If one show needs to be brought to DVD for completed season sets- B an A is it- This show is a classic!- I only know of it being on channel WMME in Chicago- (You lucky people).
What is the main contact or distributor that has the rights that we can write to to get this show released?? (And not public domain collections!!)

...."owns" the show. If they wanted to release it on DVD, there would have been a "demand" for it. In the '80s, they [rather, RCA/Columbia Home Video] released two episodes from the first filmed season (1952-'53) on videocassette {Sheldon Leonard guest starring in the first one, Jack Benny in the second}, complete with the original opening & closing titles, AND commercials (for B.F. Goodrich and "alternate sponsor" Carnation Milk). There were no follow-up volumes. What makes you think SONY is eager to issue box sets of a show that most people obviously have "no interest" in?

:livid:

I already know and have both of those volumes.
That was back in the early 80's- with the demand for classic TV what makes you think people would not want to have this series in collection sets?
There are alot of worse TV programs that have made it to DVD.

This show is not outdated and is still smart as the time it came out.

If the show was back on more and promoted for a new generation I think it has the potential of being a classic for these times.

It is historically one of the most significant shows of the early years of TV. If people today are not interested in B&A it is likely because it hasn't had much exposure on TV in recent years, and the few episodes that have been shown are from the first three seasons, generally not the best examples. It took the show till the fourth season to really gel, and some important and popular elements (such as George's magic TV, and Ronnie) didn't show up until the 6th 7th and 8th seasons. So the public hasn't had any chance to see the best episodes, and only half a chance to see even the un-polished earlier episodes. I believe there just aren't enough people who have seen the best the series has to offer, and until the show (especially the later seasons) is shown regularly on TV, there isn't much chance of enough demand for a dvd release.

Of course, in a more perfect world, one that recognized and honored artistic achievement and creativity and was not exclusively driven by 'the bottom line", we could expect the whole show on dvd, no problem.

Right now it airs on Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. on my local PBS station. They do intros and closings as they were (if they are edited, I can't tell it).

Right now it airs on Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. on my local PBS station. They do intros and closings as they were (if they are edited, I can't tell it).


Hey Jayman-
What are the call letters of the station and where is it located?

Didn't there son play on an eps on the Honeymooners called young at heart?:confused:

I have a VHS tape of a Christmas episode of the show that was done live in, I think, 1951 or 52. It's complete with a cast commercial for Carnation evaporated milk, and it even has a spot at the end with George, Gracie, & Harry Von Zell (the announcer) also pluging it.
I sent away for it from some mail-order company around 1984 or 85.

I remember, I also got 2 tapes of "The Jack Benny show" from the same company, that were also done live, in the 50s, and are also on kinescope.

Hi
yes I think the best episodes were the later years, especially with George's magic TV. However, I think the earlier ones were great too. There is no reason they shouldn't put the complete series on DVD.
Joe

Hi Jsummo - I wish there were more people like you, but unfortunately it looks like we're never going to get B&A season sets on DVD. You can see that this board doesn't get very much action, and I'm afraid that this may be indicative of the general public's indifference to the show. I cannot understand it - there is so much lousy television, even among classic era shows. To me B&A has all the qualities of a great sitcom: great writing, production and a really exceptional cast, plus one of the all-time memorable characters of radio, tv and film, Gracie. I don't really know but perhaps it may be a case of the show being too intellectual in its humor - you have to be somewhat intelligent to catch many of the jokes, and have to have a decent attention span to follow some of the plots. Today's viewers may be lacking in these characteristics...I don't really know what the problem is. I'm always hoping, but as time goes by, I think B&A is unfortunately more and more forgotten.

As you say, all the seasons are good, but my favorite episodes are mostly in the 4th and 5th seasons. Frederick de Cordova became producer and director at the start of the 4th season, and Larry Keating took over the role of Harry Morton. Fred Clark's brash, over-eating, slightly unethical real estate salesman Harry had its strong points, but I believe the new very different portrayal by Keating really helped bring the show to a new level of comedy. The stuffy intellectual accountant was a perfect foil to uneducated George, and many memorable plots and scenes resulted. Just about any occasion where Harry visited George in his den turned into a hilarious interaction between the two.

WCIU in the Chicago area is showing these episodes on Saturday nights currently. I wish I knew someone there to record them. We can only hope that the show causes a big sensation and the citizens of Chicago demand a DVD release....

yea; that's a shame that more people aren't interested in it and we'll probably never see season sets because of that. But, unfortunetaly, a lot of the other black and white sitcoms aren't shown anywhere anymore-exept for on TV LAND. Even I LOVE LUCY isn't shown anywhere else anymore.

But; back to B & A, I first discovered the show in the 70s when channel 11 in New York used to show it on weeknights, then I discovered it on radio in the 80s when a local radio station in our area (and a lot of other areas, too) used to play the old radio shows from the 30s, 40s and 50s (something else that noone ever does anymore, unfortunetaly). But, in recent years I haven't seen it anywhere. I saw a couple episodes a few years ago on the old SCREEN GEMS NETWORK.
Fortunetaly, I have some tapes of their radio show and a VHS tape of their Christmas, 1951 show.

