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Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey (1 Viewer)

Sky King

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It's frustrating to see some of the crap that passes for TV being released on DVD while a classic like "Ben Casey" gathers dust on a shelf somewhere.

"Ben Casey" which won two prime time Emmys, had many famous guest stars including...Peter Falk, Jack Warden, Ellen Burstyn, Carroll O'Connor, Jack Klugman, Telly Savalas, George C. Scott and Cliff Robertson, to name a few.

I would venture a guess that MOST of the execs of the company holding the rights to "Ben Casey" are probably too young to remember this series and know little or nothing about it. Their ignorance will keep shows like this and other older classic shows from reaching the DVD market.
 

Elena S

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Sky King said:
It's frustrating to see some of the crap that passes for TV being released on DVD while a classic like "Ben Casey" gathers dust on a shelf somewhere.
"Ben Casey" which won two prime time Emmys, had many famous guest stars including...Peter Falk, Jack Warden, Ellen Burstyn, Carroll O'Connor, Jack Klugman, Telly Savalas, George C. Scott and Cliff Robertson, to name a few.
I would venture a guess that MOST of the execs of the company holding the rights to "Ben Casey" are probably too young to remember this series and know little or nothing about it. Their ignorance will keep shows like this and other older classic shows from reaching the DVD market.
My thoughts EXACTLY. How do such low-rated shows get released when classics like these are still on the shelves? It's a TRAVESTY.
 

Hank Dearborn

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Well, as we have learned, the majority of the DVD buying public are the kiddies and to them something from 1998 is old and from a long time ago. And oh my, it's in black and white. But as with many other shows of that era, such as Man from UNCLE, unless you were alive during that time, you would have no idea how popular these shows were.
 

jim_falconer

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Bumping this up, as I just saw an episode of Mister Ed, and Wilbor says 'my name is Wilbor Post, not Ben Casey'. It got me thinking about this show, and after a little research on it, decided I would love to see it released on DVD one day.
 

Charles Ellis

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I just want to say that I met Richard Chamberlain last month at a memorabilia show (very nice man!), and I asked him about Dr. Kildare coming to DVD, and he said it would probably never happen. Apparently the major home video outfits (those owned by major film/TV studios, that is) don't really care about vintage TV shows made before 1980. Look at the recent shocker regarding the newly-found episodes of The Jack Benny Program and CBS/Paramount's decision not to do anything about it. Warner Home Video has the rights to Kildare, but since all but the final season are in B/W, that may be considered a stumbling block. Also, there might be a rights issue since the characters of Kildare and Dr. Gillespie were created by Max Brand, and before a DVD release can occurr, the Brand estate has to okay it. Supposedly this is one reason why Fox has yet to put The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis on disc, since the Max Schulman estate is supposedly asking a huge fee.
 

Gary OS

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles Ellis http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/260960/dr-kildare-and-ben-casey#post_3692124
I just want to say that I met Richard Chamberlain last month at a memorabilia show (very nice man!), and I asked him about Dr. Kildare coming to DVD, and he said it would probably never happen. Apparently the major home video outfits (those owned by major film/TV studios, that is) don't really care about vintage TV shows made before 1980.


Some of us have been saying this for a long time, Charles. It's certainly not a revelation or a shock. Other than CBS/Paramount, the major studios have shown an aversion to releasing older material except with their sure-fire classic shows. That's one of the reasons why we've seen such a drastic down tick in vintage releases over the last year when it comes to the major studios. If not for outfits like Shout, Timeless and a few other indies, we'd really be hurting for classic TV on DVD, especially anything in... shudder... b/w (insert sarcastic eye roll from me here).

I'd say the only hope we have of Dr. Kildare coming out would be the MOD program. And even that may be a real longshot, which would be a real shame because the show has what I consider to be one of the absolutely best Christmas episodes of all time in its first season. I'd pay good money just to have that one episode uncut and cleaned up.

Gary "Chamberlain is only saying what many of us have known for a long time - but it's good to have a celebrity like him back up our claims" O.
 

