Deadline (1 Viewer)

[Chris Muermann]

It seems to me that nobody posted a thread about the TV Show "Deadline", which will be released on Nov. 19th.

https://www.amazon.com/Deadline-Com...ds=deadline&qid=1573926754&s=movies-tv&sr=1-7

I ordered my box from importcds.com because I´m living in Germany and they shipped it yesterday. I´m really looking forward to that show. I never heard from "Deadline" before. In all my TV Show

 

[GMBurns]

It seems to me that nobody posted a thread about the TV Show "Deadline", which will be released on Nov. 19th.

https://www.amazon.com/Deadline-Com...ds=deadline&qid=1573926754&s=movies-tv&sr=1-7

I ordered my box from importcds.com because I´m living in Germany and they shipped it yesterday. I´m really looking forward to that show. I never heard from "Deadline" before. In all my TV Show

Chris,

There was a good bit of discussion, and some great information about Deadline about a month ago in the "Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end?" thread in case you didn't see it. Sounds like a very cool release.

By the way, I love your avatar of Cannon and Barnaby!

 

[Chris Muermann]

Glenn,

thanks so much for your information that "Deadline" is in the "Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end?" thread. I just read all the interesting topics and now I´m looking even more forward to the show.
I just saw that somehow it cut my words on my post. It must say: "In all my TV Show books there are no entries of "Deadline".
Thanks for your words about my avatar. I´m a very great fan of the QM produtions and esspecially in "Barnaby Jones" although I´m a little bit sad that VEI released the syndicated versions. But that was a topic in another thread years ago.

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

I am delighted that this is getting a release. It is also a very good bargain. How can it be sold so cheaply when something like Miss Brooks is quite expensive?

 

[Neil Brock]

Very obscure series. So little information on it in any of the reference books.

 

[Neil Brock]

Just got this in the mail today and watched the first episode. Seems to be sourced from 16mm prints. Pyramid Productions also produced The Big Story, Decoy and Treasury Men in Action. All of those shows are also PD.

By the way, I like the sub header to the title that they put on the box cover!

 

[dawnshadow]

I am delighted that this is getting a release. It is also a very good bargain. How can it be sold so cheaply when something like Miss Brooks is quite expensive?

Because money-hungry CBS isn’t involved.

 

[GMBurns]

Got a chance to watch the first two episodes. They look good, comparable to Film Chest's release of Decoy, and the stories are very thoughtful. Very nice booklet included, and what an amazing price for 39 b&w episodes. Thank you Film Chest!

 

[Bob Gu]

I have watched the first disc and I agree that it is a very well written, acted, and produced series. Paul Stewart is a fine host and lead actor in some of the episodes. The booklet is great and the interview with the journalism prof. is interesting. It's a quality presentation, by Film Chest!

The stories focus on crime and it is sometimes pretty raw and brutal.

It's fun spotting all the east coast soap opera and commercial actors that appeared on Mom's soaps back in the days when the episodes were only 15 minutes. (Larry Haines, Ed Brice, and Don Hastings.) Many actors headed west and we know them from later series. Some of the young ones took me a while to recognize, their older selves, "Hey that's Ivor Francis". Dana Elcar, already wearing a rug. Richard X. Slattery, when he may have still been a real N.Y.P.D. cop.

I would have liked to have heard more about that, "the prints were found in someone's garage", story, and how Film Chest wound up with them.

The nice thing about the cheap price is that it enabled me to feel I could afford to get, SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE, too.

 

[GMBurns]

I have watched the first disc and I agree that it is a very well written, acted, and produced series. Paul Stewart is a fine host and lead actor in some of the episodes. The booklet is great and the interview with the journalism prof. is interesting. It's a quality presentation, by Film Chest!

The stories focus on crime and it is sometimes pretty raw and brutal.

It's fun spotting all the east coast soap opera and commercial actors that appeared on Mom's soaps back in the days when the episodes were only 15 minutes. (Larry Haines, Ed Brice, and Don Hastings.) Many actors headed west and we know them from later series. Some of the young ones took me a while to recognize, their older selves, "Hey that's Ivor Francis". Dana Elcar, already wearing a rug. Richard X. Slattery, when he may have still been a real N.Y.P.D. cop.

I would have liked to have heard more about that, "the prints were found in someone's garage", story, and how Film Chest wound up with them.

The nice thing about the cheap price is that it enabled me to feel I could afford to get, SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE, too.

It would be very interesting to know more about that mysterious garage. Is it worth another once-over to see if there are any more hidden treasures there?

And speaking of hidden treasures, thanks for mentioning Screen Director's Playhouse. I totally missed that one, but it sounds like a great series. And when I average that in with what I paid for Deadline, it is a very reasonable price. Thanks a lot for the tip!

