Late 50s-Early 60s Action-Adventure genre (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

Out of all of the shows that aired during the action-adventure craze, not one of them has ever made its way to DVD.

77 Sunset Strip
Hawaiian Eye
Surfside Six
Bourbon Street Beat
The Alaskans
Roaring 20's
Hong Kong
Follow The Sun
The Islanders
Adventures in Paradise
The Aquanauts
The Islanders

Most were Warner Brothers cookie cutter shows, two parts private eye, one part cutie pie. The rest were pale imitations of the formula, with Hong Kong probably the best of the bunch, thanks to an appealing lead in Rod Taylor. Its funny, but the other big genre in the early 60s, socially relevant shows, has fared slightly better. One season each of The Defenders & The Eleventh Hour have come out with Mr. Novak rumored to be on the way. Still, many of these fine shows also sit collecting dust:

The Nurses
For The People
East Side West Side
Channing
The New Breed
Breaking Point
Slattery's People

Depending on your point of view, other shows which might be put in this category are The Reporter and Saints & Sinners.

 

[LouA]

Out of all of the shows that aired during the action-adventure craze, not one of them has ever made its way to DVD.

77 Sunset Strip
Hawaiian Eye
Surfside Six
Bourbon Street Beat
The Alaskans
Roaring 20's
Hong Kong
Follow The Sun
The Islanders
Adventures in Paradise
The Aquanauts
The Islanders

Most were Warner Brothers cookie cutter shows, two parts private eye, one part cutie pie. The rest were pale imitations of the formula, with Hong Kong probably the best of the bunch, thanks to an appealing lead in Rod Taylor. Its funny, but the other big genre in the early 60s, socially relevant shows, has fared slightly better. One season each of The Defenders & The Eleventh Hour have come out with Mr. Novak rumored to be on the way. Still, many of these fine shows also sit collecting dust:

The Nurses
For The People
East Side West Side
Channing
The New Breed
Breaking Point
Slattery's People

Depending on your point of view, other shows which might be put in this category are The Reporter and Saints & Sinners.

Your right Neil, and it's frustrating . I'm told that music rights issues are what's holding up the WB shows, and apparently an issue with the Michener estate is holding up Adventures in Paradise. But , I'd love to see ANY of the shows on your list .
Trying to figure out the "whys and wherefores" of fifties DVD releases can be baffling . For example , why is it that a fairly popular show like the sitcom December Bride has totally fallen off the planet, with no chance of a DVD release ?
Meanwhile, Universal has just announced the re- release as "single sided discs " of Dragnet season one , Alfred Hitchcock Season one and others , so there must be some sales potential for these old shows, if previously released items get reconfigured and re-released.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Out of all of the shows that aired during the action-adventure craze, not one of them has ever made its way to DVD.

77 Sunset Strip
Hawaiian Eye
Surfside Six
Bourbon Street Beat
The Alaskans
Roaring 20's
Hong Kong
Follow The Sun
The Islanders
Adventures in Paradise
The Aquanauts
The Islanders

What about "Everglades" (1961)? It was even shot on location. There were a bunch of other adventure shows about pilots who operated choppers and small planes and stuff. "Rescue 8," "Whirlybirds," stuff like that. A few years ago, I found a guy's YouTube channel dedicated to old TV shows from the '50s and '60s, many of which I'd never heard of before and these shows and so many others were on it. What else? Excellent crime shows like "This Man Dawson," "The Asphalt Jungle," and "The New Breed," in addition to shows I know have come out on disc like "M Squad" and "Mike Hammer." Luckily, I watched quite a few before they took the guy's site down--everything! Can't blame the copyright owners, of course, but how are we gonna see these shows?

This viewing period was in January 2014. Here's a list of shows I sampled for the first time that month, all on YouTube:

The Asphalt Jungle
Broadside
The Buccaneers
Court Martial
Everglades!
Felony Squad (color)
Judd for the Defense (color)
M Squad
Mike Hammer
The New Breed
The Rat Patrol (color)
Rescue 8
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Riverboat
Science Fiction Theatre (color)
This Man Dawson
Whirlybirds

Thanks to sampling episodes on YouTube, when Science Fiction Theatre came out in a DVD box set, I bought it immediately. I've also since bought box sets of The Buccaneers and Rat Patrol.

