combat on dvd (1 Viewer)

[paul pisano]

I know they released the series on DVD. Wondering if they will release it on BLU? The transfer material for the DVD release was poor in nature IMHO.

 

[borisfw]

I Love Combat. Was a childhood favorite for me. I would upgrade to Blu ray but i won't hold my breath waiting.

 

[ScottRE]

The first four seasons were done badly, using the time compressed Worldvision prints. The final season, in color, was done quite nicely. Upgraded prints and at the proper speed. I blu would be nice, but unless a niche label wants to take it on, hopes are low. And the way things are, Mill Creek would pack the episodes onto fewer discs to save space and thus sacrifice clarity.

 

[BobO'Link]

I Love Combat. Was a childhood favorite for me. I would upgrade to Blu ray but i won't hold my breath waiting.

And if it *were* to happen and Mill Creek is the distributor I'd wait for a slew of true reviews before taking the plunge. Their quite sub-par I Dream of Jeannie BR is the release that's caused me to be more cautious with them. And it's sad, as they *do* have several very good BR releases - things I highly recommend.

 

[JohnHopper]

The first four seasons were done badly, using the time compressed Worldvision prints. The final season, in color, was done quite nicely. Upgraded prints and at the proper speed. I blu would be nice, but unless a niche label wants to take it on, hopes are low. And the way things are, Mill Creek would pack the episodes onto fewer discs to save space and thus sacrifice clarity.

It’s a Disney property so it’s not good news.
Oddly enough, Image Entertainment released fabulous Twilight Zone DVDs with restored prints.

 

[BobO'Link]

I forgot about it now being under the Disney umbrella. We'll never see it on even properly done DVDs, much less BR. It *might* show up on streaming in a corrected format but not physical.

 

[LeoA]

Combat! is owned by CBS/Paramount and was released by Image! in the same deal that included 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and 'The Twilight Zone'. ABC hasn't been connected with the series for many decades.

I'm not familiar though with how the ownership situation changed. Did CBS purchase Selmur Productions from ABC back in the day? Or perhaps was it when Worldvision was folded into Paramount back around the turn of the century (Worldvision was formed in the early 70's when the FCC forced the networks to sell or spin off their distribution units, with ABC Film Syndication being sold off and renamed Worldvision).

Either way one can see some evidence of what I'm talking about on the CBS Syndication Bible where one will see Combat! listed and available for syndication. And quite possibly they'll see evidence of the current ownership by checking out the fine print on the back of their DVD releases of the show. I sadly dragged my feet too long and didn't purchase those sets, and have been leery of buying them in the secondary marketplace since then due to the apparent abundance of bootlegs for the show (The Image sets were a bit pricey and underproduced, leaving a lot of untapped demand).

 

[paul pisano]

Mill creek always makes me nervous about their products. They put the hunter TV series out. All the original songs were gone, and some discs had 6 episodes on them and would not play.

 

[ScottRE]

Combat! is owned by CBS/Paramount and was released by Image! in the same deal that included 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and 'The Twilight Zone'. ABC hasn't been connected with the series for many decades.

I'm not familiar though with how the ownership situation changed. Did CBS purchase Selmur Productions from ABC back in the day? Or perhaps was it when Worldvision was folded into Paramount back around the turn of the century (Worldvision was formed in the early 70's when the FCC forced the networks to sell or spin off their distribution units, with ABC Film Syndication being sold off and renamed Worldvision).

Either way one can see some evidence of what I'm talking about on the CBS Syndication Bible where one will see Combat! listed and available for syndication. And quite possibly they'll see evidence of the current ownership by checking out the fine print on the back of their DVD releases of the show. I sadly dragged my feet too long and didn't purchase those sets, and have been leery of buying them in the secondary marketplace since then due to the apparent abundance of bootlegs for the show (The Image sets were a bit pricey and underproduced, leaving a lot of untapped demand).

Combat! was last released under the RLJ Entertainment label. But the discs still list Buena Vista Television, so that's Disney.

I bought the RLJ set last year used and it turned out to be legit. But a quick search is showing a good amount of bootlegs on ebay (over 90 sold???)

Found one set of the Image on eBay that looks legit mostly because it's used and shelf worn. If you wanna jump at it:

Combat - The Complete Series (DVD, 2005, 40-Disc Set) for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Combat - The Complete Series (DVD, 2005, 40-Disc Set) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[LeoA]

I believe RLJ Entertainment is just the newer name for Image Entertainment.

