The Adventures Of Robin Hood: The Complete Series & Season 4 Released 8/24/09 (1 Viewer)

[Bob Gu]

Mill Creek has just released both Richard Greene's, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD: The Complete Series set and a stand alone release of Season 4, which joins the previously released S1-3 sets and completes the series.

Amazon.com is showing the complete series today for $21.99 and Season 4 for $10.99.

They will even be cheaper of course during the next deepdiscount.com sale.

This was the series that began the invasion of UK TV imports to the US and is still great entertainment and fun.

 

[cajunhillbilly]

Just got an email from Amazon saying my season 4 just shipped. Waahoo!!!

 

[Pete Battista]

I still haven't finished the first season set... and haven't bought seasons 1-3 yet. I have enjoyed the episodes I watched... so I may save myself some money and just order the Complete Series set instead of playing catch-up.

 

[BobO'Link]

I'm amazed we're seeing the entire series get a release. I really expected this to die after S1 (especially as it appeared in the WM dump bin almost as soon as it was released) and was overjoyed to see S2 and S3 released. While I'm a bit miffed about the entire series price being much lower than the 4 individual seasons I'm not going to let it kill my enjoyment of this series. It helps that I've purchased the first 3 @ $6/ea. I'll just wait for the price of S4 to drop before picking it up.

While I felt S1 started a bit slowly it really built well and had a good finish. I get a kick out of the topical lyric changes to "Early One Morning" on each episode. I actually think I *may* have seen a few of these as a small child as I distinctly remember the main theme song.

 

[smithb]

Has anyone done a comparison with the UK versions to determine how much better they are? There is an obvious big difference in price to consider but I would be curious to know?

How does this Mill Creek release compare to others of theirs? For example, Ozzie & Harriet, Western Collection.

 

[Bob Gu]

The main difference between the R2 Network UK releases and the Mill Creek's R1 is that Mill Creek's Season 1 release uses pretty good public domain type episodes, that have some extras, like original commercials and sponser placements, "brought to you by" voiceovers, the CBS eye logo at the end, and a card that says the episodes were flown to the US from the UK.

Mill Creek's Seasons 2 and 3, (and probably Season 4 too), seem to be the same licensed source prints that the Network UK DVD's used based on a couple of electronic pauses and or picture break-up problems that appear in the same spots on the same couple of episodes in both the R2 and R1 DVDs.

The greys, darkness, and detail levels of the picture look about the same to me on both the R2 and the R1, with the Mill Creek's looking slightly sharper than the R2s, to my eye.

The Network UK sets used 5 DVDs per season for S1,S2, and S3, and 3 DVDs for Season 4. Mill Creek used 3 DVDs for S1, S2, and S3. I don't know how many MC used for S4.

Robin Hood fans should also pick up Vol. 10 of the Alpha release of "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" to get an alternate version of the S1 episode "The Knight Who Came To Dinner".

This second version of "The Knight Who Came To Dinner" was probably made for the US. The evil Abbot character in the original version was removed from the show and replaced with a secular bad guy in refilmed sequences and other parts of the episode were redubbed to remove any Abbot references.

I think CBS censors had the Abbot character removed because his demeaner was similar to that of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who had an inspirational TV show on around that time.

An easier call for R1 vs R2, with the R2 version being the clear winner,would be "The Adventures Of William Tell".

The "Tell" Network UK R2 set has all 39 episodes plus a more detailed picture in the darks. The Timeless Media R1 release only has 30 episodes and a picture that lost some detail in the darks.

 

[smithb]

Thanks Bob, that helps alot. I think I may have seen an episode or two in my youth. Based on the price difference and not really knowing the show well enough makes it an easy call to do a blind buy on the Mill Creek sets. Whereas I'd have to know it was a keeper before paying the UK prices.

Funny think is while looking for more details I came across an ad for the Sherlock Holmes series set by Mill Creek with Ronald Howard. I've never seen this either but I'm a fan of Leslie Howard (Ron's father) and for the price I may have to give that a try as well. Now you go and mention William Tell so I suppose I should look that up to.