I used to live in NY and saw it on WPIX (When there were true independent stations) and then it was also on CBN (The christian broadcast network) on cable before it became The family channel- they used to show nightly Burns and Allen, I married Joan, Jack Benny, and Groucho Marx- those were the days :)

At least thanks to Sirius satellite radio I can still hear the classsic radio broadcasts of Burns and Allen, My favorite husband, Life of Riley, Jack Benny and many more on there Radio Classics channel

Does anyone here know what was the total number of episodes that they made of the B&A Show? :confused:

Does anyone here know what was the total number of episodes that they made of the B&A Show? :confused:


291

291


Thanks for the info!

I've read that there is going to be an offical release of The Jack Benny Show on DVD. I don't recall where I read this, but if this is true (can anyone confirm?) then maybe a Burns and Allen set will happen afterall!

well, TV SHOWS ON DVD.COM says they haven't heard that.

Hi,

I have all but one of the filmed episodes of B&A...either from TV or Columbia House Home Video. I am missing the final show #291 The Exchange Student. Does anyone have a copy of this episode?

My email is caddykid60@msn.com

Thanks
Mike

This is one of the greats of the '50's. There is no demand for it because, progressively, fewer and fewer people even know about it. I agree the later seasons are better. The plots become more interesting with the magin TV in the den. The writing is phenomenal!

So if perhaps a 'best of' were released, with a few episodes, very cheaply priced, maybe some interest would be generated.

If Sony doesn't do anything with these shows (others are Father Knows Best, Donna Reed, and Dennis the Menace) they should let them go Public Domain so someone could do legit releases on them.

The only half-decent DVD releases I've seen are distributed by a company called Delta. I have 2 volumes, but each only has 4 episodes each...these are earlier shows transfered from kinescopes. I have several VHS volumes on a label called Concord, which are also episodes from seasons 1, 2, 3--all from kinescope and not in order, and unfortunately not nearly all of them. I also hung onto my VHS copies of Columbia & Rhino releases of a few later season episodes, transfered from film.

I wonder if the rights to this program lapsed and fell into public domain?? I have seen a few low-budget DVD compilations on less reputable labels such as goodtimes video (avoid this company--their mastering & tansfering is usually very poor). I would assume that after George Burns died, that his son Ronnie would have inherited rights to these properties, but McCadden Productions may have been sold to one of the big studios, and who knows which vault the originals are mouldering in!

Hopefully, they still exist, they are safe and some studio or DVD company will have the brains to put all the episodes together in season by season volumes. And it's quite a collection too...B & A show ran 1950-1958!!

I'll try to do some research to see where the rights to this great series went...find out if one of the bigger studios owns them and then inquire about it to their marketing dept. In theory, it shouldn't be too hard...once I find out where the films are, the marketing people are usually quite responsive to consumer questions, etc. I've had good
experiences dealing with Universal Home Entertainment's people.
If I uncover anything...I'll post the news here!
Say Goodnight, Gracie...
TVguyd

I could be wrong but I thought Sony/Columbia own the rights now- I have sent an email to Sony last year and they said it was not on the planned schedule.

George Burns sold the rights to the filmed (1952-'58) episodes to Screen Gems/Columbia, and they began syndicating them to local stations in the fall of 1958. Today, SONY {who, of course, owns Columbia and its film and TV libraries} owns the series, and they're really not interested in releasing them on home video. Someone would have to be a BIG fan of George & Gracie to force them to do this.....

:tv:

.... In the '80s, they [rather, RCA/Columbia Home Video] released two episodes from the first filmed season (1952-'53) on videocassette {Sheldon Leonard guest starring in the first one, Jack Benny in the second}, complete with the original opening & closing titles, AND commercials (for B.F. Goodrich and "alternate sponsor" Carnation Milk). There were no follow-up volumes.

Actually, for a while in the early 90s, the Columbia House Video Club *did* make Burns And Allen available on VHS with three episodes to a tape of shows from the 52-53 and early part of the 53-54 seasons in absolutely beautiful looking pristine quality prints, and most of them *also* left the Goodrich/Carnation ads intact (some of the earlier releases did not retain the ads). I ended up with 45 episodes covering Seasons 3 and 4 all told on 15 tapes before Columbia stopped issuing them through the club and they remain a treasured possession of mine.

hey guys,

i too join in with your admiration for this show. What a classic. While i do not condone or think that "pirating" is right by any means have you checked ioffer.com I was on there last night actually and came across B&A show. Like i said, i do not think that bootlegging is right, but i am afraid that these shows will soon be lost....forever. So until we do/if we do get official releases of the great classics, you may want to check it out.

http://www.ioffer.com/i/THE-BURNS-AND-ALLEN-SHOW-19-DVD-Set-RARE-30233366

Thanks for the link-
I did purchase the 125 episodes through Ioffer.com- Most are very good quality and there are some that are public domain episodes- but for the price you can't beat at least seeing some more classic episodes. Most the episodes are taped from CBN (Remember this channel in the 80's- before it was destroyed by Family channel and now ABC family)
If anyone that has the complete B@A available to make copies on DVD- I am willing to purchase from you (It does not look like anytime soon that the collection will be released and I gave up on TV Land. PM me and let me know
Thnx