NEW TIME LIFE Release: I Got You Babe: The Best Of The Sonny & Cher (Includes some Cher Shows too!) (1 Viewer)

[Lecagr]

Well an unfortunate aspect of life is that opportunities are presented and opportunities are taken away. I'm sorry now that I didn't record Name of the Game, which ran every Sunday night on WCBS. Now putting together a full run of the show is virtually impossible. I'm sure that there were people who may have recorded the whole series in the early 80s when it was running but good luck finding them. Most of the hobbyists from that era are either not alive any longer or out of the hobby. But you can't show up at a game or a concert 3/4 of the way through and then complain about what you missed.

It's too bad the advertised DVD release of Name of the Game didn't come to pass, good show, I remember watching some episodes on TV back in the day.

On the subject of recording stuff from TV, back in the 1980's, about 1984 to 1987, I recorded a bunch of East Side Kids and Bowery Boys movies from WGN-TV in Chicago. I still have the recordings, I edited the commercials out so it's the movies only. These are cool to have because back in those days, WGN ran 16mm prints of the movies and they have that retro/nostalgic look to them. Compare that to nowadays where everything has that new/restored look. In some ways that's a good thing but there's nothing like the charm of an old 16mm print.

 

[Neil Brock]

It's too bad the advertised DVD release of Name of the Game didn't come to pass, good show, I remember watching some episodes on TV back in the day.

On the subject of recording stuff from TV, back in the 1980's, about 1984 to 1987, I recorded a bunch of East Side Kids and Bowery Boys movies from WGN-TV in Chicago. I still have the recordings, I edited the commercials out so it's the movies only. These are cool to have because back in those days, WGN ran 16mm prints of the movies and they have that retro/nostalgic look to them. Compare that to nowadays where everything has that new/restored look. In some ways that's a good thing but there's nothing like the charm of an old 16mm print.

I recorded them off TCM a few years ago and there was one, Mr. Hex I believe, which was in abysmal condition. My guess is that Warner had multiple 16mm syndication prints and discarded all but one without bothering to check the condition. I didn't buy their DVD releases so I wonder if they were ever able to locate any better elements. What you recorded may be better than anything they now have.

 

[Lecagr]

I recorded them off TCM a few years ago and there was one, Mr. Hex I believe, which was in abysmal condition. My guess is that Warner had multiple 16mm syndication prints and discarded all but one without bothering to check the condition. I didn't buy their DVD releases so I wonder if they were ever able to locate any better elements. What you recorded may be better than anything they now have.

I didn't buy the retail DVD's either because I'm satisfied with my TV recordings of the movies. One problem with the retail DVD's is that the later Bowery Boys titles, starting with Clipped Wings and going forward, are in widescreen format and I dislike widescreen. All my Bowery Boys TV recordings are in fullscreen, including the later titles.

I recorded Mr. Hex from WGN back in 1986. I haven't seen the print Warner used for their DVD but the WGN airing I have looks pretty good, maybe a little grainy but otherwise no video issues.

I think it was back in July of 1985 when WGN aired a really nice looking 16mm print of the East Side Kids movie Docks Of New York. I recorded it and I'm glad I have this because as far as I know it's a rarer title from the series and is seldom seen. Follow The Leader is another East Side Kids movie I recorded from WGN, that's a nice looking print also.

I have one Bowery Boys movie on 16mm film, I have a 16mm print of Crashing Las Vegas. I think it might be the same print WGN once had but I'm not sure. I had it transferred to DVD a few years back and it looks great.

 

[Neil Brock]

The TCM airings were the first time that I ever got to see them when they weren't hacked to bits. WNEW in New York ran them for many, many years but always in a one hour time slot which meant that they were cutting at least 15 minutes out of each film. Ouch. The East Side Kids films, which I much prefer as they weren't strictly comedies at that point and they weren't such goody goodies, I recorded off of Comedy Central when they aired them in the early 90s. Still missing a couple of them I believe as well as the very rarely seen and pretty awful Universal series.

