Mr. Novak, NBC TV Series 1963-65. (3 Viewers)

[DeWilson]

One would hope that series that are being held by only an episode or two due to music clearance issues will somehow get resolved. Shows that are loaded to the gills with songs, like all of the detective series, Roaring 20s, The Alaskans, etc., I just don't see happening, other than perhaps broadcast sales.

I forgot about the "Roaring 20's" and "The Alaskans" having the same issues as the Detective shows, especially the "Roaring 20's" being a music heavy show.

The complete run of "Hawaiian Eye" is currently in rotation up on the "Warner Instant Archive", and they have rotated in and out some (but not all) of the "77 Sunset Strip" (Not currently up) and "Surfside 6" (18 episodes are currently up) in the past - guess it's considered a form of "Broadcasting" and doesn't have the same clearance issues.

But I Digress...

 

[Charles Ellis]

OK- I'm going to go on a soapbox regarding the Warner Archive. They seem to be a bit selective as to what to release despite viewer demand for certain films and shows that are relatively easy to put out on disc. As a longtime Dark Shadows fan, I am still angry that Mr. Feltenstein has refused to do anything to restore Night of Dark Shadows, the 2nd feature film based on the show to its original intended 129-minute length. Before its release in 1971, then-MGM head James Aubrey demanded DS creator Dan Curtis (who also produced, directed, and co-wrote the film with Sam Hall) to cut the finished film to 94 minutes, against Curtis' own wishes. This is the version now on Blu-ray and DVD. However, the missing footage was located in 1999, and all of the surviving actors redubbed the dialogue from the missing soundtrack (yes, the script exists). With the efforts of film historian Darren Gross and Jim Pierson from Dan Curtis Productions, they have made the restoration of Night of Dark Shadows viable with all the elements ready for assemblage: footage, dialogue, and the extended score. However, George Feltenstein has refused to finance the restoration of a film that was cut against the wishes of its director and was based on a beloved TV cult classic which still has a strong fan base and has had all 1,225 episodes released on DVD!!! So you can imagine my anger seeing that photo of him and simultaneously announcing the release of Mr. Novak on DVD. No disrespect to the fans of the show, but the idea of that man giving the back of his hand to fans of a franchise with a MUCH larger fan base makes no sense!!!!!

 

[Flashgear]

The Great Beau Bridges with his presentation copy of Chuck Harter's new book on Mr. Novak...A young Beau Bridges guest starred in several fine episodes of the series run...'Pay the Two Dollars' (S1Ep10, Nov. 26, 1963) with Martin Landau and MacDonald Carey...'Sparrow on the Wire' (S1Ep18, Jan. 21, 1964) with Mike Kellin...'Honor and All That' (S2Ep25, March 23, 1965) with Michael Pollard...Beau Bridges is among the 40+ cast and crew interviews found in this wonderful book...

Author's Book website https://mrnovakbook.com/

Amazon pre-order listinghttps://www.amazon.com/Mr-Novak-Acclaimed-Television-hardback/dp/1629331643/ref=pd_ybh_a_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5Y9P1Z2NF1PJVPD2183P

BearManor Media pre-order http://bearmanormedia.com/index.php?route=product/search&search=mr. novak

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mrnovakboo...8r143zCEfUkdXSQP7l7MkFoGlc2FqVAp_GYn8&fref=nf

 

[Jimmyr1960]

OK- I'm going to go on a soapbox regarding the Warner Archive. They seem to be a bit selective as to what to release despite viewer demand for certain films and shows that are relatively easy to put out on disc. As a longtime Dark Shadows fan, I am still angry that Mr. Feltenstein has refused to do anything to restore Night of Dark Shadows, the 2nd feature film based on the show to its original intended 129-minute length. Before its release in 1971, then-MGM head James Aubrey demanded DS creator Dan Curtis (who also produced, directed, and co-wrote the film with Sam Hall) to cut the finished film to 94 minutes, against Curtis' own wishes. This is the version now on Blu-ray and DVD. However, the missing footage was located in 1999, and all of the surviving actors redubbed the dialogue from the missing soundtrack (yes, the script exists). With the efforts of film historian Darren Gross and Jim Pierson from Dan Curtis Productions, they have made the restoration of Night of Dark Shadows viable with all the elements ready for assemblage: footage, dialogue, and the extended score. However, George Feltenstein has refused to finance the restoration of a film that was cut against the wishes of its director and was based on a beloved TV cult classic which still has a strong fan base and has had all 1,225 episodes released on DVD!!! So you can imagine my anger seeing that photo of him and simultaneously announcing the release of Mr. Novak on DVD. No disrespect to the fans of the show, but the idea of that man giving the back of his hand to fans of a franchise with a MUCH larger fan base makes no sense!!!!!

