Friday, July 15, 2011

What's left?

I recently received this e-mail from Space: 1970 reader Jason Shepherd:
Here's a potential subject for your SPACE 1970 blog: what's left? What movie or TV show not yet released on DVD are you waiting for?

We live in a world of instant gratification and unlimited accessibility, which is good and bad. I still remember the pre-VHS days -- if I wanted to watch an episode of Star Trek, I waited until it came on (3:00 Saturday afternoon and Sunday noon on Channel 41). If I wanted to see Star Wars, I had to wait until it was re-released to the theatres. Nowadays I can hop on the internet to see Trek, or watch Star Wars on my DVD player or laptop... But it misses something. Somehow, it takes the dedication out of being a fan. You no longer have to hunt this stuff down; you need only go to Best Buy or Wal-Mart to get your fix.


Having said that... I love how I can revisit so many cherished childhood memories. It is so awesome that I can watch Filmation's Flash Gordon or Battle Beyond the Stars at my convenience.  I think it's fantastic that I can have a Star Trek or Frankenstein or James Bond film festival if I want.


So... What's left? There are so many new and classic films available on DVD, but every film fan has at least a few movies or TV series that haven't made the transition yet. Here's a good question to put to your readers: what's not out on DVD yet? What movies or series are you waiting for...?
When I started this blog almost two years ago, there were a lot of 70s sci-fi favorites that I wanted on home video that were not available in authorized editions. These included Starcrash, Message From Space, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Last Dinosaur, Thundarr The Barbarian, The Bermuda Depths, Damnation Alley, the Roddenberry pilots (Genesis II, et al) - all of which are now available in high quality, legal editions. I have it on good authority that both the Logan's Run TV series and the complete Man From Atlantis are "in the pipeline" at Warner Archive, as well.

Sure, there are still a few shows and movies I would like to see made available: The Humanoid (which has never been released on U.S. home video - I'd love to see a quality cult label like Blue Underground or Severin Films pick it up) and Starship Invasions (for Chris Lee and Bob Vaughn alone), The Fantastic Journey, Cliffhangers and Project U.F.O. - and, of course, the Filmation Flash Gordon TV movie.

And I'd very much like to see HD re-issues of some already existing titles. My number one wish is for Disney to restore and remaster The Black Hole for high-definition Blu-ray. The Tron Blu was gorgeous, and I'd love for The Black Hole to get the same treatment.

The second season of Space: 1999 on Blu-ray.

In the "way out there" category, I think it'd be cool if Universal re-issued the theatrical feature film versions of the Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers pilots as HD Blu-rays. Never gonna happen, but I can dream, right?

Hell, a proper DVD of Saturn 3 would be nice, too.

Anything I'm forgetting? What movies or series are you folks waiting for...?

32 comments:

  1. Pretty much the ones you mentioned though I did just get d/ls of Humanoid (with Greek subtitles !) and Starship Invasions. Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected would be a good choice and some of the scifi tv movies, even bad ones like the Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman pilot

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  2. You already mentioned it, but The Fantastic Journey is something I'd love to see again. Although I harbor that fear everyone does in which something that was so cool when you were a kid will be really lame through adult eyes...

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  3. A few suggestions:

    - Spy Smasher (Republic 1942)

    - The 1966 Batman series

    - The 1970s Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man series

    - The 1970s Reb Brown Captain America movies

    - "Island of Lost Souls"

    I dig the idea of the Filmation Flash Gordon movie, Christopher. Now I want it, too!

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  4. I was limiting myself to the Space 1970 era; if we go beyond that time frame, my list would take hours to read... :)

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  5. That was a great idea! Your suggestions are very good. I especially think the feature film versions of the Buck & BG pilots would be awesome.
    #1: Release the rest of Fantasy Island; all Sony's released is Season 1, back in 08, plus minisodes and the stuff on Hulu. My wife would kill me if I didn't make this my number one, it's her favorite show.
    #2: The Brady Kids animated series
    #3: The Far Out Space Nuts
    #4: The Lost Saucer
    #5: Elektra Woman and Dyna Girl
    #6: Dr. Shrinker
    #7: Web Woman from Tarzan & the Super Seven (although probably all episodes are lost forever)
    #8: An unedited version of Jonny Quest's 64-65 season
    #9: Partridge Family 2200 AD. Basic concept: a Jetsonized version of the Partridges (originally was going to be a sequel to Jetsons with a teenaged Elroy)
    #10: Stowaway to the Moon

    Gordon Long

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  6. From the 1970s...
    The Dr Strange tv pilot.
    Dr Mordred starring Jeffrey Combs as Dr Strange...er...Mordred!
    Both Captain America pilots.
    Note: all are available on VHS, but who, besides me, has VHS?
    Star Maidens (tv series)
    Day After Tomorrow (Gerry Anderson pilot)
    The Star Wars Holiday Special
    Message from Space

    as others have mentioned: Flash Gordon: the Greatest Adventure of All!

