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Dr. Kildare Question (1 Viewer)

Carabimero

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The fourth season episode, "To Catch a Crooked Mouse" is missing the 4th act on my disc (the episode runs only 36 minutes). Is there a replacement disc available or can someone point me to a source where I can at least see how this episode ends?

I bought this set assuming all the episodes would be generally intact. There was no disclaimer anywhere I could see warning me about this exemption.

Edit: Problem solved: I discovered I could see the rest of the episode with the PLAY ALL FEATURE.
 
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Bert Greene

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I remember encountering the same problem with that episode, and similarly discovering the way to watch the final 15 minutes, after a brief alarm at its premature ending. Only time I recall a weird situation like that.
 

LouA

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The fourth season episode, "To Catch a Crooked Mouse" is missing the 4th act on my disc (the episode runs only 36 minutes). Is there a replacement disc available or can someone point me to a source where I can at least see how this episode ends?

I bought this set assuming all the episodes would be generally intact. There was no disclaimer anywhere I could see warning me about this exemption.

Edit: Problem solved: I discovered I could see the rest of the episode with the PLAY ALL FEATURE. Mods feel free to delete this thread if no one else has posted. Or perhaps it could be retitled in the event someone else is searching about this problem and hasn't stumbled upon the fix...
I bought all 5 seasons of Dr. Kildare but have only gotten through seasons 1 and 2 and most of the 3rd season so far . I'm really enjoying this well written show. I have a lot of TV shows and generally only watch an episode or 2 at a time and most shows only about once per week . No "binge watching" for me !
Anyway based on what your saying , I will need to use the PLAY ALL FEATURE , when I want to watch that episode of season 4 "To Catch A crooked Mouse " , I'll need to hit Play all and then fast forward to episode 4 and the entire episode - all four acts will play . Is that correct ? Thanks for giving us a "heads up"!!!
PS I had a similar problem with an episode of the old Buddy Hackett sitcom "Stanley"- and never solved it . Those are pressed discs purchased from the Hackett web site .
 

Carabimero

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That is correct. Having authored a few DVDs myself, I understand how this can happen very easily. What I don't understand is why they didn't have someone thoroughly peruse a check disc. It should have been caught and easily fixed.
 

Mark-P

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You should still let Warner know that there is an authoring error on the disc. It's possible they have already fixed it for future MOD burns.
 

Carabimero

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I let Warner know.

For those that just want to watch the season four episode TO CATCH A CROOKED MOUSE as a standalone, go to the main menu of disc three, hit PLAY ALL, then jump to chapter 21 and enjoy what in my opinion is one of the finest DR. KILDARE episodes ever produced.
 

LouA

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I let Warner know.

For those that just want to watch the season four episode TO CATCH A CROOKED MOUSE as a standalone, go to the main menu of disc three, hit PLAY ALL, then jump to chapter 21 and enjoy what in my opinion is one of the finest DR. KILDARE episodes ever produced.
Thanks for the tip!
 

Carabimero

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Thanks for the tip!
Hopefully this thread will stand as a beacon for those who reach that third act cliffhanger (and it is a cliffhanger) only to be confronted with the end credits some 14 minutes early. It was not a happy feeling. So glad to discover the complete episode was there.
 

Dan McW

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I've noticed for the last month or more that the fourth season of Kildare has disappeared from the WA site. Wonder if it was withdrawn temporarily in order to fix the "Crooked Mouse" problem.
 

Carabimero

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I've noticed for the last month or more that the fourth season of Kildare has disappeared from the WA site. Wonder if it was withdrawn temporarily in order to fix the "Crooked Mouse" problem.
Since the content is all there and the issue is a software disconnect, all one would have to do to fix the error is to make a minor adjustment, a couple of clicks of a mouse, and then master the disc. I doubt they would repress any discs. Corrected discs, if any, are likely to be DVD+Rs. Would love to get a corrected pressed disc, though.
 

LouA

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You should still let Warner know that there is an authoring error on the disc. It's possible they have already fixed it for future MOD burns.

The Dr Kildare season sets from WBA aren't burned MOD discs . They are actually pressed discs like most season TV releases from the archive. I'm guessing that they are waiting for the supply of pressed discs to sell out before substituting a corrected one . Then again, I wonder if they're even aware of the defect ?
 

Jack P

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Well I have finished S5 and I have to say that for its final year, the results were very uneven. The switch to color was welcome, but the half hour format with multi-episode arcs ranging from 2 to as many as 6 per storyline I felt was very uneven overall. Sometimes, the magic was there as two story arcs, one with Fred Astaire and Laura Devon, the other with Jack Hawkins represents Kildare at is finest and also pre-1970s TV drama at its finest in showing religious faith depicted in a way that has vanished sadly from television today.

But nonetheless, despite these two wonderful arcs that equal or surpass anything from the previous seasons, this was a show running out of gas. The budget cutbacks are evident in that there are fewer extras populating the corridors of the hospital and as a result this means more than once I'm seeing hospital corridors of a major big city hospital totally empty that should be roaming with a number of people (compare this to the early seasons when the hospital was teaming with activity). Gone by now are the rich diversity of semi-regular doctors and nurses who would appear in multiple episodes over the course of a season and convey a broader sense of continuity (Eddie Ryder's Dr. Agurski, who even had his own front and center episode in S1 only appears once as does Jud Taylor's Dr. Gerson, while Ken Berry, who had been Dr. Kapish was now on "F-Troop"). Instead, we now have the VERY annoying presence of Lee Kurty as Nurse Zoe Lawton who is sort of supposed to be Kildare's new potential love interest but while she does end up confessing her feelings about him to Dr. Gillespie, she never does so with him so that remains unresolved. The real problem is that Kurty is a terrible actress and when she's taking up so much screen time it becomes a distraction (tellingly her resume lists nothing of note before or after this role) of epic proportions.

