Batman - Not so eager for the DVDs anymore

For the past few weeks, I've been DVR-ing and watching Batman episodes that are being shown late-night on the Hub channel. Although I have the 1966 Batman movie, and have watched it several times, I may have only seen 1 or 2 of the TV episodes in the years since gluing myself to the TV as a child in 1966 for every episode.

So far, I've seen a 2-parter for each of the main villains, plus Mr Freeze, False Face, and Bookworm (Roddy McDowell). Along the way, Dick/Robin has picked up many a life lesson from Bruce/Batman, like wearing your Bat-safety belt (so the Batmobile will start) and staying current with your foreign-language studies (so Robin will know that the "Chat Company" is really Catwoman's lair). Also, I don't remember the Batmobile having a laser-like Bat-ray that can cut through walls.

Yes, this show is ridiculous nonsense, but like a train wreck, I cannot make myself turn it off. One thing I do know, is that I no longer have a hankering to buy this stuff on DVD (if it ever comes out).


Now, when is the Car 54 Where Are You? DVD hitting the stores?


January 2011 edit: Correction to the next-to-last paragraph. Last month, I have watched Batman for the last time! I saw an episode featuring Cliff Robertson as the villain "Shame" (A western-themed travesty with all the classic western cliches, including many quotes from, and references to the movie "Shane", I suspect) that was so utterly ridiculous (even by Batman standards) that I can't watch this drivel ever again.
.

Tumbleweeds are in season

Are these tumbleweeds blowing through:

a) the set of a Classic TV western such as Gunsmoke or Cheyenne?

or

b) JEFJR's Classic TV Blog (a/k/a the set of Death Valley Days)?


Is anybody there?

Mister Ed hangs two?

And they busted on Fonzie for "jumping the shark"!

Who starred in multiple Classic TV shows?

A few days ago I was reading about the death of actor Pernell Roberts on IMDb. He was the last surviving member of the "Bonanza" cast. (Ironically, he was the first to leave the show.) Roberts later starred in "Trapper John, MD", a series about the post-war medical practice of MASH doctor Trapper John McIntyre. Could this be considered a true spin-off of MASH? If so, this may be the only time the same actor wasn't used to portray the character in the 2nd show (unlike Frasier, The Jeffersons, etc).


Anyway, it got me to thinking "What actors starred in multiple Classic TV shows?" (By "starred", I mean in the regular or recurring cast, not a guest-starring role.)

The most well-known would be Lucille Ball. She was in "I Love Lucy", "The Lucy Show", and "Here's Lucy". (Then again, were these really three different shows, or just a remix of the same theme?)

The first one that came to me was Sally Field. She was the title character in both "Gidget" and "The Flying Nun", before going on to a film career.

Fred Gwynne played one of the 2 main cops in "Car 54 Where Are You?", then starred as Herman Munster in "The Munsters".

One that crossed 2 decades was Bob Denver. After playing Maynard G. Krebbs ("the G stands for Walter") in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", he of course went on to play Gilligan.

If we wanted to stretch the boundaries of the Classic TV era, we could also consider Larry Hagman, who played Jeannie's master Major Tony Nelson in "I Dream of Jeannie", before playing the completely different J.R. Ewing in "Dallas". I could also go on about Ron Howard and Don Knotts, but I'm not going to mention any of these 3, so as not to incur the wrath of you-know-who.


In the co-star category, a few stand out:

Gale Gordon appeared in "Dennis the Menace" as John Wilson, the replacement 'Mister Wilson' (presumably after Dennis wore out the first one!) Later he was in "The Lucy Show" as Mr. Mooney, Lucy Carmichael's windbag of a boss.

William Frawley was in "I Love Lucy" as neighbor Fred Mertz, and later played Bub in "My Three Sons".

Speaking of the Mertzes, Vivian Vance played Fred's wife Ethel, then essentially repeated the same role in the other Lucille Ball shows as Vivian.