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  7. Gordon: Thanks for your list. I've been wracking my brains the past week or so trying to remember a TV movie ca. 1975 about a kid stowing away on an Apollo rocket launch. A quick look at your #10 and a trip to imdb later, and now I know what it was. Thanks.

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  8. Well, 'Battle Beyond the Stars' isn't out in the UK. No plans for it as far as I can see either. Apart from that, I agree with Christopher that a cleaned up 'Black Hole' would be welcome. I also agree with the poster who mentioned the live-action 'Spider-Man' series from 77/78. A few of the episodes were released on VHS but nothing on DVD

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  9. "An unedited version of Jonny Quest's 64-65 season"
    What was cut from the DVD release?

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  10. I'd echo some of the other requests (especially Fantastic Journey, Cliffhangers and the Flash Gordon feature film), and would add:

    Blake's 7
    Spectre (Roddenberry's pilot with Robert Culp and Gig Young as supernatural investigators, preferably the European theatrical release)
    Salvage/Salvage 1 (TV movie in which Andy Griffith builds a DIY moon rocket, plus the subsequent series)
    The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything (TV movie with Pam Dawber and a watch that stops time)
    A Cold Night's Death (TV movie with Robert Culp and Eli Wallach as researchers trapped in an Arctic station)
    Horror at 37,000 Feet (TV movie with Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen and William Shatner aboard an airplane beset by a demonic force)

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  11. Starship Invasions needs to be released -- I love the absolute 70's cheesiness of that movie.

    But how about the other Christopher Lee movie that we never see?

    "End of the World"
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075990/

    And there's always the Italian superhero movie "The 3 Fantastic Supermen." Technically made in 1967, but dubbed and imported to the U.S. in the mid-70's.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sz_x7BJ7Co

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  12. How could anyone forget The Fantastic Journey?!

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  13. Cliffhangers is number 1 with a bullet!
    It's totally not a genre show, but Battle of the Network Stars pristine release is a dream that will probably never come true.....i'll probably just have to be content with my underground copies. They are a nostalgic time capsule of there time........and the Man from Atlantis, Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk all competed on the shows!

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  14. another vote for

    - The 1970s Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man series

    I too would like a proper transfer for Saturn 3. An anamorphic dvd would suffice if they won't do a blu-ray.

    Funny you mentioned Black Hole.

    This his been on my mind for many months now. I wonder what Disney is waiting for?

    I would definitely by BSG & Buck rogers movies on blu-ray

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  15. I'm hanging out for Australian Space Opera Phoenix Five" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6_GBcR3-qI&feature=channel_video_title
    and "The Evil Touch"

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  16. I'd like to see nice prints of the following...

    Disney TV movie Earth Star Voyager...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJz6WnXyUWE&feature=player_embedded#at=13

    Another tv movie... Something is out there...go to 5:35 here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5oPXHtHpDs

    Nightflyers...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gby4_NPuR0&feature=related

    William Malone's Titan Find aka Creature (an anamorphic print unlike the pan & scan public domain copies out there... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTS_DlIh3VM

    Space Raiders... Corman recycles...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUz5HqCOdew

    And lastly Starship or Lorca and the Outlaws as it was known in foreign markets. My favourite memory of this movie was viewing its trailer for the first time. The full movie in itself is a bit of a mess... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLRsUwhE4pg

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  17. Shazam! TV series. I know, I know...but good memorie... and it would round out the Filmation live-action set.

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  18. The Gerry Anderson "Day After Tomorrow" (or "Into Infinity" as it was called in England) has been available on region-free DVD for a few years now, via the official Gerry Anderson fan club, Fanderson.

    "Far Out Space Nuts" was a hoot back when I was a kid... I'd like to see it again after all these years.

    And I'll second (or third, fourth or whatever number we're up to) "Saturn 3."