 

[Bert Greene]

Two syndies I've never seen examples of from that era are "The Brothers Brannigan" and "The Case of the Dangerous Robin."

Speaking of the latter series, it's a shame we couldn't have gotten more Ziv titles from Timeless back when they were serving up things like "Harbor Command" and "The West Point Story." Would have loved "Target," "The Aquanauts," "King of Diamonds," and so many others. Plus, the absence of "Adventures in Paradise" on dvd has grown increasingly disappointing to me as the years have gone by. Its mix of older-style, exotic Hollywood hokum with then-modern 'semi-anthology' drama made for a nifty concoction that I find myself appreciating more and more. "Rescue 8" is another I think I'd really relish, thanks if anything to Herbert Leonard's penchant for vibrant location work.

 

[jperez]

The full Riverboat series (two seasons) came out on DVD a few years ago.
By the way, Hong Kong -which is great and, IMHO, and better than any 'cookie cutter' detective show- is complete on YouTube, going to the Rod Taylor fan page.

 

[Richard V]

Don't forget some syndicated shows like Miami Undercover and This Man Dawson

 

[Tom.W]

The full Riverboat series (two seasons) came out on DVD a few years ago.
By the way, Hong Kong -which is great and, IMHO, and better than any 'cookie cutter' detective show- is complete on YouTube, going to the Rod Taylor fan page.

Are you sure it's complete? I didn't find about 4 episodes, e.g., Lady Godiva or The Hunted.
Edit: Just saw the link on Taylor's fan page. Thanks for the tip, Jorge!

 

[RBailey]

"Rescue 8" is another I think I'd really relish, thanks if anything to Herbert Leonard's penchant for vibrant location work.

Another show with spectacular location work is ZIV's "Boston Blackie" series with Kent Taylor. It's a wonderful look around the Los Angeles area in the early '50s: Waterfront, Angel's Flight, factories, amusement parks and a chase through the freeway system during its construction. I've noticed the RKO water tower in the background during a shoot-out in a trailer park and a fight scene occurs around train cars with the Pathe' Industries building behind it.

 

[jperez]

Are you sure it's complete? I didn't find about 4 episodes, e.g., Lady Godiva or The Hunted.
Edit: Just saw the link on Taylor's fan page. Thanks for the tip, Jorge!

Well it says 'complete' in the package. Would have to check.

 

[LouA]

Resacue 8, Waterfront , Boston Blackie, Everglades, Whirleybirds - Timeless/Shout Factory , here are some shows to look into.

 

[Neil Brock]

Resacue 8, Waterfront , Boston Blackie, Everglades, Whirleybirds - Timeless/Shout Factory , here are some shows to look into.

Timeless doesn't exist anymore so you can forget those types of shows, at least from them.

 

[Neil Brock]

For example , why is it that a fairly popular show like the sitcom December Bride has totally fallen off the planet, with no chance of a DVD release ?

December Bride is a long forgotten show with long forgotten stars. Its even more obscure than Our Miss Brooks. The only reason OMB got resurrected was that ME-TV paid for a set of tape transfers as that show had never aired other than on 16mm. Same with Trackdown, which they also paid for. CBS isn't going to invest any tape transfers, nor is any other studio for that matter, unless another entity is footing the bill. DB never even had any exposure on any cable network in the 80s. Too many things working against it.

 

[moviepas]

And December Bride's spin-off Pete & Gladys with Harry Morgan. Starring also was Dean Miller who was born(1924) & died in Grosse Pointe Woods/Wayne County outside Detroit. He later went into radio & TV in Ohio and in the 1970s I saw him as a news anchor at WDIV-TV Detroit.