 

[Bob Gu]

With averaging I figure the two series cost me $22.00 each. I bought DEADLINE at DeepDiscount with another item and a coupon. My SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE is coming from importcds.com for $32.65 shipped and taxed with the coupon code TENOFF, which is good until Nov, 25th.

 

[Bert Greene]

Certainly must rank as one of the most obscure vintage series to make it to dvd. I mostly only knew about it from the small paragraph given it in Hal Erickson's "Syndicated Television" book. Have no idea how many markets it played in, but while flipping through some old TV Guides, I noticed that it was aired in Houston, TX on Monday nights at 10pm, after the network lineup had concluded. Made its local debut there in the middle of summer, on July 6th, 1959. It replaced its similar sister show, "The Big Story" (the ones that were filmed and hosted by Burgess Meredith). The episode of "Deadline" that they debuted with was not the first episode, but the one with the cheery title "Mass Murder." Seems like made-for-syndication shows often ran episodes in different order in different markets. I've noticed that before.

My dvd-set arrived, and I've watched the first five episodes. Pretty neat. Good, no-nonsense type crime fare, with a nice variety of plotlines so far. A number of familiar faces popping up, like Bob said. The last one I watched I noticed actor Don Briggs in a good role as an FBI man. I always recall Briggs primarily from two widely varied roles... as the youthful lead in the 1936 Universal serial, "The Adventures of Frank Merriwell," and (of all things) in a recurring role as Vivian Vance's paunchy boyfriend in a few 1st-season "Lucy Show" episodes, decades later. Also saw Bob Dowdell (from "Voyage/Sea" and "Stoney Burke") in the 4th episode. Anyway, it's really terrific this little series got re-discovered and made available. The quality is quite decent, too, especially considering the high number of episodes per disc. I'm quite happy with this release, and very much appreciate the efforts of those who worked to bring this out of the cobwebs.

 

[Neil Brock]

Its always nice when those little independently produced syndicated shows pop up. While I don't think we'll see any more of the Ziv shows or the ones the CBS Films produced, there are still a bunch of Official Films, Hal Roach, Sharpe and Lewis, Danzinger Brothers shows out there. Not sure the status of California National Productions. Those may be with CBS via their buyout of Republic.

 

[Gary OS]

Thanks for the great review, Bert!

Gary “looking forward to really diving into this series” O.

 

[Tom.W]

Just placed my order from Deep Discount. Amazon has it listed today for almost twice the price as DD!

 

[Professor Echo]

Of course, money talks the loudest, so it's great we are purchasing this release, but I'm still going to try and write the company and personally thank them for keeping vintage TV alive on physical media. It may mean nothing to them or perhaps it will help encourage them to keep going. Whatever, I urge everyone here who enjoys the DEADLINE and DECOY releases to follow my lead and send them a quick note of thanks.

Near as I can find, this how to contact them:

https://filmchestmediagroup.com/contact/

 

[Flashgear]

Of course, money talks the loudest, so it's great we are purchasing this release, but I'm still going to try and write the company and personally thank them for keeping vintage TV alive on physical media. It may mean nothing to them or perhaps it will help encourage them to keep going. Whatever, I urge everyone here who enjoys the DEADLINE and DECOY releases to follow my lead and send them a quick note of thanks.

Near as I can find, this how to contact them:

https://filmchestmediagroup.com/contact/

I agree wholeheartedly, Glen! The same thought occurred to me also. I've visited their website several times, and it is a somewhat disconcerting that I couldn't find the Deadline release shown there...unless I missed it among the myriad and slightly confusing links on that site. I certainly hope that this release does well for them, and I agree, it is important for we consumers to express gratitude and encouragement for them to pursue other possible vintage TV gems that may yet come to light...for the Official Films Library, I would dearly hope for any release of The Big Story, albeit partial by necessity with any filmed episodes in decent shape, whether from the Burgess Meredith installments or any decent Kinescopes from previous years...and, better yet, a release of the wonderful 1956-57 Wire Service from original elements...the first (?) 60 minute network drama series with a trio of revolving leads ala the much later Name of the Game, some 15 years later...

