What's the last TV DVD/Blu-ray you bought? (2 Viewers)

[The Obsolete Man]

I had some cash to blow, since my buying has essentially stopped lately because of our worldwide plague.

So...

Bonanza S9 and S10
Martin: The Complete Series
Life With Lucy

through Target's B2G1 sale. It made everything a decent price when averaged out.

 

[Paintbeanie]

I splurged and got Star Trek: The Next Generation: Complete Series on blu ray

 

[GMBurns]

Good choice, Ben! Be sure to let us know what you think of the show when you start watching it.

Ben, I'd also be interested in hearing your take on Medic. It's one I've often thought of purchasing because I have loved so many things Timeless put out over the years. This is one I've still never pulled the trigger on so I'd love to know if you enjoy it. Somewhere in there I feel like I heard the episodes were edited versions, but I could be confusing that with some other show. I love Richard Boone in HGWT so I always thought this might be a good series to watch also.

Anyway, I hope you like it and do post some feedback when you have a chance.

 

[bmasters9]

Ben, I'd also be interested in hearing your take on Medic. It's one I've often thought of purchasing because I have loved so many things Timeless put out over the years. This is one I've still never pulled the trigger on so I'd love to know if you enjoy it. Somewhere in there I feel like I heard the episodes were edited versions, but I could be confusing that with some other show. I love Richard Boone in HGWT so I always thought this might be a good series to watch also.

Anyway, I hope you like it and do post some feedback when you have a chance.

Will do-- like I said, I saw some from YouTube, and that's what led to the purchase.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Actually, I just purchased The Rat Patrol complete series a couple of days ago.

I seem to recall there had been complaints about this series and The Wild Wild West being "much too violent" in the late 1960s and that's why they were cancelled. I loved coming home after school in the 1970s and watching them in reruns.

 

[Wiseguy]

I seem to recall there had been complaints about this series and The Wild Wild West being "much too violent" in the late 1960s and that's why they were cancelled. I loved coming home after school in the 1970s and watching them in reruns.

Yes, apparently it was a response to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert F. Kennedy. Of course, TV violence was blamed for it and The Wild Wild West was a scapegoat. On the other hand, star Robert Conrad said that maybe it was a good thing it was cancelled before someone got killed with all the accidents (Robert Conrad's concussion and Ross Martin's broken leg and subsequent heart attack).

A few years later CBS came under fire for having violent teasers (particularly Mannix). CBS' solution was to remove all teasers which is why in 1972 all teasers disappeared from programs (Gunsmoke, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-0, etc.)

 

[BobO'Link]

A few years later CBS came under fire for having violent teasers (particularly Mannix). CBS' solution was to remove all teasers which is why in 1972 all teasers disappeared from programs (Gunsmoke, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-0, etc.)

IMHO, that's a good solution. I absolutely detest teasers - always have. Most were spoiler filled promos for a show you're about to watch and huge time wasters. I also understand the reasoning behind them - "grab" that viewer who just came back from the kitchen with some kind of "hook" *before* they could change the channel. In a way that makes me dislike them even more as this was also the days before everyone had a remote control. Many people would put the TV on one channel and leave it there all evening (not at my house though - we had no compunction about getting off our duff to change the channel). When I'm watching shows on DVD that have those teasers I *always* skip them.

 

[DeWilson]

Actually, I just purchased The Rat Patrol complete series a couple of days ago.

View attachment 70813

I seem to recall there had been complaints about this series and The Wild Wild West being "much too violent" in the late 1960s and that's why they were cancelled. I loved coming home after school in the 1970s and watching them in reruns.

Well, "Rat Patrol" actually suffers in it's second season - mostly shot on Sound Stages or the California Desert - no more shooting overseas,etc.

A Year after THE WILD WILD WEST was Cancelled, CBS the series as Summer filler! Well, it was still doing well when it was forced off the air...

