What did you watch this week in classic TV on DVD(or Blu)? (1 Viewer)

[mark-edk]

Good idea for a watch. I am pretty sure I have seen one or two at some point in my life but I can't remember much about them.

As far as watching Perry Como - Not one channel - ONE TV and in 1958 my mother and father decided what channel we watched during their hours.

As a Detroit Brat for much of my life we had 4 networks early on. Dumont shared with CBS. (Yea Captain Video) Later we had 4 channels as CKLW started broadcasting from Windsor Ontario Canada (1954). We even had a special TV antenna the Detroiter which pointed one way for our 3 networks and then a small antenna on top pointed at Windsor for channel 9. Loved CKLW - they showed a lot of old movies and that may have been where my love for the form started.

Channel 9 was home to Bill Kennedy, a small-time Hollywood actor who became a fixture on Detroit tv hosting movies. It was a job he was born for, even if his answers to the phoned-in questions weren't always exactly accurate. He starred in a serial once, but is probably best remembered for the 'faster than a speeding bullet' narration on Adventures of Superman. I'm old enough to also have fond memories of the Popeye cartoons CKLW would run, hosted by Captain Jolly or Poopdeck Paul. Another kid's show was Jingles, a court jester type fellow who had several sidekicks including puppet Cecil B Rabbit (whose speaking voice was patterned after Paul Harvey). They threw in occasional jokes and bits that went over my head but kept the adults amused.

 

[Jasper70]

The show was shot in 16:9 from the start, though framed to protect the 4:3 image. I compared the 16:9 on Amazon Prime with the 4:3 on Hulu to make sure and there was definitely more image content to the sides on the Prime widescreen versions. Wikipedia isn't always accurate but this info seems authoritatively sourced:

All episodes were filmed in 16:9 wide-screen, although Stargate SG-1 was broadcast in 4:3 aspect ratio in its first years.[39] The transition to the broadcast of episodes in the wider 16:9 ratio gave directors more freedom in frame composition.[40] The first three seasons of Stargate SG-1 were filmed on 16 mm film, notwithstanding scenes involving visual effects that had always been shot on 35 mm film for various technical reasons. After a test run with the Season 3 finale, "Nemesis", Stargate SG-1 switched to 35 mm film for all purposes at the beginning of Season 4.[41] Digital HD cameras were used for filming beginning with Season 8.[38]​

The entire series was on sale from iTunes for $49.99 and I passed on it because I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not. Still kicking myself over that.

I just broke out my DVD sets of this. I have the earliest releases as I bought them as they came out. It’s been five years or so since I watched them. Watched two episodes from season one tonight. These sets are 1:78 widescreen. I thought for sure they were the OAR. Getting older...can’t remember things anymore lol.
Great show. Now I’ll have to watch the entire series.

 

[mark-edk]

Great show. Now I’ll have to watch the entire series.

I'm midway through Season 7 now, though it's frustrating watching it on streaming services. For some reason most of season 7 on Amazon Prime is in two-channel mono. It's in stereo on Hulu, but they use the 4:3 transfers. I did check out a sample on iTunes and they have both widescreen and stereo...but they don't have a streaming service yet. So I'm putting up with mono for now as I know the Amazon episodes return to stereo before the season ends. Still enjoying the show but the reduction in RDA's screen time is starting to become obvious.

 

[Jasper70]

Honestly I didn’t like it as much after RDA basically left.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Jeff, i think you'd enjoy season one of Wagon Train. I think the inaugural season is still very affordable, and a great deal for 39 hour episodes loaded with a tremendous lineup of guest stars and many mainstay supporting actors that are so familiar to classic TV fans. Some of the latter seasons are quite pricey now. The Ward Bond years are up to season four, when Bond died suddenly in November 1960, after almost half the episodes were filmed for that season. John McIntire was a solid replacement, although after the show shifted to ABC, it's budget was obviously cut, leading to less farther afield location shooting as in the Ward Bond years...here's a few screen caps I took from the Timeless season one set...very watchable, although not remastered to The Virginian's eye popping standards...

Ward Bond and Claude Akins in The Monty Britton Story...
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Mona Freeman and Ray Danton in the same episode...filmed in Arizona at Old Tucson...
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The Cassie Tanner story...filmed at Saguero National Park, AZ...
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Hollywood legend Marjorie Main's last performances before retiring were two episodes in Wagon Train's season one...Cassie Tanner Story and the season finale, The Sacramento Story...
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Forrest Tucker in The Rex Montana Story...Filmed at Lone Pine, CA...
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Thanks a bunch for those Wagon Train screen grabs, Randall! They look about on a par with A Man Called Shenandoah or The Loner...which is good enough for me!