I have the two Alpha Video volumes of the PD Wire Service episodes, 6 in total, and that was a groundbreaking and daring show with high production values and a lot of location filming...including a Dane Clark episode, Atom at Spithead, actually filmed on location at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Spithead Royal Navy bases in the UK, with an English cast including Robert Beatty, Richard Caldicott and Clifford Evans...an exciting cold war story of Russian espionage and possible sabotage probably inspired by the notorious real life disappearance of WW2 Hero Royal Navy Frogman Lionel "Buster" Crabb in April 1956 while secretly diving near a Soviet cruiser at the behest of British Secret Intelligence MI6 (yes, the employer of the fictional James Bond). The Soviet cruiser was in Plymouth harbor on a "goodwill" mission, and Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev and Foreign Minister Bulganin were onboard...the Royal Navy, MI5 and MI6 suspected that the cruiser had a secret diving cell beneath the waterline from which Soviet divers were secretly coming and going from... to spy, possibly insert agents and place surveillance equipment on the harbor bottom...Lionel Crabb's mysterious disappearance was big news worldwide in 1956, a national security scandal in Westminster, Whitehall (Defense Ministry) and parliament...with details about his secret mission only coming out many years later...a diver's body, less head and hands was recovered 14 months later in a fishing net, with attendant controversy about it's ultimate identity...I'm absolutely sure that this was the inspiration for the Wire Service episode Atom at Spithead (Feb. 11, 1957)...the "next week" preview is shown just before the closing credits on Alpha's volume one The Johnny Rath Story episode...how many American network TV shows went as far as the UK to film on location in those days? If you have the excellent Secrets of War documentary series from Mill Creek narrated by Charlton Heston, the 1996 episode The Cold War: Kruschev's Regime features the Lionel Crabb incident...Ian Fleming claimed that his James Bond novel, Thunderball, was partly inspired by the same incident...it remains a controversy to this day as to whether Crabb died accidentally, was killed by or captured by the Soviets...All of these Official Films shows were very topical to their times...I would be ecstatic for a Big Story or Wire Service release of the quality we have seen in the Filmchest releases of Decoy and Deadline...

Thanks to Bert for his interesting details about Deadline derived from his TV Guide collection...fascinating!...I wonder if Deadline's 39 episodes could indeed have been first run as a summer syndication show from 1959, and possibly restarted in summer 1960, and somehow lasting into early 1961 as claimed? I still think that the established info about the 13 Dane Clark Wire Service episodes being resurrected in 1959 and retitled as Deadline for Action is too much of a coincidence...leading me to wonder if they weren't added into the mix of the newly produced Deadline shows to flush out the syndication offering to a more marketable 52 episode package...or possibly more if the Dane Clark episodes were recut into 30 minute two parters? Although syndicators discouraged two part episodes because of the awkward nature of film chain 16mm films being shipped around by couriers from one TV station to another in those days...how many of us remember tuning into part one of The Adventures of Superman The Mole Men, and finding out that another haphazard episode had been inserted, and part two wasn't airing the next week, or next day as the case might be in your market? That could drive a kid crazy, believe me...I still remember that...

My copy of Deadline should be in my hands tomorrow...after watching a few episodes, I will try to take some screen captures and post them here...I can hardly wait to see them in the excellent quality that you fellows have already reported...one of the rarest of vintage TV offerings...a 1950s NYC filmed show, virtually unknown to us previously!

As Glen urges, I will send a congratulatory email to Filmchest, expressing my gratitude for this wonderful release (and Decoy)...I think I might follow up also with a hand written letter to them...their mailing address is:

Filmchest Media Group
100 Congress St.
Bridgeport, CT.
06604-4046

I hope Filmchest has found more wonderful film elements from other nearly forgotten PD TV series in that fabled New Jersey garage! Alladin's cave of treasures, ha, ha...thank God for Filmchest, ClassicFlix and CBS for newly produced B+W TV releases on DVD...

 

[Bob Gu]

Hey, Randall! Your frogman story rang a diving bell with me. I had run across something similar on YouTube. An unsold pilot for a spy series, inspired by the same story, called "Counterspy"- from 1958.

 

[Professor Echo]

Here is the nice, encouraging reply I received from Logan Betz, Director Of Operations for Film Chest, in response to my thank you note for DECOY and DEADLINE:

Hi Glen,

Thank you so much for reaching out and for your very kind words! We love hearing from our fellow fans of classic TV, which only motivates us to keep digging and developing more content like this for the marketplace. We are excited for a few of our future projects and are, of course, always keeping our eyes and ears open for other interesting opportunities.

Thank you again for your email and for your thoughts – we appreciate it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Logan

 

[Flashgear]

Hey, Randall! Your frogman story rang a diving bell with me. I had run across something similar on YouTube. An unsold pilot for a spy series, inspired by the same story, called "Counterspy"- from 1958.