SimonTemplar

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There have been Kildare movies from the 30s released, haven't there? Not a complete set but I'm sure Interns Can't Take Money is out there. I think that MOD will be the way forward for 50s and 60s TV, or complete sets via Time Life like The Man From UNCLE.
 

Neil Brock

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The one thing that should give a glimmer of hope is that when Ted Turner bought MGM, he mastered every television series to videotape. So, should Warner ever decide to do a burn on demand, at least Kildare and all of the other old MGM series exist on a viable format. Because you know if they were still sitting in the vaults on 35mm, there would be zero chance.
 

Gary OS

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Brock
The one thing that should give a glimmer of hope is that when Ted Turner bought MGM, he mastered every television series to videotape. So, should Warner ever decide to do a burn on demand, at least Kildare and all of the other old MGM series exist on a viable format. Because you know if they were still sitting in the vaults on 35mm, there would be zero chance.

Agreed. That fact does offer a glimmer of hope. It's not much, but it's better than nothing (which is where we'd be if the transfers had not been done).

Gary "I'm not normally a big fan of Ted, but in this case he did help the cause" O.
 

Elena S

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Originally Posted by SimonTemplar
There have been Kildare movies from the 30s released, haven't there? Not a complete set but I'm sure Interns Can't Take Money is out there. I think that MOD will be the way forward for 50s and 60s TV, or complete sets via Time Life like The Man From UNCLE.
Chamberlain wasn't in these. The show was a whole different animal from the movies.
 

jperez

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Do you know where I can buy DVR copies of the Dr. Kildare tv series?
 

Charles Ellis

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The Warner Archive did release a Christmas episode of Dr. Kildare as part of a vintage TV holiday collection. So maybe there is hope. I believe Paramount owns Ben Casey, but it was produced through Bing Crosby's production company (like Hogan's Heroes, which Paramount released on disc in its entireity), so maybe one has to contact Kathryn Grant Crosby to ask about a DVD release.
 

Charles Smith

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I'd love to have some of both. I'd happily settle for decent transfers of a few representative episodes. Which is actually how I feel about a lot of old TV shows. I'm certainly a completist on some things, but I don't feel the need to be so on everything.
 

jperez

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There's three Ben Casey compilation on DVD, each with 20 episodes, available on Amazon. Also a Dr. Kildare 10 episode compilation. But I understand Kildare is coming soon on a season by season DVD release schedule.
 

Guy Foulard

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jperez said:
There's three Ben Casey compilation on DVD, each with 20 episodes, available on Amazon. Also a Dr. Kildare 10 episode compilation. But I understand Kildare is coming soon on a season by season DVD release schedule.
These aren't official releases.
 

Richard V

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Guy Foulard said:
These aren't official releases.
I'm surprised that Amazon lists what seem to be bootlegged series. Aren't they liable for distributing pirated content ? :confused:
 

Ron1973

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Richard V said:
I'm surprised that Amazon lists what seem to be bootlegged series. Aren't they liable for distributing pirated content ? :confused:
I've wondered that before myself. I can remember perusing both Amazon and eBay looking for anything Beverly Hillbillies related that I might have missed somewhere along the way and there were ads galore, ads that said "sponsored," for all of those pirated versions that are sold by these fly-by-night outfits that change their name every other week. When you have the major outfits giving links to bootleggers, what hope have we? :confused:
 

Neil Brock

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Neil Brock said:
The one thing that should give a glimmer of hope is that when Ted Turner bought MGM, he mastered every television series to videotape. So, should Warner ever decide to do a burn on demand, at least Kildare and all of the other old MGM series exist on a viable format. Because you know if they were still sitting in the vaults on 35mm, there would be zero chance.
Just updating this information. I now know that when Warner bought/merged with Turner, some of the tape transfers went missing in the process and there are gaps in shows. So should they do anything with Kildare, they would likely be striking new masters rather than going with the 1-inch tapes from the 80s.
 

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