Kino Lorber has TV Titles from Universal… (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

Here we go again with the Universal "Vault Fire" stuff myth - all masters were stored off-site and the vault in question was a "working vault" - stuff mastered for syndication - syndication copies - no originals were lost. (as for the UMG music holdings, well that is another long story...)

Yes and no. The 35mm negatives and masters of FILMED shows were stored off site. Shows which were produced on 2-inch videotape were burned up and are lost. Luckily, Universal didn't produce a great many shows on tape, but things like Don Adams Screen Test, for instance, is gone. The Jack Benny Show did some shows on film and some on 2-inch tape, and all of those tapes are lost. While Universal didn't produce any regular variety series, to the best of my knowledge, they did do specials and those are destroyed as well.
I haven't heard about some of the little failed sitcoms that they did on tape, such as Sirota's Court and Semi-Tough, but I'm assuming those are burned up too.

 

[JohnHopper]

The restoration of The Psychiatrist (1971) for a Blu-Ray edition from Kino Lorber.
It's a six episode series with a 1970 television movie.

THREE REASONS
1. actor Roy Thinnes
2. director Steven Spielberg *
3. composer Gil Mellé **




Footnotes
* “The Private World of Martin Dalton”, “Par for the Course”.
** “In Death’s Other Kingdom”, “The Private World of Martin Dalton”, “Such Civil War in My Love and Hate”.

 

[Bryan^H]

Well if it can't be Kolchack The Night Stalker, then frankly I have no more real needs for Universal titles on BD. Mill Creek has released pretty much everything I want. Quantum Leap, The Rockford Files, Miami Vice, Airwolf, Knight Rider. And other countries have filled in the gaps with Buck Rogers, The Incredible Hulk, Magnum P.I.,, The A-Team, Six Million Dollar Man, and soon to be release The Bionic Woman on BD!

I'm at a loss on to what is possibly left that I would want...especially if it is short lived.

Maybe this? I don't know.

 

[Jack P]

Yes and no. The 35mm negatives and masters of FILMED shows were stored off site. Shows which were produced on 2-inch videotape were burned up and are lost. Luckily, Universal didn't produce a great many shows on tape, but things like Don Adams Screen Test, for instance, is gone. The Jack Benny Show did some shows on film and some on 2-inch tape, and all of those tapes are lost.

UCLA has a set of "Don Adams Screen Test" as I recall.

The one videotape Universal show I know of that's likely a goner is "Sirota's Court" with the still alive and kicking Michael Constantine. An off-air recording has the first seven minutes of one episode and Constantine's appearance on the Tonight Show plugging it's debut aired on Antenna and showed some clips.

 

[JoshuaB.]

My guess is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century--cult genre TV shows seem to be the few that do well on Blu-ray (like The Outer Limits for Kino). Like OL, there are only 2 seasons and the show is available in HD (and yes, Blu-rays exist in other territories).

Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Hour feels like it would be a major undertaking and the clearances for some of the original short story adaptations might be too cost prohibitive for a BD release, but I'd love a release. Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman have HD masters (and released in Germany on BD), so they're potential candidates. Amazing Stories would also be a good candidate as a short cult series (is the reboot series still in development?), as would Night Gallery, but I don't know if either has HD masters.

 

[EricSchulz]

Amazing Stories would also be a good candidate as a short cult series (is the reboot series still in development?), as would Night Gallery, but I don't know if either has HD masters.

Yes! It's hitting Apple TV+ in April, I believe.

 

[Lord Dalek]

AFAIK Universal's Night Gallery masters are all 480i, except for the "lost episode" on the season 3 set.

 

[Harry-N]

As I read through this thread, I've come to realize how little most of these Universal titles are of interest to me. To be sure, over the years, I've watched and liked a few, but by and large, I've pretty much avoided most of these productions. I know that doesn't add much to the discussion.

I *might* be interested in NIGHT GALLERY, but even there, I have all of the DVDs and rarely dig them out. Same with BUCK ROGERS.

I never saw THE PSYCHIATRIST, but might be interested in that.

