What did you watch this week in classic TV on DVD(or Blu)? (4 Viewers)

[Rustifer]

Sugarfoot - 1.18 "Short Range"
"Sugarfoot" Tom Brewster (Will Hutchins) takes a job as a puppeteer assisting a sultry young traveling carny (Erin O’Brien), in this story by busy writer/ director Montgomery Pittman.

I posted this site by Will Hutchins ("A Touch of Hutch") some time ago on the 77 Sunset Strip thread. Will has been collecting and writing about his thoughts for many years with surprising insight and humor. You want the inside story on your favorite Western star? Will knew 'em all. You want to know more about Montgomery Pittman? Will was good buds with him.
Spend a couple hours reading through this...you won't be disappointed.

http://www.westernclippings.com/hutch/hutch_2019_9.shtml

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I posted this site by Will Hutchins ("A Touch of Hutch") some time ago on the 77 Sunset Strip thread. Will has been collecting and writing about his thoughts for many years with surprising insight and humor. You want the inside story on your favorite Western star? Will knew 'em all. You want to know more about Montgomery Pittman? Will was good buds with him.
Spend a couple hours reading through this...you won't be disappointed.

http://www.westernclippings.com/hutch/hutch_2019_9.shtml

Thanks, Russ! I've read many of Mr. Hutchins' columns on the Western Clippings site in the past, but this is a good reminder that I need to catch up with the newer ones he's posted.

 

[Rustifer]

Thanks, Russ! I've read many of Mr. Hutchins' columns on the Western Clippings site in the past, but this is a good reminder that I need to catch up with the newer ones he's posted.

It makes for great reading, for sure.
I should have assumed that Will's site was posted in here at one time--it applies to so many discussions in this thread.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Speaking of Hutchins...here's a two-part blog review of Sugarfoot S2, which consists entirely of lengthy, detailed reminiscences by Hutchins on each episode of that season. He's quite a raconteur, and has a lot to say about his co-stars, including the variety of leading ladies he had the good fortune to share scenes with (and date, in several cases). He's very candid about the cheapness of the WB sausage factory approach, but also admits that the shows are much better than he thought at the time.

Great reading, and the man's memory is incredible!

https://supervistaramacolorscope.wo...-sugarfoot-the-complete-second-season-part-1/

https://supervistaramacolorscope.wo...-sugarfoot-the-complete-second-season-part-2/

 

[dana martin]

finished Series 1, now on to Series 2

 

[JohnHopper]

finished Series 1, now on to Series 2

Translation: you finished up the 2001-like season and, now, you just entered the Scooby Doo season.

 

[Rustifer]

Episode Commentary
Twilight Zone
"From Agnes, With Love" (S5E20)

Nothing dates an episode like the concept of computers some 50 years ago. Computers were generally portrayed as room-sized machines with a variety of control panels consisting of switches, toggles, dials and ticker tape readouts. These were the obvious elements of "advanced technology". Something the size of a laptop was unimaginable, except maybe on Star Trek.

Elwood (Wally Cox) is the techie caretaker of "Agnes", a government computer that is relied upon by a number of agencies requiring its sophisticated calculations. But Agnes has been acting up lately, thus stalling several national programs. It's up to the nebbish Elwood to schmooze Agnes back on track. In the meantime, Elwood is smitten by office assistant Millie (Sue Randall), who displays about as much interest in him as she would to lint nesting under her couch. But Elwood persists and finally scores a date with the pertly cute Millie. Elwood muses as to where to take her and poses the problem to Agnes, who assuredly suggests he wine and dine her at his apartment.

Early computers required a mechanic's license; As close as Elwood will ever get to Millie; The results of a cheeky computer scorned

The date doesn't go well. Elwood is not exactly an old hand at wooing and bedding women and he strikes out, but good. Agnes suggests he introduce Millie to the office Lothario, Walter, with the assumption that she will be turned off by his slick advances and thus turn back to gentle Elwood. Not a chance. Millie falls for Walter like a brick off a crumbling chimney. Agnes has been covertly subversive in Elwood's love life, as she actually harbors love for him. She begins to function as a jealous female and is unable to operate as intended, driving Elwood into a drooling stupor of madness.

In 1964, it was inconceivable for a man to fall in love with a computer. Forty years later, it becomes a quite prevalent practice.

 

[dana martin]

Translation: you finished up the 2001-like season and, now, you just entered the Scooby Doo season.

three episodes in, on oh WTF happened, from an intelligent but preposterous premise about humanity, to a program geared for a 12 year old

 

[BobO'Link]

Episode Commentary
Twilight Zone
"From Agnes, With Love" (S5E20)

Nothing dates an episode like the concept of computers some 50 years ago. Computers were generally portrayed as room-sized machines with a variety of control panels consisting of switches, toggles, dials and ticker tape readouts. These were the obvious elements of "advanced technology". Something the size of a laptop was unimaginable, except maybe on Star Trek.

