The Lieutenant - Roddenberry's pre-Star Trek series is out (1 Viewer)

[DeWilson]

I wonder how many pressed discs they run - 1000? 2000? before switching over to DVD-Rs?

 

[hypnohighball]

[quote name="Carabimero" url="/t/323008/the-lieutenant-roddenberrys-pre-star-trek-series-is-out/30#post_3965846"
I'm trying to understand why there is any doubt they are burned.[/quote]

I haven't received my Lieutenant sets yet, but I was watching a Harry O disc last night and looking at it, it looks like a regular pressed dvd. I looked closer at the inner ring and there's stamped data there that's not on a dvd-r from WA, I compared them. It's just different, not to mention it doesn't have the bluish hue dvd-r's have.

 

[Carabimero]

Thanks, someone said they had info too from WA that a limited run of Harry-O and The Lieutenant were pressed, but I had to return my Harry-O with "burn-like" symptoms. I do believe the discs were pressed and I just got a bad set. They looked pressed to me from the beginning but all the other factors I mentioned earlier had me conflicted. Thanks.

 

[Guy Foulard]

watching a Harry O disc last night and looking at it, it looks like a regular pressed dvd. I looked closer at the inner ring and there's stamped data there that's not on a dvd-r from WA, I compared them. It's just different, not to mention it doesn't have the bluish hue dvd-r's have.

The Lieutenant DVDs are the same way--I compared them to my Harry O discs. Also, the label side is more of a matte finish, where the DVD-Rs are shiny.

 

[Carabimero]

The more I watch this show, the more I'm impressed with it. Really glad I bought these two sets.
I think my favorite episode so far is THE PROUD AND THE ANGRY, the third episode on disc 1.
Anybody else got a favorite?

 

[Guy Foulard]

The more I watch this show, the more I'm impressed with it. Really glad I bought these two sets.
I think my favorite episode so far is THE PROUD AND THE ANGRY, the third episode on disc 1.
Anybody else got a favorite?

I've watched five so far, and my favorite has been "The Two Star Giant" with Neville Brand. It's fun watching this and playing "identify the supporting actor"--I've seen Greg Morris and Harold Gould twice, and Chris Connolly from "Peyton Place" and a non-bearded Stuart Margolin (Angel from "The Rockford Files").

 

[Richard V]

I received mine today, & I too seem to have gotten a pressed set. Hot-diggity. I can confirm the same thing others have said. My Lieutenant labels have a matte finish and the discs are "stainless steel" color, whereas my Gallant Men labels are shiny and the discs are "metallic blue" in color. Haven't watched any episodes yet.

 

[hypnohighball]

I received mine today, & I too seem to have gotten a pressed set. Hot-diggity. I can confirm the same thing others have said. My Lieutenant labels have a matte finish and the discs are "stainless steel" color, whereas my Gallant Men labels are shiny and the discs are "metallic blue" in color. Haven't watched any episodes yet.

Same here - checked the first episode and the image quality looks great. As soon as I finish season 4 of Route 66 and my Harry O season 1 , this one is up next.

 

[Carabimero]

Every episode keeps getting better. I can't think of another TV show that I'd never seen before getting the DVDs that actually has a chance of becoming one of my favorite shows of all time.

 

[Conrad_SSS]

Every episode keeps getting better. I can't think of another TV show that I'd never seen before getting the DVDs that actually has a chance of becoming one of my favorite shows of all time.

My sentiments exactly. I am in awe of the overall excellence of this series. Why on earth has it been virtually hidden for nearly 50 years? Whatever the reason, I'm just grateful to be able to see it, no less own it. I've already watched certain episodes a second time because the writing and performances are so impressive. "The Lieutenant" deserves a promotion!:tu:

 

[Carabimero]

"The Two-Star Giant" is definitely worth another watch. I think I'll have to have a second viewing and invite my wife to see it. I'm so excited to see the rest of this series, slowly, so I can savor it.

 

[Guy Foulard]

New Warner Archive interview with Gary Lockwood here:
http://warnerarchive.tumblr.com/post/30484278721/gary-lockwood-interview-released-aug-29-2012-gary
I'd always thought of him as "the other guy" in 2001, but he's very good on this show.

 

[Carabimero]

Thanks for posting the link to the interview.
I just watched what apparently was the pilot (first episode on disc 2) and within 15 minutes I had it pegged as a Gene Roddenberry-written episode. The weakest of the bunch so far, by far (and still good). If the episodes are presented in aired order rather than production order, it's no mystery to me why they didn't lead with the pilot. I'm only guessing, though, about the aired order being the same as the sequence on the DVDs.
Looking forward to another episode tonight.
Edit: after listening to the interview I see that the episodes were in fact aired out of production order. Thanks again for posting it.

 

[Guy Foulard]

In case you haven't gotten this excellent series yet, Amazon currently has Part 1 & 2 for $22.56 each. These will probably be burned discs, not pressed like the initial Warner Archives batch, but it's still a good price. The Gallant Men is also $27.26.