But all of that McCLOUD, MYSTERY WHEEL stuff I usually avoided.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

My list, none of which will turn up as Kino's choice based on their telling us it will be a short-lived series, would include but not be limited to:

Bachelor Father
Restless Gun (for better prints)
The John Forsythe Show
The Wide Country (for better prints)
Sheriff Lobo
New Leave it to Beaver (does Universal even own that?)

Just hoping and praying that Kino, who has a great history with 50's movie fans like me, will consider Bachelor Father for us old timers if they somehow get the go ahead. Just loved that show!

 

[DeWilson]

Yes and no. The 35mm negatives and masters of FILMED shows were stored off site. Shows which were produced on 2-inch videotape were burned up and are lost. Luckily, Universal didn't produce a great many shows on tape, but things like Don Adams Screen Test, for instance, is gone. The Jack Benny Show did some shows on film and some on 2-inch tape, and all of those tapes are lost. While Universal didn't produce any regular variety series, to the best of my knowledge, they did do specials and those are destroyed as well.
I haven't heard about some of the little failed sitcoms that they did on tape, such as Sirota's Court and Semi-Tough, but I'm assuming those are burned up too.

Ah ,yes - now I do recall some of the tape stuff did not have back-ups elsewhere, sadly.

However, as for THE JACK BENNY SHOW, it's possible the estate might have kinescopes (or even tapes) of those VT episodes. (Heck, Universal Might have kines on those!) Has anyone looked into that?

 

[DeWilson]

The restoration of The Psychiatrist (1971) for a Blu-Ray edition from Kino Lorber.
It's a six episode series with a 1970 television movie.

THREE REASONS
1. actor Roy Thinnes
2. director Steven Spielberg *
3. composer Gil Mellé **




Footnotes
* “The Private World of Martin Dalton”, “Par for the Course”.
** “In Death’s Other Kingdom”, “The Private World of Martin Dalton”, “Such Civil War in My Love and Hate”.

View attachment 67743​

You know, I forgot about this one - you know,and being early Spielberg might be motivation to get this one out on DVD.

 

[DeWilson]

It was actually Hallmark that came close to junking the Hal Roach negatives and not RHI. Let's say that there was a lot of rejoicing in the Roach and L&H fan communities when RHI acquired (or reacquired) the rights to the Roach catalog. Generally speaking, RHI has treated the Roach library very well as evidenced by the release of that sound era L&H DVD set as well as making the films available for licensing as seen with the Charley Chase sets, etc.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[MatthewA]

My guess is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century--cult genre TV shows seem to be the few that do well on Blu-ray (like The Outer Limits for Kino). Like OL, there are only 2 seasons and the show is available in HD (and yes, Blu-rays exist in other territories).

Gil Gerard was trying to bring that show back to make up for how NBC, who didn't own Universal at the time, screwed it over in season 2. Even Erin Gray was on board with it since it's unlikely her other NBC series will be back any time soon*. But according to her, the studio refused to put up the money. I guess they didn't want two 1970s sci-fi reboots with a re-reboot of Battlestar Galactica also happening.

*Unless they pull a Roseanne on its star, which used to be called "pulling a Valerie Harper."

 

[Jack P]

As I recall, the Season 2 "screw over" was largely in response to Gerard's demands!

 

[MatthewA]

The NBC of 1980 was in no position to turn him down. They lost a fortune on the Olympics because of the boycott, they had to pay another fortune to keep Johnny Carson on their network, they lost James Garner when The Rockford Files ended due to his health problems, all but two of their sitcoms were flopping hard, they were ready to cut Disney loose after 20 years for its failure to beat 60 Minutes (which would prove unbeatable in the years to come, a lesson Ms. Gray would learn the hard way), and to top that off, there was a writer's strike that almost ended the new season before it began!

So maybe "screwed over" isn't the right way of putting it, but "succumbed to the effect of bad decisions made in moments of weakness" is more accurate. But even Gil Gerard was reportedly unhappy with the end result.

 

[Jack P]

No, I agree the show was screwed over in Season 2. No more Pamela Hensley being the biggest mistake!

 

[sjbradford]

All of that is true except that it was Coca-Cola that owned Columbia Pictures at the time. The same year all those syndicated shows ended*, they basically consolidated all their entertainment holdings into one big company and gradually pawned off on Sony.