Apparently it was being planned to coincide with the release of Tim Burton’s feature version of Dark Shadows on blu-ray. But when that film tanked, it was decided that it wouldn’t be worth the additional cost to restore Night of DS. Sit they’re just released the theatrical cut.

 

[Charles Ellis]

I know what I am talking about, having been involved in DS fandom for the past 35 years. The fans have been after WB to restore the film since the lost footage was discovered, and even now there is a Facebook movement to compel Feltenstein to do right regarding NODS. Apparently he wasn't going to restore the film even BEFORE the Burton abomination was unleashed on the public (the biggest detractors of the film are fans of the original show like myself who hated to see a classic cult drama turned into an unnecessary farce!). As I said before, I wonder why Feltenstein would go against a franchise with a larger fan base than Mr. Novak. Restoring Night of Dark Shadows and releasing it as a Warner Archive exclusive would SELL!!!

 

[shoeshineboy]

Amazing! Congrats to Mr. Harter on the product and good fortune -- one being having a persistent pal like Randall on his side! There has to be a correlation in the decision by Warner's to put out a DVD of Year 1... I'm going to start working on a comprehensive book on that great lost / forgotten 1960s TV gem starring the incredible John McGiver, with intro, forward and post-script from the show's surviving cast mates/tech people. If I can get it together, and hire fellow Canadian to help with the pitch, we just may see a DVD within the decade!

 

[Flashgear]

Thank you Dan for the kind words...yes, it does appear that Warner Archive, in the personage of George Feltenstein himself, decided to accelerate a release of season one of Mr. Novak because of this fine book...he of course met with Chuck Harter and was very impressed with the book, which is an unsually authoritative and deeply researched history and analysis, but very entertaining also and worthy of the great show itself...Chuck told me that he heard my persistent bugging of WAC on FB about Mr. Novak might have played a small part in this...I posted details of the book on WAC's Facebook page not long ago too, which apparently were noticed by WAC staffers...Once again, Here is WB VP and Head of WAC, George Feltenstein, with a copy of the new book, as presented to him by Chuck Harter...

Details about the book and forthcoming DVD release https://mrnovakbook.com/

such a high quality companion book is rarely published these days, and hardly ever at all for a 54 year old TV show that hasn't even been aired anywhere for 27 years...the hundreds of photos and illustrations are to be treasured, as are the many cast and crew interviews and reminisces...it must have taken a lot of hard work and persistence by author Chuck Harter to accomplish this feat as most of these people are now mostly retired and perhaps without representation, as in agents to facilitate easier contact...Chuck has told me of the many frustrating dead ends he pursued in trying to contact people behind the show, with varying degrees of success...talking to youthful staffers and agents who didn't know what he was talking about and who he wanted to see...current Hollywood insiders who won't turn a wheel if there isn't money in it for them...thankfully, Chuck labored on, and with his hard work, most retired actors and actresses were receptive to grant interviews, most were eager to share their fond memories and love for the show itself... Chuck was ably assisted by Martin Landau and Walter Koenig, among others, who were particularly helpful to the cause...and he interviewed almost all of the young stars who appeared on Mr. Novak, like Tony Dow, Beau Bridges, Julie Sommars, Tisha Sterling, Brenda Scott, Buck Taylor etc...too bad that Kim Darby declined...but Marian Collier granting Chuck complete access to E. Jack Neuman's personal production archive and studio materials was essential...and the book is even richer for having the input of people like scriptwriter John D. F. Black (who won a Writer's Guild award for Mr. Novak) and Bob Schultz, property master at MGM Culver City...

About John McGiver's lost TV series...I too hope that WAC releases Many Happy Returns eventually...hope also that Mr. Terrific busts out of another vault as well...

 

[Susan Nunes_329977]

Mr. Novak is a definite buy for me. I was impressed with the episodes appearing on YouTube as I had not seen the show in its first run back in the sixties.

 

[LouA]

Mr. Novak is a definite buy for me. I was impressed with the episodes appearing on YouTube as I had not seen the show in its first run back in the sixties.