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Honestly, at my age I can't consider this series as "classic" as I was out of college and in the working world when it hit the airwaves in 1976. I'm of the ilk that any TV after 1965 is pretty much modern age to me. I only watched it for the same reason most of us did--Farrah Fawcett. She of spun gold hair, lithe figure and more teeth than an Indian Shaman's necklace. And the acting ability of a tractor tire.

This was up there with your all-time best rants, Russ...Good stuff!

I don't think I've watched more than a minute or two at a time of Charlie's Angels in decades. Am actually curious to see some of the early seasons now. Such is my love for '70s TV, that maybe - just maybe - I'll find them more entertaining now.

Must confess, I'm not the biggest Jaclyn Smith fan; she always struck me as a cold fish. I'll take Farrah over her all day long. But Cheryl Ladd - now there's a real stunner.

IMO, none of the Angels, with the exception of the matronly but competent Kate Jackson, could act their way out of a paper bag...but then, thespic ability was probably surplus to requirements on this particular show.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

In memory of actor Paul Darrow, who passed away recently, I've been revisiting Blake's 7. I'm mid-way through series 1 and it's such a fun show. This needs to be released in the states, I'm making due with the PAL DVDs. I get why it wouldn't be on blu ray, having been shot on video in the studios and film for exteriors (as per usual BBC of the day), but a DVD release would be fabby.

Coincidentally, I also watched an episode of Blake's 7 (S2 episode 13, "Star One") in honor of the late, great Paul Darrow. His character Kerr Avon is one of the coolest anti-hero characters of all time, in my opinion. I also have the Region 2 DVDs, which look pretty good to me, but I agree that a Region 1 set would be a swell thing. Will have more to say on Paul Darrow, the show and on this particular episode, later, in my "Recently Watched" wrap-up.

 

[JohnHopper]

Must confess, I'm not the biggest Jaclyn Smith fan; she always struck me as a cold fish. I'll take Farrah over her all day long. But Cheryl Ladd - now there's a real stunner.

Lovely deep blue eyes.

 

[JohnHopper]

IMO, none of the Angels, with the exception of the matronly but competent Kate Jackson, could act their way out of a paper bag...but then, thespic ability was probably surplus to requirements on this particular show.

Jackson was first a regular character on the 1972 The Rookies.
Charlie's Angels recycled the footages from the police academy from that show, by the way.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Jackson was first a regular character on the 1972 The Rookies.
Charlie's Angels recycled the footages from the police academy from that show, by the way.

Both were Spelling-Goldberg productions, hence the similarities between the two.

~Ben

 

[Jack P]

And Jackson ended up on Charlie's Angels because she had some contractual deal to be in the next series Spelling did when Rookies ended.

 

[Darby67]

Knight Rider-K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R. (November 4, 1984)

This was a very good episode that had an awesome voice actor as the evil K.A.R.R. Sinister intentions as KARR is unearthed by some unsuspecting young couple, and helped doing its bidding by dubious methods. The showdown was thrilling. I wonder who will win the war of good vs. evil?

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Bryan:

Any additional screencaps of the actress in the black outfit would be most welcome in this forum

The actress' name is Laura Kamins by the way.

 

[Purple Wig]

My overall range is 1955 to a cutoff of the early 80s at best. To me, 1955 is the year some of the most important filmed TV shows debuted in "Gunsmoke" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and the medium started to be defined more by the filmed program for TV rather than the live program of the early 50s. By the early 80s, the style is changing too much for me and the old guard core of actors/actresses who came up starting in the mid-50s are increasingly passing from the scene. There are only a couple 80s shows I'd still like to see surface but I have all I want in the miscellaneous category from the 90s onward.

Most of the 1980's shows I watched were the ones still in the classic vein, or with leads from that era. I haven't seen them since then and don't know how they'd hold up. Some examples: House Calls (Wayne Rogers), Check It Out (Don Adams), programs with Richard Crenna, McLean Stevenson, Norman Fell. I was a teenager then and the shows like Full House, Charles in Charge, Family Ties, etc didn't appeal. I did like the Fast Times series.

