FORTHCOMING & RECENT RELEASES

First topic message reminder :

Apologies for not updating the TV western threads for a while, due to lack of time rather than lack of enthusiasm. Hope to catch up shortly.

Meantime this thread will note recent & forthcoming releases in the TV western field.

RECENT RELEASES

Laramie - Season 2 - Timeless
Overland Trail - Complete series - Timeless
Cimarron City - Complete series - Timeless
The Virginian- Season 6 - Timeless
Wagon Train - Season 5 - Timeless
Fury - Season 1 - (UK Region 2 only) -Network Re-release

FORTHCOMING RELEASES

Riverboat - Complete Series - May 15 - Timeless
Maverick - Season 1 -May 29 - Warners
Bonanza - Season 3 - Vols 1 & 2 - Jul 17 - CBS/Paramount
Yancy Derringer - Complete Series - Aug 7 - Timeless

The following have yet to be confirmed but should be announced shortly. Seems CBS are fast tracking some of their releases, maybe they have twigged we aren't getting any younger.However, in future some of their material will be available on line only, so don't look for it in brick & mortar stores.

From CBS/Paramount

Rawhide S5 Vols 1 & 2 (Sept.)
Bonanza S4 Vols 1 & 2 (Oct)
Bonanaza S5 Vols 1 &2 (Feb 2013)
Gunsmoke S6 Vol 1 (Aug)
Gunsmoke S6 Vol 2 (Oct)
Gunsmoke S7 Vol 1 (Dec) -1st of 1 hour series.
Gunsmoke S7 Vol 2 (Feb 2013)

I also hear Timeless are working on a deal which will bring some further long lost shows to DVD. More info shortly.

Forthcoming & recent

Gunsmoke S10 - Vols 1 & 2 - August - ridiculously overpriced at $42 per volume at Amazon.
$33 per volume at Amazon Canada.

Sugarfoot 3 from Warners - released

Barbary Coast  - released.

Bonanza 7 - 2 volumes - Sept 2

Bronco Season 1 Jul 29 from Warners

How the West Was Won S2 - Released

Zane Grey Theatre 2 (or theater as you yanks have it ! ) - October from Timeless- $27.98 from Amazon US - !$16.99 - from Amazon Canada.

Big Valley S 4 from Timeless -October 

Annie Oakley - - Complete Series from VCI - October.

Hi ya Chris --- Thanks for the update. I have Zane Grey Theatre Season 2 on pre-order on Amazon.

Not much new to report, real slowdown in releases.

Gunsmoke S11 (last of the black & whites) in Dec. -
(Just to blow my own horn I revealed this in an earlier post in October 13 last year- first with the info on this forum guys !). 

As previously mentioned Annie Oakley - complete series of 81 episodes in October from VCI.
These appear to be the prints held by the daughter of Gail Davis, so should be decent quality.

Nothing else new at the moment, though Timeless still say they will release 'The Rebel', also some more 'Tales of Wells Fargo' & the mid sixties colour series 'Shane' along with S3 OF 'Zane Grey Theater'. No dates yet.

Hi Chris,
According to Classicflix season 3 of Zane Grey Theatre is being released on December 2nd. The same day as Gunsmoke season 11.Bronc.

I bought about half the Annie Oakley's from Gail Davis' daughter a few years ago...the quality of those are very good. I have season two of Zane Grey on pre-order so look forward to season three. Also already have Shane from someone on Ioffer but would like to upgrade those as that was a good show too.

TV Western releases for 2015.

Not much to report at the moment.

As already mentioned Timeless will release 'Shane' in March. We should finally see 'The Rebel' in 2015 if they can clear a few legal matters.

CBS will put out 'Bonanza' S8 in June but we have to wait till December for Gunsmoke S12, the first colour season.

Warners will be releasing 'The Dakotas' - no date yet .They had to to go back to the original negatives for several episodes.

Other probables this year & these are strictly guesses -

The final two seasons of 'Bronco'. They apparently have almost cleared all the music rights for 'Lawman' 'Colt 45' & 'Hondo' so they may come out.

I would expect Timeless to issue Seasons 4 & 5 of 'Zane Grey Theatre'.

Not sure if we will see much else. A lot of the other series such as 'The Loner' 'Broken Arrow' & others are owned by 20th Century Fox who have zero interest in doing anything with their old series. I think they also control the 4 Star series 'Black Saddle, Johnny Ringo,' Law of the Plainsman' etc. I know the UK rights are owned by a company called Renown but they told me they won't be putting them out.

Howdy Chris!!

Well, it's good to hear about the release of The Dakotas and finally a release of the great John Russell series, Lawman. Will be looking forward to their release. Thanks for posting the info, Chris.

Ed

Thanks Chris---looking forward to Lawman & Colt 45. Do you know if the old black and white Death Valley  Days will ever be released. I know they have been restored and hope they release those...would love to see them again after nearly 60 years.
   Oh...I just saw on another post that there are no plans to release these on dvd....that is a shame.