 

[DeWilson]

Medic w/Richard Boone (6-disc set from Timeless of the 44 episodes [of 59] that circulate from that 50s NBC medical series)

"Flash of Darkness" - the "What if an A-Bomb Hit an American City" (Remember, pre ICBM days and smaller yields) exists,and it's a GREAT episode.

 

[Purple Wig]

"Flash of Darkness" - the "What if an A-Bomb Hit an American City" (Remember, pre ICBM days and smaller yields) exists,and it's a GREAT episode.

One of the most unrelentingly grim episodes of a series that wasn’t lacking in them. But agree, a great episode.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Actually, I just purchased The Rat Patrol complete series a couple of days ago.

View attachment 70813

I seem to recall there had been complaints about this series and The Wild Wild West being "much too violent" in the late 1960s and that's why they were cancelled. I loved coming home after school in the 1970s and watching them in reruns.

The Rat Patrol is a lot of fun, Reggie, colorful and action-packed...just don't expect deep thought or anything more serious than a string of daring commando raids in the desert, and you should get a kick out of it.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

IMHO, that's a good solution. I absolutely detest teasers - always have. Most were spoiler filled promos for a show you're about to watch and huge time wasters. I also understand the reasoning behind them - "grab" that viewer who just came back from the kitchen with some kind of "hook" *before* they could change the channel. In a way that makes me dislike them even more as this was also the days before everyone had a remote control. Many people would put the TV on one channel and leave it there all evening (not at my house though - we had no compunction about getting off our duff to change the channel). When I'm watching shows on DVD that have those teasers I *always* skip them.

I'm guessing from the above that you don't mean prologues or "cold opens" that are part of the episode's story proper, right Howie? (In other words, the set-up or "hook" that kicks off the plot.) I take it you mean a scene that has been basically cut out of the episode and placed at the beginning as a sort of tasters of what is to come?

If so, then what is your feeling on "buried" teasers, like those during the opening credit sequence, like those seen on Mission: Impossible or I Spy? Those are just a series of quick cuts...do you skip those as well, or are those kinds of teasers acceptable? Just curious...

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Robert Conrad said that maybe it was a good thing it was cancelled before someone got killed with all the accidents (Robert Conrad's concussion and Ross Martin's broken leg and subsequent heart attack).

I don't know if this is true but there is a claim that when Christopher George died in the 1980s that a contributing factor in his death was a heart injury he suffered while making Rat Patrol. I know there was an accident with one of the Jeeps and he was badly hurt but I did not know that involved his heart. When I was watching the first few episodes of the show on disc I noticed in a long shot of the Jeeps driving like a bat out of hell over the dunes that his character as usual was set up as the gunner on the back of the Jeep. You can clearly see as the Jeep flies over a dune and comes crashing down that whomever that is in the Christopher George costume (and I say that as I sort of assumed that in a longer shot like that it would not be the actual actors in the vehicles...you would think stuntmen) slams hard with his chest into the butt of the big machine gun. Honestly, that really had to hurt and have caused some sort of injury.

Now they did drive those Jeeps like lunatics in the show and at times it was the actors in them...the accident where George was badly injured in a rollover was proof of that. You can clearly see the gunners in the Jeeps are often holding on for their lives. They also look to be using a technique where they hold on to the gun and lean way back as the Jeep races along but when they would jump them off of a dune the sand obviously caused a rapid slowing of the vehicle and so the gunner would be slammed forward. His main goal at that point seemed to be to try not to go slamming into the machine gun.

Obviously I have no idea if that was George slamming his chest into the gun but it crossed my mind watching it, that's a good way to end up with a heart injury because it looked like the poor bastard in that shot was nearly impaled. I know the first season was shot in Almeria, Spain which was where many of the Spaghetti Westerns were shot. I always recall the story of Clint Eastwood warning Eli Wallach that shooting action scenes there was dangerous because the crews did not think much about safety and they would put the actors in harms way. So, in that scene I would not be terribly surprised if that was George.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The Rat Patrol is a lot of fun, Reggie, colorful and action-packed...just don't expect deep thought or anything more serious than a string of daring commando raids in the desert, and you should get a kick out of it.