Wow, Bob, thank you for that! I was completely unaware of this unsold pilot for a proposed series called Counterspy...I watched it and enjoyed it. They went to some expense in commissioning a British second unit, which is credited, to actually film in the UK and what definitely appears to be the actual Portsmouth harbor...I believe the aircraft carrier shown in the background may be HMS Eagle or HMS Ark Royal, the ship used as a stand-in for the Soviet cruiser is the USN battlecruiser Alaska...as you said, the British diver "Finney" is unquestionably inspired by the real life Lionel "Buster" Crabb...the story as presented is somewhat preposterous but still enjoyable...at least the British diver is presented as wearing something akin to a state of the art Davis re-breather, a submerged breathing apparatus that did not yield bubbles in exhalation as common Scuba gear did...thus better to prevent detection...the diver is shown entering the water in plain view and in broad daylight...Crabb and his partner (yes, he was not alone) likely entered the harbor from below the waterline of a Royal Navy salvage and diving ship nearby...the notion of some top secret Soviet hull magnetizing system is really out there...ship hulls were wired to "deguass" (de-magnetize) their hulls to defeat magnetic exploders on sea mines...the notion of TV cameras on the Soviet hull bottom is conceivable, as is the reference to close-in maneuvering without a harbor pilot, likely with bow and stern thrusters...one of the reasons Crabb was sent to determine...the direction of the whole operation by Americans is also entirely wrong. although the CIA was likely involved peripherally, this was a British intelligence show, with MI6, MI5 and Admiralty counter-intelligence responsible for the planning, execution and the early cover-up of this disaster...which, along with the Suez invasion bungling, also in 1956, led to Prime Minister Anthony Eden's resignation and the advent of Harold MacMillan's term as the new PM...I see that the underwater fight was filmed in Silver Springs Florida...all of this just reinforces the story that Ian Fleming was inspired to write Thunderball by what might have transpired in Crabb's diasappearance...the fight scene in this pilot does evoke the more elaborate and spectacular Scuba underwater battles in the James Bond movie Thunderball...I sure wish I could see the Wire Service episode Atom at Spithead in it's entirety...although in that one, the evil Soviets up the ante by planting an Atomic Bomb in Portsmouth harbor!

Here is the nice, encouraging reply I received from Logan Betz, Director Of Operations for Film Chest, in response to my thank you note for DECOY and DEADLINE:

Thanks Glen for posting this! I am very intrigued and hopeful about his statement "We are excited for a few of our future projects, and are, of course, always keeping our eyes and ears open for other interesting opportunities..."

I hope that New Jersey garage yields good film elements for Wire Service and Big Story as well...

I received my Deadline set yesterday, and watched the first episode, The Victor Riesel Story, and spot checked other episodes up to episode 16...there is minor film damage on some of the source prints, none of which lasts very long or is a deal breaker...the film elements are in excellent shape, and I believe they are actually 35mm, and not 16mm film elements...entirely consistent with Filmchest's superb Decoy release...so rejoice! Filmchest really knocked this out of the park, with another superb DVD release of another great PD series filmed in NYC and with pretty good production values, great writing, competent or superior casting, able direction by expert directors (Stuart Rosenberg directed 9 episodes of Deadline, 8 years later he was at the 1967 Oscars, having directed the immortal Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke, among many other great films to come)...the mag tracks are in great shape, no problem with the audio, and the music by Wladimir Selensky is superb...Filmchest also produced a nice trailer for Deadline that runs 1:02...and an on camera interview (25:26) with Masters of Journalism professor Joe Alicastro (35 years at NBC news), now running the Journalism school at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Connecticut...more about that later...there is also the very nice booklet for this set, comparable to the one that came with Decoy...

I took a load of screen caps from the first episode...here are a few of them with more to come soon...first, the menu screen for episode selection for disc one...the episodes mostly run 25:30 to 26:20 approx., the only chapter stops are between the episodes themselves, and no chapter stops are to be found in the body of the episode at commercial breaks etc.,...

A very young Diane Ladd, looking very cute here, but also turning in a powerful and authentic performance...much as she also did in the earlier Decoy episodes, and Naked City that very same year of 1958...she is a terrific actress, still working today...and after I watched this 60 year old episode of Deadline, I watched last night's Jimmy Kimmel Show from my DVR, and just by chance, Diane Ladd's talented actress daughter Laura Dern was a guest on that talk show!

Larry Haines plays real life crusading newspaper columnist Victor Riesel, fighting mob and commie infiltration and corruption in NYC's dockyard labor unions...Haines is perfect in this, completely believable and memorable as the self sacrificing reporter...the whole cast is great in this well executed story...

In addition to being a nationally syndicated Hearst newspaper columnist, Victor Riesel also did a regular radio broadcast from the Manhattan studios of WMCA...and after the attack on him and recovery in the hospital, he also had a regular TV talk show in the New York area...more to come on all of this true story...with a teaser that this real life story ties in with the story behind the new Martin Scorcese Netflix movie with Robert Deniro and Al Pacino, The Irishman...