 

[Lecagr]

The TCM airings were the first time that I ever got to see them when they weren't hacked to bits. WNEW in New York ran them for many, many years but always in a one hour time slot which meant that they were cutting at least 15 minutes out of each film. Ouch. The East Side Kids films, which I much prefer as they weren't strictly comedies at that point and they weren't such goody goodies, I recorded off of Comedy Central when they aired them in the early 90s. Still missing a couple of them I believe as well as the very rarely seen and pretty awful Universal series.

WGN was pretty good when they ran Bowery Boys movies, they usually showed them uncut aside from some of the longer titles that run close to 70 minutes. They would sometimes trim a few minutes off of those longer ones. I have all 48 movies uncut. About 35 of them I recorded from WGN, the rest I recorded from TCM and a few others I got thru the trading circuit.

I have the Universal series, I agree overall it's not a great series but a few of the films are pretty good. Call A Messenger isn't bad, You're Not So Tough is a good one, Keep Em Slugging is good too and is unique because it's the one and only time Bobby Jordan gets to play the leader of the group. In the East Side Kids and the first eight Bowery Boys movies, Jordan has a supporting role and Leo Gorcey is the leader of the group.

 

[nobajoba]

TV Land aired 65 episodes complete and uncut so you're best bet is to just stick with your recordings from there rather than anything else.

By the way, I don't know where someone is getting 55 minutes from. Even in the dawn of television, no hour show ran that long. For CBS in the early 70s, you're probably looking at a running time of 50-51 minutes.

That is absolutely correct. I have all four of Lily Tomlin's specials from 1973-75 ( from an EXCELLENT source ) they are complete and uncut and they all run 50-52 minutes.

 

[Neil Brock]

WGN was pretty good when they ran Bowery Boys movies, they usually showed them uncut aside from some of the longer titles that run close to 70 minutes. They would sometimes trim a few minutes off of those longer ones. I have all 48 movies uncut. About 35 of them I recorded from WGN, the rest I recorded from TCM and a few others I got thru the trading circuit.

I have the Universal series, I agree overall it's not a great series but a few of the films are pretty good. Call A Messenger isn't bad, You're Not So Tough is a good one, Keep Em Slugging is good too and is unique because it's the one and only time Bobby Jordan gets to play the leader of the group. In the East Side Kids and the first eight Bowery Boys movies, Jordan has a supporting role and Leo Gorcey is the leader of the group.

Jordan was my favorite and probably the main reason why I like the East Side Kids films the best. I always wondered why Billy Halop was never in any of those but I wasn't a big fan of his anyway. When they started the Bowery Boys series, Jordan wasn't given much to do and was being wasted which I'm sure is why he left. I always considered him the most likeable one in the gang, going back to the original Dead End Kids films.

 

[Lecagr]

Jordan was my favorite and probably the main reason why I like the East Side Kids films the best. I always wondered why Billy Halop was never in any of those but I wasn't a big fan of his anyway. When they started the Bowery Boys series, Jordan wasn't given much to do and was being wasted which I'm sure is why he left. I always considered him the most likeable one in the gang, going back to the original Dead End Kids films.

I believe Halop was under contract with Universal doing the Little Tough Guy series and that's why he wasn't in the East Side Kids movies which were filmed for Monogram Pictures.

Bobby Jordan was a decent actor but once the Bowery Boys series started Jordan's role was reduced to being one of the background characters and he eventually left the series. Bowery Buckaroos was Jordan's last Bowery Boys movie.

The Bowery Boys series was basically a showcase for Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, Leo's father Bernard got his fair share of screen time too as Louie Dumbrowski the soda fountain proprietor. The earlier Bowery Boys films from the 1940's are mostly gangster melodramas. By around 1951 or 52 the series shifted to more a slapstick style of comedy with Huntz Hall becoming increasingly zany and Leo Gorcey with his malapropisms.