Absolutely, the episodes are short to fit a 30 minute time slot so they don't waste any time in them. They throw you right into the action and in a blink the show is over. They definitely seem to have been totally designed around the action sequences which take up most of the 20 something minutes per episode.

I will say the show is pretty violent as they kill a lot of people in the first few episodes including one guy that dies screaming on fire. It is a show about war so you should expect that but even more than Wild Wild West, which had a heavy focus on fistfights, Rat Patrol does amp up the violence level. There is even an episode early on where George is tasked with assassinating one of his own men. That probably did not sit well in the late 1960s.

I can see why the show appealed to me as a boy, it pretty much defines the phrase "All killer, no filler."

 

[JoshuaB.]

I need some soothing 70s dramatic TV, so I purchased Quincy Season 3. Righteous indignation, courtesy of Jack Klugman!

 

[GMBurns]

I need some soothing 70s dramatic TV, so I purchased Quincy Season 3. Righteous indignation, courtesy of Jack Klugman!

Definitely dramatic and defintely 70's - enjoy.

I have the first six seasons of Quince and enjoy watching every once in a while. I especially like the episodes where he is solving a murder mystery. Toward the last few seasons there tended to be too much drama for my taste, so I do occasionally skip one of those "issue" episodes that became more prevalent in seasons 7-8.

Season three is prime Quincy and should bring you much pleasure. Jack Klugman is a walking firestorm!

 

[BobO'Link]

I'm guessing from the above that you don't mean prologues or "cold opens" that are part of the episode's story proper, right Howie? (In other words, the set-up or "hook" that kicks off the plot.) I take it you mean a scene that has been basically cut out of the episode and placed at the beginning as a sort of tasters of what is to come?

If so, then what is your feeling on "buried" teasers, like those during the opening credit sequence, like those seen on Mission: Impossible or I Spy? Those are just a series of quick cuts...do you skip those as well, or are those kinds of teasers acceptable? Just curious...

Yes, to "scenes cut from the episode and stuck at the front" - glorified promos - and no, I don't care for "buried teasers" either but usually like the theme song, especially that on Mission Impossible, so just don't pay much attention to the visuals. Cold opens are OK as they set up what's to come, although I'd prefer them after the open (after all, you could still be returning from the kitchen and miss it...).

 

[BobO'Link]

Absolutely, the episodes are short to fit a 30 minute time slot so they don't waste any time in them. They throw you right into the action and in a blink the show is over. They definitely seem to have been totally designed around the action sequences which take up most of the 20 something minutes per episode.

I will say the show is pretty violent as they kill a lot of people in the first few episodes including one guy that dies screaming on fire. It is a show about war so you should expect that but even more than Wild Wild West, which had a heavy focus on fistfights, Rat Patrol does amp up the violence level. There is even an episode early on where George is tasked with assassinating one of his own men. That probably did not sit well in the late 1960s.

I can see why the show appealed to me as a boy, it pretty much defines the phrase "All killer, no filler."

I, too, really liked that one as a boy (and still do). When you look back at the years it aired and what was going on in the world (Vietnam was in high gear at the time) it's a wonder such a show was popular at all, much less green lit.

 

[BobO'Link]

Doogie Howser M.D. - Season 3.

And I'm still kicking myself for not picking this one up during one of *many* B1G1 free sales when I could have purchased the whole series for ~$35. I've spent that much getting S1-3 used. S4 is still selling for much more than I'm willing to pay...

 

[bmasters9]

Cold opens are OK as they set up what's to come, although I'd prefer them after the open (after all, you could still be returning from the kitchen and miss it...).

O-R Jack Lord Five-O had it three ways-- first, before the open; second, after it (the way you prefer); and finally, for the last seasons, in the form of the teasers that, I take it, you strongly dislike.