 

[RBailey]

And December Bride's spin-off Pete & Gladys with Harry Morgan. Starring also was Dean Miller who was born(1924) & died in Grosse Pointe Woods/Wayne County outside Detroit. He later went into radio & TV in Ohio and in the 1970s I saw him as a news anchor at WDIV-TV Detroit.

Dean hosted a morning talk and variety show on the NBC affiliate in Columbus, Ohio,

 

[Neil Brock]

Without causing a ruckus, maybe someone can explain the appeal of these hour long AA shows. In my mind, its just a case of "you had to be there" and of a certain age. The shows came along at a time when hour long filmed dramas were very new and they were something different from what else was on at the time. Of course, like anything else which becomes popular, it was overdone and the genre got beaten to death. But is there any more to their appeal than that? Because I really have tried watching them and I just see bland and boring stars for the most part along with hackneyed, predictable and repetitive plots. About the only one that I can really watch is Hawaiian Eye, because of Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens. The rest of them, I find dull as dishwater.

 

[LouA]

Without causing a ruckus, maybe someone can explain the appeal of these hour long AA shows. In my mind, its just a case of "you had to be there" and of a certain age. The shows came along at a time when hour long filmed dramas were very new and they were something different from what else was on at the time. Of course, like anything else which becomes popular, it was overdone and the genre got beaten to death. But is there any more to their appeal than that? Because I really have tried watching them and I just see bland and boring stars for the most part along with hackneyed, predictable and repetitive plots. About the only one that I can really watch is Hawaiian Eye, because of Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens. The rest of them, I find dull as dishwater.

Let's face it nostalgia is a big part of it . But some of the stars and characters like Ed Burn's Kookie, and Connie Steven's Cricket are fun. I was in grammar school when these shows thrived , and I recall seeing the stars names all over the covers of the teen magazines and movie periodicals on the news stand . It was a different age.

 

[Neil Brock]

Let's face it nostalgia is a big part of it . But some of the stars and characters like Ed Burn's Kookie, and Connie Steven's Cricket are fun. I was in grammar school when these shows thrived , and I recall seeing the stars names all over the covers of the teen magazines and movie periodicals on the news stand . It was a different age.

Which makes my point exactly. You had to be there. I haven't found too many people who didn't experience these shows the first time around that now have the same affinity for them.

 

[Ron1973]

Which makes my point exactly. You had to be there. I haven't found too many people who didn't experience these shows the first time around that now have the same affinity for them.

I'm in the same boat with the some of the shows I watched growing up. Some are still fun. Others, not so much. The Dukes of Hazzard is watchable, but it isn't the fun show it was when I was a kid. The few episodes I've caught of the spinoff, Enos, are still fairly watchable. I'm currently rewatching The Lone Ranger. Still okay, but it seems sort of silly in some ways.

 

[Tom.W]

I was very young when the Warner PI shows were in first run. Too young to appreciate the plots but still enjoyed the production qualities. In addition to the popularity of Connie Stevens in Hawaiian Eye, there was excellent New Orleans jazz in Bourbon Street Beat. Check out the Baron's piano and brass band in the pilot episode, "A Taste of Ashes."

I remember being fascinated by the combination of gangsters in New York and Dorothy Provine's singing in the Roaring 20's on Saturday nights during its initial run. Even today, the appeal of Hawaii background locations, even knowing most of it is Hollywood backlots, is a convincing illusion. I like 77 Sunset Strip too, but prefer these three, for light drama. When I'm in the mood for serious drama, I'll opt for The Defenders, East Side West Side, or Dr. Kildare.

 

[GMBurns]

Which makes my point exactly. You had to be there. I haven't found too many people who didn't experience these shows the first time around that now have the same affinity for them.

I wasn't born when the WB detective shows first aired, but I have come to enjoy them quite a bit. Sure, they are lightweight and predictable, but they are also just plain fun, and I often want to watch something that distracts from the realities of life, so I have found 77 Sunset Strip and its compatriots to be the perfect place to go to suspend disbelief for an hour. So I don't have the nostalgia of having watched them originally, but I have found a second-hand nostalgia in discovering them later on.