it.

I don't know what it says about my upbringing, but I will never not think of this when I see mention of the show:

 

[Josh Steinberg]

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Great review, Josh, and a nicely balanced perspective on the merits of this show. I'm absolutely loving my set. WAC really hit it out of the park here in the audio/video quality department.

 

[Bryan^H]

Nice review Josh. I wanted to purchase this but was hesitant. I have never watched an episode of this series.
Sounds like a great set, and your review made my decision to purchase it easy.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Nice review Josh. I wanted to purchase this but was hesitant. I have never watched an episode of this series.
Sounds like a great set, and your review made my decision to purchase it easy.

I don't think you'll regret it, Bryan!

 

[LouA]

Good review! Right on the money!

 

[Matt Hough]

Wonderful review, Josh, telling someone unknown to the source material (me) everything one would need to know to make a decision on buying the set! Congrats!

 

[Robert Harris]

Nothing better than coming off of properly vaulted OCNs. Beautifully rendered to perfection. It’s interesting that WB continued producing in black & white, while Bonanza was using color in 1959. I spend a day at WB during the summer of 1961. In production for TV was 77 Sunset Strip, The Roaring 20s, Hawaiian Eye et al - all black & white.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Nothing better than coming off of properly vaulted OCNs. Beautifully rendered to perfection.

I usually review movies in projection and TV shows on a flat panel, but it was about 50/50 for this one and it looks absolutely gorgeous in projection.

 

[compson]

Nothing better than coming off of properly vaulted OCNs. Beautifully rendered to perfection. It’s interesting that WB continued producing in black & white, while Bonanza was using color in 1959. I spend a day at WB during the summer of 1961. In production for TV was 77 Sunset Strip, The Roaring 20s, Hawaiian Eye et al - all black & white.

Warner’s shows were on ABC, which didn’t air anything in color until the Fall of 1962. Bonanza was on NBC, which was part of RCA, which wanted to sell color televisions.

 

[B-ROLL]

Warner’s shows were on ABC, which didn’t air anything in color until the Fall of 1962. Bonanza was on NBC, which was part of RCA, which wanted to sell color televisions.

As it was not known which network would run the show...of the the Pilot episodes were often shot in color even though though the show might eventually be run in B&W. Both Lost in Space and The Munsters pilots were shot in color.

 

[ScottRE]

As it was not known which network would run the show...of the the Pilot episodes were often shot in color even though though the show might eventually be run in B&W. Both Lost in Space and The Munsters pilots were shot in color.

The Lost in Space pilot only shot the major effects footage in color - and they knew they were going to be a CBS series. The crash, the Cyclops, Chariot and jet pack scenes were in color as they knew ahead of time it would not be a color series that first year. However, Irwin Allen was thinking of banking these expensive shots as stock footage for use in later color seasons. Everything in space and with the main cast was in black and white for the pilot.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's pilot was in color, but broadcast with the rest of the first season in black and white.

 

[ScottRE]

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Wonderful review, Josh! Now more than ever, I want to get this series. It sounds like a fine way to spend a series of half hours. And how often does a show like this hit blu ray?!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Wonderful review, Josh! Now more than ever, I want to get this series. It sounds like a fine way to spend a series of half hours. And how often does a show like this hit blu ray?!

If for nothing else, you'll appreciate Leonard Nimoy's appearance as the heel in the season two finale.

 

[actionsub]

Nothing better than coming off of properly vaulted OCNs. Beautifully rendered to perfection. It’s interesting that WB continued producing in black & white, while Bonanza was using color in 1959. I spend a day at WB during the summer of 1961. In production for TV was 77 Sunset Strip, The Roaring 20s, Hawaiian Eye et al - all black & white.

Apples and oranges.
Bonanza was specifically commissioned in color by NBC's parent company to encourage people to buy new color TV's.
Those WB shows, on the other hand, all aired on ABC which had the stature among networks then that something like ION has today. It was 1964 until WBTV could place a series on another network's prime time schedule. In most markets, ABC programming was carried as secondary affiliation by the local NBC or CBS station. As networks share part of the cost of programming, the struggling #3 network really couldn't afford to subsidize color TV in the early 60s.

 

[B-ROLL]

Apples and oranges.
Bonanza was specifically commissioned in color by NBC's parent company to encourage people to buy new color TV's.
Those WB shows, on the other hand, all aired on ABC which had the stature among networks then that something like ION has today. It was 1964 until WBTV could place a series on another network's prime time schedule. In most markets, ABC programming was carried as secondary affiliation by the local NBC or CBS station. As networks share part of the cost of programming, the struggling #3 network really couldn't afford to subsidize color TV in the early 60s.

Also my understanding is b&W film was cheaper to process and they would have needed to provide two complete prints to the network a 35mnm and 16mm backup which were run simultaneously - The 35mm was the primary. In case the film broke, they would switch to the 16mm print to allow the telecine operator to reload the 35mm projector with the remainder of the 35mm.

 

[Kevin Antonio (Kev)]

I do

Apples and oranges.
Bonanza was specifically commissioned in color by NBC's parent company to encourage people to buy new color TV's.
Those WB shows, on the other hand, all aired on ABC which had the stature among networks then that something like ION has today. It was 1964 until WBTV could place a series on another network's prime time schedule. In most markets, ABC programming was carried as secondary affiliation by the local NBC or CBS station. As networks share part of the cost of programming, the struggling #3 network really couldn't afford to subsidize color TV in the early 60s.

I do wonder if the use of stock footage played a part in it as well. All of the WB westerns used extensive stock footage in many episodes to cut cost and save time. Had they shot in color they couldn't use the stock footage Warners had from prior films.

 

[Bob Gu]

In 1957-61, the studios were still touting spectacular color as something you would only see in theatrical movies.

They probably didn't think about color for future-proofing TV shows for reruns.

In 1957 U.S. households that had a B&W TV was about 75%. Even by 1961, it probably was less than 20% for color sets in homes.

It's interesting that some of the smaller independents went for color in the 1950s. Russell Hayden's "Cowboy G-Men" and "Judge Roy Bean". Some of the color production money came from sponsors. Kellogg's Cereal for "The Adventures of Superman" and "Wild Bill Hickok". Quaker Oats for "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon" and the last season of "The Lone Ranger". (By the way GRIT is showing the newly remastered, but edited, "Lone Ranger" episodes. The color episodes look spectacular. They reinstated the full opening on most episodes. The full opening is not on any of the official DVD releases.)

Stocks shots I've spotted in COLT.45. The riverboat footage used in two episodes, I guess is from "The Adventures of Mark Twain", along with street scenes from "Jezebel" The stagecoach crash in the Leonard Nimoy episode is from "Barracade". Indian attack scene with Michael Ansara from "The Lone Ranger"-1956 movie. Cave in sequence from "Carson City" with George Cleveland and Mickey Simpson. Simpson also has a role in the actual COLT.45 episode, to match the stock footage.

The craziest one is in the COLT.45 episode "Chain of Command". They use footage of Clint Walker from a "Cheyenne" episode which used footage from the Guy Madison feature, "The Command". Wayde Preston wears a "Cheyenne" hat to match things up.

 

[Robert Crawford]

After listening to George Feltenstein's podcast with Tim Millard, I decided to purchase this Blu-ray release to support more classic TV releases. I'm looking forward to watching this series that frankly, I never even heard of before its Blu-ray release announcement.