Pert Kelton sketches

[treky]

I asked this once before, but I forget the answer: how comethe sketches with Pert Kelton as Alice aren't on DVD? I know some of them aren't avalible because a lot of the DUMONT "library" was, sadly, dumped into the river, but some are.
Also, those two "HONEYMOONERS" sketches that Jackie did in the early sixties with Sue Ann Langdon as Alice and someone else as Trixie. Also, that musical adoption sketch from 1965 or 66?

[Bill S.]

According to a 1993 article from the New York Times, there was a home video release planned for the Pert Kelton shows at one point:

Worldvision Enterprises, which owns the rights to the sketches, plans to release them on videocassette later this year and is exploring the possibility of a network or cable special.

That network/cable special more than likely turned into the three specials that aired on the Disney Channel in 1994, but for some reason the material never made it to VHS. According to Wikipedia, Worldvision Enterprises was sold to a company that merged with Viacom in 1999. While it's unlikely that Viacom is planning on releasing those sketches on DVD, there is a possibility that they may end up being a part of MPI's repackaged Lost Episodes collection. Not sure about the American Scene stuff though, someone told me a while back that Paul Brownstein was trying to get the entire series picked up, rather than just those three sketches.

Full New York Times Article Here (March, 1993)

[GQ28]

What about the trip to Europe 1957?

[TV Knowledge Fan]

....the 1957 "Trip To Europe" sketches (which were updated and expanded in 1966) exist, but most of them are in rough shape, due to improper storing of those kinescopes over the years- there's also a scratch line on the side of the film frames in several of them. I believe VIACOM and/or MPI are not willing to spend millions of dollars to restore just a few segments that wouldn't make a decent profit for them to justify the cost of releasing them on home video.

And yes, "THE AMERICAN SCENE MAGAZINE" hours also exist- and good luck to Paul Brownstein in trying to release them in any form!

[Bill S.]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

....the 1957 "Trip To Europe" sketches (which were updated and expanded in 1966) exist, but most of them are in rough shape, due to improper storing of those kinescopes over the years- there's also a scratch line on the side of the film frames in several of them. I believe VIACOM and/or MPI are not willing to spend millions of dollars to restore just a few segments that wouldn't make a decent profit for them to justify the cost of releasing them on home video.

An article posted on Variety.com last July mentioned that The UCLA Film & TV Archive was "working with 'Honeymooners' producers to restore 'lost' episodes." This was the first time since 2004 that there was any official word of such a project being worked on. A few months later, in October, the UCLA website announced the screening of three early Honeymooners sketches "restored by the UCLA Film & Television archive with funding provided by MPI Home Video." Why would MPI be funding such a restoration, other than for a DVD release? And seeing as how the original Trip to Europe shows were mentioned an awful lot around the time the first Color Honeymooners set came out, I'd say there's a pretty good chance they'd end up being part of such a collection, regardless of the quality...sketches like "Lawsuit" and "One Big Happy Family" were in a lot worse shape and they were released.