I didn't watch this show when it aired during the sixties. I recall that it was pretty well regard by critics . If it gets a release I'll be looking forward to watching it for the first time on DVD. I always love to experiencing a good vintage show for the first time , many years after it ran in prime time !

 

[Flashgear]

The Great Tony Dow (Leave it to Beaver, of course) with his presentation copy of the new book...seen here with the author, Chuck Harter...Tony Dow guest starred in 5 episodes of Mr. Novak, some of the best of the whole run...3 in the first season as editor of the student newspaper, George Scheros, at 'Jefferson High School'...the Tony Dow appearances are 'To Lodge and Dislodge' (S1Ep2, Oct. 1, 1963), with Kim Darby...'Death of a Teacher' (S1Ep20, Feb 4, 1964), Directed by Richard Donner, with Frank Albertson and Harry Townes...'Fear is a Handful of Dust' (S1Ep23, Feb. 25, 1964), with Brenda Scott and Steve Franken...and in Season 2 he played different characters in 'Johnny Ride the Pony, One, Two, Three' (S2Ep11, Dec. 15, 1964), with Denver Pyle and Robert Logan...and 'The Tender Twigs' (S2Ep24, March 16, 1965), with Robert Culp, Harry Townes, Johnny and Robert Crawford...Tony Dow is a very accomplished Artist who works in sculpture and painting...you can find his work on his FB page...

 

[haineshisway]

Fascinated by this thread, especially the "shot at John Marshall High School" stuff - because I am here to tell you that is NOT where it was shot - I mean, maybe they went there at some point but why? The fact is all the photos from the show in this thread showing the "halls of John Marshall High" and "the campus of John Marshall High are in fact Hamilton High School, located only ten minutes from the MGM studios. Only the front is John Marshall High, so maybe they did the pilot exteriors there. I'm not guessing at this dear people - I went to Hamilton when they shot there. They were there quite often and all us drama kids thought we should have been in it, although out of all of us, I'm the only one who would go on to do TV and work with many of the folks who did the show. So, perhaps they split the shooting between the two schools but I find that highly unlikely as John Marshall is on the other side of the world from MGM. I suspect only the pilot exteriors were done there.

 

[Flashgear]

The pilot was filmed at John Marshall high, starting on Dec. 26, 1962...producers E. Jack Neuman, William Froug and Boris Sagal having negotiated access with school authorities to shoot over the Christmas break...a lot of the show was shot at MGM Culver City, of course, exteriors included...but most high school location work for early episodes was done at John Marshall until sometime in late 1963, when location shooting also took place, on an ongoing basis, at Hamilton High as well...so don't worry, your school gets it's due in this book as it should...to quote from the new book...

" Hamilton High School, near Culver City, began to be used for some of the location filming because the parking was better for the crew. They had a more expansive outer campus. It was a long walk up to the entrance to the school which would be easier to film because John Marshall was closer to the street. Hamilton was much closer to MGM studios in Culver City. There would still be some location filming at John Marshall during both seasons as well as Hamilton. It depended on what was required."

-Bob Schultz, MGM Property Master for Mr. Novak... page 76,' Mr. Novak - An Acclaimed Television Series' by Chuck Harter, BearManor Media, 2017.

Also in this book...an interview with Marc Wanamaker, at the time a student at Hamilton High, who worked on Mr. Novak during location filming and appeared in backgrounds on at least six episodes...he was paid $25 per day and having been inspired by working around Dean Jagger, James Franciscus and Richard Donner, went on to a career as an actor himself...Interview, page 108...

I should have mentioned Hamilton High when I discussed John Marshall... Marshall only holding prominence in my mind because of the well known exteriors used for both seasons in the opening titles and theme music sequence...author Chuck Harter appropriately gave Alexander Hamilton High it's due respect...

 

[haineshisway]

The pilot was filmed at John Marshall high, starting on Dec. 26, 1962...producers E. Jack Neuman, William Froug and Boris Sagal having negotiated access with school authorities to shoot over the Christmas break...a lot of the show was shot at Culver City, of course, exteriors included...but most high school location work for early episodes was done at John Marshall until sometime in late 1963, when location shooting also took place, on an ongoing basis, at Hamilton High as well...so don't worry, your school gets it's due in this book as it should...to quote from the new book...

