Sunday, June 11, 2006

Television, DVD's, country programs, and TV Land

Well, this may be sorta lengthy, but it appears that the only ones reading this besides me are maybe Hannah and a few others from Worthy, lol, so no big concern for boring anyone!


Friday night when I went by Wal-Mart, I bought a show on DVD I have not seen in years-The White Shadow I can remember this being on when I was a kid and my dad was hooked, lol, and I watched it with him. I snagged up the first season and plan on buying season #2 as well. So I'm wondering if this show, or any other show for that matter, is popular enough to be out on DVD why doesn't it receive air time on some network on TV? I can think of so many shows that were on when I was kid, or that I've heard my parents talk about, that simply no longer make the cut on TV anymore. I think I've dealt in a previous blog about the junk on TV these days, but seriously, why not show some of these older shows again-I think they would find an audience.


The 2nd show I'm dying to see come out on DVD is Hee-Haw. I know certain episodes of it have made it out, but Time-Life is simply putting one or two episodes on a DVD while other shows are seeing whole seasons being released. Come on, this show was popular enough to run for over 20 years, most of those in syndication, and even ran in reruns on TNN for a few years. Some of my fondest memories are on Saturday sitting down and watching it with my parents, and even after they got tired of it by the late 80's, I still watched it! It came on at 6:00 PM on a couple of channels but was then rebroadcast later on by another station, WBBJ ch. 7, at midnight or so. And since we're on the subject of country music variety shows, I want to give kudos to RFD-TV for picking up The Porter Wagoner Show , The Wilburn Brothers Show, Nashville On The Road, Billy Walker's Country Carnival and Pop Goes The Country. Most of these I don't remember except for the last one, but being a fan of both older TV and older country music, it suits me just fine!!! I'd love to see someone pick up some of the other older country variety shows such as the ones hosted by Buck Owens, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and others.


Now on to an unfavorite subject-TV Land. It's came from being a promising network to being almost a joke IMHO. Some years ago when it premiered I noticed first thing they were showing butchered episodes that were edited and/or time compressed. Here we have this big cable network that's supposed to be designed to preserve TV's historic shows and they're showing butchered and/or time compressed shows! What a farce! I've also began to notice that the same episodes are being shown several times in a day. Furthermore, I've also noticed that even the staples of Western themed TV, Bonanza and Gunsmoke simply have the same shows repeated over and over ad nauseum. For starters, I've never once seen the later episodes of Bonanza on TV Land. In it's final seasons, Michael Landon began to take on the appearance of "Pa" from Little House with his hair growing bushy and gray, Hoss was gone, but still the show continued to be good. For that matter, I'm not sure I've even seen any of the episodes after Adam (Pernell Roberts) left the show and was replaced by the hired hand, Candy. As for Gunsmoke, if my memory serves me correctly, it started out as a 30 minute show entitled Marshall Dillon that later turned into what we know as Gunsmoke. Many of the shows were in black and white, but yet all I ever see on TV Land are the later episoes that were in color (which aren't bad) and seemed almost formulaic to the point of being boring. Kudos to The Western Channel for picking up the black and white episodes for awhile and kudos to Hallmark Channel for picking up the later episodes of Bonanza.


Speaking of butchering, Viacom never has answered my e-mail as to why they see fit to butcher shows via the chopping block! Most of the older shows that they syndicate have several minutes removed from each episode. I understand this gives more commercial time, but come on, you lose the integrity of the show IMO by doing this. At the very least, offer the unedited shows to the stations for a little higher price or something. I e-mailed WGN who airs The Beverly Hillbillies each morning and asked them if they could show the unedited shows and I was sent a nice e-mail explaining that the original shows were not available to them any longer! Come on, someone, put this show on DVD! Jed and all his kin have never lost their popularity, even to this day!!! Put out a nice collection of DVD's featuring the original, unedited shows, throw in cast interviews with Max Baer, Jr., Donna Douglas, and other surviving cast members, throw in some of the original commercials that were hosted by the actors, etc. and you would have a money maker!


Now as for the other shows I'd like to see on DVD:

Goodnight Beantown (a Bill Bixby flop, lol!)

BJ and the Bear/Lobo

Barnbaby Jones

The Incredible Hulk

My Three Sons

Old episodes of game shows like The Price Is Right, etc.

She's The Sheriff

Gomer Pyle USMC

Enos (spin-off from The Dukes of Hazzard)