by your TVparty editor Billy Ingram
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Not
happy with the lack of quality programming on television?
Program your own
entertainment - that's what the future's all about, isn't it?
Series Available From Re-TV:
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Every day, I get tons of email, most of it from
people wanting to know how they can buy their own copies of
a particular classic television series.
My answer has always been that I had no idea,
I'm not at all familiar with the video collector's market.
In an attempt to bring TVparty viewers what they want (and cut my time
answering email), I discovered a rich vein of
some of the best classic TV shows of all time, available now from re-tv
(a brand of the Columbia House Video Library).
You may already know the Columbia House name, they've been around for forty years. I knew
they had a massive music operation, but I had no
clue how extensive their television collection was.
Looking for Route 66? According to my email,
a LOT of you are: "Back in 1963 or 64, the show filmed in my town, Daytona Beach, FL",
a typical Route 66 lover writes, "it was
an episode where guest Michael Parks played a young prize fighter.
My girlfriend and I skipped school to watch the filming, and even got to be
"extras" in a few crowd-onlooker scenes. Some of our friends
What about Good Times, Wonder Woman, The A-Team or Sgt. Bilko? I know you want
The Thunderbirds because hundreds of you
have written in requesting it for Tvparty! Perhaps you could indulge in one of
my favorite guilty pleasures, watching Dallas from the beginning (it's hilarious!).
I had the opportunity to talk to
America's keeper of classic television,
Harry Elias to get the scoop on what re-tv is all about.
I noticed a good number of shows from the Fifties and early-sixties in the collection.
I asked Harry Elias if it was true that people won't watch black and white television anymore?
"Not at all, we sell to the collector's market. They want the original,
pristine shows that they grew up on.
Most of our buyers would not react well if we didn't stay true
to that. In fact, we recently remastered The Andy Griffith Show for
the first time in thirty years."
Mr. Elias went on to tell me about the difficult process in restoring the classic
1970's Rod Serling thriller
Night Gallery back to its original form. The show had been hacked up to run in
a thirty-minute format during
the original network and syndication runs. The results of the restoration
are incredible, I got a chance to
review a copy of
the first Night Gallery release featuring 'They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar', one
of Serling's best Emmy-winning outings. "Our goal", Elias explained,
"is to give consumers a recognizable brand,
with the highest quality programming available." They certainly succeeded from my perspective.
Does it help or hurt to have a series in the collection running
on a cable channel?
"We've always felt that we help each other build awareness,
building a new wave of people that watch the shows
for the first time. The cable networks also benefit from our advertising."
Do the re-tv tapes collect episodes in chronological order?
"Soap series have to be chronological, but when we have the opportunity to do a
themed package we do it."
For example, in the All in the Family collection
there is a sampling of episodes revolving around Edith Bunker.
Some collections offer a sampling of
episodes from different seasons, which I especially appreciate.
"We look for specific promotional opportunities as well, like the
fiftieth anniversary of I Love Lucy or the Twenty-fifth
anniversary of Star Trek."
Science-fiction, at one time almost impossible to find on broadcast TV
(but now ubiquitous),
is a big seller for re-tv as well. All of the various live-action
Star Trek series
are in the catalog,
along with The Adventures of Superman, V, The Prisoner, The Outer Limits
and Babylon 5.
And no commercials!
There are some lesser known favorites listed as well, like Dream On, Emergency! and
Kolchack, The Night Stalker - along with more current series like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
and Law and Order (beginning in July).
What makes a television series a candidate for an re-tv collection?
"We do surveys to find out
what the current buyers want.
Some emotional response to the series on the part of the viewers
is important."
I guess it's that emotional response that
makes watching these shows again so exciting, especially
seeing them in pristine condition (you forget how
bad some of the syndication copies are!). For those of you looking for
an opportunity to recapture the shows you loved as a kid, or just to acquaint yourself
with an excellent series you might have missed the first time, re-tv
is just a phone call away!
Basically, here's how it works:
re-tv offers
you the first volume in the series
for only $4.95 plus shipping and handling,
after that, they send you subsequent volumes every 4-6 weeks
and you pay only $19.95 plus S & H.
You can cancel anytime you want. That's
pretty reasonable, don't you think?
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were hired to portray local youths who got into fights with Michael Parks.
There's one scene where my face - at age 16 - can be seen clearly, though if
you blink you'll miss me!
I would love to have a copy of this show to share with my friends and
family!"
"Columbia House Video Libary started in 1981, with collections of The Twilight Zone,
I Love Lucy and World War II documentaries",
Elias explained,
"That collection has expanded
to almost 100 different
titles. Collector's editions are not available in stores, so we
knew from the beginning that the process was to pay attention to what the consumer wants"
That often meant exhaustive searches for the best original negatives,
often restoring scenes cut from on the cable reruns (there were a LOT
less commercials in the fifties and sixties).
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