" Hamilton High School, near Culver City, began to be used for some of the location filming because the parking was better for the crew. They had a more expansive outer campus. It was a long walk up to the entrance to the school which would be easier to film because John Marshall was closer to the street. Hamilton was much closer to MGM studios in Culver City. There would still be some location filming at John Marshall during both seasons as well as Hamilton. It depended on what was required."

-Bob Schultz, MGM Property Master for Mr. Novak... page 76,' Mr. Novak - An Acclaimed Television Series' by Chuck Harter, BearManor Media, 2017.

Also in this book...an interview with Marc Wanamaker, at the time a student at Hamilton High, who worked on Mr. Novak during location filming and appeared in backgrounds on at least six episodes...he was paid $25 per day and having been inspired by working around Dean Jagger, James Franciscus and Richard Donner, went on to a career as an actor himself...Interview, page 108...

I should have mentioned Hamilton High when I discussed John Marshall... Marshall only holding prominence in my mind because of the well known exteriors used for both seasons in the opening titles and theme music sequence...author Chuck Harter appropriately gave Alexander Hamilton High it's due respect...

Marc is a long-time and very good friend of mine. You can see him in my film The First Nudie Musical You have no idea how much I wanted to be on TV and in movies back then - it was ALL I wanted, so it killed me to see them filming all the time. But a mere seven years later my dream came true with my first guest shot and I was very lucky after that and worked all the time. Much later in the 1980s I hired Tony Dow to host a little thirty-minute documentary I made for KABC here in LA about the kiddie show hosts of LA live TV. We had a great time. I ran into him a couple of years ago - he didn't have a copy of the show so I sent him one. Good times all.

And in 1974 I was shooting one of the several Partridge Family episodes I did - on a cruise ship (the Fairsea) - we shot on the way home from Acapulco. On the cruise, completely coincidentally, were James Franciscus and John Lupton. They'd occasionally watch us shoot - I'm sure they were both amused and horrified that filming was going on on their vacation cruise. But it was like a reverse of all those years before. I did talk to him briefly one night and told him I'd gone to Hamilton when he filmed there. He was a very nice guy and so was Lupton.

 

[Flashgear]

Thank you for contributing those wonderful memories, Bruce...perhaps you should have been interviewed for Chuck's new book yourself...some of the most charming anecdotes in this delightful book are the memories of High School Alumni who appeared as extras or who observed the filming during those magical years of their own youth...Lupton was a good actor too, who seemed to appear in every TV series I collect...same with James Franciscus, what a shame he didn't live a good long life...I'm waiting to get my copy of 'Angie' so I can check out your work on that fun show...I did see your 'Young Lawyers' episode...and I also have a number of your publisher soundtracks...I hope you continue to share more of your Show Biz memories with us...

 

[Darby67]

Every multi season show released by Warner Archive since 2012 has been on pressed discs so I'm 99.9% sure this will be. Just keep in mind Amazon presses their own discs so it will be DVD-R from them but pressed from WBshop and other retailers.

Randy:

Thank you for the reminder on that.

 

[haineshisway]

Thank you for contributing those wonderful memories, Bruce...perhaps you should have been interviewed for Chuck's new book yourself...some of the most charming anecdotes in this delightful book are the memories of High School Alumni who appeared as extras or who observed the filming during those magical years of their own youth...Lupton was a good actor too, who seemed to appear in every TV series I collect...same with James Franciscus, what a shame he didn't live a good long life...I'm waiting to get my copy of 'Angie' so I can check out your work on that fun show...I did see your 'Young Lawyers' episode...and I also have a number of your publisher soundtracks...I hope you continue to share more of your Show Biz memories with us...

I share them ALL in great detail right here in hard, soft, or Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Mel-W...eST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

 

[Flashgear]

I just checked out your book and reviews on Amazon...this looks like a very interesting, entertaining and engaging read, Bruce...I was not aware of it...thank you.

 

[Gary16]

I just ordered a copy of your book.

 

[Steve...O]

I share them ALL in great detail right here in hard, soft, or Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Mel-W...eST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

I didn't realize you had this book out, Bruce. It's going on my next Amazon order! Thanks for linking to it.

 

[Neil Brock]

About John McGiver's lost TV series...I too hope that WAC releases Many Happy Returns eventually...hope also that Mr. Terrific busts out of another vault as well...

Also hoping for Many Happy Returns someday. Mr. Terrific has been out for years.