The Lineup (1954-1960) (1 Viewer)

[jdee28]

TCM aired the movie version of the Lineup last night. It was written by Stirling Silliphant, of Naked City and Route 66 fame. I'd love to see episodes of the tv show the movie was based on. A companion to Dragnet, a precursor to Naked City and Streets of San Francisco, it's suprising that The Lineup (aka San Francisco Beat) is one of the rarest shows to find from the mid to late 50s, this along with The Detectives starring Robert Taylor. I believe the Lineup was a Desilu/ CBS production, so it's probably in the hands of CBS/Paramount. With all they're putting out and how rare the show is, unless they license it, we'll probably never see it.

 

[Bob Hug]

It would probably take an Infinity Entertainment or Timeless Media to get this series out on DVD. With all the vintage series that CBS/Paramount has in various stages of release, plus other higher profile shows like "Mannix" still unreleased, I'd be really surprised if CBS/Paramount took a gamble on this.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Just a heads up re: The Naked City on DVD. DDD has Box Set 1 listed on their website and I ordered it using one of the 20% off coupons, but got an email later saying it was unavailable. Such a tease.

 

[michael_ks]

Interesting. Amazon too no longer has set 1 stocked (just 3 used copies) and all other remaining sets (including the 4 episode ones) have never been priced higher than they are now.

 

[Bob Hug]

I wonder if Image Entertainment's licensing agreement is nearing its end for "Naked City." Seems like this and some volumes of "I Spy," another series that Image has licensed, are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Speaking of Image, they've been fairly quiet over the past year or so in terms of their vintage TV series output; the only notable vintage series that I can recall off the top of my head is the ITC series "Jason King."

 

[Hank Dearborn]

The Lineup is the only series with a significant amount of episodes that Viacom syndicated that did not have a run anywhere in the country in the videotaping era (post 1980). It is really very rare, especially for a series with almost 200 filmed shows. I read a while back that Good Life at one time was considering buying it but that never came about. You know that Paramount will only have film elements as this would never have been transfered to tape at all. Hard to think of a cirumstance that would allow this to come out but you never know. I just don't think it's very likely and since the show has been out of circulation for so very long, how many people even know about it?

I'm sorry I didn't know about the TCM airing. My copy is pretty weak, about a 3rd or 4th generation dub I picked up a couple of years ago.

 

[Bert Greene]

I've always been particularly curious about "The Line-Up's" abbreviated final-season, when it was expanded to an hour. The added length didn't seem to help its survival, not unlike the way the hour-long expansion didn't rescue "The Detectives" or "Tales of Wells Fargo." Believe it or not, TV-Land actually aired an episode of "The Line-Up" back during its early days, when they had some odd week-long situation in which guest celebs picked out certain shows they wanted to see. I'm pretty sure it had the familiar "San Francisco Beat" opening. I have it on tape around here somewhere. Anyway, the 1958 movie is really terrific. I've always loved it. The tv-series is obviously a much more modest affair, but it would be great to someday finally get to see its run. I seem to have a genetic predisposition to enjoy just about any crime-series of its vintage.

 

[silverking]

Another showI had actually forgotten about. It played here in the UK as 'San Francisco Beat'. Not really a 'Dragnet' clone as it lacked this series somewhat underplayed & documentary style. I didn't know there were over 200 episodes though & I will have to seek out the movie version.

Whilst on the subject of unreleased old cop shows, who owns the rights to 'M Squad'. I would have thought Lee Marvin still has some marquee value.

 

[Bob Hug]

Chris, "M Squad" was produced by Revue Studios so that would make it a Universal property. Since Uni can't even get past a single season of "Kojak" here in Region 1 land, I'd really be surprised if they took a chance on "M Squad." That said, this sounds like a perfect release for Timeless Media, assuming that they could assemble a suitable number of episodes like they did for "Arrest and Trial," "Checkmate," and their new Western releases.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

M Squad prints are plentiful in the 16mm community and Timeless is working on putting some releases together as we speak.

Re: The Lineup, I have never seen one of the 1-hour episodes as it has never turned up in the collector's market. Some of the half hours were around from TV Festivals back in the early days of the hobby but no one has ever turned up a significant amount of episodes. There are fewer than 20 floating around, which is even fewer than the 50s Dragnet. Isn't it amazing how many of the really successful 50s shows are not around at all, whether on DVD or even airing anywhere:

Dragnet
The Lineup
Burns and Allen
December Bride
Our Miss Brooks
Life of Riley
Love That Bob
Bachelor Father
The Millionaire
Father Knows Best
Donna Reed Show

All of these had long runs and excepts for OMB, all have over 150 episodes. I would love to see all of these shows released.

 

[Bob Hug]

SOLD!!!

 

[michael_ks]

For me too! Heck, it's in my want list after all.

 

[Bob Hug]

Shokus Video has 48 public domain episodes of Dragnet available; as far as I know, this is the largest group of episodes commercially available from a single source.

http://www.shokus.com/crime.html#DRAGNET

 

[Gary OS]

You and me both Hank. I've never had the pleasure of seeing "The Lineup" but I'd love to have it available on dvd. Based on all the reviews here, I'm sure I'd enjoy it.

Gary "Timeless really has done a great job with all their recent releases - I encourage everyone to purchase all of them so as to keep supporting the line in general" O.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

I'm afraid that this is just one of those shows that although successful at the time, with 201 episodes, it has been so long out of the public eye that it is virtually forgotten. Not that it's the preferred mode, but at least if one of these 50s shows falls into public domain, you can at least get some episodes that way. The problem is with shows like this that are still under copyright. You are unlikely to see it on any station and even more unlikely to see a DVD release. Many of these shows, such as this, Millionaire, Our Miss Brooks, December Bride, etc., have never even been mastered to tape as the last time they were bought by any station, they were still being sent out on old beat up 16mm prints. So there is a cost involved that no one is likely to pay.