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Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (4 Viewers)

Gary16

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I too have been enjoying Public Defender. I purchased S1 and S2 during a recent Classic Flix sale.

I believe the S2 Episode, The Deep Ditch, has all the original Philip Morris commercials available as an option to view along with the episode. Interestingly, especially in S1, there are two different theme scores used for the closing credits. The one theme has the credits roll against a gray background. The other closing theme sounds familiar, but I can't place it; but it sounds like it belongs on a western. This theme has the credits roll in front of packages of Philip Morris cigarettes.

I have also noticed Philip Morris posters and advertisements in various business establishments in a number of episodes. The prints are good enough that you can see some product labels when stores are used as a scene in an episode. I am glad Classic Flix released this series and hope they dig around for some more shows from the 50's for future releases.
The episodes showing the cigarette packs are the original network versions. That music is “On the Trail” from the Grand Canyon Suite. That music was used by Philip Morris in the 50s in “I Love Lucy” as well. The credits on the plain background are from the syndication version of the program. Similarly the network open shows Reed Hadley lighting a cigarette while the syndicated open has him just standing and looking pleasant.
 

ChrisALM

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The episodes showing the cigarette packs are the original network versions. That music is “On the Trail” from the Grand Canyon Suite. That music was used by Philip Morris in the 50s in “I Love Lucy” as well. The credits on the plain background are from the syndication version of the program. Similarly the network open shows Reed Hadley lighting a cigarette while the syndicated open has him just standing and looking pleasant.


Thanks for the info Gary. I must have heard the Philip Morris theme on the I Love Lucy Bluray sets I went through a while back. I watched it with the original openings, closings and commercials - that would have been where I heard it before.

The other night, there was a new closing with the non-Philip Morris score and the credits imposed over a pack of Marlboros and a lit cig resting in an ashtray. After that, yet another closing with a different score with credits imposed over a couple of Revlon products. The CBS Eye opening and closing ends the episode.

I noticed the opening with Reed Hadley differed at times, but hadn't tied it in with the different closings.

I'm starting the last disc of S2 and this has been an enjoyable series for me. Thanks to Classic Flix for this release.
 

Ron1973

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Sorry to be picky, but I believe Plymouth, not Pontiac, made the Valiant series.
You are correct. One of the first cars my parents looked at for me was a 70 something Plymouth Valiant. I wound up getting a 1975 Nova with a 262 small block motor. It still ran like a scalded dog!
 

ClassicTVMan1981X

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You are correct. One of the first cars my parents looked at for me was a 70 something Plymouth Valiant. I wound up getting a 1975 Nova with a 262 small block motor. It still ran like a scalded dog!
Yeah, that engine was not just too small but performed no better than any of the other smog-era small-block V8s; the subsequent 305 had a lot more power potential.

~Ben
 
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oldtvshowbuff

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Thank you Gary for the encouragement. It seems we are in a period of some bounty in prospective B+W TV releases in the near future, so glad about Public Defender, Ben Casey (thanks for that news Gary O!), more My Three Sons...and although color, still vintage shows like the accelerated release schedule for the latter seasons of Gunsmoke and Bonanza...and with the news that a completed series of One Step Beyond is in the works (thanks to Neil Brock for that news), I've been watching some of the episodes of that fine supernatural suspense series...I took these screen caps from (Alcoa Presents) One Step Beyond S1, The Vision (Mar. 24, 1959), an episode among many that I am fond of...

John Newland, who also directed many of the series episodes, had a strong, warm and convincing presence on camera during these intros, much like Rod Serling for the soon to be launched Twilight Zone and Boris Karloff for 1960's Thriller...Newland also occasionally introduced sly humor into some of his intros, the gold standard for such intros belonged, of course, to the witty and sarcastic Alfred Hitchcock for his long running suspense series...
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In this episode, we are told that a mysterious event occurred one night on the Western Front...at 2230 hrs., November 14, 1915...witnessed by multiple people from many locations...but with the fog of war, and the brutal grind of unceasing trench warfare and gas attacks, it takes some time for the import of this supernatural event to be even acknowledged, let alone understood...a French night patrol of four men furtively makes it's way under the barbed wire and navigates around the craters of no man's land under the cover of darkness...their leader is played by a pre-Bonanza Pernell Roberts, leading his section portrayed by H. M. Wynant, Peter Miles and Jerry Oddo...

