Rawhide (1 Viewer)

[silverking]

I'm sure you will enjoy this set Michael. There are at least 3 of which I would put in my Rawhide top ten.' Incident of the Haunted Hills' Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse' & the spooky 'Incident of the Blue Fire'.
Only the opener ,'Incident of the Day of the Dead' which is an Eastwood segment would I class as a little below par.

Perhaps when you have had a chance to view it you will post & offer your opinions.

Re earlier comments - I do indeed hope Big Valley continues ,though the move to half season sets & authoring problems have probably alienated a number of prospective customers.Not a series I took to much on the initial run but recent viewing on DVD has changed my opinion. It also maintained its quality right through all 4 series.The last time I posted my pessimistic views on further releases it was about 'Rawhide'.One week later S2 v1 was announced !. Here's hoping.

 

[Doug^Ch]

Please excuse me if this question has been asked before. The second episode on the second season set is called The Incident of the Roman Candles. It is about a little boy who is a terrific liar and can't stop lying. Didn't I see this same show in the first season set? Is it a mistake or am I crazy.

 

[silverking]

Not yet received my set, however if 'Incident of the Roman Candles' is included then Paramount deserve a kick in the rear.

It was on the first set & is usually run as the last episode of S1. I understand for some reason it was not shown on its original broadcast run till some time after the other episodes in the first series. It may well be it was filmed as part of S2.

Whatever the case to include it again is ridiculous & demonstrates that DVD companies really don't know their product !

 

[jdee28]

"Incident of the Roman Candles" is indeed included in the second season release. There is some confusion as to whether it aired in July 1959, making it part of the first season, or September 1959, making it part of the second. I guess they decided to hedge their bets and have it both ways.

 

[jdee28]

Also, they couldn't remove it from the first season release. The Columbia House disc already had that episode as part of Season 1. To change it, they would have had to author an entirely new last disc for the first season set. No surprise they decided to be cost-effective and go with the Columbia House disc as is. No doubt they also saw how they could advertise the episode as a special "bonus;" since it probably didn't air as part of Season 1, thereby giving the impression there were great bonus features to the Season 1 set.

 

[Doug^Ch]

Thanks for the explanation John! I'm glad that I was not imagining things.

 

[Gary OS]

Well, this is kinda discouraging. I just went to Amazon to do my daily check of classic TV on DVD sales rankings, and after only a few weeks on the market RAWHIDE SEASON 2, V.1 is not even in the hundreds any more. It's already fallen to 1079. That is really, really bad news the way I see it. This concerns me greatly as to the future of this series. It's become one of my favorite releases and I'd hate to see it fall to the wayside like HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL. But these rankings are not good. Not good at all.

Gary "look at some of the other vintage releases from the past several weeks and you'll see they rank much, much higher - with many hovering a good bit under the 100 mark" O.

 

[Doug^Ch]

That is really a shame. I have come to really love this show, and I want all the episodes released.

 

[michael_ks]

Gary, I've been monitoring the sales for this release on Amazon as well in last couple of weeks and also came to conclusion that this bodes ill for seeing further releases. I think we are in the clear for S2 vol. 2 at least, but beyond that? I certainly can't imagine Paramount making another dozen(!) announcements for the remaining seasons in the current half season box set format.

And therein lies the problem. I believe many collectors are waiting for this set to drop down to around $19.99, a price structure consistent with the S1 release. I did this myself by waiting for the DD sale and wasn't willing to pick this up when I spotted it at the only Brick & Mortar store I found it at (Best Buy) for the less reasonable $34.99. Notice on Amazon, reviewers are getting into a tiff over the pricing of the product as they have with "The Untouchables" and "The Big Valley" which potentially spells bad news. Near as I can tell, full season sets for tv shows of comparable vintage are selling better than half season sets. It's a bad marketing decision and Paramount could quite easily misinterpret sales results, thinking that interest in "Rawhide" is waning.

FYI--I received this in the mail yesterday and promptly sat down to watch the first episode "Incident of the Day of the Dead". Even though Eastwood was the only regular featured the episode came off quite well, thanks to the strength of the matron character portrayed by able Viveca Lindfors. I was taken aback by Eastwood's opening narration and had to quickly scan a couple other shows on the disc to be reassured that Eric Fleming was still providing the opening monologues.

 

[Gary OS]

Spot on, Michael. There's no doubt in my mind at this point that the half season sets are a poor decision. I can see it if we are talking about an hour long show than ran 36 episodes or more. But when we are talking about 30 episodes or less, the studio really needs to bite the bullet and give us full season releases. Where this really concerns me is with "THE FUGITIVE." If people don't buy that release (and again, for only half a season the price tag really is too high at $38.99 SRP) and the studio halts it, I'm going to be really disgusted. They desperately need to rethink this marketing decision, IMHO.

