What did you watch this week in classic TV on DVD(or Blu)? (5 Viewers)

[JohnHopper]

I like both.

Enjoy season 2!

I second your statement.

 

[JohnHopper]

Just broke color barrier on The Wild Wild West with completion of final B/W episode in 1966-- moving on to color seasons; I'm going to miss that friendlier B/W opening where the cartoon Western hero simply charmed the lady in the lower right panel in the opening into a smile; now, he's going to be knocking her out!

Can you publish your top ten episodes list, by the way?

 

[JohnHopper]

THE WILD WILD WEST

TOP TEN SEASON 1
"The Night of the Inferno" (guest: Nehemiah Persoff)
"The Night of the Puppeteer" (guest: Lloyd Bochner)
"The Night of the Burning Diamond"
"The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth"
"The Night That Terror Stalked the Town"
"The Night of the Red-Eyed Madmen" (guest: Martin Landau)
"The Night of the Howling Light"
"The Night of the Steel Assassin" (guest: John Dehner)
"The Night of the Bars of Hell"
"The Night of the Glowing Corpse"


Richard Shores - The Night of the Burning Diamond (1966)

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Richard Shores - The Night of the Burning Diamond (1966)

"The Night of the Burning Diamond," - one of the all-time best episodes, not only of season one!

I also like this clip from the first episode, "The Night of the Inferno," with Jim West "suiting up." Apologies for the widescreen...

 

[bmasters9]

Started second season's worth yesterday, and IMO, I'm liking the second season's closing theme better than the first one's, for reasons unknown.

 

[JohnHopper]

"The Night of the Burning Diamond," - one of the all-time best episodes, not only of season one!

I also like this clip from the first episode, "The Night of the Inferno," with Jim West "suiting up." Apologies for the widescreen...

Top scene all the way. An iconic moment that launches the character and its concept: James Bond in the Old West.

You can buy the music from that series at La La Land Records.

https://lalalandrecords.com/wild-wild-west-the-limited-edition-4-cd-set/

 

[Jeff Flugel]

You can buy the music from that series at La La Land Records.

https://lalalandrecords.com/wild-wild-west-the-limited-edition-4-cd-set/

Would love to get that 4-CD set, lots of great music there...but at $60, it's almost more than twice the price of the complete series on DVD!

 

[JohnHopper]

Would love to get that 4-CD set, lots of great music there...but at $60, it's almost more than twice the price of the complete series on DVD!

I purchased that set from Day 1. I'm a diehard WEST aficionado. I listen to that set and
the Mission: Impossible set all the time since that day.
These are my top releases.

 

[bmasters9]

I purchased that set from Day 1. I'm a diehard WEST aficionado. I listen to that set and
the Mission: Impossible set all the time since that day.
These are my top releases.

I take it, in your estimation, that those releases represent some of the greatest of television's classic music?

 

[JohnHopper]

I take it, in your estimation, that those releases represent some of the greatest of television's classic music?

Indeed, they are the top of the 1960's television music.
Both soundtracks were CBS and had a leading jazz-oriented composer using a rhythmic ostinato (a beat and a loop)
that paved the way for the leaning of the music. The additional composers followed the line of these individuals.
WEST had composer Richard Markowitz and MISSION had Lalo Schifrin.

 

[JohnHopper]

I'm doing my workout at the gym with Richard Shores' “The Night of the Firebrand". So great and hectic.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Great stuff, John - thanks!

 

[John*Wells]

Perry Mason complete series Season 1.... Discs 1 and 2

 

[Montytc]

The Flintstones Sn.1
Episode 1 - The Flintstone Flyer

Mannix Sn.1
Episode 21 - Eight to Five, Its a Miracle
Episode 22 - Delayed Reaction
Episode 23 - To Kill A Writer
Episode 24 - The Girl In the Frame

Mannix Sn.2
Episode 1 - The Silent Cry

I enjoyed the Mannix episodes, but I was looking forward to seeing how they handled the change in the shows basic premise. The answer was that they really didn't. In the first episode of season two Joseph Campanella is gone, Gail Fisher makes a brief appearance, and there is no mention of Intertect which was the company Mannix worked for during season one. I would think it was strange for fans of the series to find it completely rebooted with no explanation. I guess that is just how they rolled in the 60's.

 

[JohnHopper]

RAWHIDE SEASON 7

Episode #6
“Canliss”
written by Stirling Silliphant
directed by Jack Arnold
music by Rudy Schrager
film editor Paul Krasny
guests: Dean Martin, Laura Devon, Michael Ansara, Ramon Novarro, Stewart Moss, Teno Pollick, Rico Alaniz, Scott Marlowe, Theordore Bikel

It’s a character study about a retiring hired killer named Gurd Canliss (actor Dean Martin) on his last contract to target a top cattle propietor named Don Miguel (actor Michael Ansara). It’s very existential and moving because it’s also a matrimonial drama. Gil Favor knows Augusta (actress Laura Devon), the wife of Canliss. Rowdy Yates is absent. It has a proto-Sergio Leone flavor and takes place in Mexico. As a reminder, the first Stranger films was: A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and that episode was broadcast the same year. And film star Dean Martin is the center of this tragedy directed by B-movie Jack Arnold. This is the second episode focused on a criminal after “Piney” (a mastermind bank robber). Film editor Paul Krasny does some optical zooming with a truca.