Thanks for that eBay lead, I'll give that a look. At a quick glance it seems like a good deal and likely genuine, although I recall some disc rot complaints at this forum a few years ago with the initial Image release of this show.

I did see Buena Vista Television listed on a blurry picture of the rear of a season release of the show when I posted yesterday, but it was only for the artwork used for the cover. The copyright for the contents itself was credited to Selmur Productions (as best as I could tell from the very low quality picture I was looking at).

I suppose they must've never left ABC control, which would make them a Disney entity today as you've said. So perhaps this is one of those instances where the broadcast rights and the home video rights are controlled by two separate entities, with the former ending up under CBS/Paramount control by virtue of their purchase of Worldvision (Like I said, it's in the CBS Syndication Bible so we know the broadcast rights at least are under their control).

I didn't consider that possibility yesterday. So often the different types of rights for a classic tv series are controlled by the same entity, so it's easy to forget that there's plenty of exceptions out there.

 

[jayembee]

I believe RLJ Entertainment is just the newer name for Image Entertainment.

It is.

I did see Buena Vista Television listed on a blurry picture of the rear of a season release of the show when I posted yesterday, but it was only for the artwork used for the cover. The copyright for the contents itself was credited to Selmur Productions (as best as I could tell from the very low quality picture I was looking at).

I suppose they must've never left ABC control, which would make them a Disney entity today as you've said.

As far as I know, Selmur is still under the ABC -- and therefore Disney -- silo. I'd always assumed that Worldvision had just purchased the license for home video releases.

Anyway, I fondly remember watching Combat! back in the 60s. It was frustrating, though, as during at least part of its run, it aired in the same timeslot as Rawhide. I can no longer remember which one I stuck with watching live, and which one I relied on reruns for.

One of the many interesting reasons to watch it these days is the handful of first and second season episodes that were directed (and sometimes written) by Robert Altman.

 

[paul pisano]

I figured why start another thread so here is my other question. Will we see 12 o'clock high and garrisons guerrillas. any idea if we will see black sheep squadron on blu-ray.

 

[jayembee]

12 O'Clock High and Garrison's Guerillas are both under Disney's control, so unless Bob Iger changes things around regarding physical media at Disney, there's not much luck there.

 

[ScottRE]

Fans of 20th Century Fox TV shows went into mourning the moment Disney took over.

 

[JohnHopper]

One of the many interesting reasons to watch it these days is the handful of first and second season episodes that were directed (and sometimes written) by Robert Altman.

Robert Altman was fired after the season 1 episode “Survival” because the network censorship was shocked.

 

[JohnHopper]

Robert Altman was fired after the season 1 episode “Survival” because the network censorship was shocked.

SURVIVAL

 

[jayembee]

Robert Altman was fired after the season 1 episode “Survival” because the network censorship was shocked.

Thanks for the (slight) correction. I was thinking he'd done a couple of S2 episodes, because they were in the second set. I'd forgotten that the DVD sets were half-season sets.

 

[ScottRE]

Robert Altman was fired after the season 1 episode “Survival” because the network censorship was shocked.

Wow. The best episode of the series and they fire the guy over it. I love this one as I'm sure most fans do. In real life, Saunders would probably be sent home for injuries of that nature, but there ya go.

 

[David_B_K]

Combat! was last released under the RLJ Entertainment label. But the discs still list Buena Vista Television, so that's Disney.

I bought the RLJ set last year used and it turned out to be legit. But a quick search is showing a good amount of bootlegs on ebay (over 90 sold???)

Found one set of the Image on eBay that looks legit mostly because it's used and shelf worn. If you wanna jump at it:

Combat - The Complete Series (DVD, 2005, 40-Disc Set) for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Combat - The Complete Series (DVD, 2005, 40-Disc Set) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I bought one of the "RLJ" sets off ebay a few years ago that turned out to be a bootleg (all the discs are single layer and look compressed to hell). I later bought a used Image set that looked about the same as the one in your link, maybe a bit less worn. I would only trust the used Image sets on ebay these days.

 

[ScottRE]

I don't trust anybody who's selling a set that's out of print still in the shrink wrap, especially people have sold more than one.

The RLJ set that I have was pretty beat up. It was easy enough to replace the broken cases. The set itself was legit.