Gary "and it's such a shame because RAWHIDE is a quality show" O.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Mike, Gary,

I agree that the 1/2-season release approach is not the best strategy for these sets. Speaking for myself, I did buy Rawhide S2V1 & Big Valley S2V1 without waiting for Walmart close-out bins or other price drops. But I wonder what the real reason is for these 1/2 season releases. I guess one theory, if it's that, is the sales #'s for previous full-season releases weren't satisfactory to the studio. However, that possibly being true, the price structures don't make sense for 1/2 season sets. This gets me to thinking that the 1/2 season thing is about more profits for the studios and not necessarily related to previous sales #'s. As you guys said, it's a "chain reaction" scenario where a certain # of potential buyers are not going to spend the same amount of $$'s for 1/2 season sets as full-season sets. As for the Fugitive, I'll get that one as well but even for a 50's-80's collector like myself there may be a limit that's approaching to supporting the 1/2 season marketing release format. I'm not sure that I'd have sprung for the 1/2 season RH & BV sets if those 2 shows weren't on my "list". Just my strategy, but I've begun to hold off on buying some TV/DVD sets when they're first released and am waiting for DDD sales, 2-for-1 sales, etc. I rarely buy from local stores but after reading some posts here, there are definite bargains to be found going that route as well. If the studios rely on most of their sales during the early time period of the release, then I may be leaving that crowd. I didn't think I'd see the day that I wasn't buying a set at its release date. I'm just convinced that collectors prefer full-season sets to the 1/2 season releases. That said, we can't discount the "impulse" buyer at a local store or even via the 'net that will prefer a 1/2-S set to see if they are interested in buying further releases of a series. Of course, if the price structures for 1/2 vs full season sets are about the same, then....so much for that theory. I'd guess that we on this forum have to face that we're only a part of the buyers market for these sets and that the "come across a set at a Wal-Mart on a Fri evening and buying it" consumer group may be the majority buyer group. I'd find that hard to believe without seeing the #'s.

 

[michael_ks]

I see your point about this and feel that it is valid. At the same time, I tend to think of the vintage collector as being more of a perfectionist/purist, many of whom would welcome first a complete series collection first (though admittedly not entirely economically feasible for long running series) and then next desiring AT LEAST a season by season release of a show. I just don't have any feel about a casual/potential buyer of the "Fugitive"--I mean, across the board, we're kind of a fanatic lot over this show on the whole, aren't we?

 

[Jeff Willis]

Mike, that's a good point about the most-likely ratio of the local-store buying group. I would guess that the impulse-buyers are buying mainly the recent show releases, 90's - 00's shows. That's what makes this hobby....challenging.....since the 50's-60's series collector group has to play the waiting game more than our recent-series counterparts and there are typically more release issues (legal, rights, etc) issues with the older shows than the new ones. Not every case, but most of the time. Rawhide, an example, just think, even with Clint in it, it's taken this long to see this one on DVD and we're not certain that it'll see a complete release at that. Nut, after seeing some, to me, real surprise releases the last couple of years, there's always a "New Hope" (to borrow a Star Wars theme )

 

[RickER]

I would have gotten season 2, but i didnt. For the reasons given. No way will i pay that price for a 1/2 season, and its not a big 1/2 season like Perry Mason was. I am done with Rawhide, but i love the first season, and will continue to enjoy it. I still have Hawaii Five-0, and Mission: Impossible season 2 to finish, and those were full seasons, for about the same price as Rawhide season 2.0.

 

[jdee28]

We've had Volume 2 announcements from CBS/Paramount for all the split-season Volume 1's that they realeased in the first six months of this year, all except Rawhide. At this point, it'll be 7 months and counting btwn the release of Season 2, Volume 1 and Season 2, Volume 2, if we ever see the latter at all. It's a shame; Rawhide is such a great show. I wish it would come to the Encore Western Channel; I'd love to see it uncut, with excellent transfers.

I wonder how much the sale of Season 2, Volume 1 was hurt by the decision to split the season. Maybe sales will spike if they release Season 2, Volume 2 and package the two together as the complete second season.

 

[Jeff#]

7 months is nothing, and besides doesn't The Westerns Channel still air the hour-long B & W GUNSMOKEs like they did when I watched it back in 2003?

 

[jim_falconer]

So true. I am always disappointed to see Paramount soak the consumer like this. I never buy split season sets, which, unfortunately by doing so, the studio uses as leverage not to release anymore of a classic show like Rawhide.

 

[Dan McW]

The Westerns channel stopped running Gunsmoke in September 2005, I believe.

 

[Bob Gu]

There were 10 months between Rawhide S1 and S2 Vol. 1, so I would not worry until Mar. 2008 for S2 Vol 2. I'd guess Jan/Feb 2008 release. Or even Dec 2007, if Rawhide S2 Vol. 2 follows a month or so behind the release of Wild Wild West S3, as it did with WWW S1 and S2.

 

[Nick Zbu]

I'm starting to fall out of love with the half season sets as well. I appreciate the remastering that goes on, but there's simply no way to excuse that I could go out and get Rawhide S1 for $34 and then get S2 V1 for $30. What? If they're trying to recoup their costs, then they might as well offer the complete series or simply make it mail order by season. There's no real point in soaking the consumer like this under some misguided business model.

The half season sets would be nice about five years ago, but this is almost like those VHS 'two episodes per tape' releases from way back when. It's a full season or nothing at all. Who can blame people if they don't want to spend $60 per season when it's broken up into two parts?