I wouldn't say never for 'Death Valley Days', not sure who would put it out though. The rumour that is was coming out on DVD was just guesswork from someone which had no substance.I understand Encore are showing it from Season 9.

Because something gets remastered doesn't necessarily mean a DVD release is imminent.
CBS have remastered 'The High Chapparal' but there are no plans to release it as far as I know.It is not on their release schedule for 2015. Curious, as it is out in Germany, Australia & the Netherlands. Interestingly, they are also remastering 'Trackdown' so who knows.

'Man Called Shenadoah' was apparently streamed by Warners recently,uncut versions. I am not aware of any official forthcoming DVD release but it is now available on the 'alternate' market in decent quality.

Chris --- Do you know if Season Three of How the West was Won is due for DVD release in USA.

Chris:  Did you read my post of Jan 7 on the Encore/Western Channel thread concerning Death Valley Days?  You mention somebody had rumored it was coming out on DVD and it was guesswork that had no substance.  Curious about that comment and where it came from.  Bullfrog Bill

Hi Tom, Bullfrogb

'How the West was Won' S3. I have no definite information on this. My guess,and it is just a guess, is probably as they have released the first two seasons.Might go MOD though.

'Death Valley Days'. I believe the DVD rumour started on the Home Theater forum.When it was announced that it was being remastered, some hopeful immediately interpreted this to mean a DVD release was imminent & it spread from there. The remastering appears to have been done so it could be shown on Encore westerns. It may well come out on DVD , but to my knowledge no company has announced any plans to acquire it at present.

On a brighter note, 'Bronco S3' has been confirmed for Feb 8th by Warners & 'The Life & Legend of Wyatt Earp' seasons 3 through 6 has now been released in MOD format by Inception Media  & is available at Amazon, bit pricey though.

There is a possibilty the 'Wichita Town' with Joel McCrea may be released by SFM. There are some legal issues to be sorted out, so it may be a while but it is on their radar.

Hi Pards,

I was just informed about this DVD release. I guess it was released in March 24, 2015. 

Lonesome Dove Church
Tom Berenger (Actor), Bruce Blain (Actor)

http://www.amazon.com/Lonesome-Dove-Church-Tom-Berenger/dp/B00S4YGVWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427837656&sr=8-1&keywords=lonesome+dove+church

Howdy Sandy!!

I saw the Lonesome Dove Church dvd at Walmart's Monday and picked it up to see what it was about. It has nothing to do with the original series, but is about the pioneer, who helped establish the first church in Lonesome Dove. I can only assume it's about a gunfighting preacher sorta like The Gun And The Pulpit or Heaven With A Gun.

Ed

Lawman Series 2 will be released by Warners on Aug 25th.

It appears Zane Grey Theatre has been dropped by Timeless due to weak sales.
DVD sales are down everywhere and even CBS may not now release Gunsmoke S12 which was sceduled for December.

On a brighter note Timeless have acquired 'Death Valley Days' & I believe actually are starting with Season 1.

Howdy Chris!!

That's great news about Death Valley Days. Hope they don't do it like The Rifleman series. They're on sale at Walmart for 18.00 per half season and 36.00 per season. Think I'll wait for a while until the price becomes a little more reasonable. That's close to 200.00 for the complete series.

Ed

Too bad about Zane Grey Theatre----was looking forward to the next season. Death Valley Days starting from Season One sounds promising though. Have you heard any rumors about the last season of How the West was Won---know that isn't Timeless, but just wondering because my brother's two episodes he wrote would be on that.

Howdy Pards!!

I remember Chris talking about the release of this great ole series last year, but I hadn't heard or seen anything else about it until yesterday at Walmart. The 1st season, including all 36 episodes were on sale there for 14.95. This series debuted in 1959 and ran through 1961. It is produced by Andrew Fenady and created by both Nick Adams and Fenady. It is put out by Shout, which I understand bought out Timeless Media. The dvds start off with the Timeless Media logo, so I think these were done by Timeless before the buyout. The  introduction says that the episodes were taken from "16 mm prints", which were the ole 16mm films shipped out to the C.B.S. affiliate tv stations back in the 50's. The series starred Nick Adams as former Confederate soldier Johnny Yuma and took place starting with the year 1867, 2 years after the Civil Wars end. The very 1st episode is titled Johnny Yuma and stars Dan Blocker before he became "Hoss" on Bonanza, along with probably the best supporting actor ever, Strother Martin as the Deputy, Jeannette Nolan and the great John Carradine. They must have came to an agreement about the original theme song by Johnny Cash, as it is included with these episodes. As the introduction states, "there may be some blemishes in both video and audio". I perused 2 episodes and although it is obvious these episodes have not been digitally remastered, they are still very good, so Timeless must have gotten their hands on some very good "prints". The 2 episodes I watched were very clear, except for a little darkening by age and it only seemed noticeable in the evening scenes. The list of guest stars on this ole series reads like a "who's who" of actors in Hollywood during that era. Even if you're not interested in events in the west after the Civil War, this series is still fantastic because of all the great guest stars. The very 1st episode explains where Johnny Yuma acquired the revolver and holster and the sawed off double barreled shotgun he carried throughout the series. This is a great series to add to your collection of t.v. westerns!!!!