 

[Jack P]

I've been enjoying this series too as I've plunged further into it. I have been glad to see that despite the fact Roddenberry created and produced it, it is not a Gene Roddenberry show, as he wrote nothing other than the pilot which as noted earlier in the thread comes off poorly compared to the other episodes and hence the reason why it was dumped ultimately as the fifth episode aired. It is really more like "Dr. Kildare" in a military setting in terms of the human drama of the stories mixed in with the professionalism of the job as we see Lieutenant Rice over the course of this season evolve as a Marine, which gives the show a refreshing sense of forward momentum that was rare for TV in those days. If it weren't for Roddenberry's name, you'd never think he had any association with it whatsoever, because those expecting foreshadowings of his whole Star Trek philosophizing aren't going to find it here.

Gary Lockwood surprised me too because before this, I only really knew him for his purposefully stiff-as-a-board performance in "2001: A Space Odyssey" and a long string of TV guest shots as the psycho-killer of the week. I never really saw him as the kind of actor who could be credible as a series lead but he does the job wonderfully. Robert Vaughn, just a year away from becoming Napoleon Solo also shows great range as his superior Captain Rambridge. It was interesting how one of Vaughn's spotlight episodes, "Between Music And Laughter" has Pat Crowley as his ex-wife. Almost right away she would be his leading lady in the "Man From UNCLE" pilot movie.

Thank you Warner Archive for bringing this lost gem back to be rediscovered.

 

[FanCollector]

I suppose Norman Felton, who was in charge of both The Lieutenant and The Man From UNCLE, liked the chemistry between Vaughn and Pat Crowley. I have been enjoying the series a lot also, and have been pleasantly surprised by the variety of stories they found to tell in a peacetime military base setting. My fear was that it might get repetitive or claustrophobic, but I haven't felt that way.

 

[Ejanss]

I've been enjoying this series too as I've plunged further into it. I have been glad to see that despite the fact Roddenberry created and produced it, it is not a Gene Roddenberry show, as he wrote nothing other than the pilot which as noted earlier in the thread comes off poorly compared to the other episodes and hence the reason why it was dumped ultimately as the fifth episode aired. It is really more like "Dr. Kildare" in a military setting in terms of the human drama of the stories mixed in with the professionalism of the job as we see Lieutenant Rice over the course of this season evolve as a Marine, which gives the show a refreshing sense of forward momentum that was rare for TV in those days. If it weren't for Roddenberry's name, you'd never think he had any association with it whatsoever, because those expecting foreshadowings of his whole Star Trek philosophizing aren't going to find it here.

Before Gene Roddenberry became fan-typecast with sci-fi after Star Trek, he was one of the better Western-series writers in the business, giving all his moralized "Captain Kirk philosophizing" to Paladin in a handful of Have Gun Will Travel episodes.
Which explains why he had to sell Trek as, quote, "Wagon Train to the stars", since more network execs at the time knew Roddenberry for Wagon Train than for spaceships.

 

[Jack P]

Well I've finished this series now which has as its final episode "To Kill A Man". In a strange way, the episode has the feel of "series end" to it. Lieutenant Rice's journey is now complete and he is ready to put his training that's been developed over the course of the season into the real world combat situations he's heard a lot of talk about but now has to confront. It would have been hard to sustain the series with Rice now assigned to Vietnam I think, and much as that would have been fascinating to explore, I think it's probably just as well from a creative standpoint that we're left to only imagine what became of the Lieutenant the longer he served in Vietnam.

Roddenberry, I will give credit for doing a better job writing this final episode than he did the pilot (even though it would have been nice to have seen one final scene with Robert Vaughn----who obviously wouldn't have been back even if the show had been renewed since he'd already done the MFU pilot by this point and the series had sold).

UPDATE-I just finished going through the "feature" length version of the last episode and if the original showed Roddenberry at his best, this shows him alas at his annoying worst. The scenes and subplots added for this are strictly of the gratuitous "sex for the European audience" with Anne Helm stripping to her lingerie and getting her bra ripped off and a further added romantic subplot that undermines the credibility of the drama in the main episode. These scenes also have the negative impact of making Lockwood's Rice less of the man we've come to like and admire over the course of the series and shows an entirely different and less likable character ultimately who is now mouthing more of Gene Roddenberry's platitudes instead. It's ultimately a version totally untrue to the spirit of what made "The Lieutenant" a great show to follow over the course of its one season.

 

[jdee28]

In a piece of totally useless trivia, I was surprised to hear the theme from The Lieutenant being played in full at a rodeo by a marching band in the 1965 MGM western "The Rounders" with Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda. It did seem a better fit for that piece of music.

 

[jimmyjet]

i dont recall this show. it only lasted one season.

from what i read, the war in vietnam was what cancelled it.

i looked at the tv schedule. and i see that hootenanny was on that same hour.

and i know i definitely watched that.

so i am guessing that being that it only lasted a year, it flew right by me ?