Our Miss Brooks in COLOR!

[Sal]

Here's proof that you can find almost anything on the Internet including episodes and clips of classic TV series that were thought to be lost or missing. A good example is "Our Miss Brooks" where, until recently, only a handful of public domain episodes were available online. Last year, I found a collection of over 60 additional episodes from a YouTube user. Today I found 5 more episodes on the Internet Archive --- and they are all in color!!

I'm not exactly sure how they ended up in color unless CBS used it and other series in the 1950s to experiment with color TV broadcasts which didn't become standard viewing until 1965. So what you are going to see is truly a piece of history. Enjoy it and prepare to be amazed!

Our Miss Brooks - Color - 5 episodes

[Hazel Anyday]

Thank you very much, this was great news and I like to think I'm "hep" to all the scoops on colorization. This is one I haven't heard, fantastic!

From the looks of it it seems to be examples of very early colorizing, probably from the mid to late 1980's. Looks similar to the old early Hal Roach colorizing efforts from the '80's. But though it's not nearly up to today's perfection in colorizing, it's still better than drab b/w.

Me TV showed most of the Our Miss Brooks episodes but they did skip about 3 to 4. Now about 6 months ago I did find a lot of Our Miss Brooks episodes on Youtube but quality of all was far below the Me TV quality. BUT, there was one episode on Youtube which was skipped by ME TV, so that one episode alone was worth watching on utube. If all Miss Brooks episodes are now gone from Utube, they were there once, is all I can tell you.

Now, here's another question for you. About 10 years ago Amazon advertised a Love That Bob DVD that was supposed to have contained about 3 or 4 colorized episodes. Naturally I ordered it, but was thoroughly regusted when I got the DVD and ALL of them were b/w. Ripoff city. Now maybe you can find out if there were ever any colorized episodes of Love That Bob. Now that would be exciting too.

Another disappointement MPI (or was it Shout?) had advertised on a Dobie Gillis disc that the "complete Love That Bob" series was coming "soon". That was several years ago and to date there has been no such miracle. Love That Bob is one series I would love to have complete, it makes me laugh everytime I watch an episode.

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

Thank you very much, this was great news and I like to think I'm "hep" to all the scoops on colorization. This is one I haven't heard, fantastic!

From the looks of it it seems to be examples of very early colorizing, probably from the mid to late 1980's. Looks similar to the old early Hal Roach colorizing efforts from the '80's. But though it's not nearly up to today's perfection in colorizing, it's still better than drab b/w.

Me TV showed most of the Our Miss Brooks episodes but they did skip about 3 to 4. Now about 6 months ago I did find a lot of Our Miss Brooks episodes on Youtube but quality of all was far below the Me TV quality. BUT, there was one episode on Youtube which was skipped by ME TV, so that one episode alone was worth watching on utube. If all Miss Brooks episodes are now gone from Utube, they were there once, is all I can tell you.

Now, here's another question for you. About 10 years ago Amazon advertised a Love That Bob DVD that was supposed to have contained about 3 or 4 colorized episodes. Naturally I ordered it, but was thoroughly regusted when I got the DVD and ALL of them were b/w. Ripoff city. Now maybe you can find out if there were ever any colorized episodes of Love That Bob. Now that would be exciting too.

Another disappointement MPI (or was it Shout?) had advertised on a Dobie Gillis disc that the "complete Love That Bob" series was coming "soon". That was several years ago and to date there has been no such miracle. Love That Bob is one series I would love to have complete, it makes me laugh everytime I watch an episode.

Happy for you as I know you’re a big fan of colorization.

[Sal]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

Thank you very much, this was great news and I like to think I'm "hep" to all the scoops on colorization. This is one I haven't heard, fantastic!

From the looks of it it seems to be examples of very early colorizing, probably from the mid to late 1980's. Looks similar to the old early Hal Roach colorizing efforts from the '80's. But though it's not nearly up to today's perfection in colorizing, it's still better than drab b/w.

Me TV showed most of the Our Miss Brooks episodes but they did skip about 3 to 4. Now about 6 months ago I did find a lot of Our Miss Brooks episodes on Youtube but quality of all was far below the Me TV quality. BUT, there was one episode on Youtube which was skipped by ME TV, so that one episode alone was worth watching on utube. If all Miss Brooks episodes are now gone from Utube, they were there once, is all I can tell you.

Now, here's another question for you. About 10 years ago Amazon advertised a Love That Bob DVD that was supposed to have contained about 3 or 4 colorized episodes. Naturally I ordered it, but was thoroughly regusted when I got the DVD and ALL of them were b/w. Ripoff city. Now maybe you can find out if there were ever any colorized episodes of Love That Bob. Now that would be exciting too.

