Stagecoach West TV Series 1960-61 New DVD Release! (1 Viewer)

[Gary16]

Here's the great Skip Martin/Herschel Burke Gilbert theme music opening, and closing vocals by Bud and Travis for Stagecoach West...man, this is another theme I'll have rattling around in my head for days on end, it's just as catchy as my previous brain dominating favorite, Daniel Boone...

This would be worth buying just for the theme music.

 

[Neil Brock]

Always happy when I can get rid of my decades old off air records from 16mm prints and replace them with a nicely remastered DVD set.

 

[rjd0309]

Good! Ha, ha...I'm hoping that Renown can sell a sh*t load of Stagecoach West DVD sets, Jeff and Brad! Then maybe we can get another Four Star series out of the vaults...perhaps one of our British HTF members who has watched Renown's 'Talking Pictures' channel in the U.K. can tell us what other vintage American series they have shown on that cable channel...maybe Richard Diamond, Robert Taylor's The Detectives, Trackdown etc...

Regarding Richard Diamond, I corresponded with the folks at Talking Pictures some time ago. They have access to the Four Star catalogue, but this only includes season 4 of Richard Diamond (the NBC season, not the three previous CBS seasons). Of the 26 episodes of season 4, only 12 videotapes were in good enough shape to be digitized and aired:

4.01 The Hoodlum
4.02 Act Of Grace
4.06 No Laughing Matter
4.08 The Counselor
4.09 The Image
4.10 The Adjuster
4.11 Marked For Murder
4.15 Seven Swords
4.16 The Fine Art Of Murder
4.19 The Fallen Star
4.24 East Of Danger
4.26 The Mouse

 

[smithbrad]

Well Randall, you hooked me...it's been ordered. I'll be ready to convert and watch as soon as I get it.

 

[fdabbott]

Thanks for the review. I will definitely pick this up soon. I have never seen it but it sounds right up my alley.

It's about time someone released some of the other Western TV Classics. I will be ordering this set. Do you have a link to order from? Thanks.

 

[fdabbott]

Good! Ha, ha...I'm hoping that Renown can sell a sh*t load of Stagecoach West DVD sets, Jeff and Brad! Then maybe we can get another Four Star series out of the vaults...perhaps one of our British HTF members who has watched Renown's 'Talking Pictures' channel in the U.K. can tell us what other vintage American series they have shown on that cable channel...maybe Richard Diamond, Robert Taylor's The Detectives, Trackdown etc...

I'm thinking that the new Stagecoach West DVD box set will be listed on Amazon in the near future...but I also found Renown's shipping was fast, and I can't quibble about the price for getting 38 one hour episodes of this tremendous vintage TV Western...especially as other entities have given us zero classic B+W TV releases on DVD (KL gave us both seasons of The Outer Limits on Blu) since WAC last gave us season one of Mr. Novak in 2019 (some of us worked damn hard on getting WAC to release Mr. Novak!)...and I think the last B+W TV Western released was A Man Called Shenandoah in 2018...and as I said earlier, I can't remember the last hour long B+W TV Western complete series that was released...order (if you can) directly from Renown via this link...

STAGECOACH WEST 8-DVD Box Set with optional subtitles – Renown Films

By the way, at about the same time as her guest starring appearance on Stagecoach West, that delicious damsel GiGi Perreau guest starred in one of my absolute favorite Rawhide episodes...Incident at Poco Tiempo, playing a nun, alongside Agnes Moorehead! I have an affection for nuns generally, having many fine and kind teachers that were nuns during my grade school years...but for the love of God, I wish Hollywood didn't put so many sexy actresses in a nun's habit, it conflicts my sensibilities! Ha, ha...

Just bought this Stagecoach West set. It's fantastic to see an older tv westerns sets issued. I hope for some others like Johnny Ringo, Trackdown and Tales of The Texas Rangers complete sets. Jace Person's Tales of The Texas Rangers was a popular 1950s series that had the same stars play modern rangers and in the next week play the same role as their fathers in the old west. I'm a member of The Western Collectors club with 900+ members. These releases will be high on our lists to buy.

 

[Tom.W]

Thanks for another excellent review, Randall! I will order Stagecoach West after I recover from a recent visit to the dentist (not so haha). I have dvds of this show from MeTV recordings filed away but its always more inviting to watch a studio release sourced from 35mm.