 

[Bob Hug]

Brad, the 1954 version of Sherlock Holmes with Ronald Howard is a fun show to watch though the mysteries are not all that hard to solve and with the exception of one episode are not from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle. The show was produced in Paris with English leads and English speaking French actors with an occasional American actor. To my knowledge, Mill Creek is the only DVD releasing company that has all 39 episodes. The set was originally issued as a five disc set (now out of print) with about eight episdoes per disc and a generic Sherlock Holmes introduction by Christopher Lee that has nothing to do with the show. The current Mill Creek release cuts the five discs down to three with 13 episodes per disc; I'm not sure whether the Christopher Lee intro was retained on this second issue.

If you like "The Advntures of Robin Hood," you're sure to like "William Tell" which plays like a darker, more violent version of "Robin Hood." I have the Timeless release and thought it was fine for the money. Deep Discount currently has this for under $10 shipped. Well worth it, in my humble opinion, if you enjoy the British costume adventure series of the late 1950s.

 

[Gary OS]

By the way, good to see you back Bob Hug! I've missed seeing you post and hope you are feeling fine again, my good friend.

Gary "I also recommend the Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, and William Tell releases - all good bargains for the money you'll spend on them" O.

 

[Bob Hug]

Thanks, Gary . . . . coming along fine, slowly but surely.

 

[smithb]

Just to let everyone know that is interested in the complete collection of the Adventures of Robin Hood:

Buy.com has it currently for $15.39

 

[BobO'Link]

^ List Price: See Details$29.98Price: $15.20[SIZE= 12px]Shipping: [/SIZE][SIZE= 12px]$2.99[/SIZE] Total Price: $18.19
DD currently has it for $17.19 w/free shipping. Link.

Or wait for the next % off sale to get it for $12.89 (assuming 25% off and no price increase by then).

 

[smithb]

Originally Posted by BobO'Link ">[/url]

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[lizphor]

I bought the 11 DVDs from Vintage Theatre and Vol 1-15 from Alpha. I remember the episodes when they were on CBS and CBC. I want to purchase the 1 movie that R.G. made as Robin Hood. Has anyone bought it?

 

[Bob Gu]

It was called, SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST and was released to theaters in 1960.

Sony released it on VHS and DVD, in Region 2, but it is out of print.

Right now there are two DVD copies available at amazon.co.uk through resellers. It costs about $40.00 plus shipping.

I don't have it, but would like to see it again. It's in color too. Saw it on TV decades ago probably in B&W .

GOOD NEWS : I did a bit more searching and found out that Sony has re-released SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST in R2. It's being sold exclusively by a company called: moviemail-online.co.uk for around $20.00 plus shipping.

moviemail-online.co.uk is also exclusively selling: THE BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST-1946 with Cornell Wilde and ROGUES OF SHERWOOD-1950 with John Derek. Both titles, also, from Sony/UK.

I wish there was a way to find out if the three are going to be released in R1. I have a Region free DVD player and would like all three of these movies, but I was trying to cut back on my spending. $60.00 plus shipping for three movies!! It's like the Warner Archives without the coupons.

 

[Bob Gu]

Turns out Sony and moviemail-online also have the three R2 Robin Hood movies in a three pack set called: THE ROBIN HOOD COLLECTION. The set would cost around $45.00 shipped vs $69.00 for the three individual titles.

So, SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST with Richard Greene by itself would cost around $24.75,shipped. (or less if they take off the VAT)

 

[lizphor]

Thank you for the info.

 

[Bob Gu]

If anyone has received their Adventures Of Robin Hood Complete Series set or stand alone Season 4, can you check it?

A customer review of Season 4 at amazon says three episodes are missing from disc one. There are supposed to be 26 episodes for S4. Maybe the customer had a bad disc? The other amazon reviewers don't mention if there are missing episodes.