Unfortunately, this series also ended up saving its worst for last with a four episode arc designed to set up a spin-off series with another poor actor, Mart Hulswit as a doctor at Blair who because of a false accusation against him (which he's eventually cleared of) relocates to a small town at the invitation of a college friend, the town minister, Richard Beymer. The proposed series would have given us Hulswit and Beymer as the young radicals in their professions challenging the norms of this small town and we see all the other elements of "failed pilot" over the place with Sidney Blackmer as the old guard doctor who heads the clinic Hulswit goes to work for and Audrey Totter set up as the town's stuck up Victorian prude who would no doubt challenge everything the young doctor and minister would come up with every week and be proved wrong again and again. In short, after standing alone on its own merits, "Dr. Kildare" decided to go out on a bad note with a story and pilot that made me wonder if I'd wandered into a Herbert Brodkin show. And even if one is a fan of Brodkin style pretentiousness it still is not a good thing for the final shot of the series of Kildare and Gillespie to be commenting on the future of a series that never was. The series deserved its own final episode about the journey of Dr. Kildare, whether it be promotion or even marriage to Nurse Lawton.
 

Flashgear

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Thanks Jack for your detailed Impression of Kildare's season 5...you are eloquent and insightful...it will be a good long while before I finally get to it, as I have all too much already in my que...I've only watched up to season 3...and the best episodes have been more than just memorable, they were absolutely brilliant...some of the best writing in '60s drama that I've seen lately...so the transition to 30 minute color and the multi-episode continuing story arc heightened my curiousity...

I do find your comments about the notable lack of traffic on the hospital sets troubling, as that has always been one of the big detriments of the studio bound scenes..."Blair General" never resembled a real hospital in the slightest, let alone, as you point out, a major big city hospital...badly configured, not peopled, and not nearly busy enough...I showed a number of season 1 episodes to a RN friend who is also a big fan of St. Elsewhere, and she was blown away by the writing, she regarded Kildare to be the much better written show, but also remarked about the woefully unconvincing hospital sets...she's borrowed complete seasons from me to enjoy...I'm curious if the great Raymond Massey still retained his magnitude as season 5 played out? For me, he was the biggest asset on the show, apart from the many great guest stars...and not detracting the often fine work of Richard Chamberlain himself...

Sorry to hear also about the inappropriate and awkward finale being just a diversion into promoting the never to be series spinoff,... that was also not in the spirit and character of the best that Dr. Kildare had already given us...and apparently, not allowing for a proper and satisfying send off for Kildare and Gillespie...
 
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Jack P

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Yes, Massey remained strong and stalwart to the end. I suspect Chamberlain was getting more bored with things and hoping he could get on with becoming a big star outside of TV (his first attempt after Kildare was the disastrous "Breakfast at Tiffany's" musical flop with Mary Tyler Moore) but he still gets the job done.

Interesting about the hospital sets, because I do think that color had a tendency to make them look more fake whereas in B/W the suspension of disbelief was better (and when more extras were being used. Think of the long procession of nurses singing Christmas carols in the great S1 episode "Season To Be Jolly")
 

Bert Greene

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Jack has pretty much nailed the 5th season, to the point where I really have virtually nothing to add. I still have a few more episodes to go. I'd been quite curious as to the changes brought about with the new half-hour format and its semi-serialization approach. As Jack said, pretty uneven results. A few really terrific story-arcs, but some awfully dull ones too. Gets a bit too soapy for my tastes at times, as well.

In a way, I think the series started weakening a bit in the 4th season, with it's occasional detours from solid drama to tepid Harlequin-style glossiness (as typified by the three-part trip to Italy), as well as a few awkward attempts at light/comedic episodes. Yet, the 4th season still had some really good, strong episodes to counterbalance some of those soft spots.

All in all, it's proven to be a fine, impressive series, with really good writing. Beyond just being a template for character-drama in the vein of all those semi-anthology style series of its day, it does have a pretty consistent, discernible moral core. If I have one single annoyance with the series, it's perhaps the social dialogue/banter of the young doctors, interns, nurses, and such when they congregate together at parties, bars, or even sometimes the lunchroom. It always reeks too much of the theatrical world. The comments, the behaviors, the comportment. Real-world social gatherings are not always like post-matinee wrap-up partying at Sardi's! Ah well, at least Raymond Massey and his Gillespie was always around to bring things back to a ring of groundedness. And he is marvelous. Can't imagine enjoying the series nearly as much without him.
 

Carabimero

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As I have been watching the sets, I have been keeping a list of my favorite episodes, ones that I want to rewatch for sure. In seasons 1-3, there was always at least 1--and sometimes more--episode from each disc that went on my list. With season four there have been a few, but certainly not on every disc. I'm sorry to hear season five declines even more.

here's my list through season four disc 5.

The Patient

The Roaring Boy O

A Very Present Help

A Distant Thunder

Operation Lazarus

The Mask Makers

Hasting’s Farewell

For Everything A Season

The Thing Speaks for Itself

Trip to Niagra Falls

A Very Infectious Disease

The Gift of Koodjanuk

A Hand Held Out In Darkness

What’s God to Julius?

Whoever Heard of a Two-Headed Doll?

The Exploiters

On A Bright and Clear Thursday Morning

The Eleventh Commandment

To Walk In Grace

A Hundred Million Tomorrows

Tomorrow is a Fickle Girl

An Ungodly Act

The Last Leaves on the Tree

What’s Different About Today?

The Sound of a Faraway Hill

Rome Will Never Leave You

The Elusive Dik-Dik

To Catch a Crooked Mouse (PLAY ALL ch 21)

Never Is a Long Day
 

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