Gunsmoke: Season 1 in July! (1 Viewer)

[jdee28]

Great news on tvshowsondvd.com today, about the possible release of the first season of Gunsmoke this July. Definitely about time!

While I'd love to see the whole series released with time, I'd be happy with just the first 6, the 30 minute black and white episodes, uncut and remastered. For the hour B&W ones, my copies of when they used to air on the Western Channel are still doing nicely, and there's TV Land for the color ones. The 30 minute B&W episodes haven't really aired at all, apart from the Hallmark channel airing a few worn out copies of episodes from the first two seasons.

 

[Bob_S.]

Man, that would be great! I bought the first 2 volumes but held off on the Director's edition hoping for season sets.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I hope this is true and it is about time. If they didn't waste time on the Best Of's we could be on Season 3 or 4 by now. If they do make it to the color seasons I hope they remaster them. If look as bad as on the best of's I'll pass. But all the B & W episodes look good.

 

[docdoowop]

Great news! I held off on buying any of the sets so far in hopes they'd begin to release the show season-by-season.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Randy, thanks for the info on the B/W eps. I didn't buy any of the previous sets, also hoping for season releases. I admit I was tempted to get that "Director's" set but I held off on that one as well since the reviews on the xfrs weren't favorable.

 

[Doug^Ch]

I guess you guys have people like me who bought the "best of sets" to thank for these season sets coming out. If everyone had rejected these sets like you had, there would be no season sets.

 

[silverking]

I also bought the 'Best of' sets + many of the Columbia House releases. But I'm pleased to see the season sets issued.

I do hope Paramount make a better job of them than the botched CH releases. On some of their discs the 1st season opening where Matt strides up Boot Hill was missed off pisodes & in one case 'The Preacher' a segment from a different episode substituted. To be fair to Paramount when this epiisode was released on the 'Best Of' sets it was corrected. There was also a noticeable difference in pic quality between those episodes which had previously been remastered for release on tape & then appeared on disc & those which hadn't. One episode 'Mavis McLoud' ,the cut syndicated 'Marshal Dillon' version was used.The worst gaffe of all however,was an episode where they put on reel 2 before reel 1.So the story started in the middle then jumped back to the beginning !

I am sure Paramount's quality control is much better.

 

[Corey3rd]

I picked up the Director's collection, but what got me was the lack of Sam Peckinpah's work on that boxset.

it is smart for them to go with the black and whites since those are the ones that get zero play on TV so the hardcore fans will be prone to picking them up instead of saying, I'll just catch it on TVLand.

 

[Roy Wall]

Great news....just hope they can release four sets a year....then only five years to collect 'em all.

 

[Tom.W]

Very happy to see this. I may have eventually picked up one of the Directors' sets, but it would have been mainly for the commentaries. I will definitely be on board for each season set, at least the b/w's. If the colors are done right, I'll check out those as well.

The 30 minute eps have had sporadic but limited tv exposure. The best I know of was a run in Cincinnati in the late eighties which was close to uncut. These are really classics, as are the 60 minute b/w eps.

Thanks to everybody who bought the Best Ofs, helping to get season sets off the ground!

 

[Duane Alford]

Why is that? According to TVShowsOnDVD.com an overwhelming majority of people would rather buy season sets. Not a lot of people have any interest in best of sets. Why don't the studios understand this?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

If they release this series in its entirety, at the rate of most series, just think -- we'll have the complete series in 2047! Sweet! I'll only be 97 that year.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I agree, I've seen eps from Both Errors and I definatelly preferred the Half hour eps and would buy those, the Hour Black and White's are'nt bad Either, but the later color Episodes I'd be more discerning with, depending on price. My Guess would be thou that these probably had 30+ Shows and Paramount might go the Split Season Routes again

 

[Jeff#]

Bad guess there, Dave, because by the time the show started filmed in color in 1966, TV production costs in general caused GUNSMOKE to go down to 29 a year by that 12th season....then 25 in Season 13, up to 26 in both the 14th and 15th seasons each.

Then between 1970 and 1975 they did 24 per year, which was normal for that era just as it is today. 1974-75 was also the year that all series produced by or in association with CBS shortened what appeared next to the copyright date in the closing credits from "Columbia Broadcasting System" to "CBS, Inc". You'll notice that the 1971-72 season featured speeded-up closing credits to allow for more commercial time. GUNSMOKE and the 4th season of Hawaii Five-O were just two of the many CBS filmed series to go that route. But over on NBC, the same thing happened to BONANZA for it's final 2 years.

I bought both volumes of the 50th Anniversary edition of GUNSMOKE, not expecting to see season sets produced and released this soon. But I did pass on the Directors' edition.
July isn't that far away, and Hawaii Five-O's 2nd season comes out then too!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Well then we might not be in danger of Split Sets untill we hit the Hour long Eps
I did'nt even realize they released the directors set yet

 

[Doug^Ch]

DVD Talk gave the Director's Set their highest reccomendation - DVD Talk Collector's Series. You may want to still consider it. The review is posted here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=25041

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Maybe if I can find it cheap, there are only 2 1st season Episodes on there.

 

[Cheetah]

This is indeed great news and very long overdue.


While I never buy "best of sets", it is obvious from the news release that if they sold poorly Paramount would be extremely hesitant to release season sets. Therefore, yes we absolutely must be thankful to people like yourself who purchased them.