Another disappointement MPI (or was it Shout?) had advertised on a Dobie Gillis disc that the "complete Love That Bob" series was coming "soon". That was several years ago and to date there has been no such miracle. Love That Bob is one series I would love to have complete, it makes me laugh everytime I watch an episode.

The "Our Miss Brooks" videos are still there. There are about 65 episodes in total:

Our Miss Brooks - YouTube

(Check out episode #10 "Buddy". I love the opening credits --- and the commercials too!)

Speaking of Bob Cummings, I love "Love That Bob" too but unlike "Our Miss Brooks" I haven't found any additional episodes other than the usual 10-20 that are already in the public domain and all of those are in black and white only. However, while I was looking for them, I did manage to see a color video showing the opening of his next series "My Living Doll". Take a look:

My Living Doll - Opening credits in color


The video is from a website called Pop-Colorture.com which is run by a classic TV fan who has colorized many TV sitcoms from the past such as "I Love Lucy", "The Munsters", and "The Addams Family" and has produced still photos and short video clips for each show. The site can be found here:

Pop Colorture

[Hazel Anyday]

Checked after my post and I see Brooks' on Utube are still there, I don't need them thanks to Me TV, but at least they're still available, even if they aren't the remastered versions ME TV ran. I'll check out Buddy there though, Me TV ran no original commerials.

As for Love That Bob, yep, same story here, I've found about 25 episodes though. But everywhere you go it's always those same 25 or so. That series ran a long time and had 100's of episodes, Shout or some company should get back on the stick and release the complete series, such a funny show.

Yes, I've seen that colorized Living Doll opening (I bought the commercial DVD release of Living Doll too, but they never came out with a volume 2 to complete the season. Love That Bob was a much better series anyway.) I've visited that Pop-Colorture website many times, what an absolute genius he is when it comes to colorizing. He's done the very best jobs that I've ever seen done. Even better than the current I Love Lucy colorizers. I also thought the Bewitched Seasons 1 & 2 DVDs looked fantastic colorized. But Pop-Colorture's work looks like it was all filmed in color originally.

My only problem with him is he only posts tiny little excerpts of his great color jobs, never complete episodes. Maybe he's trying to get someone to hire him to do this job right for a TV series official DVD release by teasing with these tiny excerpts (I wish he'd do My Favorite Martian or Dennis The Menace). More likely mindless copyright police would get after him if he ever posted a complete masterpiece color show.

So far no great TV series is available from him. What a shame, he could do a perfect job at colorizing great old TV sitcoms like the "Classic 39" of the Honeymooners or season 1 of Hazel. So many great things that could be happening right now but sadly aren't. Maybe if I live another 100 years I'll see this dream come true.

[stevea]

I remember watching reruns of Cummings' show years ago, it used to be widely syndicated. Very funny show. Some popular sitcoms stars from that era, Ann B. Davis, Rosemary De Camp, and Dwayne Hickman. It's owned by Universal--and certainly out of circulation. Bob was what they called a wolf back then, now he'd probably never get his show on the air.

Checked the colorture site--really like what he does--saw the Addams and Munsters clips and they look great.

[mcphert1]

Thanks for the heads up on the colour episodes. I love this show, and am glad that one of my favourite episodes 'The Hurricane' is one of the five colourised. Hi from Australia.

[Retro Vic]

Quite exciting to see “Our Miss Brooks” in living color!
I am quite the “Our Miss Brooks” fan. I like this show much more than “I Love Lucy”
I have really poor quality amateur DVDs of the show, & like to run a marathon of “Our Miss Brooks” on weekends in between the wasteland TV on Saturdays & Sunday’s. A shame & a tragedy that “Our Miss Brooks” hasn’t had a DVD release.

[DustyTrails]

Always nice to see Our Miss Brooks. I recently saw her guest star on a color show but I forgot what show it was. I also enjoy seeing the science teacher in Growing Pains playing the father and of course WKRP also has one of our favorites star as newsman. I am mistaken or is that granny from Beverly Hillbillies on OMB?

[Retro Vic]

Mrs. Davis was not Granny on BHB. She was a Lux radio performer, & played Mrs. Davis for both the radio show & TV as did Eve & Gale, except for the 1st radio broadcast of OMB Miss Brooks is HAZEL! LOL, Shirley Booth.

[DustyTrails]

Thank you, RetroVic! What a show OMB. I gotta say Stretch is my favorite character lol. I crack up when he comes on screen, his delivery and character depiction is one of my all time favorites but there are so many great characters and actors to choose from. Must say definitely like the first edition better before she changed schools and many of my fave characters went away �� What is your favorite episode?