William Schallert is probably best known as Martin Lane, Patty's father in "The Patty Duke Show". He was also one of Dobie Gillis' teachers. I don't know what other TV shows he was in, but he's just the type that would appear as a storekeeper in "Leave it to Beaver", or some such part.

Ann B. Davis was Bob Cummings' gal Friday in "Love That Bob", but is better known as Alice in "The Brady Bunch".

Richard Deacon played essentially the same role (pompous bore) as Fred Rutherford in "Leave it to Beaver" and as Mel Cooley in "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

Don DeFore was Ozzie Nelson's neighbor Thorny Thornapple, and also Hazel's boss 'Mister B' in "Hazel".

One that is probably all but forgotten is Angela Cartwright. She played the younger daughter in both "Make Room for Daddy" and "Lost in Space".


I'm sure there are others, but I was doing this post off the top of my head, and also wanted to leave something for others to comment on.

IMDb Television Boards

Well.....it seems our pal JEFJR has finally gotten through to the powers that be over at IMDb. They have cordoned off the area of TV into sections of years now!! There are now SEPERATE boards for Television from 1940's, 1950's, 1960's....etc etc.

Good for them, and I hope the experiment works!! I already posted on the 1940's board, and first I might add, about the original Life of Riley from 1949.

I've seen a few of the episodes from that year and am always happy to see JACKIE GLEASON as Riley.....although for me, growing up as a kid watching re-runs in the 60's, William Bendix will always be my true Riley.

So, here's to IMDb for doing something right!!! Let's hope it doesn't hinder this Blog of Jefjr's!!

Well now, isn't that just dandy!

Less than 24 hours after I sent the message below to the IMDb help desk, they have split up the Classic TV board into 7 different boards - one per decade. Who knew the inertia of IMDb could reverse direction that quickly? (I wonder if this blog is moot now?)


Now that it's a new decade, it's long past the time when you need to split up the Classic TV board.

Please divide this into 3 boards: 40s to 60s, 70s & 80s, and 90s to 00s. The amount of (what we old-timers consider to be) garbage about TV shows from the 1990s and 1980s that clutters this "Classic" board makes it intolerable to browse for what we consider to be classics.

I realize that each age group is going to have its own definition of "classic", which is why it's time for IMDb to retire that label and use decades, like I specified above. This way, the kiddies that want to foam over "Friends" or "Melrose Place" can do so with like-minded board readers, while the older set can chatter about "Leave it to Beaver" or "Bonanza". People can then visit the boards of their liking, and stay away from boards they consider to be "too old" or "too recent".

What do you think?

"Excuse me, I'm NOT speaking jive anymore!"

Now I see why these companies stopped dragging their feet on the Leave it to Beaver DVDs!

Dobie Gillis

Dobie's probably wondering "Why is every other TV show from the 1950s and 1960s available on DVD except mine and Adam West's?" (Yes, Dennis the Menace too, but Dobie probably feels he's above that lovable runt.)

Last year, I bought the entire series on DVD-R from ioffer.com. Most of the episodes are of good quality, but I'd still like them to put out an official release, with commentary by Dobie and whoever else is available. I'd buy at least 1 season.

I think I may do that with the Patty Duke Show, now that it's available also. (I previously got that whole series on DVD-R. The quality's not as good as the Dobie Discs.)

Where's the Dennis the Menace DVD?

In the past few years (since the Leave it to Beaver drought started), we've seen the release of two Donna Reed seasons, four seasons of Father Knows Best, a few volumes of My Three Sons, and also season 1 of Patty Duke and Room 222.

Where's Dennis?!?

Leave it to Beaver

Recently, it was noted on IMDb that Shout Factory will be releasing the complete set of all seasons of LITB episodes in June 2010. At the same time, they are releasing season 3 separately.

Announcement on TV Shows On DVD website

Since I already have seasons 1 and 2, I'm wondering if seasons 4, 5, and 6 will also be available separately. I went on Amazon.com, but this set is not available for pre-order yet. (I hope this isn’t a false alarm.)