I won't hold my breath waiting for a DVD release of the extremely short-lived "America", a McLean Stevenson/Sarah Purcell hosted talk show that I did watch and recall some sort of "Batman" reunion on.

 

[Jack P]

I stumbled into a Stefanie Powers marathon because recently I saw on YT a 1978 TV movie with David Janssen called "Nowhere to Run" in which Stefanie unfortunately was cast against type as a shrewish wife and badly served in a film that I ended up hating for other reasons. I decided to go through some other 70s guest shots of hers just to get the memory of that out!

Harry O, S1-"Second Sight"
-At least in this one, she and Janssen get along with each other! Stefanie plays a blind woman with apparent psychic ability.

Barnaby Jones, S2-"Echo Of A Murder"
-Stefanie and Wayne Rogers (already appearing on MASH, so he must have done this before MASH, S2 started filming) conspire to fake a death to scam the insurance company. It's easier for me to see Stefanie playing "bad girl" than shrew like she was in that TV flick.

The FBI, S7-"The Buyer"
-Stefanie, Tim O'Connor and David Hedison have stolen a fortune in platinum ingots and are trying to unload them on a buyer in San Francisco that Erskine poses as. A lot of SF location shooting in the episode, just before the debut of "Streets Of San Francisco."

Cannon, S2-"The Rip Off"
-The only time I've ever seen Stefanie play a mother of a young child. Her ex-husband, crooked businessman George Maharis is terrorizing her to get custody of their son, and he's even gone to the trouble of stealing all of Cannon's furniture just to get his file cabinet! Early role for Max Gail ("Barney Miller") as one of Maharis's hoods.

The Streets Of San Francisco, S1-"Tower Beyond Tragedy"
-Edward Mulhare in a very chilling psycho role first kills Stefanie playing one role, and then he fixates on Stefanie in another role trying to make her over into his murder victim.

The Rockford Files, S2-"The Real Easy Red Dog"
-Stefanie plays a rival PI who tricks Rockford into a case that she thinks can be a decoy from her own case, but unintentionally lets Rockford discover a murder that the police have overlooked.

McCloud, S2-"Top Of The World, Ma"
-Big lug from Dayton, Bo Svensson attempts to get money he thinks is owed him by numbers boss Robert Webber. Stefanie plays a brassy photo model/ex-hooker he encounters along the way (She's basically playing a Barbara Rhoades type part).

 

[Mysto]

Most of you know that I am a push over for mysteries. In fact I started a thread for 30's and 40's mystery and crime movie series. (Proudly we have done a short blurb on every series) Over the last few weeks I have been slowly working on watching as many different TV series mysteries of long past as I can. I have been using this list:
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/tvchron.html

My problem is that many of these are public domain and a lot of them are not available on commercial DVD so I have been reluctant to review them here. For example last night we watched Johnny Midnight with Edmund O'Brien - Actor turned detective. My watch came from youtube as the only copies I find for sale are gray market. I am pretty sure these are pd.

Should I write about them here? Should I start a new thread? Should I just watch in silence?

 

[Rustifer]

Most of you know that I am a push over for mysteries. In fact I started a thread for 30's and 40's mystery and crime movie series. (Proudly we have done a short blurb on every series) Over the last few weeks I have been slowly working on watching as many different TV series mysteries of long past as I can. I have been using this list:
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/tvchron.html

My problem is that many of these are public domain and a lot of them are not available on commercial DVD so I have been reluctant to review them here. For example last night we watched Johnny Midnight with Edmund O'Brien - Actor turned detective. My watch came from youtube as the only copies I find for sale are gray market. I am pretty sure these are pd.

Should I write about them here? Should I start a new thread? Should I just watch in silence?

Silence in not in your vocabulary, Marv.

 

[Mysto]

Silence in not in your vocabulary, Marv.

Sure it is Russ - it's right next to salubrious.
You would have a field day with some of these series.

 

[Rustifer]

You would have a field day with some of these series.

How come?

 

[Mysto]

How come?

Early TV frequently comes with a large order of Cheese. Your loverly sarcastic style would do some of these proud. Lots of fodder for the scribe.


ADDED: And you are baiting me not to be silent aren't you?

 

[Rustifer]

Early TV frequently comes with a large order of Cheese. Your loverly sarcastic style would do some of these proud. Lots of fodder for the scribe.

Ahh...now you're talking my cup of tea. I'm a pig for fodder.