Elwood (Wally Cox) is the techie caretaker of "Agnes", a government computer that is relied upon by a number of agencies requiring its sophisticated calculations. But Agnes has been acting up lately, thus stalling several national programs. It's up to the nebbish Elwood to schmooze Agnes back on track. In the meantime, Elwood is smitten by office assistant Millie (Sue Randall), who displays about as much interest in him as she would to lint nesting under her couch. But Elwood persists and finally scores a date with the pertly cute Millie. Elwood muses as to where to take her and poses the problem to Agnes, who assuredly suggests he wine and dine her at his apartment.

View attachment 65057

Early computers required a mechanic's license; As close as Elwood will ever get to Millie; The results of a cheeky computer scorned

The date doesn't go well. Elwood is not exactly an old hand at wooing and bedding women and he strikes out, but good. Agnes suggests he introduce Millie to the office Lothario, Walter, with the assumption that she will be turned off by his slick advances and thus turn back to gentle Elwood. Not a chance. Millie falls for Walter like a brick off a crumbling chimney. Agnes has been covertly subversive in Elwood's love life, as she actually harbors love for him. She begins to function as a jealous female and is unable to operate as intended, driving Elwood into a drooling stupor of madness.

In 1964, it was inconceivable for a man to fall in love with a computer. Forty years later, it becomes a quite prevalent practice.

50 years ago computers *were* mostly room-sized machines with a variety of control panels although it was a bit exaggerated in movies and TV shows.

My mom tried to get me to go into computers when I started college (I was excellent with math and electronic things - took trig and calculus in HS and built a digital hex based adding machine for a science fair project [and it lost to some schmuck who made homemade wine!]). When I started college their computer system was in the basement, filled the room, and used punch cards for data entry. I couldn't see myself doing that so was a music major instead (and dropped that for communications [aka radio/TV] after a year). I'm now a "Network Administrator" working with servers and databases on a daily basis (but I worked in TV for over 20 years and sing on the side so none of that was a total waste). Mom was right...

 

[JohnHopper]

three episodes in, on oh WTF happened, from an intelligent but preposterous premise about humanity, to a program geared for a 12 year old

Find a list of watchable episodes but inferior compared to season 1 standards
“The AB Chrysalis”
“Seed Of Destruction”
“The Bringers Of Wonder”
“The Lambda Factor”
“The Seance Spectre”
“Dorzak”
“Devil’s Planet”
“The Dorcons”

 

[Ron1973]

I finished up Hogan's Heroes a couple of nights ago. I've always enjoyed the series, but I think it just took 2nd place for me, right behind the Clampetts. Mom and I used to watch it together on WREG in the afternoon; it came on at 5pm followed by Walter Cronkite. My dad never could stand it, so we had to watch it when he wasn't home. I know, as I've mentioned many times before, WREG didn't have all of the episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, and I'm suspecting that may be the case with Hogan's Heroes due to the fact there were several episodes we didn't remember watching. There were a "few" weak episodes at the tail end of S4, but it picked right back up. There wasn't a "jump the shark" episode that stuck out. It stayed strong right until the end. It sadly suffered the fate of the CBS axe in 1971.

One thing I noticed was the use of the same guest stars over and over, yet they played different characters. I think I saw the most of Noam Pitlik. I counted at least 6 episodes that he was on. He was usually a German, but a time or two he was an American.

Although it's not "TV" really, I finally dipped my toes in the pool of blu-ray. Yeah, I know, I'm behind the times. Heck, it took me until around 1997 to finally give in and buy a CD! I ordered It's a Wonderful Life from Amazon. It comes with the original and the colorized versions. I watched the colorized version night before last. I found the color adequate on the DVD version. On the blu, well, it's okay. It's certainly watchable, and while it doesn't look like the Ted Turner efforts of 30 years ago, it's not exactly natural. I think I'll watch the black and white version tonight and see how I feel about it.

 

[dana martin]

Thanks I'll be on the lookout for those but I mean just even the opening titles is enough to make you want to regurgitate last night's bad Chinese food

 

[JohnHopper]

Thanks I'll be on the lookout for those but I mean just even the opening titles is enough to make you want to regurgitate last night's bad Chinese food

Keep in mind that the new production team try to do an action and comic book/cartoon-oriented series with a main title
inspired by Hawaii Five-O. Book’em Koenig!
The worst thing during season 2 is Maya.

 

[Bryan^H]

Just so happens that today is Friday, November 15.
So like any normal person would I pulled a line up from Friday November 15, 1985

Animated syndicated shows from this date:

MASK- In Dutch (good)

Jayce, and the Wheeled Warriors- Life Ship (garbage)

Gobots- Return to Gobotron (OK)

He-Man- Capture the Comet Keeper (good)

She-Ra- Just Like Me (fine)

Thundercats- Tight Squeeze (fun)

G.I. Joe- Memories of Mara (perfect)

Transformers. No new episode premiered on this date so I picked "Prime Target" which was fine.

