Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (1 Viewer)

[Gord Lacey]

Yeah, I had to rely on the episode guide at TV.com - another reason these exclusives are frustrating (no info available!). I've corrected the news post.

Gord

 

[Michael Alden]

Strange how the prices have risen with each season while the episode counts go down.

 

[Bob Gu]

I just received my shipping confirmation from deepdiscount for Sergeant Preston S-3. The release date had been pushed back to March 27th and I was hoping it would ship this week. I was starting to worry because earlier today I came across a news article that said that Classic Media, the owners of Preston had changed distributors and wondered if that might change things with Critic's Choice. I guess not.

With this release,of S-3, Sgt Preston goes into the completed series group.

"Well, King...This DVD case is closed!"

 

[Gary OS]

That's strange, Bob. I too got an email from DDD just today, but mine said the item shipped today! DDD doesn't usually send an email to say they delayed shipping. Are you sure you didn't get an actual shipping confirmation?

Gary "like you, Bob, I'm also glad to see this series get a complete run" O.

EDIT: NEVER MIND, I MISREAD YOUR POST. I REALIZE YOUR SET IS IN THE MAIL TOO! SORRY.

 

[Jeff#]

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon.

Wow, I've read a lot about this show (originally produced for syndication), but I never saw it. Sgt. Preston actually started as a radio show, of which Mp3 files of those recordings exist. If you look around online you might find a bunch.

I'd like to see Sgt. Preston but not the kind of show I'd want to buy for my collection. Maybe somebody would be kind enough to upload several episodes to GUBA.com .

The Cisko Kid in 1950 was the first TV series filmed in color, by the way.

 

[silverking]

The Cisco Kid was indeed filmed in colour but this was actually no great foresight by the producers. At the time colour film stock was apparently cheaper, so this is what they used. However, they assumed it would only be seen in black & white. Consequently no trouble at all was taken in the processing. This is why today, if you view any Cisco episodes , the colours are often mismatched, washy & shifting.

 

[Jeff#]

Color film was never cheaper than black & white. It's just that the producers did indeed use low-grade film stock. The problem with The Cisko Kid (other than it being a lousy show that is), was that most stations didn't have the facilities to broadcast in color at that time. For 6 seasons they would purchase those color films and a lot of the stations at the time would air them in B & W.

 

[silverking]

I've no idea about the price of film in 1950 but Kenneth Peach ,the cinematographer on this series has stated that 16mm Cinecolor was cheaper than 35mm black & white & that was how come the series was produced in colour. I would not have thought that there were any colour sets in homes during 1950/5 anyway.

As for being a lousy show, well opinions differ.Bearing in mind that it was very much a budget show, aimed at kids at a time when series TV was in its infancy I don't think it is worse than than any of the myriad of other similair shows of the time. Several episodes did try for unique storylines.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty exciting when I was 8 years old & can still find it entertaining today.

Anybody got the S3 Sgt Preston yet ? Does the quality match S1 & 2 ?

 

[Jeff#]

Was the first season of Sgt. Preston filmed in black & white? I tried this show from an episode somebody uploaded on a website (think it was GUBA.com but I'm not sure). I didn't care much for the show, and Richard Simmons' career didn't exactly go anywhere from it except as an occasional guest star on other shows. He's far less annoying than the exercise guru of the same name though.

 

[Jeff*H]

I purchased Season 1 and Season 2 and both are in color.

 

[Doug^Ch]

The first season is in glorious color and looked fantastic. I for one love the show, and it had very good production values for the time. I'm glad I have the entire series on DVD to watch whenever I want.

 

[Jeff#]

Then maybe the Mp4 I looked at on that site was a black & white print of what was originally shot in color.

 

[Bob Gu]

I have watched all 22 fun and beautifully photographed episodes of Sergeant Preston S-3 from Critic's Choice. The quality of the earlier DVD seasons is maintained......but.....

Apparently, the color prints of two episodes do not exist in the Classic Media film vaults. So for those two episodes (excellent) black and white prints were used. The otherwise gorgeous color print of "Old Faithful" was missing a scene and timed out to around 22 min., instead of the usual 25 min:34 sec. This is the only severely cut episode of the 78 Preston episodes I have noticed. (If the b&w print of this episode was complete they should have edited the missing scene into the color print.)

