FATHER KNOWS BEST, Season 3 - Coming in June (1 Viewer)

[Jude86]

Well my source is EF Hutton and EF Hutton says.....



I just dug out my old "Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows" reference book (c 1989) and it says the show had 36 episodes, so if that is true, maybe Shout! is saving this show for its own eventual release--who knows. But I don't see all 36 being released as extras on future FKB sets.

 

[Steve...O]

I hope S4 of FKB comes out for the fans of that show. Unfortunately I think Shout (a good company) may have shot themselves in the foot with the use of edited S1 episodes. That move likely killed many sales for a show that wasn't going to sell that many to begin with. (Not a criticism of the show, just the reality of the classic TV market).


Wow, Joe, you've got some collection if you have 1961/1962 TV Guides! That's great. I've got some '70s issues and it kills me looking at all the great stuff that was in re-runs on independent and cable stations in those days. I can't imagine how mouth watering seeing a 60s era issue would be.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Steve...O, looking through a TV Guide from the early '60s is like looking at an artifact from another planet.

The main emotions they inspire in me are great nostalgia and mild depression. People's tastes have deteriorated so badly since then, at times I feel I must have entered some alternate Universe somewhere along the line.

It's not just what was on television in those days -- it's the magazine itself, too, which was 15 cents and had very few ads.

I used to save the TV Guide every week, up to 1969, when I decided to throw them away. However, I just couldn't bring myself to throw away any of them from before 1965. So I have them to this day, from the 1961-64 period, and they're wonderful to look through.

 

[Gary OS]

You have no clue how envious I am of you right now, Joe! You lucky dog.

Gary "what a treasure trove you have there" O.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Personally, the point I mark as when the deterioration became unavoidable is April 5, 1987, when Fox started broadcasting. Rupert Murdoch has never resisted lowering the tone of TV if he thought it would make him more wealthy. He has much to answer for.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I discovered the main branch of my library has all the old TV Guides on microfilm. You might want to look into something like that.

Also, at home, through my library's website, I can see every page of every edition of the New York Times (as PDF files). They had TV listings every day -- not as detailed as TV Guide, but still a lot of fun to look at.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Actually, TV started declining right from the start.

As soon as the decision was made to make it free and advertising-supported (as opposed to a pay service, like the telephone) the handwriting was on the wall.

At first, only relatively wealthy people in bigger cities had television -- they tended to be somewhat better educated than average -- and thus there were things like NBC Opera (can you imagine that today?), the Bell Telephone Hour, Hallmark Hall of Fame (even doing Shakespeare), serious dramatic anthologies like the U.S. Steel Hour and Playhouse 90 -- etc. etc. etc.

As more and more people owned televisions, and it spread everywhere in the U.S., the 1960s saw most of the older types of programming die off in favor of things like "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres."

The trajectory was downhill, culminating in Jerry Springer and "reality" TV.

Years ago I read a science fiction story, written in the 1950s but set in the first decade of the 21st Century (and here we are!), in which television featured people hunting and killing each other, because that brought in big ratings.

I used to think, "No way could that ever happen!"

Now I'm not so sure.

Of course, Murdoch and Fox played a huge part in destroying any last shreds of decency on television.

It worked out OK, though -- it leaves me plenty of time to watch DVDs!

 

[Gary OS]

I bought an old TV Guide from 1954 off eBay earlier this year. It was, as you might guess, the "Christmas" issue from that year. It features Ozzie and Harriet, along with Dave and Ricky, on the cover. I have loved perusing through that one and have found myself longing for a time machine that I could jump into so that I might watch all the wonderful Christmas programing from that year. Sigh...

Gary "the Ghost of TV Christmas Past can visit me any time he wants - as long as he brings dvds I can keep" O.

 

[Gary OS]

Just a little more than one week to go!!!

Gary "slowly chipping away at my 'Holy Grail' list" O.

 

[Tim Tucker]

I know I plan to buy in the sale that dare not speak its name.

Gary, I watched "24 Hours in Tyrantland" yesterday, and was wondering what you thought of it.

 

[Gary OS]

Tim, I loved "Tyrantland" myself. It did a great job of communicating the general feeling in the 50's when it came to the cold war and communism. It was a neat little snapshot into the mindset during that era.

Gary "less than a week to go for Season 3" O.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Well, it certainly did that, but otherwise it didn't work for me. I felt that all the Andersons were acting uncharacteristically... and it wasn't very funny either.

 

[Gary OS]

In my opinion it shouldn't be viewed as a FKB episode. It had a very specific message to deliver and so naturally the characters had to fit the message instead of visa versa. That's the price you pay sometimes when you are doing something like "TyrantLand." Nevertheless, I enjoyed it because (as I said above) it gave us a glimpse into the patriotic mindset of the 50's in the midst of the Cold War.

Gary "just my two cents" O.

 

[Tim Tucker]

I'll agree with you there. It's an interesting cultural artifact, and I'm glad Shout chose to include it.

Are there even such things as savings bond drives anymore? I haven't heard anyone promoting them in almost twenty years.

 

[Corey3rd]

The copy of season three (that was going to be passed on to Gary) has arrived. All the episodes run about 25:42. Nothing snipped this time.

 

[Gary OS]

I honestly don't know, Tim. The sense of patriotism certainly isn't what it was in the 1950's, and I'm quite certain we'd never see anything like "24 Hours in TyrantLand" again, with a modern show inserted in place of FKB.

Hopefully we'll see a review or two pop up online in the next week. Regardless, I'm sure this 3rd Season set will follow the pattern of Season 2 and give us full episodes. Like Steve O. said up thread, it's really unfortunate that the 1st Season set was so uneven because that had to hurt the series and sales right off the get go.

I pre-ordered this set from Amazon back in March and now the time is almost here! Just a few more days till Season 3 arrives!!

Gary "good discussing the special with you Tim" O.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Gary, it's too bad you were not able to participate in the TV show tracking thread this year. It would have been nice to have someone else to bounce off thoughts on vintage TV.

 

[Gary OS]

Thanks Tim. I'd have loved to participated, and actually reserved a spot early on thinking I could swing it. But after thinking about it more, I realized it wouldn't be feasible for me right now. If my schedule evens out a little more I'll give it a go for the 2nd half of the year.

Gary "and any time you want to talk about FKB, we can do it here in this thread!" O.

 

[Gary OS]

One day to go!

Gary "although my Amazon.com pre-orders never show up until the day after release" O.

 

[Gary OS]

The day has arrived!!! I'll still have to wait for my set to show up late tomorrow evening (I seem to be last on the UPS route), but this is the official release date. I wish Mr. Paul Mavis would do a review for this set, since he always does great jobs with vintage TV.

Gary "3 down, 3 to go" O.