Prime Time:

Mr. Belvedere- Strike (good)

Different Strokes- so you Wanna be a Rock Star (I loved it)

Twilight Zone 85- Act Break/Burning Man/Dealer's Choice (Ok...not a fan of three 12-14 minute shorts in an episode.
Scheduled for later this evening to close out the night:
Knight Rider- Many Happy Returns

Miami Vice- Tale of the Goat

 

[JohnHopper]

Still working on both Gunsmoke (S15) and The Wild Wild West (S1).
Yesterday, I watched the masterpiece of Gunsmoke’s season 15: “Morgan” (guest starring the great Steve Forrest!)
and a turkey from the first season of The Wild Wild West: “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo”.
They even ruined the acting of Nick Adams, the buddy of Robert Conrad.


“Never Make Friends with the Devil, Brother, His Pitchfork Will Get You in the End.”
—performed by Ross Martin in “The Night of the Bars of Hell”.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

S2 Episode13 Our Lady of Guadelupe High Chapperal, with Co star Ricardo Monteban. I do watch alot of New shows but watching classic TV is such restful viewing

 

[Ron1973]

I've gotten in a couple of Christmas movies yesterday and today. Last night was the 70's version of Miracle on 34th Street that one of the members here was so kind to send me a year or two ago since I somehow misplaced my copy. I'll say what I do every year-this needs to be remastered from the original 35mm negatives and given a release on DVD or blu-ray. I would even take a streaming option if need be. Someone wrote on Wikipedia that it's a CBS property, but I still think it's a Fox property, meaning we probably won't see it.

Vudu has 75 movies/specials that are Christmas related streaming free with ads. I FINALLY watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It's cute, it's just about as awful as the critics make it out to be, but it's like junk food-you still want it! I seriously doubt it will receive regular viewing, but I can say I've finally watched it!

While not necessarily "classic tv," Vudu also streamed an episode of some sort of funniest videos with Erik Estrada hosting. I don't know if it's a whole series or not as this was Christmas related, but it's cute and corny.

Oh, let me give my thoughts on It's A Wonderful Life on blu. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I thought the DVD looked good. I grant you that before buying it on DVD, I had an off-air VHS copy I had made from local TV around 30 years ago, so yes, DVD would be astounding in comparison. The blu knocks the DVD out of the way. You can actually see the gleam in people's eyes and other minute details I would've never thought possible. I saw that Amazon is offering a 4K version of it, but I don't see how much better it could get.

@Gary OS I downloaded a few more O&H Christmas episodes that I intend to watch in the coming days. I'm so glad you turned me on to the show. When I become a billionaire, I'll see to it that it gets the full blu-ray treatment and you'll get the first copy!

 

[Flashgear]

One of my favorite Rat Patrol episodes is season two's The Trial by Fire Raid (Sept. 25, 1967), expertly directed by Sutton Roley and loaded with the usual great stunts, furious firefights between the Rats and Dietrich's usual gang of bad shot expendable Germans, a sympathetic guest star (Milton Seltzer playing an Arab! With Gale Garnett playing his daughter in peril)...Dietrich, being at heart a decent, and thus failed Nazi, and having the worst boss in the world, the ethically conflicted German has to use Arab forced labor to load a munitions train under a pressure packed deadline, while knowing that Sgt. Troy and his boys are likely loitering about with mayhem on their minds...another rotten day at the office ensues for the much put upon Hauptman Dietrich...This episode was filmed at the wonderful European rail yard at MGM's lot 2, the very same set seen a couple of seasons before in Combat!'s great season two double episode, What Are the Bugles Playing For?...my screen caps from the original 2007 MGM DVD set...

 

[JohnHopper]

One of my favorite Rat Patrol episodes is season two's The Trial by Fire Raid (Sept. 25, 1967), expertly directed by Sutton Roley and loaded with the usual great stunts, furious firefights between the Rats and Dietrich's usual gang of bad shot expendable Germans, a sympathetic guest star (Milton Seltzer playing an Arab! With Gale Garnett playing his daughter in peril)...Dietrich, being at heart a decent, and thus failed Nazi, and having the worst boss in the world, the ethically conflicted German has to use Arab forced labor to load a munitions train under a pressure packed deadline, while knowing that Sgt. Troy and his boys are likely loitering about with mayhem on their minds...another rotten day at the office ensues for the much put upon Hauptman Dietrich...This episode was filmed at the wonderful European rail yard at MGM's lot 2, the very same set seen a couple of seasons before in Combat!'s great season two double episode, What Are the Bugles Playing For?...my screen caps from the original 2007 MGM DVD set...

Sutton Roley was the best television director ever!
Just take a look at his filmography.
His best work was for three groundbreaking series:
Combat!
Mission: Impossible
Mannix

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

I have been watching the first 11 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus which have just been released on Blu-ray in the UK. The restoration has been exceptionally good.