It's fantastic to see an older tv westerns sets issued. I hope for some others like Johnny Ringo, Trackdown and Tales of The Texas Rangers complete sets.

I'd also like to see Black Saddle and Law of the Plainsman released, two more quality westerns from Four Star, 1959-60. They've had some exposure - WGN, Lone Star - but deserve to be seen uncut in pristine form.

 

[Flashgear]

Thanks for the review. I will definitely pick this up soon. I have never seen it but it sounds right up my alley.

This is a series of which I had little knowledge beforehand, but based upon your comments here, I shall be putting it on my "to buy" list. Look forward to further comments from you on other episodes.

I have a tropism for the Four Star shows. Stagecoach West is one that I've never seen. Looks good. I plan to order a copy.

Awesome. Thanks for the news Randall!

This would be worth buying just for the theme music.

Always happy when I can get rid of my decades old off air records from 16mm prints and replace them with a nicely remastered DVD set.

Well Randall, you hooked me...it's been ordered. I'll be ready to convert and watch as soon as I get it.

Just bought this Stagecoach West set. It's fantastic to see an older tv westerns sets issued. I hope for some others like Johnny Ringo, Trackdown and Tales of The Texas Rangers complete sets. Jace Person's Tales of The Texas Rangers was a popular 1950s series that had the same stars play modern rangers and in the next week play the same role as their fathers in the old west. I'm a member of The Western Collectors club with 900+ members. These releases will be high on our lists to buy.

Good to hear Randy, Jeff, Jerry, Gary, Brad, Bryan, Neil Brock and Doug! Let's get as many of Renown's new 8 DVD R2 box set of Stagecoach West sold as possible, the first B+W Western TV series released on DVD since 2018 (Warner Archive's A Man Called Shenandoah), and the first B+W HOUR LONG COMPLETE TV SERIES of any kind released on DVD since WAC's reluctant release of season one of Mr. Novak in 2019. Filmchest independently gave us that beautiful DVD set of Deadline (1959, 39 episodes syndicated in 1960-61) in late 2019 (and earlier, the complete Decoy, both available on Amazon and highly recommended!) and the great Kino-Lorber gave us both seasons of the original Outer Limits on Blu-ray in the last three years since things started drying up for classic TV on disc...

Again, here's a link to Renown's U.K. based website, with details for Stagecoach West (I have NO connection to Renown, I'm just a B+W TV fan and collector and paid for my own DVD set. And even though it says 'region 0' in small print on the back of the box, this set is Region 2 LOCKED. You will need a region free player.)

STAGECOACH WEST 8-DVD Box Set with optional subtitles – Renown Films

To reiterate (third time I'm saying this), I spot checked and scanned all 38 hour episodes, and this is what I found:

35 episodes remastered from pristine 35mm film sources, with PAL speed-up coming in at 48:12 to 48:32 minutes running time, thus complete, and with almost all having the Four Star zooming logo at the end.

One episode, Blind Man's Bluff, guest starring James Drury, from a quality 35mm source, but without PAL and coming in at 50:20...

Two episodes derived from problematic Video Dupes: episode 15, The Brass Lilly, and episode 30, The Dead Don't Cry, slightly incomplete (approx. 46-47 minutes)...it's subjective, but only The Brass Lilly is to me, kind of terrible...but definitely watchable! The Dead Don't Cry, guest starring Mary Tyler Moore, is much better in PQ, more than just watchable quality! Both of these episodes is preceded by a notice that the "master could not be located".

English subtitles on all episodes. Chapter stops only at the beginning and end of each episode, not in the body of the episodes at commercial breaks and before end titles as I would prefer. Minor issue.

So, fully 36 out of the 38 episodes look great! Just check out my own screen captures taken directly from the DVDs that I posted on page one of this thread!

I ordered my set of Stagecoach West from Renown's website on February 27. They shipped it the next day and I received it here in Western Canada in about 10 days. I paid 25 pounds + 10.25 Shipping, Royal Air Mail 2nd class, $62.57 Canadian dollars all in, which was about $50 American when I purchased.

 

[Flashgear]

Thanks for another excellent review, Randall! I will order Stagecoach West after I recover from a recent visit to the dentist (not so haha). I have dvds of this show from MeTV recordings filed away but its always more inviting to watch a studio release sourced from 35mm.


I'd also like to see Black Saddle and Law of the Plainsman released, two more quality westerns from Four Star, 1959-60. They've had some exposure - WGN, Lone Star - but deserve to be seen uncut in pristine form.

