Thanks for the well wishes, Steve. It's appreciated. All the points you brought up I see the same way. Being the bearer of bad news isn't something I relish. But facts are facts and right now the situation with Bonanza is one of those unpleasant realities. We'll have to see if things change up down the line. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed.Steve...O said:Happy Belated Birthday, Gary! I trust it was a good one with the family.
Thank you for the updates although it isn't what anyone wants to hear. Bonanza isn't one of my grails, but I do feel for those who do collect this title. Gunsmoke is one that I haven't started collecting but has always intrigued me. I'm also concerned that this news also means that whatever chance we had of CBS/P going back and "fixing" the unremastered seasons of HAVE GUN or RAWHIDE has slipped away.
I am not on the MOD bandwagon yet simply because I have a hard time paying more for less. I picked up the first two seasons of Maverick at retail as gifts but then WHV moved it to the Archive at a much higher price and without the English subtitles so I stopped buying them. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and even Cannon are still syndicated and can be captured by those wanting them off air so a MOD program adds little value to me. Others love MOD and I respect their opinions; I can see why this would work for some.
It's really too bad that the DVD technology didn't exist in its current form 30 years ago when the market for these shows was much bigger and the economy was fairly robust from the 80s through the 90s.
EDIT: the CBS/P syndication bible was updated today (3/19) and a random check shows no updates to the B&W Westerns. The Classic Honeymooners now shows as HD which is no surprise given the upcoming BD release. Happy Days is now remastered up through S5 which S6 in progress.
I hadn't really thought of it in those terms, but I think you are probably right. We should be thankful that Rawhide will be finished. Other than the 2 "hiccup" seasons that were not remastered, I have to be happy because this was a big grail show for me. One would think if any CBS western was going to make it it would be Gunsmoke. But who knows at this point. The potential market for a show like this dwindles day after day. I just don't know what the future holds for this series although at present I am a bit concerned. Time will tell.jdee28 said:It's definitely a minor miracle that CBS/Paramount completed Rawhide. I had doubts. Even though some seasons are not remastered, at least they did release all the episodes unedited. If they ever do remaster those two seasons,1 and 4, it would be the icing on the cake.
It's been another minor miracle that they've released Gunsmoke through Season 9. I never thought they get this far! I really hope they can finish off the two black and white years they have left and maybe do a couple of color seasons.
Gary "no doubt the b/w releases have been very lean over the last 6 months" O.