Ed

Shout hasn't changed the Timeless name. Why mess with something that works.

As I expected the takeover of Timeless by Shout has not been good news for fans of old western series or vintage TV in general.


Ed is correct that 'The Rebel' was acquired by Timeless before the Shout takeover.


I know they were also hoping to obtain 'The Gray Ghost' & 'Casey Jones' just prior to the 'merger' but this fell by the wayside. Shout now call the shots & old western series don't figure in their remit. They have said they would like to concentrate on more recent shows. i.e. 80's onwards.


With CBS withdrawing from vintage releases , Fox not (never have been) interested in their back catalogue & very few smaller outfits to fill the gap I will be very surprised if we see any more western series released. Still have Warners thankfully but I wonder for how long.

Chris

Howdy Chris!!

That's hard news pard!! I guess we've been fortunate to have seen as many of our ole favorite western t.v. series released to dvd as we have.  I haven't heard anything about the release of High Chaparral, Black Saddle, Frontier Doctor, Hec Ramsey, Outlaws, Stagecoach West, The Westerner and many more I would like to see remastered and released to dvd. I think we lost a fellow western buff, when Shout bought out Timeless Media from Norm Andersen.

Ed

Bronco

High Chaparral has been released in Germany, Austalia & a couple of other places. Not in US or UK though. It still plays here on TV a lot.

 'Black Saddle' 'Stagecoach West' have both played here in recent months as well. Those two, along with 'The Westerner' are controlled by Fox so not much chance of DVD release. In the UK the rights are owned by Renown films, but as they never played here originally & the cost of releasing them is so high due to BBFC certification they won't happening on DVD.

Not sure who owns 'Hec Ramsey', 'Frontier Doctor' is public domain. Most episodes can be picked up on Alpha releases. Timeless did schedule 'Outlaws' but I believe ran into element problems.

A friend sent me this e-mail: "Find BONE TOMAHAWK w/ Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins and others. Excellent...but ultra violent last half hour. The direction, acting, writing by a novice director overcomes the bloodletting. This could wind up being a cult western film. Opened in select theatres this past Friday...and I caught it on my Direct TV Pay. Should hit Redbox and video stores soon."
That was a from a friend who loves westerns. I have not seen it so can't give an opinion but since this is a new western I thought I would share this. Tom.

Tom,
Could Bone Tomahawk be the remake of Man in the Wilderness??
Davy,westernnut.

Howdy Davy!!

Man In The Wilderness was based on the true exploits of a trapper and explorer named Hugh Glass. He along with other men were exploring the upper Missouri River in 1823, when Glass was attacked and mauled by a female Grizzly bear with cubs. The leader of the group. a man named Ashley left 2 men with Glass to assist and or bury him. One of the men was none other than a very young Jim Bridger. After being attacked again by Indians, BOTH Bridger and his accomplice deserted Glass and left him to die. After rejoining Ashley and the group, they reported that Glass had died. Glass survived and his arduous trek back to civilization with a broken leg and wounds on his back so bad, that his ribs were exposed became legend. Glass later found Bridger, but didn't kill him because of his youth. He also didn't kill the other fella, whom he later found. I  believe his name was Fitzsimmons. This is the legend that Man In The Wilderness starring Richard Harris was based on and according to the trailer for The Revenant,  starring Leonardo Dicaprio, it too was based on a true story. Most probably the same!!!

P.S.


 I've seen many films about pursuing Indians, who had kidnapped whites, including True Women, Day Of The Evil Gun and others, but I don't remember any in which the Indians were called "Troglodytes" or were about a tribe that didn't even have a native tongue as in Bone Tomahawk.

Ed

Davy---No, the Man in the Wilderness remake stars Leonardo diCaprio and is due out in January. Bone Tomahawk stars Kurt Russell as a sheriff who leads a posse of sorts out after some really bad dudes that, among their other travesties, are brutal  cannibals. I read more on IMDB on reviews and the one I read said it is good but at the end gets very violent. says it is sort vof a western horror film. also says it takes time to get to know the members of the posse with good characterizations. Again, I have not seen it. It is getting limited release at the movies (not in our area) but is available on Amazon prime to rent and watch. We leave day after tomorrow for Utah so don't have time for it at this time. Tonight we watch an episode of The Virginian with Andy Devine, Pat O'Brien and Stuart Erwin that will probably be more to my liking.

Davey, The 'remake' of Man in the Wilderness is titled The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Hi Gang,
I saw BONE TOMAHAWK last night and really enjoyed it. The most unbelievable thing is that they could have made a Western of this quality for under 2 million dollars.
Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins are magnificent and Patrick Wilson and Matthew Fox don't exactly let the side down either.It is gory in places, mainly towards the end, but please don't let that put you off seeing a great film.Looking forward to the DVD release. Bronc.

So, if Disney had given this director the $250 million they spent on The Lone Ranger, he could have made 125 movies. No wonder they didn't make the numbers they wanted.