Thanks Tom! Hope your dental bill and teeth don't hurt too much! As you can see from my screen caps on page one and the details above, this new set of Stagecoach West is a great and high quality DVD release! I'll be posting some more screen caps about further episodes, without spoilers, soon...

I too would love to see a quality remastered release of Peter Breck and Richard Johnson's Black Saddle and Michael Ansara's Law of the Plainsman would be good too! There's such a wealth of great stuff in the old Four Star catalogue!

Regarding Richard Diamond, I corresponded with the folks at Talking Pictures some time ago. They have access to the Four Star catalogue, but this only includes season 4 of Richard Diamond (the NBC season, not the three previous CBS seasons). Of the 26 episodes of season 4, only 12 videotapes were in good enough shape to be digitized and aired:

4.01 The Hoodlum
4.02 Act Of Grace
4.06 No Laughing Matter
4.08 The Counselor
4.09 The Image
4.10 The Adjuster
4.11 Marked For Murder
4.15 Seven Swords
4.16 The Fine Art Of Murder
4.19 The Fallen Star
4.24 East Of Danger
4.26 The Mouse

Thank you Robert for that info! That's bad news about a potential Richard Diamond release, but great news that the Talking Pictures Channel in the U.K. has access to the Four Star catalogue. As Renown is apparently part of the same corporate entity with Talking Pictures, (there are promos for Talking Pictures at the beginning of each DVD), let's hope that strong sales for the Stagecoach West encourage Renown to give us more of the great Four Star shows, especially as nothing appears to be happening on this side of the pond...

 

[Gary16]

Good to hear Randy, Jeff, Jerry, Gary, Brad, Bryan, Neil Brock and Doug! Let's get as many of Renown's new 8 DVD R2 box set of Stagecoach West sold as possible, the first B+W Western TV series released on DVD since 2018 (Warner Archive's A Man Called Shenandoah), and the first B+W HOUR LONG COMPLETE TV SERIES of any kind released on DVD since WAC's reluctant release of season one of Mr. Novak in 2019. Filmchest independently gave us that beautiful DVD set of Deadline (1959, 39 episodes syndicated in 1960-61) in late 2019 (and earlier, the complete Decoy, both available on Amazon and highly recommended!) and the great Kino-Lorber gave us both seasons of the original Outer Limits on Blu-ray in the last three years since things started drying up for classic TV on disc...

Again, here's a link to Renown's U.K. based website, with details for Stagecoach West (I have NO connection to Renown, I'm just a B+W TV fan and collector and paid for my own DVD set. And even though it says 'region 0' in small print on the back of the box, this set is Region 2 LOCKED. You will need a region free player.)

STAGECOACH WEST 8-DVD Box Set with optional subtitles – Renown Films

To reiterate (third time I'm saying this), I spot checked and scanned all 38 hour episodes, and this is what I found:

35 episodes remastered from pristine 35mm film sources, with PAL speed-up coming in at 48:12 to 48:32 minutes running time, thus complete, and with almost all having the Four Star zooming logo at the end.

One episode, Blind Man's Bluff, guest starring James Drury, from a quality 35mm source, but without PAL and coming in at 50:20...

Two episodes derived from problematic Video Dupes: episode 15, The Brass Lilly, and episode 30, The Dead Don't Cry, slightly incomplete (approx. 46-47 minutes)...it's subjective, but only The Brass Lilly is to me, kind of terrible...but definitely watchable! The Dead Don't Cry, guest starring Mary Tyler Moore, is much better in PQ, more than just watchable quality! Both of these episodes is preceded by a notice that the "master could not be located".

English subtitles on all episodes. Chapter stops only at the beginning and end of each episode, not in the body of the episodes at commercial breaks and before end titles as I would prefer. Minor issue.

So, fully 36 out of the 38 episodes look great! Just check out my own screen captures taken directly from the DVDs that I posted on page one of this thread!

I ordered my set of Stagecoach West from Renown's website on February 27. They shipped it the next day and I received it here in Western Canada in about 10 days. I paid 25 pounds + 10.25 Shipping, Royal Air Mail 2nd class, $62.57 Canadian dollars all in, which was about $50 American when I purchased.

Ordered yesterday!