*And you forgot The New Monkees.

The New Monkees was cancelled at midseason (unusual for a first-run weekly) and wouldn’t have continued past the 87-88 season regardless.

 

[JohnHopper]

The restoration of The Psychiatrist (1971) for a Blu-Ray edition from Kino Lorber.
It's a six episode series with a 1970 television movie.

THREE REASONS
1. actor Roy Thinnes
2. director Steven Spielberg *
3. composer Gil Mellé **




Footnotes
* “The Private World of Martin Dalton”, “Par for the Course”.
** “In Death’s Other Kingdom”, “The Private World of Martin Dalton”, “Such Civil War in My Love and Hate”.

View attachment 67743​

A REVIEW FROM IMDB

Some of Steven Spielberg’s best work
Cheyenne-Bodie10 May 2007

There were two fine drama series on during the 1970-71 season. One was The Senator with Hal Holbrook. The other was this show.

Roy Thinnes was excellent as psychiatrist Dr. James Whitman. The 32-year old Thinnes had already given two fine series performances: as Ben Quick in The Long, Hot Summer and as David Vincent in The Invaders.

Executive producer Norman Felton (Dr. Kildare, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) was doing an update of his previous superb psychiatry series The Eleventh Hour (1962-64). Roy Thinnes had given strong support on an Eleventh Hour episode about family therapy, in which Angela Lansbury and Martin Balsam played his parents, Tuesday Weld was his sister and Don Grady was his younger brother.

Twenty-eight year old Jerrold Freedman was the ambitious producer of The Psychiatrist. Freedman asked his young friend Steven Spielberg to direct two episodes. Spielberg wasn’t too happy at the time as a Universal contract director, but Freedman offered him almost total freedom to do what he wanted. Spielberg obliged with two superb, adult television dramas.

One Spielberg episode was about a troubled 12-year old boy whose parents may be on the verge of divorce. Jim Hutton and Kate Woodville played the remote parents. The boy tries to escape into a dream world.

Spielberg’s other episode was about a young golfer who is dying of cancer (Clu Gulager in a virtuoso performance). Joan Darling played Gulager’s wife. The episode was titled “Par for the Course.”

Spielberg’s direction of both episodes was extraordinary. This was the point where I learned who Spielberg was and became a big fan. At 24, Spielberg was amazingly the most interesting director working in TV. When I heard Spielberg was the director of Duel, I could hardly wait for it to air.

Joe Alves, Jr. was the art director of The Psychiatrist. Alves went on to be art director of The Sugarland Express and production designer of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Producer Jerrold Freedman was also a boy wonder. He had brilliantly directed an episode of The Senator called “Power Play”, and he had written another episode of The Senator for which John Badham received a directing Emmy nomination. Freedman also wrote and directed the first episode of The Psychiatrist (with guest star Pete Duel) and received an Emmy nomination for the writing. There was a lot of ambitious young talent on the Universal lot at this point.

Jerrold Freedman now writes novels under the name J. F. Freedman.

The creators of The Psychiatrist were Richard Levinson and William Link (Columbo, Ellery Queen, That Certain Summer).

Other talented episode directors were actor Jeff Corey (who taught acting to James Dean and Jack Nicholson, among others), Douglas Day Stewart (who wrote “An Officer and a Gentleman”) and Emmy winner Daryl Duke (The Senator, Payday, The Silent Partner, The Thorn Birds).

The Psychiatrist was one of four shows making up “Four-in-One”. The other shows were McCloud with Dennis Weaver, San Francisco International Airport with Lloyd Bridges and Rod Serling's Night Gallery. Six hour-long episodes were produced of each series. The shows played in order: first six episodes of McCloud, then six episodes of San Francisco International Airport, then six episodes of Rod Serling's Night Gallery and finally six episodes of The Psychiatrist. In reruns, the shows alternated from week to week.

 

[MatthewA]

No, I agree the show was screwed over in Season 2. No more Pamela Hensley being the biggest mistake!

She also got another show in 1982: Matt Houston.

 

[Jack P]

Yeah, but that has nothing to do with dropping her for Season 2 since that's 1980.