Anniversary and announcements

Today over at the Radio Spirits blog, we serve up hefty portions of cake and ice cream to celebrate the 76th anniversary of The Chase and Sanborn Hour…which premiered on this date in 1937.  We are talking big-time radio here, cartooners—a full hour of entertainment with singer Nelson Eddy, the lovely Dorothy Lamour, actor Don Ameche (Don would sing a little, too, when called upon) and The Great Man himself, W.C. Fields.  But little by little, these headliners would abandon the program (okay…not entirely true—Ameche resurfaced on the show in the 1940s as an announcer and actor-comedian-singer) because the true stars of the show (at least in terms of audience approval) were a ventriloquist named Edgar Bergen…and his smart-assed dummy, Charlie McCarthy.  (Not to slight Mortimer Snerd or Effie Klinker…but they came later.)

With that out of the way, I have a few TV-on-DVD announcements to run by you, beginning with the news that CBS DVD-Paramount will be closing the franchise known as Perry Mason on soon with the release of Volume 2 of the ninth season.  The pre-order listing over at Amazon is a little fuzzy on the exact date of release, but the SRP pricing will be a low, low $45.98, he said with unbridled sarcasm.  (Volume 1 is still scheduled to be released on June 11.)

Gunsmoke fans (holy smoke…that’s meeeeee…) will be excited to hear that the ninth season of the venerable boob tube oater will be released soon…though their enthusiasm might be tempered by the fact that like Perry Mason, a) Season Nine will be split into two volumes at $44.99 SRP each and b) no definite release date has yet been decided either.  I guess there is a slight silver lining in that both volumes will be made available at the same time…so cheer yourself with that news while you’re plunking down ninety simolians for two sets (if you haven’t price compared online, that is).

I’ll say this for the Warner Archive, though: they may be caught up in the same split season crapola but their newest release from two weeks ago (April 30), the third season of Eight is Enough, is sold at a single price of $49.95 SRP.  Truth be told, I was never a big fan of the show (sister Kat, on the other hand, thought it was all that and a bag of chips) so I probably won’t make any overtures toward purchasing it—but I thought I’d throw in a mention of it for those interested.

In the cold-cereal-and-footy-pajamas department, the Archive released yesterday (May 7) the first of what appears to be several volumes of cartoons from the 1960s made-for-TV version of Popeye the Sailor, which we mentioned here on the blog a while back.  When I was but a mere sprat, I thought these cartoons were the greatest…and then I discovered the black-and-white Fleischer classics on WFLD in Chicago when visiting my cousins back in the 1970s.  I have all three of those Warner collections now and I really see no pernt in purchasing these inferior (if admittedly enjoyable…sometimes, anyway) shorts.  (I might be persuaded to buy some of the Paramount-Famous entries from 1943 on should they ever see the light of day…but that looks like that will be a while.)

TVShowsonDVD.com also announced this week that the 1965 anime classic Kimba the White Lion is getting a re-release this July 9th.  The fifty-two episodes of the Saturday morning favorite (from Osamu Tezuka, the folks that brought you Astro Boy) were made available on a set back in 2003, but that collection is now OOP.  Here’s my favorite part of TSOD reporter David Lambert’s announcement: “If you're a fan of Disney's classic film The Lion King and have never seen Kimba, then you might be astonished at various similarities.”  Really, Dave?  Will ceases never wonder…?  Reminds me of the time The Duchess, The Duke and I took their kidlets to see Lion King: Duchess asked me how I liked the movie and I cracked: “I liked it better when it was Hamlet.”

This is going to be a short TV-on-DVD post this week, but I thought you might like to get a gander at what the honkin’ big The Lone Ranger: The Complete Collection will look like:

Believe it or don’t, I have already shown this to Mother Shreve, and she is completely on board with a purchase…only she wants to get it for me for a birthday-type present in September.  So maybe the price will come down on it when my natal anniversary rolls around.