Many of the S-3 episodes have the complete end credits that show Quaker Oats products and the Quaker Man logo at the end. But the episodes that don't have the Quaker credits, have generic Preston end credits that don't feature the proper cast lists. Of the 56 episodes on the S1 and S2 DVD release, I only noticed one episode, "Dog Race" missing it's cast list. (I hope the missing credits on some S3 episodes wasn't a case of somebody not searching the vault better.)

Still the Sgt Preston prints changed hands so many times,(Trendle to Wrather,Wrather to Golden Books,Golden Books to Classic Media, etc),and were beaten up, geting end credits chopped off, during it's syndication travels. It's amazing how beautiful the shows themselves still look 50 years later.

Sergeant Preston is a fun and good-looking show, recommended to any fan of early TV westerns and any fan of the George Trendle created heroes, that in addition to Sgt Preston include The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet. (All now owned by Classic Media.)

 

[John Morgan]

I agree with Bob. I now have all three seasons and they look better than I had expected.

 

[Bob Gu]

tvshowsondvd.com reports that amazon.com is showing SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON: THe Complete Collection up for pre-order for $71.99, with a July 24, release date. This will be all three seasons and coming from Infinity Entertainment Group, the retail arm of the Critic's Choice/DeepDiscount operation. I don't think it's known yet if this is a bundle of the Critic's Choice packaging or something with newly designed packaging.

It's interesting that this is not showing at deepdiscount or Critic's Choice yet.

 

[RobertGr]

I love the show it has such a great feel to it. My main concern is the very audible sound problems on numerous episodes with loud hums etc. The notes on the front of the boxes say the episodes were digitally restored for best sound and picture quality! Which if so should have and could have got rid of the soundtrack noise. The sets should be remastered and replaced especially the disc with the missing scened episode OLD FAITHFUL.

On the filming in color question. All during the 1950's the debate was ongoing which system would be used to broadcast tv shows in color eventually RCA's system was used. Hence NBC airing BONANZA in color and pushing a lot of broadcasting of shows in FULL COLOR which was owned by RCA and the selling of MANY RCA color tv's ! Check out the great color on the tv show FLIPPER another NBC show. I know PRESTON aired on CBS I am just making the point why the shows were filmed in color, because everyone
knew color would be a reality eventually!
And when color did come on the scene is was a BIG DEAL check out the great episode on HAZEL where Hazel wants a color tv to see the color of Perry Como's eyes!!!!

So the smart producers filmed the shows in color but showed the first runs in black and white later when the color tv boom took hold the shows were then brought out of the vaults in COLOR and the producers made a bundle.

That is what made ADV of Superman the syndication marvel it was from the mid 1960's through the early 1980's on such stations as WPIX here in NY!

 

[Bob Gu]

If someone came along and revisited Sgt.Preston with a state of the art restoration, that included bumpers,scenes for next week, and the CBS Eye logo, I would buy it again.

The radio show is great fun also, especially the episodes with Paul Sutton as Sgt Preston. Many of the TV episodes are based on the radio episodes and in some cases the radio show had a bigger budget, being the theater of the imagination. The radio show was on for about 16 years and sometimes broadcast three times a week. But today, Sgt. Preston is a forgotton character, the last remnant of the sub-genre of Great North Woods adventure stories.

I'd be interested in seeing another early color show surface on DVD: THE ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOCK with Guy Madison and Andy Devine.

 

[Bob Hug]

Infinity Entertainment is showing a June 16 release date for season 2 of "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon." I'm assuming this is just a reissue of the previous season 2 set released by Critics Choice.

Infinity Entertainment Group

 

[myst0]

Why can't I find Sergeant Preston Season 3 anywhere? 1 & 2 are plentiful but 3 is sold out everywhere. Anybody know where I could find a copy??

 

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by myst0 /forum/thread/228557/sergeant-preston-of-the-yukon/30#post_3804186