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Wynant, among these war weary men, has some memorable lines to deliver in service of this story...about the poor prospects they have to survive this night to see dawn...(about the Germans) "If they kill enough of us, perhaps they get an added ration of schnapps...if we kill enough of them, perhaps they'll let us take a bath"....
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Suddenly, they are illuminated by a flare...expecting now for the Germans to see them and pour down fire upon them...but there is no shooting, just silence with this parachute flare just hanging in the night sky...and the flare does not descend on a parachute, but just remains suspended for what seems to be an eternity...it is already brighter than any paraflare that they have ever seen, and incredibly grows brighter in intensity still...
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The men are transfixed, gazing heavenward and feeling the need to simply drop their weapons and withdraw back to their lines...they do so, standing upright and not a shot is fired as they leave, just silence...each man has seen a "vision" unique to themselves...some of a completely serene nature, inducing only peace and serenity into these formerly troubled souls...one man has had a more disturbing vision, but redemptive nonetheless...
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Having abandoned their weapons and forward position, they are arrested by French military police and charged with cowardice and desertion...they will be put on trial for their lives, and forthwith...a court martial is quickly arranged to enable conviction and execution within the next 24 hours...a French major played by a pre-Untouchables Bruce Gordon is ordered to provide them with defense counsel...he is incredulous at the soldier's stories about the mystic flare and their inexplicable reaction to it...the defense lawyer is especially confounded by the apparent cowardice of their sergeant leader, the highly decorated and long serving character played by Pernell Roberts...
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The court martial convenes promptly, the prosecutor is played by Richard Devon (who was concurrently a recurring character that season on the great Yancy Derringer)...
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Bruce Gordon's defense counsel tries in vane to get the sergeant to help him mount a reasonable defense, and not repeat the apparent nonsense that he and his men were just suddenly rendered helpless in the face of some supernatural force that compelled them to renounce killing and abandon their guns in the field of battle...
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A sentence of death is pronounced on these men...to be shot the following dawn...
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The major can do no more for these men...who accept their fate with serene calm...but the sergeant, who has no family to mourn him, "I've been in the army for 18 years, I don't have anyone to write home to.", asks the major to bring him something as his last wish in this world...a quality bottle of Cognac to imbibe with his men before dawn, and their appointment with the firing squad...the major, in some desperation, finds a small boy who assures him that his family has a bottle of good Cognac to sell...the major hurries off with the boy on his motorcycle to the boy's family farm, closer to the front...the MGM backlot European village is used to good effect...
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At the farmhouse, while waiting for the boy to bring up the bottle of Cognac from the cellar,...the major is suddenly startled by a disheveled and unarmed German soldier who surrenders to him, rambling on incoherently about his men abandoning their posts and dropping their guns in the field..."nothing else mattered anymore"...the major is dumbfounded to hear this story again, demanding from the German something that makes sense...
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He shakes the German, demanding "what did you see? Tell me! What did you see?"...
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This is an extremely well written and effective story with great atmosphere...convincingly performed by the entire cast...earnest, eloquent and memorable in the best traditions of this series...just one of many first rate episodes in One Step Beyond...
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Is CBS going to release the complete OSB series?
 

Gary OS

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As I often do, I popped in a couple of Ozzie & Harriet episodes last night and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It is literally a tonic for my soul to watch this incredible series whenever I'm feeling a bit down. It just always puts me in a cheerful mood like nothing else does. I'm very thankful for the few sets we have access to: Mill Creek, Alpha, and the Shout Factory releases.

If only Sam had done the right thing and partnered with a major independent label (MPI, I believe) when the offer was extended several years back. We might now be able to enjoy cleaned up, uncut episodes of this most neglected of all great b&w TV. No show has done more and yet been left lingering in official release purgatory like this series has. It's the biggest travesty in all of TV on DVD history that this long-running, truly iconic classic has not been released in season sets in my opinion (Lassie would be second in that regard, imho). I will never feel like my collection is complete because of the gigantic hole the lack of this series being released has left. But I'll enjoy the little that I've got each and every chance I get.

Gary "long live the Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet in my heart and mind" O.
 

Flashgear

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Official season one of “Ben Casey” from CBS MOD is up on Amazon in two volumes. I just ordered.
Wow, great news Gary16! Thanks for the heads up, and thanks again to Gary OS for bringing the astoundingly wonderful news that Ben Casey would be on the way for DVD MOD in the first place!
51L4CLOQcyL.jpg
51V%2B4hikXPL.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTDF423/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=ben+casey&qid=1570683080&s=movies-tv&sr=1-6
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTDY197/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=ben+casey&qid=1570683080&s=movies-tv&sr=1-5
 

howard1908

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Amazon has Vols. 1 and 2 listed at 799 and 801 minutes, respectively. That's just under and over 50 minutes per episode, assuming the volumes are evenly divided. Not sure if these were 50 or 52 minutes original running time.

At least that means that they are not sourced from the old worldvision tapes in the 80s which ran about 46 or 47 minutes, hopefully they have plans to fast track the show in a similar fashion to the way they are handling My Three Sons.
 

bmasters9

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Wow, great news Gary16! Thanks for the heads up, and thanks again to Gary OS for bringing the astoundingly wonderful news that Ben Casey would be on the way for DVD MOD in the first place!
51L4CLOQcyL.jpg
51V%2B4hikXPL.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTDF423/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=ben+casey&qid=1570683080&s=movies-tv&sr=1-6
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTDY197/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=ben+casey&qid=1570683080&s=movies-tv&sr=1-5

I like the advertising on the bottom of each of these seasonal volume releases of Ben Casey, with the first one using the box color of the second volume to advertise the second volume, and the second one using the box color of the first volume to advertise the first volume (confused yet?).
 
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GMBurns

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Next week watch for season one of “Our Miss Brooks” also from CBS MOD.

Looking forward to purchasing Our Miss Brooks, and glad for all you fans of Ben Casey. It's awesome to see two classic shows get released.

Has something changed at CBS recently? There is a noticeable bump in activity for their MOD releases, and a veritable opening of the floodgates for the iconic Gunsmoke and Bonanza. Not that I'm complaining, mind you....
 

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