Which long running 50s sitcom would you most like to see get a complete release? (2 Viewers)

[Desslar]

I’m not very familiar with the majority of these but I would happily take a release as an excuse to give them a try.

I second this. My exposure to 50s comedies is very limited, but I would love to discover some gems. Based on his radio show, I might go with Jack Benny.

 

[Neil Brock]

In terms of availability in the long time collectors world, December Bride did air on a couple of stations in the 80s, as did Life of Riley. Love that Bob aired on CBN. Private Secretary ran uncut on Nick and Nite. My Little Margie gets treated as PD and has popped up in a number of places as well as a few DVD releases. MRFD, minus the first 3 seasons, is streaming now in a number of places, complete and some places even in the proper 4x3 aspect ratio. Burns and Allen has been running on Antenna TV for years, although syndicated cut versions, and not the first 2 live seasons. I'm not even sure if all of those even exist anywhere. As for Bachelor Father, Antenna and Retro TV have run all of the episodes complete and remastered over the last 10 years. Anyone who wanted the series could have recorded it and wouldn't have the usual explanations, like they were too young to have a VCR, or they didn't think of it at the time. Or my favorite, that they weren't born yet when ran. No excuse! Lol.
That leaves the last 2 series. Jack Benny is another one that Antenna has run through the 104 syndicated shows a number of times. But more than half the episodes aren't syndicated. Oh Susannah hasn't run anywhere since the early 70s at the latest. Gale Storm sold her set of prints to a film dealer who unfortunately broke the set up and sold them piecemeal. The only copies of the series which circulate are from Gale's collection. So those 2 series I would say are the least available anywhere.

 

[BobO'Link]

If the first 2 live years of Burns and Allen are the ones done on a regular theatrical stage (George doing a solo intro with both he and Gracie closing in front of the curtain) then they *should* be somewhere. A local PBS affiliate ran those episodes, along with the rest, for a few years back in the 90s. I recall the prints looking quite good. I didn't have enough sense to record them.

 

[Neil Brock]

If the first 2 live years of Burns and Allen are the ones done on a regular theatrical stage (George doing a solo intro with both he and Gracie closing in front of the curtain) then they *should* be somewhere. A local PBS affiliate ran those episodes, along with the rest, for a few years back in the 90s. I recall the prints looking quite good. I didn't have enough sense to record them.

Not all 52 of them.

 

[Neil Brock]

No love for the Gale Storm Show? Surprising, as that's probably the rarest and hardest to find on the list.

 

[Gary OS]

No love for the Gale Storm Show? Surprising, as that's probably the rarest and hardest to find on the list.

The Gale Storm Show would fall in at either #4 or #5 on my list for that very reason. But what I think happens with polls like this is that folk want that which they already know well (but hasn't been available on physical media), or that which they are most familiar with. Jack Benny has HUGE name recognition and so he soars to the top. But with the Gale Storm Show, there are probably a good number of folk that have never seen it, or haven't seen it in decades. And when that happens a show rarely wins out in polls like this one.

The bigger shock to me is the lack of any votes for My Little Margie. I thought it would have done a lot better.


Gary "just my two cents" O.

 

[GeorgeJA]

Hi All,

As much as I like Jack Benny,
I’d rather see The Bob Cummings Show complete with the original commercials.
Second choice would be Bachelor Father.
Two largely forgotten and underrated shows whose comedy still holds up today.

John

Same here. BTW, Jack Benny made a very funny guest appearance on Bachelor Father.

 

[BobO'Link]

Not all 52 of them.

I had no idea how many there were - and that station did *not* air a full year's worth of those episodes (aired once a week) so that makes sense.

I've come to expect that from early TV series due to how they were produced and/or aired, especially series which aired live.

 

[timk1041]

All these shows deserve some type of decent release. Many I'm familiar with. A couple I'm not. I chose Bachelor Father because I like the cast of characters, especially Noreen Corcoran and the fun storylines. I actually only got more familiar with the show about 2 years ago when I purchased episodes from a dealer recorded off RTN/RTV. I would still welcome an official release, but any of these others would certainly be nice to have too.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Wow, I'm amazed no one opted for Groucho's You bet your life!!! That series has been in PD Hell for decades!! A wonderful restored edition for what ever still survives would be great, the jokes still carry some weight!!! Tell em what they've won George...a Brand new 1955 De Soto!!!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think that’s due to the subject being about 50s sitcoms, and You Bet Your Life was a game show.

There have been numerous releases of various episodes on DVD. I think I have a few of them.

 

[potnoodle]

The Gale Storm Show would fall in at either #4 or #5 on my list for that very reason. But what I think happens with polls like this is that folk want that which they already know well (but hasn't been available on physical media), or that which they are most familiar with. Jack Benny has HUGE name recognition and so he soars to the top. But with the Gale Storm Show, there are probably a good number of folk that have never seen it, or haven't seen it in decades. And when that happens a show rarely wins out in polls like this one.

The bigger shock to me is the lack of any votes for My Little Margie. I thought it would have done a lot better.


Gary "just my two cents" O.

The lack of votes for Margie may have something to do with the fact that the show is running weekday mornings on Retro TV so it's possible to record those episodes currently. Steve Beverly ran an episode of the Gale Storm Show recently on his program; I thought it was better than Margie but others may disagree.