[Retro Vic]

I like so many episodes, some that come to mind: the pawn shop one, the catty photographer one, the stolen antenna one, there really wasn’t a bad episode from the first 40. I also love to listen to “Our Miss Brooks” radio program in bed, with all of the Lustre Creme & Palmolive beauty soap commercials! I liked Stretch especially the way he said “Ms. Bwooks” I also loved little Harriet, Walter Denton, Mrs. Davis, Minerva, & mean Mr. Conkiln! The weakest character is Mr. Boynton. I am waiting to get some feedback on the newly released DVD. $35 is a bit steep, & they are divided into Volumes so $70 for 1 season! If they are edited, that would be a shame.

[DustyTrails]

Love it, thanks. I'm downloading some OMB radio shows to enjoy, never had the privilege until you gave me the idea. Very much looking forward to listening. I'm saving the Christmas tree episode for yule tide lol

[Sal]

Originally Posted by DustyTrails

Love it, thanks. I'm downloading some OMB radio shows to enjoy, never had the privilege until you gave me the idea. Very much looking forward to listening. I'm saving the Christmas tree episode for yule tide lol

If you would like to listen to the entire series on radio for free, you can do so here:


Our Miss Brooks - Radio Series

[jimmo]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

Thank you very much, this was great news and I like to think I'm "hep" to all the scoops on colorization. This is one I haven't heard, fantastic!

From the looks of it it seems to be examples of very early colorizing, probably from the mid to late 1980's. Looks similar to the old early Hal Roach colorizing efforts from the '80's. But though it's not nearly up to today's perfection in colorizing, it's still better than drab b/w.

Me TV showed most of the Our Miss Brooks episodes but they did skip about 3 to 4. Now about 6 months ago I did find a lot of Our Miss Brooks episodes on Youtube but quality of all was far below the Me TV quality. BUT, there was one episode on Youtube which was skipped by ME TV, so that one episode alone was worth watching on YouTube. If all Miss Brooks episodes are now gone from YouTube, they were there once, is all I can tell you.

Now, here's another question for you. About 10 years ago Amazon advertised a Love That Bob DVD that was supposed to have contained about 3 or 4 colorized episodes. Naturally I ordered it, but was thoroughly disgusted when I got the DVD and ALL of them were b/w. Ripoff city. Now maybe you can find out if there were ever any colorized episodes of Love That Bob. Now that would be exciting too.

Another disappointment MPI (or was it Shout [Factory]?) had advertised on a Dobie Gillis disc that the "complete Love That Bob" series was coming "soon". That was several years ago and to date there has been no such miracle. Love That Bob is one series I would love to have complete, it makes me laugh every time I watch an episode.

I have been trying to find the three other Christmas episodes of The Bob Cummings Show (syndication title Love That Bob) for a few years now. The Christmas episode of Love That Bob most commonly in circulation is "Grandpa's Christmas Visit, which is Episode 14 from Season 2 (December 22, 1955), which I already have. But I am seeking the following other Christmas episodes--Season 1, Episode 6 - "A Wife for Christmas" (February 6, 1955), Season 2, Episode 13 - "The Christmas Spirit" (December 15, 1955) and Season 4, Episode 13 - "Bob's Christmas Party" (December 24, 1957).

If anyone reading this has any of those Christmas episodes of The Bob Cummings Show/Love That Bob, I am open to a trade for some titles from my own video collection of films and TV episodes.

I am also trying to locate a second Christmas episode of Topper. The Christmas episode I already have of that series is Episode 12 from the first season, titled "A Christmas Carol" (December 25, 1953). I am seeking Season 2, Episode 24 - "Topper's Quiet Christmas" (December 24, 1954). Likewise, if anyone reading this has that second season Christmas episode of Topper, I am open to a trade for a title from my own video collection of films and TV episodes.

And while I have the lone Christmas episode of Bachelor Father, "Deck the Halls," which is the fourth episode of the series' fifth and final season, the file of it I have is very small, only of mobile quality (320 x 240), if even that. And also, unfortunately, after I tried to convert the file to make the image larger, it merely increased the already-thick black border surrounding the video image, leaving the resolution of the video image still too tiny to watch with much enjoyment. The other problem is that my copy of that episode is very bleached-out, the whiteness too bright and not enough contrast with the black.

If anyone reading this has a better copy of the "Deck the Halls" episode of Bachelor Father, I am open to a trade for something else from my vast video collection of films and TV episodes.

Really, it is a shame that none of these three TV series' (two of them very popular in their original prime time network runs) have ever been officially remastered and released on home video and/or for on demand streaming. And also, sadly, I really fear that with most of the Baby Boomers now facing mortality, the chances to see any more vintage TV series' released for home-viewing is next to nil from here on out.