 

[DeWilson]

Regarding Richard Diamond, I corresponded with the folks at Talking Pictures some time ago. They have access to the Four Star catalogue, but this only includes season 4 of Richard Diamond (the NBC season, not the three previous CBS seasons). Of the 26 episodes of season 4, only 12 videotapes were in good enough shape to be digitized and aired:

4.01 The Hoodlum
4.02 Act Of Grace
4.06 No Laughing Matter
4.08 The Counselor
4.09 The Image
4.10 The Adjuster
4.11 Marked For Murder
4.15 Seven Swords
4.16 The Fine Art Of Murder
4.19 The Fallen Star
4.24 East Of Danger
4.26 The Mouse

I think it's safe to say the masters negatives are all safe and sound of all the Four-Star Shows, and they just don't want to spend the money (They pass that onto the broadcaster) to transfer the episodes.

But we do know several years ago for Canada new transfers (uncut) were done on Johnny Ringo, Black Saddle, Law of The Plainsman, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, and one or two others...

 

[Neil Brock]

Four Star did produce some very good shows. I would love to get a nice set of Target: The Corrupters, Saints and Sinners and The Dick Powell Show. Also The Detectives. Even some of the sitcoms, like McKeever and the Colonel and The Tom Ewell Show.

 

[DeWilson]

Always happy when I can get rid of my decades old off air records from 16mm prints and replace them with a nicely remastered DVD set.

Even with the 4% PAL speed up you'd prefer a PAL set over old off-air recorded episodes?

 

[Neil Brock]

Even with the 4% PAL speed up you'd prefer a PAL set over old off-air recorded episodes?

The PAL speedup doesn't really bother me as much as it does some people. What about the shows, like Combat, which are timesped for commercial time? I think the speedup there is greater than 4% as the shows come in at around 46 minutes. Not crazy about it but its better than removing content.

 

[jayembee]

I have a tropism for the Four Star shows. Stagecoach West is one that I've never seen. Looks good. I plan to order a copy.

Ordered this yesterday.

 

[Neil Brock]

The one western I would most like to see would be The Road West. Its in color and hasn't been seen in 50+ years as Universal never did anything with it, except for the 2-parter that they edited into a movie. Its the only regular TV series for the lovely Kathryn Hays and Brenda Scott, which makes it worthwhile right there.

 

[Neil Brock]

Regarding Richard Diamond, I corresponded with the folks at Talking Pictures some time ago. They have access to the Four Star catalogue, but this only includes season 4 of Richard Diamond (the NBC season, not the three previous CBS seasons). Of the 26 episodes of season 4, only 12 videotapes were in good enough shape to be digitized and aired:

4.01 The Hoodlum
4.02 Act Of Grace
4.06 No Laughing Matter
4.08 The Counselor
4.09 The Image
4.10 The Adjuster
4.11 Marked For Murder
4.15 Seven Swords
4.16 The Fine Art Of Murder
4.19 The Fallen Star
4.24 East Of Danger
4.26 The Mouse

I believe my RD episodes came from Bravo in the UK and I believe they did run them all. Have to check.
The first 3 CBS owned ones seem to be far more scarce.

 

[jayembee]

Four Star did produce some very good shows. I would love to get a nice set of Target: The Corrupters, Saints and Sinners and The Dick Powell Show. Also The Detectives. Even some of the sitcoms, like McKeever and the Colonel and The Tom Ewell Show.

It's rather weird that Renown is releasing this Four Star show, given that Four Star was absorbed by Fox, which has been absorbed by Mouse.

But then, I noticed in Randall's screencap of the copyright card it says it's copyrighted to "Four Star - Hilgarde (A Joint Venture)". Presumably Hilgarde retained ownership, keeping it out of FoxMouse's paws?

 

[rjd0309]

Four Star did produce some very good shows. I would love to get a nice set of Target: The Corrupters, Saints and Sinners and The Dick Powell Show. Also The Detectives. Even some of the sitcoms, like McKeever and the Colonel and The Tom Ewell Show.

In addition to Stagecoach West, Talking Pictures has been airing The Detectives and Target: The Corruptors for many months now. Perhaps you could prevail upon a Brit friend to record them for you. It would be great if Renown could release dvd sets as they did with Stagecoach West, but ownership issues might prevent this.

 

[Bryan^H]

Crying shame we can't get the rest of "Death Valley Days" on BD, or DVD. The entire run was on Starz awhile back and honestly it is so far the best looking HD remaster I have seen regarding classic western series. Simply beautiful!