"Classic TV" - why are so many shows neglected?

Or how about when Robin remarks that Batgirl looks very beautiful when she sleeps and Batman proudly tells him he's getting his first "thrust" of manhood.

 

Which "John" was it, bub?
I know I was at your wedding, but...
and speaking of which...Occassional Wife was a great show.

 

Date---schmate! You could've made her your OCCASIONAL WIFE!!!!!

 

Three

 

Steve:

"I for one (being older than most on this thread I guess) would like to see shows that I have not seen since I was tiny:
>
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My Little Margie"

There are two nice, attractively priced collections of MY LITTLE MARGIE available from VCI - a "public domain" company that has an interesting catalog of releases. imho, VCI has the best quality of all of the "public domain" companies out there. Each volume - with 12 episodes - is available for $13.95 from Deep Discount DVD.

I have the first volume, which I ordered because of the bit Robert Klein did on the show on his "Child of the Fifties" album. The show is as weird as Klein described it.

There are a bunch of semi-forgotten sixties shows I would like to see again or for the first time. HE AND SHE would be at the top of the list along with MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT. I'd also like to see LOVE ON A ROOFTOP (with Pete Duel, Judy Carne, and Rich Little), RUN, BUDDY, RUN (with west coast jazz great Jack Sheldon), CAPTAIN NICE, and the much maligned PRUITTS OF SOUTHAMPTON (what a great theme song!).

 

Wasn't there a "Blondie" series, with Pat Harty and Will Hutchins as Dagwood? This thread triggered a image in my mind of Dagwood zooming through the house like the tazmanian devil to jump on the couch and go to sleep.

 

Steve,

I have been researching some old TV shows and why they haven't been shown since initial network broadcasts. Desilu was astute enough to film "I Love Lucy," which is why it's rerun ad infinitum. "Sea Hunt" "Highway Patol" and "Fury" were also produced on film. Revue did the same with "Leave It to Beaver," but "The Life of Riley," "I Married Joan," and "December Bride" were undoubtedly kinescoped. Many kinescopes, which were of fairly poor quality, may not have survived. I've recently seen some "Amos n' Andy" footage (filmed at Revue) that looks excellent, though.

Some shows that don't turn up in reruns may have something to do with rights options. I've heard of shows being optioned for broadcast through syndication, yet the options are never exercised. This keeps the shows "in limbo" until the options expire or the company holding the option terminates it or the individual holding the option dies. This is the typical corporate BS that has dominated the entertainment industry since Edison dictated "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and his employees tried to stifle his competition by using patent licensing against independent and maverick filmmakers.

 

What is interesting are the "lost" episodes of The Honeymooners that surfaced in the mid-'80s. They took sketches of varying lengths shot on kinescope and tried to fit them into half-hour shows. In some cases, you'd get two stories squeezed into one episode or one story spread out over two episodes.

I think the "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners hold up better because they were shot as half-hour shows and if I recall, there were no two-part episodes.

Of course, it's great to have the "lost" episodes because after years of watching the same 39 episodes, it was "new" stuff to someone like me, who wasn't even around when the originals aired.

 

Are there any high quality DVDs of "Amos n' Andy"? ...

 

There are still a lot of shows from my misspent youth that I would love to see on DVD.

Combat
The Rifleman
Hawaii Five-O
Patty Duke
The Donna Reed Show
My Three Sons
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
Sea Hunt
Burkes Law
Honey West
I know they wouldn't all warrant complete season treatments, but maybe some best of discs at least. After all, Mr. Ed and and Green Acres made it.

 

I forgot which one, there's a free Donna Reed 2 episode DVD in a cereal box, check your local Supermarket!

There are presently 8 volumes of the Rifleman available on DVD in nice quality!

Season 1 (in 2 volumes) of Combat is coming in the near future!

Burke's Law...A few episodes are available on a PD DVD set of TV Detective series on Platinum Disc Corporation...Check the Walmart bin!...quality is fair.

 

Thanks Michael, I'll look into all of those,none of which I knew about.

 

I keep a tight tab on upcoming TV on DVD! If there's anything else your looking for, post it and I'll check for ya

 

...well, as a youngsters, we didn't know that...Or did you?I remember playing Combat as a kid...

 

Well, it may be a little hard to take in that big of a dose, but I'm a child of the sixties so it is part of my memories of that era. I spent countless hours playing Combat with my official machine gun, helmet and canteen.
Shows like The Man From UNCLE, The Monkees, Get Smart and many others mentioned in this thread would fall in the same category. While they may not be high art, I would enjoy watching an occasional episode of them instead of the same old stuff offered over and over on TV today.