 

[ponset]

Since I can watch Burns & Allen and The Jack Benny Program on a one those sub channels,
I choose THE LIFE OF RILEY.
I like listening to the radio series and I have never seen the TV version with Bendix.

 

[Wiseguy]

In terms of availability in the long time collectors world, December Bride did air on a couple of stations in the 80s, as did Life of Riley. Love that Bob aired on CBN. Private Secretary ran uncut on Nick and Nite. My Little Margie gets treated as PD and has popped up in a number of places as well as a few DVD releases. MRFD, minus the first 3 seasons, is streaming now in a number of places, complete and some places even in the proper 4x3 aspect ratio. Burns and Allen has been running on Antenna TV for years, although syndicated cut versions, and not the first 2 live seasons. I'm not even sure if all of those even exist anywhere. As for Bachelor Father, Antenna and Retro TV have run all of the episodes complete and remastered over the last 10 years. Anyone who wanted the series could have recorded it and wouldn't have the usual explanations, like they were too young to have a VCR, or they didn't think of it at the time. Or my favorite, that they weren't born yet when ran. No excuse! Lol.
That leaves the last 2 series. Jack Benny is another one that Antenna has run through the 104 syndicated shows a number of times. But more than half the episodes aren't syndicated. Oh Susannah hasn't run anywhere since the early 70s at the latest. Gale Storm sold her set of prints to a film dealer who unfortunately broke the set up and sold them piecemeal. The only copies of the series which circulate are from Gale's collection. So those 2 series I would say are the least available anywhere.

I've gone through the Jack Benny episodes on Antenna TV several times and they only show 103 episodes. It's possible the missing episode Is Jack and Mary in Rome even though they show the other three filmed trip-to-Europe episodes. I've read that when the program was in syndication there were about 45 other episodes shown including more from the final season but were removed from the rerun package.

 

[Wiseguy]

Many fine choices offered in the poll, but I had to go with The Jack Benny Program. It's a culture crime that it has been relegated to some public domain collections and the licensed Shout Factory set (which I'm happy to have) of a handful of episodes + some later specials.

All Shout shows Is some excerpts from the specials. Maybe if they hadn't wasted space with those they might have had room to put additonal real episodes on the set.

 

[Wiseguy]

If the first 2 live years of Burns and Allen are the ones done on a regular theatrical stage (George doing a solo intro with both he and Gracie closing in front of the curtain) then they *should* be somewhere. A local PBS affiliate ran those episodes, along with the rest, for a few years back in the 90s. I recall the prints looking quite good. I didn't have enough sense to record them.

The 1950 Christmas episode for some reason only aired in half the country so it was felt no kinescope was necessary (who'd want to see it again?) so although they may have repeated the plot in a future episode, no copy of that episode ever existed.

Also there are several places on the internet that claim to have the Space Patrol Kids episode from season 1 (also on PD DVDs), it Is actually The Speech Writer from season 2 (the Peter Lind Hayes/Mary Healy series promoted at the end did not alternate with B&A wuting season 1. Space Patrol Kids may be lost.

 

[BobO'Link]

The William Bendix The Life of Riley is the superior one. Jackie Gleason's series is "just OK" in my book (but I'm not much of a Gleason fan so that absolutely colors my opinion).

 

[Neil Brock]

I've gone through the Jack Benny episodes on Antenna TV several times and they only show 103 episodes. It's possible the missing episode Is Jack and Mary in Rome even though they show the other three filmed trip-to-Europe episodes. I've read that when the program was in syndication there were about 45 other episodes shown including more from the final season but were removed from the rerun package.

I have an old BIB book (syndication guide) and at one time there were 149 episodes in the package. No idea was it was paired down. But it happens. All of the Bendix Life of Riley shows were originally syndicated but in the 80s it was cut down to 91 shows.

Not that we'll likely ever see them anyway, but its a shame that the episodes that were done on 2-inch videotape all burned up in the Universal fire and only kinescopes of the shows survive.

 

[RobertMG]

Burns and Allen needs to be released SHOUT is the logical one as they released the Sony held shows Father Knows Best though is now owned by Robert Young and Eugene Rodneys families just read that all episodes have been preserved on The Beulah Show in 35mm would love to see that show

 

[ElPaBr]

The 1950 Christmas episode for some reason only aired in half the country so it was felt no kinescope was necessary (who'd want to see it again?) so although they may have repeated the plot in a future episode, no copy of that episode ever existed.

Also there are several places on the internet that claim to have the Space Patrol Kids episode from season 1 (also on PD DVDs), it Is actually The Speech Writer from season 2 (the Peter Lind Hayes/Mary Healy series promoted at the end did not alternate with B&A wuting season 1. Space Patrol Kids may be lost.

The 1950 Christmas episode wasn't aired on the West Coast. The company moved from New York to Hollywood and offered a whole new episode the following week (so that the bigger New York-centric market would still see something new the following week, keeping up its every-other-week schedule). This reversed the cycle of the West Coast seeing kinescopes two weeks later.

The actual Space Patrol Kids episode -- performed August 16, 1951 -- exists and was uploaded to YouTube a few years ago (transferred from a 16mm print). It's the first broadcast with Harry Von Zell.