Many crafstmen will work on Mission: Impossible: see film editor Paul Krasny (first onscreen credit), composer Rudy Schrager, actors Michael Ansara, Scott Marlowe, Theordore Bikel.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Perry Mason complete series Season 1.... Discs 1 and 2

Coincidentally, I also watched Perry Mason S1 episode one, "The Case of the Restless Redhead," last night. The show starts strong right out of the gate (it probably helped that the script was based off an Erle Stanley Gardner novel). I didn't recognize Whitney Blake, who plays the titular redhead; she looked completely different to me than in her Rawhide appearance a few years later. Still quite the looker, of course. I also believe this is the only time I've ever seen Raymond Burr run! Perry does most of the investigating here, driving all over Los Angeles, interviewing suspects and annoying the police. Good stuff.

 

[JohnHopper]

RAWHIDE SEASON 7

Episode #7
“Damon’s Road, Part I”
written by Richard Carr and Robert Lewin
directed by Michael O’Herlihy
assistant director Lee H. Katzin
music by Rudy Schrager
song by Bruce Geller (lyrics for “Bet It Up Boys”)
guests: Fritz Weaver, Barbara Eden, Sean McClory, Robert Sorrells, Curt Conway, Walter Mathews, Paul Comi

It’s a light one and another proto-Mission: Impossible entry but it’s wild and picturesque. Gil Favor and his men are conned and forced to work for a crook couple, railroad man Jonathan Damon (actor Fritz Weaver) and saloon dancer Goldie Rogers (actress Barbara Eden). Here’s the con: Jonathan Damon invites Gil Favor and his men to lure them into a trap: free drinks, lossless casino gamings while watching four lady entertainers called Goldie and the Kumquats doing a musical number. A fight is triggered by Damon, Goldie hits Favor from behind to abduct him and lock him in her room. The morning after, Favor realizes the manipulation of Goldie—who removed his boots—and escapes from the bedroom. Favor ends up in a cell because Goldie stages a phony felony. The cowboys of Favor are forced to sign a three months contract to avoid a jail sentence. Drover Yo Yo returns from “A Man Called Mushy”.
This is the second and last two-parter after the season 6 “Incident at Deadhorse”.

Continued Next Week.

Wonderful all the way! Recommended too!

Actress Barbara Eden returns from the season 6 “Incident at Confidence Creek” and still playing an entertainer teaming up with a crook. Many crafstmen will work on Mission: Impossible: see writer Robert Lewin, director Michael O’Herlihy, assistant director Lee H. Katzin, actors Fritz Weaver and Walter Mathews. You can recognize the tune “Ten Tiny Toes” played by a pianist at the C & L railroad bar.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I enjoyed the Mannix episodes, but I was looking forward to seeing how they handled the change in the shows basic premise. The answer was that they really didn't. In the first episode of season two Joseph Campanella is gone, Gail Fisher makes a brief appearance, and there is no mention of Intertect which was the company Mannix worked for during season one. I would think it was strange for fans of the series to find it completely rebooted with no explanation. I guess that is just how they rolled in the 60's.

Agreed with this. I only picked up Mannix season 2 this past summer, and expected at least a little attempt at explaining the new format. Nope. Not that it really mattered...the show was still essentially the same. Joe gets roped into a case, gets knocked out a few times, talks to some good looking women, tools his cool car around town, interviews some shady characters, has a few more fights and shoot-outs, roll credits.

This is not a complaint, mind you.

 

[Montytc]

Agreed with this. I only picked up Mannix season 2 this past summer, and expected at least a little attempt at explaining the new format. Nope. Not that it really mattered...the show was still essentially the same. Joe gets roped into a case, gets knocked out a few times, talks to some good looking women, tools his cool car around town, interviews some shady characters, has a few more fights and shoot-outs, roll credits.

This is not a complaint, mind you.

Joe does seem to take a worse beating than any of the other detectives from that era. In those five episodes I just watched I know he spent time with his arm in a sling, his face cut up and several other beat downs. Maybe Gail Fisher will help him take better care of himself.
Incidentally, he does have a very cool car to cruise around in during these episodes.

 

[bmasters9]

It seems that with this first of the color seasons of The Wild Wild West, there is more of a black screen between the end of one act (the main shot of that act being filled in with color, the screen zooming out from that shot's position in the montage, and The Wild Wild West title appearing; the screen then fading out), and the beginning of the next act; on the B/W episodes, there was less of a delay, with the next act starting almost immediately.