    Oh, like BrittReid, I also wondered about the "Johnny Quest" thing... I was not even alive during the series' first run seeing, only the edited versions on tv reruns as a kid, so watching the complete series on DVD has been a treat. BUT... what, if anything, is missing from that set? I understood it to be complete.

    CR

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  19. Anyone remember "Project Blue Book"? Sort of a proto-X-files about two Air Force officers investigating UFO sightings.

    I'd put in another vote for Salvage I, and The Girl The Gold Watch and Everything/The Girl The Gold Watch and Dynamite, and of course Cliffhangers. The Dracula segments were the best, if I recall.

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  20. Besides many of my favorites already named above, how about:

    The Immortal
    The Magician
    A Man Called Sloane
    Killdozer TV Movie
    Bigfoot and Wildboy complete instead of the few episodes from VHS and that horrible transfer on the Kroft DVD

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  21. I have to say I don't like this entry. Or more specifically the title. I would have much preferred something more along the lines of "What Else". As it is it kinda makes me feel the 70's are ending all over again. I won't go through that again! No I don't like this one bit.

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  22. It was already mentioned but SALVAGE 1.
    I can't even find an illegal copy!

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  23. I am desperate to see Australian sci-fi show "Phoenix 5" released on dvd! I used to watch it on tv in the mornings as a kid...a really cheap Star Trek rip-off!

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  24. Foes (1977) is one I'd like to see again. Not many people remember that one, but it started with an F-16 model crashing into a UFO and the very unpleasant close encounter that followed on an island off of California.

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  25. I just thought of another one-- Mr. Merlin, starring Barnard Hughes. It's a year or two into the 80's, but that's what the "give or take a few years" is all about, eh? I still remember that shot of the staircase into infinity (used over and over, if I recall correctly).

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  26. No The Powers Of Matthew Star or The Phoenix? For shame!

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  27. Apparently some of the language in JOHNNY QUEST was considered too politically incorrect, so the cowardly suits removed the offending words.

    At least that's what I've heard.

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  28. Besides what's already been mentioned, I'd like to see DVD releases of The UFO Incident (1975 made-for-TV docu-drama with James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons, which has never been available on home video), Futureworld (1976 sequel to Westworld), The Return/aka The Alien's Return (cheesy but fun 1980 Close Encounters ripoff with Jan-Michael Vincent and Cybill Shepherd), Uforia (Cindy Williams cult curiousity made in 1981 but not seen until 1985) and Spaceship/aka The Creature Wasn't Nice/aka Naked Space (1983 sci-fi spoof with Leslie Nielsen). I'm also waiting for the fourth and final season of Mork & Mindy on DVD, ever since season 3 was released in 2007. And even though it's past the specific timeframe of this blog (but does feature footage from 1979), I'd like to mention Mike Jittlov's The Wizard of Speed and Time, which hasn't been released on DVD yet either.

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  29. Futureworld is available on MOD DVD from MGM's "Limited Edition Collection."

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  30. Oh, yeah! Powers of Matthew Star... I really enjoyed the first half of that show, before the format changed. First time I saw Lou Gossett Jr in anything, was really impressed.

    Yeah, the JQ stuff was edited for language. Now, the language wouldn't matter too much, if they marketed it towards 12-year-olds.

    Project Blue Book was really good, had a lot of excellent modelwork. I was pi...ticked off at NBC for cancelling it.

    The UFO Incident reminds me, it would be kind of cool to see all those classic paranormal films of the 70s released on DVD, on topics like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, UFOs, Chariots of the Gods, Noah's Ark, the Bermuda Triangle...and on that subject, In Search Of, which was spun off from some of these films. (Any one remember the Saturday Night Live spoof of this, where people turned into donkeys like in Pinocchio?)

    Great memories on so many of these suggestions, folks!

    Gordon Long

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  31. I want to throw out my DVD lust list:

    Salvage
    Earthbound
    Not Quite Human trilogy (1, 2, and Still Not Quite Human)
    The Phoenix
    The Magician (Bill Bixby, not sci fi, but...)

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  32. A friend of mine always mentioned a British show called Tripods that sounded interesting. Also I wish the BBC would release their series of Day of the Triffids. I used to have the Doc Strange on VHS, & yes, I've still got a machine, but a DVD copy would be neat. I just recorded the 90's Capt America--it showed on the SYFY channel this past week. Also I think Remo Williams is not on DVD.

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